
Class _E-t74- 
Book.__ ^^' 

Gopiglit}^° 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSUi 



•^ 



s-^-^ 




m 



'iP'IRST CENTURY 

OF 

NATIONAL EXISTENCE; 

THE UNITED STATES 

AS 

THEY WERE AND ARE: 



The peooressive bevelopment of MINERAL WEALTH, including not only the precious and the useful metals, but 

UOAL, Petroleum, and the various Alkalies and Earths in use ; The PUBLIC LANDS, their sales in each tear, 

Land Grants to Roads, Railroads, State, and Educational Purposes, their rapid settlement, the formation of 

States and Territories, founding op Cities and Commercial Centers ; INTERNAL TRADE ; IMMIGRATION, 

its increasing tide and the regions mostlt sought by Immigrants ; BANKING, its successive systems 

AND changes ; Fire, Life, Accident, and other INSURANCE, with statistics ; LITERATURE and 

AUTHORS ; BOOKS, PERIODICALS, and NEWSPAPERS ; The FINE ARTS, Painting, Sculpture, 

Architecture, AND Engraving; DOMESTIC LIFE, Dwellings, Furniture, Food, Costumes, 

&c. ; TELEGRAPH; EDUCATION, Higher and Elementary, Libraries, Museums, and 

Scientific Collections ; BENEVOLENT and HUMANITARIAN INSTITUTIONS, &c. 

WITH /''' 'i^" ' ^ ' 

KN APPENDIXE. n^tf^J^n 



The proqeess of all the RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS and SECTS, their peculiar Doctrines and Ordinances. 
THEIR Forms of Church Government, Mode op Worship, &c., &c. 

THE WHOLE OAREPULLT PREPARED BY 

%VL €mm\xi Corps of Stuntific anlr ^itnari) gten. 

Superbly illustrated with over Two Hundred and Twenty-Five Engravings, executed by the most accomplished Artists in the Courrtiy, 
carefully printed from Steel Electrotypes and in Chromo. 



JSol<a. ^xi.l3r toy S(-u.l3isox*lz3tlox3.> 



HARTFORD, CONN.: 

FRANCIS DEWING & CO., SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 

1873. 



•n 



Entered, according to Act of Cougress, in the year 1872, by 

L. STEBBINS, 

In the Office of the Librai'ian of Congress, at Washington. 



SUBJECTS AND AUTHORS. 



MINING INDUSTRY" OF THE UNITED STATES, 

Including Gold, Silver, Copper, Lead, Zinc, Iron, Coal, Petroleum, &c., showing the 
Localities, Richness of Ores, Methods of Mining, Smelting, and applying the different 
Minerals to practical uses, with their values, &c., &c. 

FUR TRADE, various kinds and values of Furs. 

Of the late Pennsylvania, and other Geological Surveys; Contributor to Apple- 
ton's " New American Cyclopaidia " on the same Subjects. 



LAND, SETTLEMENT, INTERNAL TRADE. 

Western Settlement, Population, and Land Sales, Canals and Railroads, Expenditures, 
Lake Cities, Reciprocity, Annual Sales of Land by the Government, River Cities, 
Atlantic Cities, Date of Settlement, Population, Valuation, Manufactures, Exports, 
Imports, Growth of New York, Express Business. 

BANKS, UNITED STATES MINT, AND INSURANCE. 

Bills of Credit, Government Issues, United Slates Bank, State Banks, Suffolk System, 
Safety Fund, Banks, Free Banks, Number of Banks in Each State, Aggregate Capi- 
tal, Clearing Houses, Private Banking, New National System, «fec.. Establishment 
of Mint, Standard of Coins, Laws Regulating Coinage, Precious Metals in the Coun- 
try, Insurance, — Fire, Marine, Life, Accident, &c. 

EMIGRATION. 

General Migrations, Colonies and United States, Number of Aliens arrived in the 
United States from 1820 to 18u6, and their Nationalities, Landing in New York, 
Future Homes. 

AUTHORS, BOOKS, NEWSPAPERS, BOOK-BINDING. 
PRINTING PRESSES, TELEGRAPH. 

Writers, — including Theologians, Statesmen, Novelists, Historians, — Short Sketches of 
their Lives, their Literary Productions ; Newspapers, — Dailies, Weeklies, Periodicals, 
Book Trade, Publishing, Jobbing, Retailing, Selling by Subscription, Book-Bind- 
ing, Printing Presses, Telegraph. 

By THOMAS P. KETTELL. 
SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 

Domestic Architecture, Furniture, Food, Dress, Social Culture, &c. 

By FREDERICK B PERKINS. 



i 



SUBJECTS AND AUTHORS. 

ARTS OF DESIGN. 

Painters, Sculptors, Engravers, &c. 

By T. ADDISON RICHARDS, Artist, 
Editor of Appleton's " Railway Guide,^^ Correspondent of " Harperh 

Magazirie^ 



Progress of all the Religious Denominations, and Sects. 

By Dr. L. P. BROCKETT. 



EDUCATION, 

Including the History and Statistics of Free Schools, Common Schools, Grammar vSchools, 
Academies, Colleges, Professional Schools of Theology, Law, Medicine, War, Teaching, 
Engineering, Agriculture, Mechanics and Fine Arts ; with Special Schools for Deaf 
Mutes, Bluid, Idiots, Juvenile Criminal-, and Orphans, and Supplementary Educational 
Agencies and Libraries, Lyceums, Lectures, &c. 

By HENRY BARNARD, LL. D., 

Superintendent of Common Schools in Co7inectieut and Rhode Island ; Chan- 
cellor of the Stale Universiti/ of Wisconsin; and Editor of the 
" Anfierican Journal of Education." 



ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH, 

Its Inventors, and Progress, 

By GEORGE B. PRESCOTT. 
Electrician of Western Union Telegraph Company. 



FIRE INSURANCE, 

Giving in a historical form the progress and growth of Fire Insurance in the United 
States from the first organized Companies up to 1871, with valuable tables, showing 
the magnitude of the business, rates, losses, profits, «S;c., 

By D. A. HEALD, 

Vice-President of the Home Fire Insurance Company of N. Y. 



LIFE INSURANCE, 

Showinp' the progress of the business under the Stock and Mutual principles, from the 
first organized Company up to 1871, with valuable tables lowing the immense 
magnitude of the business, per centage, losses, profits, &c., 

By JACOB L. GREENE, 

Secretary Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, Hartford, Cl. 



Vf 



CONTENTS 



MINING INDUSTRY. 

PAGE 

Introductory Remarks 17 

Iron Works in Virginia previous to 1622. ... 17 

First Blast Furnace in 1702 17 

Iron 18 

First Trial of Anthracite Coal for manufac- 

facturing 18 

Great Britian produces more than half of the 

whole product of the world 19 

Iron produced from 1828 to 1840 20 

Materials employed in the Manufacture. . 20 
Ore in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Tennessee, 

New York, Canada, and Wisconsin 21 

Consumption of Charcoal per Ton of Iron. . . 22 

Quantities of Air used in Blast Furnaces... . 23 

Furnaces in the Lehigh Valley 23 

Distribution of Ores 24 

Ores in New Jersey 25 

Ores in Pennsylvania 26 

Great Chestnut Hill Ore-bed 27 

Ores in Maryland 28 

Ores in Southern States 28 

Ores in Western States 29 

Iron Manufacture 32 

Description of Blast Furnaces 32 

Wrought Iron ; 36 

Puddling 37 

List of Rolling Mills in 1856 40 

Mills making Railroad Iron in 1856 40 

Boiler Plate and Sheet Iron Manufactories in 

1856 41 

Iron Wire 41 

Nails 41 

List of Nail Manufactories in 1856 42 

Steel 43 



PAO« 

Cast Steel 44 

Table of Iron Works in operation ana aban- 
doned in 1856 45 

Production of Pig Iron 46 

Distribution of Furnaces by Stares 46 

Product of Wrought Iron 46 

Value of the Iron product inl856 4t 

Copper 48 

New Jersey Mines 49 

Tennessee Mines 50 

Lake Superior Mines 51 

Product of the Pittsburgh and Boston Com- 
pany Mines from 1852 to 1860 53 

Minesota Company 55 

Product of do from 1848 to 1860 56 

Statistics of Lake Superior Mines 57 

Copper Smelting 58 

Useful Applications of Copper 60 

Cost of Smelting Copper 60 

Manufacture of Brass 62 

Gold 63 

Vermont Mines 64 

Virginia do 64 

North Carolina Mines 69 

Georgia do 69 

Pike's Peak do 10 

California do 71 

Australia do 11 

Annual production of Gold in the World at 

the time of its discovery in California. ... 71 
Length and Cost of Artificial Water-courses in 

California 12 

Quartz Mining 13 

Table of annual productions of the Mines of 

California from 1848 to 1857 13 



-■''^ 



PAGE 

Various Mach"DCS for Mining purposes ... 1i 
Tables showing theamountofGold coined by 
the U.S. Government, and wliere produced 78-9 

The uses of Gold 80 

Lead , 81 

Localities of Mines 82 

Iowa Mines, 84 

Table showing the shipments of Lead from 

the Upper Mississippi from 1821 to 1841. 85 
Table showing the production and importa- 
tion of Lead from 18:52 to 1858 87 

Lead Smeltixg. 87 

Useful Application's of Lead 91 

Lead Pipe. 91 

Shot and Ballets 92 

American process of making Shot, 93 

White Lead 94 

List of American "White Lead Works 90 

Zinc. 9G 

New Jersey Mines 9G 

Pennsylvania do 97 

Metallurgic Treatment and Uses 9S 

European Manufacture 100 

List of the Silesian Company Works 102 

Schedule of the cost of Zinc Ore on siiip- 

board at Antwerp 10.; 

Z^NC Paint 103 

Description of Manufacture 104 

Platinum 107 

Iridium and Osmium 110 

Mercury 110 

California Mines Ill 

Almaden Mine in Spain Ill 

Total annual production of various Mines. . Ill 

Metallurgic Treatment 114 

Useful Applications of Mercury 114 

Silver,,... 115 

Cobalt, , IIG 

Nickel 117 

Chrome or Chromium. 118 

Manganese 119 

Tin,..., 110 

Coal ., 120 

Varieties op Coal 121 

Relative value of different kinds of Coal. . . 124 
Geological and Geographical Distribution 

OF Coal 124 

Amount of Available Coal 133 

Extent of Coal Fields in different States 133 

Relative amount of Coal Fields of Europe 

and America 1 34 

Table showing annual amount of Lead pro- 
duced in Pennsylvania and Maryland from 
1820tol8(;0 ,,., 134 



PA08 

Transportation op Coal to Market 135 

Table of Railroads and Canals constructed 

for transporting Coal 143 

Useful Applications of Coal 146 

Illuminating Gas 147 

List of Gas Co.'s, with amount of Capital,&c. 14 8 

Process of making Gas 152 

Gas for Steamboats and Railroad Cars. . . 156 

Hydrocarbon or Coal Oils 156 

Table of Coal Oil Works in the United Slates 157 

History and method of manufacture 158 

Petroleum or Rock Oil 163 

Petroleum in the United States 164 

Daily yield of seventy-four Oil Wells 1G5 

List of Petroleum Refining works 170 

Land Settlement, Internal Trade 169 

Land Sales in Ohio 170 

Canals in the West 172 

First Locomotive built in this Country 174 

Population of Land States in 1830 and in 1860 175 

Detroit and Cliicago 177 

River Cities, Atlantic Cities 180 

Statistics of New Orleans 182 

New York, Telegraph, Gold 185 

Comparative Exports of the Atlantic Cities 187 

Ilarnden E xpress 188 

Growth of New York 190 

Bulls and Bears 195 

Hotels in New York 197 

BANKS IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Bills of Credit 1 98 

Congress Issijes, $358,465,000 1 99 

Ten Thousand Dollars for a Cocked Hat ... 199 

First Bank of tlie United States 201 

One Hundred and Twenty Banks go into ope- 
ration in four years 201 

Table of relative growth of Banks 203 

Table of Number of Banks, and Capital. . . 204 

Banks Located in New York 204 

Alabama with Carolina, do 208 

Clearing House System 209 

Tabic of Capital of all Banks 209 

UNITED STATES MINT. 

es'tablishment of the mint, standard of 

Coin, &c 212 

Value of the Dollar and the Pound Sterling 

in Colonial Paper Money 213 

Alloy of Gold Coin 214 

United States Coinage 214 

California Gold 215 

Weight of Silver Coin 216 



CONTENTS 



Amount of New Silver Coin 216 

Deposit of Domestic Gold at United States 

Mint and Branches 216 

Amount of Specie in 1821 217 

INSURANCE. 

Fire, Marine, and Life 219 

Number and Capital of New York Companies 222 
Capital, Premiums, and Risks of the Fire Com- 
panies of the United States 223 

Marine Insurance 224 

Life Insurance 225 

Comparative Rates of Domestic Life Insurance 226 

IMMIGRATION. 

General Migration 228 

Colonies of the United States 228 

Early Immigration 229 

Naturalization Laws 230 

Number of Immigrants for the last forty 

years, with their- Birth-places 231 

European Migration — French and German. 232 

Decrease in Population of Ireland 235 

Allowance on Passage 236 

Saving part of the Passage Money 239 

Landing in New York — Future Homes 240 

Table of Immigration 240 

Location of Immigrants in the United States 242 
Amount of Money received in the United 

States by Immigrants 243 

Amount of Money remitted by Friends in 

aid of Immigration 243 

Number of Natives arriving from abroad. . . 244 

SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 

Introduction 245 

Domestic Architecture 245 

Description of Buildings 246 

Houses South 247 

Introduction of Anthracite Coal 248 

Nott's Stoves 248 

Furniture, Furnishing Goods, &c 249 

China, Glass, Silver Forks, &c 251 

Food, Cooking, &c 252 

Cooking Stoves 253 

Dress 253 

Social and Mental Culture 259 

BOOKS. 

Book Trade, Publishing, &c 262 

First Booksellers in America 263 

American Bible Society 264 j 



PAGB 

Harper and Brothers, Appletons 264 

Number of Book Publishers in the United 

States 265 

Gift-Book Sales 265 

Sale of Old Books 266 

Subscription Sales 267 

Circulation of Popular "Works 267 

School Book Trade 268 

Reprints and American Books 269 

Book Binding 269 

Books of Wood and Metal 272 

Description of Binding 273 

Writers of America 274 

Theologians, Statesmen, Novelists, Histo- 
rians 274 

Early Founders of the Colony Good Wri- 
ters 274 

Works of James Madison 275 

Judge Marshall, Story, Wheaton, John Quincy 

Adams, and others 276 

Cooper, Hawthorne, Willis 279-280 

Prescott and Bancroft 284 

Lady Authors .' 285 

Printing Press 286 

Frankhn's Press 286 

Hoe and Adams Presses 297 

Types 298 

Machines for Casting Types 298 

Stereotype, Electrotype 300 

Newspapers 301 

City Papers 303 

Number of Papers in the United States. . . . 307 

Telegraph — Origin 308 

Morse, House, and Hughes Machines 311 

First Lines 313 

Various Lines and Companies 313 

Penalty for refusing to transmit Messages. . 314 
Comparison between Telegraphs and Couriers 315 

THE ARTS OF DESIGN IN AMERICA. 

Horace Walpole 316 

American Art begins with Beryamin West.. 317 

Stuart, Robert Fulton 318 

Sketches of the Lives of Prominent Painters 

318 to 325 

Sculptors 326 to 328 

Engraving 332 

Dr. Anderson 332 

Copper- Plate Engraving 333 

American Bank Note Company 333 

Descriptions of Engraving 334 

Lithography, Daguerreotype, Academies of 
Art, &c 335 



XIV 



CONTENTS 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITU- 
TIONS. 

Development in the Colonial Period 337 

Early Efforts in Virginia 337 

do do in New York 338 

Early Efforts in Colonies of Massachusetts 

and Connecticut 338 

Town Action in behalf of Schools 339 

Colonial Legislation and Action in the 

okdeu of their Settlement 341 

Virginia 34 1 

Massachusetts 342 

Rhode Island, Connecticut 344 

New Hampshire 345 

New York 34G 

Maryland 347 

New Jersey, Pennsylvania 348 

Delaware, North Carolina 349 

South Carohna, Georgia 350 

Results at the Close of our Colonial His- 
tory 350 

Revolutionary and Transition Period 351 

Opinions and Efforts of Noah Webster, George 
Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jeffer- 
son 352 

Opinions and Efforts of James Madison, John 
Quincy Adams, Benjamin Rush, John Jay, 
De Witt Clinton, Chancellor Kent, Daniel 

Webster 353 

Progress of Common or Elementary Schools 355 

Letter from Noah Webster 355 

do do Heman Humphrey 356 

do do Joseph T. Buckingham 359 

do do Dr. Nott 362 

Recollections of Peter Parley 363 

The Homespun Era of Common Schools, by 

Horace Bushnell, D.D 369 

Letter from Wilham Darlington, M.D., LL.D. 370 

Schools in Philadelphia 371 

School Holiday in Georgia 373 

Old Field School or Academy in Virginia. . . 377 
Remarks. . , , 380 



FAGI 

What is Education? 383 

Remarks on the Common School System in 

the United States 384 

Academies, High Schools, <fcc 388 

Letter of Josiah Quincy 389 

Address of Hon. Edward Everett 391 

Colleges 392 

Professional, Scientific and Special Schools 393 

Theological Schools 393 

Law Schools 394 

Mk.dtcal Schools 394 

Military and Naval Schools 395 

Normal Schools, &c 397 

Schools of Science for Engineers, &c 400 

The Lawrence School 401 

Schools of Agriculture 402 

Commercial Schools 403 

Schools for Mechanics 403 

Fine Arts — Fem.'vle Education 404 

School-Houses, Apparatus, and Text-Books 406 

The Horn-Book 413 

New England Primer 414 

Webster's Spelling Book 416 

School Apparatus 422 

Libraries 423 

Astor Library, Boston City Library 424 

New York Mercantile Library 425 

Table of Libraries in the United States 429 

Lyceums, &c 432 

Institutions for the Instruction of Deaf 

AND Dumb 434 

Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet 435 

Institutions for the Blind 439 

Institutions for Idiots 440 

Institutions for Education of Orphans. . . . 445 

Reformatory Institutions 446 

Educational Statistics of the United States. . 451 

Table of American Colleges 452 

do Theological Schools 454 

do Law Schools, Medical Schools 455 

do Deaf and Dumb Institutions 456 

do Blind Institutions 457 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page. 
Frontispiece, 

American Iron Works, 22 

Smelting Pig Iron 22 

Forges at Chalons 22 

Flattening Machine 22 

Chestnut Hill Mine 27 

View of Baltimore, ( Steel Plate) 28 

Puddling 32 

Casting Pig Iron 32 

Blast Furnace 32 

Casting Steel Ingots 32 

Steam Hammers 40 

Forges and Trip Hammer 40 

Stone Hammer 54 

Hydraulic Mining. . . 65 

Tunneling at Table Mountain, Cal 66 

Large Rocker 67 

Stamps for Crushing Gold Ores, ........ 68 

Burke Rocker 74 

Yosemite Valley 74 

Father of the Forest 74 

Gold Mining 74 

Prop ects in California 74 

( Chinese in California 74 

Crushing Mill, or Arrastre 75 

Scotch Hearth Furnace 88 

Apparatus for Working Platinum 108 

Viewof New Almaden Quicksilver Mines 113 
Map of the Anthracite region, Pa. Mines, 126 
Map showing Different Strata, in Coal 

Regions, Pa 130 

Map ^howing Different Strata in Coal 

Regions, Pa 132 

Mt. Pisgah Plane, Mauch Chunk, Pa 137 

Great Open Quarry of the Lehigh 138 

Baltimore Company's Mine, Pa 139 

Colliery Slope 139 

View at Mauch Chunk 139 

Descending the Shaft 140 

Fire Damp Explosion 140 

Inundations 140 

Breaking of Props 1 40 

Undermining Coal 142 

Breaking off and Landing 142 

Drawing out Coal 142 

Fire in the Oil Regions, (Chromo) 161 

Oil Wells 1G8 

Indian Encampment 170 

Saw Mills 1 72 

Niagara Falls, (Steel Plate) 175 

The Farm 176 

Victoria Bridge, (Steel Plate) 1 78 

City Hall, New York 182 

New York Stock Exchange 182 

Academy of Design, New York 182 

Cooper Institute 1 83 

Gov. Stuy vesant Mansion 1 84 

First-Class Dwelling 184 

A. T. Stewart's Residence 184 



58 

59 

60, 

61 

62 

63 

64 

65 

66 

67 

68 

69 

7o 

71 

72 

73 

74 

75 

76 

77 

78 

79 

80 

81 

82 

83 

84 

85 

86 

87 

88 

89 

90 

91 

92 

93 

94 

95 

96 

97 

98 

99 

100 

101 

102 

103 

104 

105 

106 

107 

108 

109 

110 

111 

112 

113 

114 

115 

116 



Paob. 

View of Broad Street 1 85 

Interior Carpet House. 1 90 

Interior of a Dry Goods House 200 

Capitol at Washington, (Steel Plate). . . . 200 

U. S. Bank, Pa., ( Steel Plate) 206 

Senate Chamber 211 

Coining Room 216 

Adjusting Room 216 

Fire, (Chromo) ^. 218 

Buildings on Fire 219 

Amoskeag Fire Engine 224 

Hand Engine without Suction 225 

Hand Engine fore and aft Brakes 225 

Hand Engine Side Brakes 225 

Hook and Ladder 225 

Hose Carriage 225 

Life Insurance Illustrated, Mr. Jones 226 

" " Mr. Smith 226 

" " Mr. Clark.... 226 

City Hall and Park, N. Y., (steel Plate) 232 

Irish Emigrants 240 

Irishmen in Common Council, N. Y 240 

Japanese 244 

Wood's Moulding Machine 247 

Old Styles Furniture 248 

New Styles of Furniture 248 

lutchen of 1770 252 

" " 1870 252 

Fashion, 1 776. 255 

Evening Dress, 1780 255 

Fashion, 1780 255 

" 1785 255 

Evening Dress, 1795 255 

" 1797 255 

Fashion, 1800 255 

1805 255 

Children, 18(t5 255 

Fashions, 1812 255 

Boys, 1812 255 

Men, 1812 255 

Women l'<15 256 

Men, 1818 256 

Women, 1820 256 

Men, 1 825 256 

" 1828 256 

Winter Dress, 1 833 256 

Boys and Girls, 1833 256 

Men, 1833 256 

Women, 1833 256 

1840 2.56 

Men, 1844 256 

Women, 18.50 256 

Fashions from 18.50 to 1860 256 

" 1868tol869 256 

Pleasant Home, (Steel Plate) 260 

Noah Webster, ( Steel Plate) 266 

Laying on Gold 272 

Embossing Press 272 

Sawing Machine 273 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page. 

117, Finishing Room 273 

118, Gentlemen Authors 283 

119, Lady Authors 283 

120, Fraiiivlin Statue 286 

121, Franklin Press 289 

122, Washin<rton Press 289 

123, Hand Press, Steam Inking Maehine, 290 

124, Improved Inking Apparatus 290 

125, Patent Single Cylinder Machine 291 

1 26, Eight Cylinder Machine 292 

1 27, Ten Cylinder Machine 293 

128, Four Color Maehine 294 

129, Bed and Platen Power Machine 295 

130, Railroad Ticket Machine 296 

131 , The Bullock Printing Press 306 

132, Editorial Room 306 

133, Composing Room > 306 

134, Press Room 307 

135, Stereotyping Room 307 

136, Telegraph Apparatus 315 

137, Gentlemen in Fine Arts 322 

138, Women in Fine Arts 322 

139, Fishing at Newport 330 

140, Country View 330 

141, Spring 33 1 

142, Summer 331 

143, Fall 331 

1 44, First Map Engraved 332 

145, Map of the Present Day 332 

146, School, Interior of, in 1*770 372 

147, " " " 1870 372 

148, Contraband Schools 380 

149, Founding of Dartmouth College. 392 

1 50, School Houses as they were 406 

151, " " " 406 

152, " " as they are 407 

153, Village School House 407 

154, Brown School House, Hartford 407 

155, View of Girard College 408 

156, Packer Collegiate Institute 409 

157, " " " Garden Front.. 410 

158, " " " Interior 410 

1 59, Nonvich Free Academy 411 

1 60, Chicago Citv University 412 

161, Horn Book of the 18th Century 413 

162, John Hancock 414 

163, Burning of John Rogers at the Stake.. .. 414 

164, In Adam's Fall we sinned all 415 

165, Heaven to Find, the Bible Mind 4i 5 

166, Christ Crucified, for Sinners died 415 

167, The Deluge Drowned, the Earth Around, 415 

168, Elijah hid, by Ravens fed 415 

169, The Judgment made Felix afraid 415 

170, As Runs the Glass 415 

171, My Book and Heart must never part. ... 415 

172, Job Feels the Rod 415 

173, Proud Korah's Troop was Swallowed up, 415 

1 74, Lot fled to Zoar 415 

175, Moses was he who Israel's host led through 

the Sea 415 

176, Noah did view the Old World and New, 415 

1 77, Young Obadias, David, Josias 415 

178, Peter denied his Lord and cried 415 

179, Queen Esther sues 415 

180, Young Pious Ruth left all for Truth, 415 

181, Young Samuel dear, the Lord did fear. . . 415 

182, Ycmni,'- Timothy learnt Sin to fly 415 

183, Vasthi for Pride was set aside 415 

184, Whales in the Sea 415 

185, Xerxes did die 415 

186, While Youth doth cheer, &c 415 



Pagb. 

187, Zachcus he did climb the Tree 415 

188, The Boy that Stole Apples 416 

189, Country Maid 417 

190, Cat and Rat 417 

191, Fox and Swallow 418 

192, Fox and Bramble 418 

193, The Partial Judge 418 

294, Bear and Two Friends 419 

195, Two Dogs 419 

196, Eve, Nose, &c 420 

1 97, Arm, Hand, &c 420 

1 98, Eagle's Nest 420 

199, Vertebrates 420 

200, Articulates 420 

201, Mollusks, 420 

202, Radiates 420 

203, Animals of the Seal Kind 420 

204, Birds 421 

205, Flowers 421 

206, Geological Chart 421 

207, School Apparatus as it was 422 

208, School Apparatus as it is 422 

209, Desk and Settee Combined 422 

210, Platform Desk 422 

211, Assistant Teacher's Desk 422 

212, Tinsby's Globe Time Piece 422 

213, Numeral Frame 423 

214, Eureka Wall Slate 423 

215, School Globe . 423 

2 1 6, Black Board Support 423 

217, Crayon Holder 423 

218, Assembly School Desks and Settees 423 

219, Boston City Library, Exterior 425 

220, " " Interior 426 

221 , Alphabet, Deaf and Dumb, A 436 



222, 

223 

224, 

225, 

226, 

227, 

228, 

229, 

230, 

231, 

232, 

233, 

234, 

235, 

236, 

236, 

237, 

238, 

239, 

240, 

241, 

242, 

243, 

244, 

245, 

246, 



B. 
C. 
D. 
E. 
F. 
G. 
H. 
I. 
J. 
K. 
L. 
M. 
N. 
O. 
P. 

Q. 
R. 
S. 
T. 
U. 
V. 

w. 

X. 

Y. 
Z. 

&. 



436 
436 
436 
436 
436 
436 
436 
436 
436 
436 
436 
436 
436 
436 
436 
436 
436 
436 
436 
436 
436 
4S6 
436 
436 
436 
436 



247, American Asylum for Deaf and Dumb.. . 437 

248, Pennsylvania Asylum for Blind 440 

249, Asylum for Idiots, Syracuse, N. Y.... .. 444 

250, Camp Meeting 

251, Baptism by Immersion, (Steel Plate).... 

252, Baptism by Sprinkling. " " .... 

253, South Church, New Britain, Ct 

254, First Church built in Connecticut 

255, Ancient Dutch Church in Albany 

257, Ancient Swedish Church in Philadelphia, 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

The mineral wealth of the American 
colonies does not appear to have been an 
object of much interest to the early settlers. 
Congregated near the coast, they were little 
likely to become acquainted with many of 
the mineral localities, most of which are in 
the interior, in regions long occupied by the 
Indian tribes. The settlers, moreover, prob- 
ably possessed little knowledge of mining, 
and certainly lacked capital which they could 
appropriate in this direction. Some discov- 
eries, however, were made by them very 
soon after their settlement, the earliest of 
which were on the James river, in Virginia. 
Beverly, in his " History of the Present 
State of Virginia," published in London in 
1705, makes mention of iron works which 
were commenced on Falling Creek, and of 
glass-houses which Avere about to be con- 
structed at Jamestown just previous to the 
great massacre by the Indians, in 1622. 
This undertaking at Falling Creek is referred 
to by other historians, as by Stith, in his 
"History of Virginia" (1753), p. 279. A 
Captain Nathaniel Butler, it appears, present- 
ed to the king, in 1623, a very disparaging 
account of the condition of the colony, men- 
tioning, among other matters, that " the Iron 
Works were utterly wasted, and the People 
dead ; the Glass Furnaces at a stand, and in 
small Hopes of proceeding." The commit- 
tee of the company, in their reply to this, 
affirm that " great Sums had been expended, 
and infinite Care and Diligence bestowed by 
the Officers and Company for setting forward 
various Commodities and Manufactures ; as 
Iron Works," etc., etc. Salmon, in his 
"Modern History" (1746), vol. iii, pp. 439 
and 468, refers to the statement of Bever- 
ly, mentioning that "an iron work was set 
up on Falling Creek, in James River, where 
they found the iron ore good, and had near 
brought that work to perfection. The iron 
proved reasonably good ; but before they got 
into the body of the mine, the people were 
Vol. II. 2 



cut off in that fatal massacre (of March, 
1622), and the project has never been set on 
foot since, until of late ; but it has not had 
its full trial." This author also refers to the 
representations of the Board of Trade to 
the House of Commons, in 1732, as contain- 
ing notices of the iron works in operation in 
New England. From various reports of the 
governor of Massachusetts Bay and other 
officials of this colony, there appear to have 
been, in 1731, as many as six furnaces and 
nineteen forges for making iron in New Eng- 
land, as also a slitting mill and nail factory 
connected with it. 

The first blast furnace in the colonies ap- 
pears to have been built in 1702, by Lambert 
Despard, at the outlet of Mattakeeset pond, 
in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, and a 
number more were afterward set in operation 
to work the bog ores of that district. Their 
operations are described in the " Collections 
of the Massachusetts Historical Society" for 
1804, by James Thacher, M. D., Avho was' 
himself engaged in the manufacture. In 
Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, 
the same kinds of ore w^ere found and Avork- 
ed at about the same period, Alexander 
gives the year I7l5 as the epoch of blast 
furnaces in Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsyl- 
vania. These enterprises were regarded 
with great disfavor in the mother country. 
In 1719 an act was brought forwai'd in the 
House of Lords, forbidding the erection of 
rolling or slitting mills in the American col- 
onies, and in 1750 this was made a law. 

In Connecticut, Governor Winthrop was 
much interested in investigating the charac- 
ter of the minerals about Haddam and Mid- 
dletown. In 1651 he obtained a license giv- 
ing him almost unlimited privileges for 
working any mines of " lead, copper, or tin, 
or any minerals ; as antimony, vitriol, black 
lead, alum, salt, salt springs, or any other 
the like, * * * to enjoy forever said 
mines, with the lands, woods, timber, and 
water withjn two or three miles of said 
mines." And in 1661, another special grant 



18 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



was made to him of any mines he might 
discover in the neighborhood of Middletown. 
It docs not appear, liowever, that he derived 
any special advantage from these privileges, 
although he used to make frequent excur- 
sions to the difterent localities of minerals, 
especially to the Governor's Ring, a moun- 
tain in the north-west corner of East Had- 
dam, and spend three weeks at a time there 
with his servant, engaged, as told by Gover- 
nor Trumbull to President Styles, and record- 
ed in his diary, in " roasting ores, assaying 
metals, and casting gold rings." John Win- 
throp, F.R.S., srrandson of Governor Win- 
throp, was evidently well acquainted with 
many localities of different ores in Connecti- 
cut, and sent to the Royal Society a consid- 
erable collection of specimens he had made. 
Tt is supposed that among them Hatchett 
found the mineral columbite, and detected 
the new metal which he named columbium. 
At Middletown, an argentiferous lead mine 
was worked, it is supposed, at this period, by 
the Winthrops, and the men employed were 
evidently skilful miners. When the mine 
was reopened in 1852, shafts were found 
well timbered and in good preservation, that 
had been sunk to the depth of 120 feet, and, 
with the other workings, amounted in all to 
1,500 feet of excavation. The oldest Ameri- 
can charter for a mining company was grant- 
ed in 1709, for working the copper ores at 
Simsbury, Connecticut. Operations were 
carried on here for a number of years, the 
ore raised being shipped to England, and a 
similar mining enterprise was undertaken in 
1719, at Belleville, in New Jersey, about six 
miles from Jersey City. The products of 
the so-called Schuyler mine at this place 
amounted, before the year 1731, to 1,386 
tons of ore, all of which were shipped to 
England. At this period (1732) the Gap 
mine, in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, 
was first opened and worked for copper, and 
about the middle of the century various 
other copper mines were opened in New 
Jersey ; also, the lead mine at Southamp- 
ton, Mass., and the cobalt mine at Chatham, 
Conn. In 1754 a lead mine was success- 
fully worked in Wythe county, in south- 
western Virginia, and this is still productive. 
It is probable that, by reason of the higher 
value of copper at that period, and the lower 
price paid for labor than at present, some of 
the copper mines may have proved profit- 
able to work, though it is certain this has 
not been the case with them of late years. 



The existence of copper in the region about 
Lake Superior was known, from the reports 
of the Jesuit missionaries, in 1660, and one 
or two unsuccessful attempts were made to 
work it during the last century by parties of 
Englishmen. The lead mines of the upper 
Mississippi, discovered by Le Sueur in his ex- 
ploring voyage up the river in 1700 and 
1701, were first worked by Dubuque, a 
French miner, in 1788, upon the tract of 
land now occupied by the city in Iowa bear- 
ing his name. 

Such, in general, Avas the extent to which 
this branch of industry had been carried up 
to the close of the last century. The only- 
coal mines worked were some on the James 
river, twelve miles above Richmond, and the 
capacity of these for adding to the wealth 
of the country was not by any means appre- 
ciated. The gold mines were entirely un- 
known, and the dependence of the country 
upon Great Britain for the supply of iron 
had so checked the development of this 
branch of manufacture, that comparatively 
nothing was known of our own resources in 
the mines of this metal. The most impor- 
tant establishments for its manufacture were 
small blast furnaces, working bog ores, and 
the bloomaries of New York and New Jer- 
sey, making bar iron direct from the rich 
magnetic ores. 

The progress of the United States in these 
branches will be traced in the succeeding 
chapters, one of which will be devoted to 
each of the principal metals. 



CHAPTER L 

IRON. 

The early history of the iron manufacture 
in the American colonies has been noticed 
in the introductory remarks which precede 
this chapter. Since the year 1750 the re- 
strictions imposed upon the business by the 
mother country had limited the operations to 
the production of pig iron and castings, and 
a few blast furnaces were employed in New 
England and the middle Atlantic states. A 
considerable portion of the pig iron was ex- 
ported to Great Britain, where it was admit- 
ted free of duty, and articles of wrought 
iron and steel were returned from that coun- 
try. In 1771 the shipment of pig iron from 
the colonics amounted to 7,525 tons. By 
the sudden cessation of commercial relations 



19 



on the breaking out of the war, the country 
was thrown upon its own resources, but was 
illy prepared to meet the new and extraor- 
dinary demands for iron. The skill, experi- 
ence, and capital for this business were all 
alike wanting, and even the casting of can- 
non was an undertaking that few of the fur- 
nace masters were prepared to venture upon. 
The bog ores found in Plymouth county, 
Mass., together with supplies from New Jer- 
sey, sustained ten furnaces ; and in Bridge- 
water, cannon were successfully cast and bored 
by Hon. Hugh Orr, for the supply of the 
army. They were also made at Westville, 
Conn., by Mr. Elijah Bachus, who welded 
together bars of iron for the purpose. The 
Continental Congress, also, was forced to 
establish and carry on works for furnishing 
iron and steel, and in the northern part of 
New Jersey, the highlands of New York, and 
the valley of the Housatonic in Connecticut, 
they found abundance of rich ores, and forests 
of the best wood for the charcoal required 
in the manufacture. At their armory at Car- 
lisle, Pa., the first trials of anthracite for manu- 
facturing purposes were made in 1775. But 
the condition of the country was little favor- 
able for the development of this branch of 
industry, and after the war, without capital, 
a currency, or facilities of transportation, the 
iron business long continued of little more 
than local importance. The chief supplies 
were again furnished from the iron works of 
Great Britain, the establishment of which 
had in great part been owing to the restric- 
tions placed upon the development of our 
own resources; and while that country con- 
tinued to protect their own interest by pro- 
hibitory duties that for a long period exclu- 
ded all foreign competition, the iron inter- 
est of the United States languished under a 
policy that fostered rather the carrying trade 
between the two countries than the building 
up of highly important manufactories, and 
the establishment around them of perma- 
nent agricultural settlements through the 
home market they should secure. IJencc it 
was that the manufacture in Great Britain 
was rapidly accelerated, improved by new 
inventions, strengthened by accumulated 
capital, and sustained by the use of mineral 
coal for fuel, almost a century before we had 
learned in the discouraging condition of the 
art., that this cheap fuel, mines of which 
were worked near Richmond in Virginia, 
before 1790, could be advantageously em- 
ployed in the manufacture. The natural ad- 



vantages possessed by Great Britain power- 
fully co-operated with her wise legislation ; 
and as her rich deposits of iron ore and coal 
were developed in close juxtaposition, and 
in localities not far removed from the coast, 
the iron interest became so firmly established 
that no nation accessible to her ships could 
successfully engage in the same pursuit, until, 
by following the example set by Great Britain, 
its own mines and resources might be in like 
manner developed. Thus encouraged and 
supported, the iron interest of Great Britain 
has prospered at the expense of that of all 
other nations, till her annual production 
amounts to more than one-half of the seven 
millions or eight millions of tons produced 
throughout the world ; and the products of 
her mines and furnaces have, until quite re- 
cently, been better known, even in the ex- 
treme western states, where the cost of 
" Scotch pig iron " has been more than 
doubled by the transportation, than has that 
of the rich ores of these very states. And 
tlius it ij the annual production of the Uni- 
ted States has only recently reached 2,000,- 
000 tons', notwithstanding the abundance 
and richness of her mines, both of iron ores 
and of coal, and the immense demands of 
iron for her own consumption. So great are 
the advantages she possesses in the quality 
of these essential materials in the production 
of iron, that according to the statement of 
an able writer upon this subject, who is him- 
self largely engaged in the manufacture, less 
than half the quantity of raw materials is 
required in this country to the ton of iron, 
that is required in Great Britain, "thus 
economizing labor to an enormous extent. 
In point of fact, the materials for making a 
ton of iron can be laid down in the United 
States at the furnace with less expenditure 
of human labor than in any part of the 
known world, with the possible exception of 
Scotland." ('On the Statistics and Geog- 
raphy of the Production of Iron," by Abram 
S. Hewitt, N. Y., 1856, p. 20). The tables 
presented by this writer, of the annual pro- 
duction, show striking vicissitudes in the 
trade, Avhich is to be accounted for chiefly 
by the fluctuations in prices in the English 
market depressing or encouraging our own 
manufacture, and by the frequent changes in 
our tariff. 

"In 1810 the production of iron, en- 
tirely charcoal, was 54,000 tons. In 1820, 
in consequence of the commercial ruin which 
swept over the country just before, the busi' 



20 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



ness was in a state of comparative ruin, and 
not over 20,000 tons were produced. 

In 1828 the product was 130,000 tons. 

" 1829 " " " 142,000 " 

" 1830 " " " 165,000 " 

" 1831 " " " 191,000 " 

" 1832 " " " 200,000 " 

" 1840 " " " 347,000 " 

" 1G42 " " " 215,000 " 

" ir-45 " " " 480,000 " 

" 1G4G " " " 705,000 " 

" 1347 " " " 800,000 " 

" 1852 " " " 504,000 " 

" 1854 " " " 710,074 " 

" 1855 " " " 754,178 " 

" 1850 " " " 874,423 " 

'• 1357 " " " 793,157 " 

" 1858 " " " 705,094 " 

" 1859 " " " 8«iO,427 " 

" 18C0 " " " 913,774 " 

" ISGl " " " 701,504 " 

" 1802 " " " 787,002 " 

" 1803 " " " 947,004 " 

" 1804 " " " 1,135,497 " 

" 1805 " " " 931,582 " 

" ISr.G " " "1,350,943 " 

" 1807 " " "1,401,026 " 

" 1803 " " "1,103,500 " 

" 1809 •' " " 1,910,041 " 

" 1870 " " " 2.000.000 " 

There was a protective duty on iron from 
1S25 to 1837, but none from 1837 to 18 J3. 
From 1843 to 1848 there was protection, 
but none from 1848 to 18G3. The high 
prott ctive duty was modified in 18G6, and 
since tliat time the proteciion has been more 
atid more moderate as the premium on gold 
declined. Tlie tariff of 1870 reduced the 
duty from nine to seven dollars per ton on 
pig iron, and from eight to six dollars per 
ton on scrap iron. 

Until the year 1840, charcoal had been the 
only fuel used in the manufacture of iron ; 
and while it produced a metal far superior 
in quality to that made with coke, tlic great 
demands of the trade were for cheap irons, 
and the market was chiefly supplied with 
these from Great Britain, The introduction 
of anthracite for smelting iron ores in 1840 
marked a new era in the manufacture, though 
its influence was not sensibly felt for several 
years* 

MATERIALS EMPLOYED IN THE MANUFACTURE. 

Before attempting to exhibit the resources 
of the United States for making iron, and 
the methods of conducting the manufacture, 
it is well to give some account of the mate- 
rials employed, and explain the conditions 
upon which this manufacture depends. Three 
elements are essential in the great branch of 
the business — that of producing pig iron. 



viz : ores, fuel to reduce them, and a suit- 
able flux to aid the process by melting with 
and removing the earthy impurities of the 
ore in a freely flowing, glassy cinder. The 
flux is usually limestone, and by a Avise pro- 
vision, evidently in view of the uses to 
which this would be applied, limestone is 
almost universally found conveniently near 
to iron ores ; so also are stores of fuel com- 
mensurate with the abundance of the ores. 

The principal ores are licmatites, magnetic 
and specular ores, the red oxides of the sec- 
ondary rocks, and the carbonates. Probably 
more than three-quarters of the iron made 
in the United States is from the first three 
varieties named, and a nmch larger propor- 
tion of the English iron is from the last — 
from the magnetic and specular ores none. 
Hematites, wherever known, are favorite ores. 
They are met with in great irregular-shaped 
deposits (apparently derived from other 
forms in which the iron was distributed), in- 
termixed with ochres, clays, and sands, some- 
times in scattered lumps and blocks, and 
sometimes in massive ledges ; they also 
occur in beds interstratified among the mica 
slates. Although the deposits are regarded 
as of limited capacity, they are often worked 
to the depth of more than 1 00 feet ; in one 
instance in Berks county, Penn., to lG5feet; 
and when abandoned, as they sometimes are, 
it is questionable whether this is not rather 
owing to the increased expenses incurred in 
continuing the enormous excavations at such 
depths, than from failure of the ore. Mines 
of hematite have proved the most valuable 
mines in the United States. At Salisbury, 
in Connecticut, they have been Avorked 
almost uninterruptedly for more than 100 
years, supplying the means for supporting 
an active industry in the country around, 
and enriching generation after generation of 
proprietors. The great group of mines at 
Chestnut Hill, in Columbia county, Penn., 
and others in Berks and Lehigh counties in 
the same state, are of similar character. 

The ore is a hydrated peroxide of iron, 
consisting of from 72 to 85 per cent, of per- 
oxide of iron (which corresponds to about 
50 to 60 per cent, of iron), and from 10 to 
14 per cent, of water. Silica and alumina, 
phosphoric acid, and peroxide of manganese 
are one or more present in very small quanti- 
ties ; but the impurities are rarely such as to 
interfere with the production of very excel- 
lent iron, either for foundry or forge pur- 
poses — that is, for castings or bar iron. It is 



21 



easily and cheaply mined, and works easily 
in the blast furnace. On account of its de- 
ficiency in silica it is necessary to use a lime- 
stone containing this ingredient, that the 
elements of a glassy cinder may be provided, 
which is the first requisite in smelting iron ; 
or the same end may be more advantageously 
attained by adding a portion of magnetic 
ore, which is almost always mixed with 
silica in the form of quartz ; and these two 
ores are consequently very generally worked 
together — the hematites making two-thirds 
or three-quarters of the charge, and the mag- 
netic ores the remainder. 

Magnetic ore is the richest possible com- 
bination of iron, the proportion of which 
cannot exceed 72.4 per cent., combined with 
37.6 per cent of oxygen. It is a heavy, 
black ore, compact or in c-oarse crystalline 
grains, and commonly mixed with quartz 
and other minerals. It affects the magnetic 
needle, and pieces of it often support small 
bits of iron, as nails. Such ore is the load- 
stone. It is obtained of various qualities ; 
some sorts work with great difficulty in the 
blast furnace, and others are more easily 
managed and make excellent iron for any 
use ; but all do better mixed with hematite. 
The magnetic ores have been largely em- 
ployed in the ancient processes of making 
malleable iron direct from the ore in the 
open forge, the Catalan forge, etc., and at 
the present time they are so used in the 
bloomary fires. They are found in inex- 
haustible beds of all dimensions lying among 
the micaceous slates and gneiss rocks. These 
beds are sometimes so extensive that they 
appear to make up the greater part of the 
mountains in which they lie, and in common 
language the mountains are said to be all 
ore. 

Specular ore, or specular iron, is so named 
from the shining, mirror-like plates in which 
it is often found. The common ore is some- 
times red, steel gray, or iron black, and all 
these varieties are distinguished by the 
bright red color of the powder of the ore, 
which is that of peroxide of iron. Mag- 
netic ore gives a black powder, which is that 
of a less oxidized combination. The specu- 
lar ore thus contains less iron and more oxy- 
gen than the magnetic ; the proportions of its 
ingredients are 70 parts in 100 of iron, and 
30 of oxygen. Though the diff"erence seems 
slight, the qualities of the two ores are quite 
distinct. The peroxide makes iron fast, but 
some sorts of it produce an inferior quality 



of iron to that from the hematite and mag- 
netic ores, and better adapted for castings 
than for converting into malleable iron. The 
pure, rich ores, however, are many of them 
unsurpassed. It is found in beds of all di- 
mensions, and though in the eastern part of 
the United States they prove of limited ex- 
tent, those of Missouri and Lake Superior 
are inexhaustible. Magnetic and specular 
ores are associated together in the same dis- 
trict, and sometimes are accompanied by 
hematite beds ; and it is also the case, that 
iron districts are characterized by the preva- 
lence of one kind only of these ores, to the 
exclusion of the others. 

The red oxides of the secondary rocks 
consist, for the most part, of the red fossil- 
iferous and oolitic ores that accompany the 
so-called Clinton group of calcareous shales, 
sandstones, and argillaceous limestones of 
the upper silurian along their lines of out>- 
crop in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and east- 
ern Tennessee, and from Oneida county, N, 
Y., westward past Niagara Falls, and through 
Canada even to Wisconsin. The ore is found 
in one or two bands, rarely more than one or 
two feet thick, and the sandstone strata with 
Avhich they are associated are sometimes so 
ferruginous as to be themselves workable 
ores. The true ores are sometimes entirely 
made up of the forms of fossil marine shells, 
the original material of which has been 
gradually replaced by peroxide of iron. The 
oolitic variety is composed of fine globular 
particles, united together like the roe of a 
fish. The ore is also found in compact 
forms, and in Wisconsin it is in the condi- 
tion of fine sand or seed. Its composition 
is very variable, and its per-centage of iron 
ranges from 40 to 60. By reason of the 
carbonate of lime ditfused through some of 
the varieties, these work in the blast furnace 
very freely, and serve extremely well to mix 
with the silicious ores. 

Of the varieties of carbonate of iron, the 
only ones of practical importance in the 
United States are the silicious and argilla- 
ceous carbonates of the coal formation, and 
the similar ores of purer character found 
among the tertiary clays on the western 
shores of Chesapeake Bay. The former va- 
rieties are the chief dependence of the iron 
furnaces of Great Britain, where they abun- 
dantly occur in layers among the shales of 
the coal formation, interstratified with the 
beds of coal — the shafts that are sunk for 
the exploration of one also penetrating beds 



22 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



of the other. The layers of ore are in flat- 
tened blocks, balls, and kidney-shaped lumps, 
which are picked out from the shales as the 
beds of these arc excavated. The ore is 
lean, affording from 30 to 40 per cent, of 
iron ; but it is of easy reduction, and makes, 
when properly treated, iron of fair quality. 
In Pennsylvania, Ohio, western Virginia, 
Kentucky, and Tennessee, the ores occur 
with the same associations as in England ; 
but the supply is, for the most part, very pre- 
carious, and many furnaces that have de- 
pended upon them are now kept in opera- 
tion only by drawing a considerable portion 
of their supplies from the mines of Lake 
Superior, more than one thousand miles off. 
Among the horizontally stratified rocks west 
of the AUeghanies, the same bands of ore 
are traced over extensive districts, and arc 
even recognized in several of the different 
states named. One of the most important 
of these bands is the buhrstone ore, so call- 
ed from a cellular, flinty accompaniment 
which usually underlies it, the whole con- 
tained in a bed of peculiar fossiliferous lime- 
stone. So much carbonate of lime is some- 
times present in the ore, that it requires no 
other flux in the blast furnace. Its per-cent- 
age of iron is from 25 to 35. Along the line 
of outcrop of some of the carbonates are 
found deposits of hematite ores, the result 
of superficial changes in the former, due to 
atmospheric agencies long continued. In 
southern Ohio, at Hanging Rock particularly, 
numerous furnaces have been supported by 
these ores, and have furnished much of the 
best iron produced at the west. 

The carbonates of the tertiary are found 
in blocks and lumps among the clays along 
the shores of the Chesapeake at Baltimore, 
and its vicinity. The ores are of excellent 
character, work easily in the furnace, make a 
kind of iron highly esteemed — particularly 
for the manufacture of nails — and are so 
abundant that they have long sustained a 
considerable number of furnaces. They lie 
near the surface, and are collected by exca- 
vating the clay beds and sorting out the 
balls of ore. The excavations have been 
carried out in some places on the shore be- 
low the level of tide, the water being kept 
back by coffer dams and steam pumps. 

Bog ores, with which the earliest furnaces 
in the country were supplied, are now little 
used. They are rarely found in quantities 
sufficient for running the large furnaces of 
the present day, and, moreover, make but an 



inferior, brittle quality of cast iron. They 
are chieny found near the coast, and being 
easily dug, and also reduced to metal with 
great facility, they proved very convenient 
for temporary use before the great bodies of 
ore in the interior were reached. Some fur- 
naces are still running on these ores in the 
south-west part of New Jersey, and at Snow- 
hill, on the eastern shore of Maryland, and 
the iron they make is used to advantage in 
mixing at the great stove foundries in Albany 
and Troy with other varieties of cast iron. 
It increases the fluidity of these, and pro- 
duces with them a mixture that will flow 
into and take the forms of the minutest 
markings of the mould. 

Charcoal has been the only fuel employed 
in the manufacture of iron until anthracite 
was applied to this purpose, about the year 
1840, and still later — in the United States — 
coke and bituminous coal. So long as wood 
continued abundant in the iron districts, it 
was preferred to the mineral fuel, as in the 
early experience of the use of the latter the 
quality of the iron it produced was inferior 
to that made from the same ores with char- 
coal, and even at the present time, most of 
the highest-priced irons are made with char- 
coal. The hard woods make the best coal, 
and after these, the yellow pine. Hemlock 
and chestnut are largely used, because of 
their abundance and cheapness. The char- 
coal furnaces are of small size compared 
with those using the denser mineral coal, 
and their capacity rarel}' exceeds a produc- 
tion of ten or twelve tons of pig iron in 
twenty -four hours. In 1840 they seldom 
made more than four tons a day ; the differ- 
ence is owing to larger furnaces, the use of 
hot blast, and much more efficient blowing 
machinery. The consumption of charcoal 
to the ton of iron is one hundred bushels of 
hard-wood coal at a minimum, and from this 
running up to one hundred and fifty bushels 
or more, according to the quality of the coal 
and the skill of the manager. The economy 
of the business depends, in great part, upon 
the convenience of the supplies of fuel and 
of ores, of each of which rather more than 
two tons weight are consumed to every ton 
of pig iron. As the woods are cut oft" in 
the vicinity of the furnaces, the supplies are 
gradually drawn from greater distances, till 
at last they are sometimes hauled from ten 
to fourteen miles. The furnaces near Balti- 
more have been supplied with pine wood dis- 
charged from vessels at the coaling kilns 



23 



close by the furnaces. Transportation of 
the fuel in such eases is a matter of second- 
ary importance. 

The mineral coals are a more certain de- 
pendence in this manufacture, and are cheap- 
ly conveyed , from the mines on the great 
lines of transportation, so that furnaces may 
be placed anywhere upon these lines, with 
reference more especially to proximity of 
ores. Thus they can be grouped togeth- 
er in greater numbers than is practicable 
with charcoal furnaces. Their establishment, 
however, involves the outlay of much capital, 
for the anthracite furnaces are all built upon 
a large scale, with a capacity of producing 
from twenty to thirty tons of pig iron a day. 
This requires machinery of great power to 
furnish the immense quantities of air, 
amounting in the large stacks to fifteen tons 
or more every hour, and propel it through 
the dense column, of fifty to sixty feet in 
height, of heavy materials that fill the furnace. 
The air actually exceeds in weight all the 
other materials introduced into the furnace, 
and its efliciency in promoting combustion 
and generating intensity of heat is greatly 
increased by the concentration to which it 
is subjected when blown in imder a pressure 
of six or eight pounds to the square inch. 
It is rendered still more efiicient by being 
. heated to temperature sufficient to melt lead 
before it is introduced into the furnace; and 
this demands the construction of heating 
ovens, through which the blast is forced from 
the blowing cylinders in a series of iron 
pipes, arranged so as to absorb as much as 
possible of the waste heat from the combust- 
ible gases that issue from the top of the 
stack, and are led through these ovens before 
they are finally allowed to escape. The 
weight of anthracite consumed is not far 
from double that of the iron made, and the 
ores usually exceed in weight the fuel. The 
flux is a small and cheap item, its weight 
ranging from one-eighth to one-third that of 
the ores. 

The location of furnaces with reference to 
the market for the iron is a consideration of 
no small importance, for the advantages of 
cheap material may be overbalanced by the 
diff'erence of a few dollars in the cost of 
placing in market a product of so little value 
to the ton weight as pig iron. 

The following statement gave the cost of 
the different items which went to make up 
the total expense of production at the locali- 
ties named in 1859. The advance in the 



value of ores, cost of transportation, labor, 
and coal, ha,ve increased these items about 
75 per cent, since 1863. 

At different points on the Hudson river, 
anthracite furnaces are in operation, which 
are supplied with hematites from Columbia 
and Dutchess counties, N. Y., and from the 
neighboring counties in Massachusetts, at 
prices varying from $2.25 to $3.00 per ton ; 
averaging about $2.50. They also use mag- 
netic ores from Lake Champlain, and some 
from the Highlands below West Point, the 
latter costing $2.50, and the former $3.50 to 
$4.50 per ton ; the average being about 
$3.50. The quantities of these ores pur- 
chased for the ton of iron produced are 
about two tons of hematite and one of mag- 
netic ore, making the cost for the ores $6.75. 
Two tons of anthracite cost usually $9, and 
the flux for fuel about 35 cents. Actual con- 
tract prices for labor and superintendence 
have been $4 per ton. Thus the total ex- 
pense for the ton of pig iron is about $20.10 ; 
or, allowing for repairs and interest on 
capital, fuir$21. 

In the Lehigh valley, in Pennsylvania, 
arc numerous furnaces, which are supplied 
with anthracite at the low rate of $3 per ton, 
or $6 to the ton of iron. The ores are mixed 
magnetic and hematites, averaging in the 
proportions used about $3 per ton, or, at the 
rate consumed of 2i tons, $7.50 to the ton 
of iron. Allowing the same amount — $4.35 
— for other items, as at the Hudson river 
furnaces, the total cost is $17.85; or, with 
interest and repairs, nearly $19 per ton. The 
difterence is in great part made up to the 
furnaces on the Hudson by their convenience 
to the great markets of New York, Troy, and 
Albany. 

The charcoal iron made near Baltimore 
shows a higher cost of production than either 
of the above, and it is also subject to greater 
expenses of transportation to market, which 
is chiefly at the rolling mills and nail fac- 
tories of Massachusetts. Its superior quality 
causes a demand for the product and 
sustains the business. For this iron per ton 
2h tons of ore are consumed, costing $3.62i 
per ton, or $9.06 ; fuel, 3h cords at $2.50, 
$8.75 ; flux, oyster shells, 30 cts. ; labor (in- 
cluding $1.50 for charring) $2.75 ; other ex- 
penses, $2 ; total, $22.86. 

At many localities in the interior of 
Pennsylvania and Ohio, iron is made at less 
cost, but their advantages are often counter- 
balanced by additional expenses incurred in 



24 



MINING INDUSTKY OF THE UNITED STATES, 



delivering the metal, and obtaining the pro- 
ceeds of its sale. Increased facilities of 
transportation, however, are rapidly remov- 
ing these distinctions. At Danville, on the 
Susquehanna river, Columbia county, Penn- 
sylvania, the cost of production has been re- 
duced to an unusually low amount, by reason 
of large supplies of ore close at hand, the 
cheapness of anthracite, and the very large 
scale of the operations. Pig iron, as shown 
by the books of the company, has been made 
for $11 per ton. Its quality, however, was 
inferior, so that, with the expenses of trans- 
portation added, it could not be placed in 
the eastern markets to compete with other 
irons. Pig iron is produced more cheaply 
on the Ohio river and some of its tributaries 
than elsewhere, but there are no furnaces in 
the United States which can make a good 
article much less than $27 per ton. 

DISTRIBUTION OF THE ORES. 

The magnetic and specular ores of the 
United States are found in the belt of 
metamorphic rocks — the gneiss, quartz rock, 
mica and talcose slates,and limestones — which 
ranges along to the east of the Alleghanies, 
and spreads over the principal part of the 
New England states. It is only, however, 
in certain districts, that this belt is produc- 
tive in iron ores. The hematites belong to 
the same group, and the important districts 
of the three ores may be noticed in the or- 
der in which they are met from Canada to 
Alabama. Similar ores are also abundant 
in Missouri, and to the south of Lake 
Superior. 

New England States. — In New Hamp- 
shire magnetic and specular ores are found 
in large quantities in a high granitic hill 
called the Baldface Mountain, in the town 
of Bartlett. The locality is not conveniently 
accessible, and its remoteness from coal 
mines will probably long keep the ore, rich 
and abundant as it is, of no practical value. 
At Pierraont, on the western border of the 
state, specular ore, very rich and pure, is 
also abundant, but not worked. At Fran- 
conia a small furnace, erected in 1811, was 
run many years upon magnetic ores, obtain- 
ed from a bed of moderate size, and which 
in 1824 had been worked to the depth of 
200 feet. In 1830 the iron establishments 
of this place were still objects of considerable 
interest, though from the accounts of them 
published in the American Journal of Science 
of that year, it appears that the annual pro- 



duction of the blast furnace for the preceding 
nine years had averaged only about "216 
tons of cast iron in hollow ware, stoves, 
machinery, and pig iron" — a less quantity 
than is now produced in a week by some of 
the anthracite furnaces. One forge making 
bar iron direct from the ore produced forty 
tons annually, and another 100 tons, con- 
suming 550 bushels of charcoal to the ton. 
The cost of this, fortunately, was only from 
$3.75 to $4.00 per hundred bushels. A 
portion of the product was transported to 
Boston, the freight alone costing $25 per ton. 
In Vermont these ores are found in the 
metamorphic slates of the Green Mountains, 
and are worked to some extent for mixing 
with the hematite ores, which are more 
abundant, being found in many of the towns 
through the central portion of the state, from 
Canada to Massachusetts. In 1850 the 
number of blast furnaces was ten, but their 
production probably did not reach 4,000 
tons per annum, and has since dwindled 
away to a much less amount. At the same 
time there were seven furnaces in Berkshire, 
Mass., near the hematite beds that are found 
in the towns along: the western line of the 
state. These had a working capacity of 
about 12,000 tons of pig iron annually, and 
this being made from excellent ores, with 
charcoal for fuel, its reputation was high and 
the prices remunerative ; but as charcoal in- 
creased in price, and the cheaper anthracite- 
made iron improved in quality, the business 
became unprofitable ; so that the extensive 
hematite beds are now chiefly valuable for 
furnishing ores to the furnaces upon the 
Hudson river, where anthracite is deliv- 
ered from the boats that have come through 
the Delaware and Hudson canal, and magnetic 
ores are brought by similar cheap conveyance 
from the mines on the west side of Lake 
Champlain. Through Connecticut, down the 
Housatonic valley, very extensive beds of 
hematite have supplied the sixteen furnaces 
which were in operation ten years ago. The 
great Salisbury bed has already been named. 
In the first half of the present century it 
produced from 250,000 to 300,000 tons of 
the very best ore ; the iron from which, when 
made with cold blast, readily brought from 
$6 to $10 per ton more than the ordi- 
nary kinds of pig iron. The Kent ore bed was 
of similar character, though not so extensive. 
New York. — Across the New York state 
line, a number of other very extensive de- 
posits of hematite supported seven blast fur- 



25 



naces in Columbia and Dutchess counties, 
and now furnish suppHes to those along the 
Hudson river. In Putnam county, magnetic 
ores succeed the hematites, and are devel- 
oped in considerable beds in Putnam Val- 
ley, east from Cold Spring, where they were 
worked for the supply of forges during the 
last century. These beds can again furnish 
large quantities of rich ore. On the other 
side of the river, very productive mines of 
magnetic ore have been worked near Fort 
Montgomery, six miles west from the river. 
At the Greenwood furnace, back from West 
Point, was produced the strongest cast iron 
ever tested, which, according to the report 
of the officers of the ordnance department, 
made to Congress in 1856, after being re- 
melted several times to increase its density, 
exhibited a tenacity of 45,970 lbs. to the 
square inch. The beds at Monroe, near the 
New Jersey line, are of vast extent ; but a 
small portion of the enormous quantities of 
ore in sight, however, makes the best iron. 
Mining was commenced here in 1750, and a 
furnace was built in 1751, but operations 
have never been carried on upon a scale 
commensurate with the abundance of the 
ores. In the northern counties of New 
York, near Lake Champlain, are numerous 
mines of rich magnetic ores. Some of the 
most extensive bloomary establishments in 
the United States are supported by them in 
Clinton county, and many smaller forges are 
scattered along the course of the Ausable 
river, where water power near some of the 
ore beds presents a favorable site. Bar iron 
is made at these establishments direct from 
the ores ; and at Keeseville nail factories are 
in operation, converting a portion of the 
iron into nails. In Essex county there are 
also many very productive mines of the same 
kind of ore, and Port Henry and its vicinity 
has furnished large quantities, not only to 
the blast furnaces that were formerly in 
operation here, but to those on the Hudson, 
and to puddling furnaces in dift'erent parts 
of the country, particularly about Boston. 
In the interior of Essex county, foi'ty miles 
back from the lake, are the extensive mines 
of the Adirondac. The ores are rich as 
well as inexhaustible, but the remoteness of 
the locality, and the difficulty attending the 
working of them, owing to their contamina- 
tion with titanium, detract greatly from their 
importance. On the other side of the Adi- 
rondac mountains, in St. Lawrence county, 
near Lake Ontario, are found large beds of 



specular ores, which have been worked to 
some extent in several blast furnaces. They 
occur along the line of junction of the gran- 
ite and the Potsdam sandstone. The iron 
they make is inferior — suitable only for cast- 
ings. The only other ores of any importance 
in the state are the fossiliferous ores of the 
Clinton group, which are worked near Oneida 
Lake, and at several points along a narrow 
belt of country near the south shore of Lake 
Ontario. They have sustained five blast 
furnaces in this region, and are transported 
in large quantities by canal to the anthra- 
cite furnaces at Scranton, in Pennsylvania, 
the boats returning with mineral coal for the 
fui'naces near Oneida Lake. 

New Jersey. — From Orange county, in 
New York, the range of gneiss and horn- 
blende rocks, which contain the magnetic 
and specular ores, passes into New Jersey, 
and spreads over a large part of Passaic and 
Morris, and the eastern parts of Sussex and 
Warren counties. The beds of magnetic ore 
are very large and numerous, and have been 
worked to great extent, especially about 
Eingwood, Dover, Rockaway, Boonton, and 
other towns, both in blast furnaces and in 
bloomaries. At Andover, in Sussex county, 
a great body of specular ores furnished for a 
number of years the chief supplies for the 
furnaces of the Trenton Iron Company, situ- 
ated at Philipsburg, opposite the mouth of 
the Lehigh. On the range of this ore, a few 
miles to the north-east, are extensive deposits 
of Frankliniteiron ore accompanying the zinc 
ore of this region. This unusual variety 
of ore consists of peroxide of iron about 
66 per cent., oxide of zinc 17, and oxide of 
manganese 16. It is smelted at the works 
of the New Jersey Zinc Company at New- 
ark, producing annually about 2,000 tons of 
pig iron. The metal is remarkable for its 
large crystalline faces and hardness, and is 
particularly adapted for the manufacture of 
steel, as well as for producing bar iron of 
great strength. 

As the forests, which formerly supplied 
abundant fuel for the iron works of this re- 
gion, disappeared before the increasing de- 
mands, attention was directed to the inex- 
haustible sources of anthracite up the Lehigh 
valley in Pennsylvania, with which this iron 
region was connected by the Morris canal 
and the Lehigh canal ; and almost the first 
successful application of this fuel to the 
smelting of iron ores upon a large scale was 
made at Stanhope, by Mr. Edwin Post. A new 



26 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



era in tke iron manufacture was thus intro- 1 
duced, and an immense increase in tlie pro- 
duction soon followed, as the charcoal fur- 
naces gave place to larger ones constructed 
for anthracite. The Lehigh valley, lying on 
the range of the iron ores toward the south- 
west, also produced large quantities of ore, 
which, however, was almost exclusively 
hematite. Hence, an interchange of ores 
has been largely carried on for furnishing 
the best mixtures to the furnaces of the two 
portions of this iron district ; and the oper- 
ations of the two must necessarily be consid- 
ered together. The annual production, in- 
cluding that of the bloomaries of New Jer- 
sey, has reached, within a few years, about 
140,000 tons of iron. But in a prosperous 
condition of the iron business this can be 
largely increased without greatly adding to 
the works already established, while the ca- 
pacity of the iron mines and supplies of fuel 
are unlimited. The proximity of this dis- 
trict to the great cities. New York and Phil- 
adelphia, adds greatly to its importance. 

Pennsylvania. — Although about one- 
third of all the iron manufactured in the 
United States is the product of the mines of 
Pennsylvania, and of the ores carried into 
the state, the comparative importance of her 
mines has been greatly overrated, and their 
large development is rather owing to the 
abundant supplies of mineral coal conveni- 
ently at hand for working the ores, and, as 
remarked by Mr. Lesley (" Iron Manufac- 
turer's C4uide," p. 433), "to the energetic, 
persevering German use for a century of 
years of what ores do exist, than to any ex- 
traordinary wealth of iron of which she can 
boast. Her reputation for iron is certainly 
not derived from any actual pre-eminence of 
mineral over her sister states. New York, 
New Jersey, Virginia, and North Carolina, 
are far more liberally endowed by nature in 
this respect than slie. The immense mag- 
netic deposits of New York and New Jersey 
almost disappear just after entering her lim- 
its. The brown hematite beds of her great 
valley will not seem extraordinary to one 
who has become familiar with those of New 
Yorlv, Massachusetts, Vermont, Virginia, and 
Tennessee. Ilcr fossil ores are lean and un- 
certain compared witli those of the south ; 
and the carbonate and hematized carbonate 
outcrops in and under her coal measures 
will hardly bear comparison with those of 
the grander outspread of the same forma- 
tions in Ohio, Kentucky, and western Vir- 



ginia." The principal sources of iron in the 
state are, first, the hematites of Lehigh and 
Berks counties — the range continuing pro- 
ductive through Lancaster, also on the other 
side of the intervening district of the new 
red sandstone formation. The ores are 
found in large beds in the limestone valley, 
between the South and the Kittatinny 
mountains ; those nearest the Lehigh supply 
the furnaces on that river, already amounting 
to twenty-three in operation and four more in 
course of construction, and those nearer tlie 
Schuylkill supply the furnaces along this 
river. The largest bed is the Moselem, in 
Berks county, six miles west-south-west from 
Kutztown. It has been very extensively 
worked, partly in open excavation and partly 
by underground mining, the workings reach- 
ing to the depth of 165 feet. Over 20,000 
tons a year of ore have been produced, at a 
cost of from Si. 30 to $1.50 per ton. 

Magnetic ores are found upon the Lehigh, 
or South mountain, the margin on the south 
of the fertile limestone valley which con- 
tains the hematite beds. These, how- 
ever, ai'e quite unimportant, the dependence 
of the great iron furnaces of the Lehigh 
for these ores being on the more extensive 
mines of New Jersey; while the only sup- 
plies of magnetic ores to the furnaces of the 
Schuylkill and the Susquehanna are from the 
great Cornwall mines, four miles south of Leb- 
anon. An immense body of magnetic iron 
ore, associated with copper ores, has been 
worked for a long time at this place, at the 
junction of the lower silurian limestones 
and the red sandstone formation. The bed 
lies between dikes of trap, and exhibits pe- 
culiarities that distinguish it from the other 
bodies of iron ore on this range. The War- 
wick, or Jones' mine, in the south corner of 
Berks county, resembles it in some particu- 
lars. Its geological position is in the upper 
slaty layers of the Potsdam sandstone, near 
the meeting of this formation with the new 
red sandstone. Trap dikes penetrate the 
ore and the slates, and the best ore is found 
at both mines near the trap. Not far from 
Y'ork, Pa , an ore known as the Codorus Iron 
Ore has been raised for some years, but was 
reffarded as almost worthless, but recent ex- 
periments have led to the discovery that it 
contains the exact ingredients necessary to 
make it the best of fluxes for reducing the 
other ores of that region to steel of excellent 
quality without any intermediate process. 
Along the jMarylaiul line, on both sides of the 



27 



Susquehanna, chrome iron has been found in 
considerable abundance in the seqientine 
rocks, and lias been largely and very profita- 
bly mined .for home consumption and for ex- 
portation. It furnishes the different chrome 
pigment", and their preparation has been 
carried on chiefly at Baltimore. 

A portion of the hematites which supply 
the furnaces on the Schuylkill, occur along a 
narrow limestone belt of about a mile in 
width, that crosses the Schuylkill at Spring 
Mill, and extends north-east into Montgomery 
county, and south-west into Chester county. 
Their production has been very large, and 
that of the furnaces of the Schuylkill valley 
dependent upon these and the other mines 
of this region has been rated at 100,000 
tons of iron annually. 

The great Chestnut hill hematite ore bed, 
three and a half miles north-east of Columbia, 
Lancaster county, covers about twelve acres 
of surface, and has been worked in numer- 
ous great open excavations to about 100 feet 
in depth, the ore prevailing throughout 
among the clays and sands from top to bot- 
tom. "The floor of the mine is hard, white 
Potsdam sandstone, or the gray slaty layers 
over it. The walls show horizontal wavy 
layers of blue, yellow, and white laminated, 
unctuous clays, from forty to sixty feet deep, 
containing ore, and under these an irregular 
layer of hard concretionary, cellular, fibrous, 
brown hematite from 
ten to thirty feet 
thick down to the 
sandstone." (" Iron 
Manufacturer's 
Guide, p. 562.") In 
the accompanying 
wood-cut, the dark- 
ly shaded portions 
represent the hema- 
tites, while the light- 
er portions above are 
chiefly clays. Pro- 
fessor Rogers sup- 
poses that the ore 
has leached down 
from the upper slaty 
beds through which 
it was originally dif- 
fused, and has col- 
lected upon the im- 
pervious sandstone, 

which in this vicinity is the first Avater 
bearing stratum for the wells. 

The repeated occurrence of the lower 



silurian limestones and sandstones along the 
valleys of central Pennsylvania, from the 
Susquehanna to the base of the Alleghany 
mountain, is accompanied through these val- 
leys with numerous beds of hematite ; and 
to the supplies of ore they have furnished 
for great numbers of furnaces, is added the 
fossiliferous ore of the Clinton group, the out- 
crop of which is along the slopes of the ridges 
and around their ends. Many furnaces have 
depended upon this source of supply alone. 
As stated by Lesley, there were, in 1857, 
14 anthracite furnaces that used no other, 
and 11 anthracite furnaces which mixed it 
either with magnetic ore or hematite, or with 
both. Montour's ridge, at Danville, Colum- 
bia county, referred to on page 24, is one of 
the most remarkable localities of this ore. 
Professor Rogers estimated, in 1847, that 
there were 20 furnaces then dependent upon 
the mines of this place, and producingAiannually 
an average of 3,000 tons of iron each, with 
a consumption of 9,000 tons of ore, or a 
total annual consumption of 180,000 tons. 
At this rate, he calculated that the availa- 
ble ore would be exhausted in 20 years. 

Between the Clinton group and the coal 
measures are successive formations of lime- 
stones, sandstones, shales, etc., which form a 
portion of the geological column of many thou- 
sand feet in thickness; andamongthese strata, 
ores like the carbonates of the coal measures 




CHESTNUT HILL MINE. 



are occasionally developed, and these are 
recognized and worked at many localities 
along the outcrop of the formations to 



28 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



which they belong. Though of some local 
importance, they do not add very largely to 
the iron production of the state. Along the 
summit of the Alleghany mountain the base 
of the coal measures is reached, which 
thence spread over the western portion of 
the state, nearly to its northern line. The 
ores which belong to this formation are 
chiefly contained among its lower mem- 
bers, and found in the outcrop of these 
around the margin of the basin. At some 
localities they have been obtained in consider- 
able abundance, and many furnaces have run 
upon them alone ; but for large establish- 
ments of several furnaces together, they 
prove a very uncertain dependence. 

Maryland. — The metaraorphicbelt crosses 
this state back of Baltimore, and is pro- 
ductive in chromic iron and copper ores, 
rather than in magnetic and specular ores. 
Some of the former, highly titaniferous, have 
been worked near the northern line of the 
state, on the west side of the Susquehanna ; 
and at Sykesville, on the Potomac, a furnace 
has been supplied with specular ores from its 
vicinity. Several hematite beds within 
twenty miles of Baltimore have supplied 
considerable quantities of ore for mixture 
with the tertiary carbonates, upon which 
the iron production of the state chiefly 
depends. Beds of these occur near the bay 
from Havre de Grace to the District of 
Columbia. In the western part of the state 
large furnaces were built at Mount Savage and 
Lonaconing to work the ores of the coal 
formation; but the supply has proved in- 
sufficient to sustain them. In 1853 the 
capacity of the blast furnaces of the state 
was equal to a production of over 70,000 
tons of iron. This, however, has never been 
realized. 

Southern States. — South of Maryland 
the same iron belt continues through Vir- 
ginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia ; and al- 
though it is often as productive in immense 
beds of the three varieties of ore — the 
magnetic, specular, and hematite — as in the 
other states along its range, these resources 
add comparatively little to the material 
wealth of the states to which they belong. 
Through Virginia, east and west of the Blue 
Ridge, hematite ores abound in the limestone 
valleys, and magnetic ores are often in con- 
venient proximity to them. Many small 
farnaces have worked them at different 
times, but their product was always small. 
Three belts of magnetic ore, associated with 



specular iron and hematites, are traced 
across the midland counties of North Caro- 
lina, and have furnished supplies for fur- 
naces and forges in a number of counties — 
as Lincoln, Cleveland, Rutherford, Stokes, 
Surry, Yadkin, Catawba; and Chatham, 
Wake, and Orange counties upon the east- 
ern belt. The belt of ore from Lincoln 
county passes into South Carolina, and 
through York, Union, and Spartanburg 
districts. It crosses the Broad River at the 
Cherokee ford, and though the whole belt 
is only half a mile wide, it presents numer- 
ous localities of the three kinds of ore, and of 
limestone also in close proximity, and finely 
situated for working. Several other locali- 
ties are noticed in the " State Geological 
Report," by M. Tuomey, who remarks, on 
page 278, that "if iron is not manfactured 
in the state as successfully as elsewhere, it is 
certainly not due to any deficiency in 
natural advantages." In northern Georgia 
the ferruginous belt is productive in im- 
mense bodies of hematite, associated with 
magnetic and specular ores, in the Allatoona 
hills, near the Etowah river, in Cherokee 
and Cass counties. This, which appears to 
be one of the great iron districts of the 
United States, though bountifully provided 
with all the materials required in the manu- 
facture, and traversed by a railroad which 
connects it with the bituminous coal mines 
of eastern Tennessee, supports only six 
small charcoal furnaces of average capacity, 
not exceeding 600 or 700 tons per annum 
each. In Alabama, hematites and specular 
ores accompany the belt of silurian rocks 
to its southern termination, and are worked 
in a few bloomary fires and two or three 
blast furnaces. The fossiliferous ore of 
the Clinton group is also worked in this 
state. 

Tennessee in 1840 ranked as the third 
iron-producing state in the Union. The 
counties ranging along her eastern border 
produced hematite ores, continuing the 
range of the silurian belt of the great val- 
ley of Virginia ; those bordering the Clinch 
river produced the fossil ore of the Clinton 
group, there known as the dyestone ore ; 
and western Tennessee presented a very in- 
teresting and important district of hematites 
belonging to the subcarboniferous limestone 
in the region lying cast of the Tennessee 
and south of the Cumberland river.* The 

* "It is remarkable that most of these deposits 






H 




IRON. 



29 



furnaces of this district, which have num- 
bered 42 in all, were the greater part of 
them in Dickson, Montgomery, and Stewart 
counties. They were all supplied with 
charcoal for fuel, at a cost of $4 per hundred 
bushels. In 1854 the product of pig iron 
was 37,918 tons; but it gradually declined 
to 27,050 tons in 1857; and in August, 
1858, only 15 furnaces were in operation. 
The clo-e of the war gave a new impulse to 
the production of iron in Tennessee, and 
with her excellent ores and her extensive 
forests she is already taking the lead among 
the southwestern States in the production 
of a charcoal iron of superior quality, and 
will soon produce, also, large quantities of 
coke or bituminous coal iron. 

Kentucky. — The western part of this 
state contains, in the counties of Calloway, 
Trigg, Lyon, Caldwell, Livingston, and 
Crittenden, an important district of hema- 
tite ores — the continuation northward of 
that of Tennessee. In 1857 10 charcoal 
furnaces produced 15,600 tons of iron. 
Eastern Kentucky, however, has a much 
more productive district in the counties of 
Carter and Greenup, which is an extension 
south of the Ohio of the Hanging Rock 
iron district of Ohio. The ores are car- 
bonates and hematite outcrops of carbon- 
ates, belonging to the coal measures and the 
subcarboniferous limestone. They are in 
great abundance ; a section of 740 feet of 
strata terminating below with the limestone 
named, presenting no less than 14 distinct 
beds of oi'e, from three inches to four feet 
each, and yielding from 25 to 60 per cent. 
of iron. One bed of 32 per cent, iron con- 
tains also 1 1 per cent, bitumen — a composi- 
tion like that of the Scotch " black band" 
ore. Others contain so much lime, that the 
ores are valuable for fluxing as well as for 
producing iron. The furnaces use charcoal 



are of what is called pot ore, that is, hollow balls of 
ore, which, when broken open, look like broken 
caldrons. One of them, preserved by Mr. Lewis, is 
8 feet across the rim ! Another is six feet across. 
The majority are crossed within by purple diaphragms 
or partitions of ore, and the interstitial spaces are 
filled with yellow ochre. Some, like the great eight- 
foot pot, are found to be full of water. The inside sur- 
face is mammillary, irregular, sometimes botryoidal 
or knobby, but the outside is pretty smooth and reg- 
ular. All these pots were undoubtedly once balls 
of carbonates of lime and iron segregated in the orig- 
inal deposit. . . . Gypsum and pyrites are both 
often found in these Tennessee pots." — Iron Manu- 
facturer's Guide, p. 603. 



and coke. Their production, taken with 
that of the same district in Ohio, places 
this region, as will be seen in the tables to 
follow, among the first in importance in the 
United States. 

Ohio. — The ores of this state, like those 
of Kentucky, belong almost exclusively to 
the coal measures and the limestone forma- 
tions beneath. In both states some of the 
fossiliferous ore also is found, but it is com- 
paratively unimportant. The productive 
beds are near the base of the coal formation, 
ranging from the Hanging Rock district of 
Scioto and Lawrence counties north-east 
through Jackson, Hocking, Athens, Perry, 
Muskingum, Tuscarawas, Mahoning, and 
Trumbull counties, to the line of Mercer 
county in Pennsylvania. The uncertain 
character of the ores, both as to supply and 
quality, is strikingly shown by the fact that 
many of the furnaces of the more northern 
counties depend for a considerable portion 
— one-fourth or more — of the ores they use 
upon the rich varieties from Lake Superior 
and Lake Champlain. Although the long 
transportation makes these ores cost nearly 
three times as much per ton as those of the 
coal formation, some furnaces find it more 
profitable to use the former, even in the pro- 
portion of three-fourths, on account of the 
much better iron produced, the greater num- 
ber of tons per day, and the less consump- 
tion of fuel to the ton. The fuel employed 
is charcoal in many of the furnaces; some 
have introduced raw bituminous coal to good 
advantage. 

Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa contain no 
important bodies of iron ore. The coal 
measures, which cover large portions of 
these states, are productive in some small 
quantities of the carbonates, in the two 
former, which give support to a very few fur- 
naces ; but in Iowa they contain no worka- 
ble beds at all. 

Michigan. — The iron region of this state 
is in the upper peninsula, between Green 
Bay and Lake Superior. Magnetic and 
specular ores are found throughout a large 
portion of this wild territory, in beds more 
extensive than are seen in any other part of 
the United States — perhaps than are any- 
where known. The district approaches 
within twelve miles of the coast of Lake 
Superior, from which it is more conveniently 
reached than from the south side of the 
peninsula. The ores are found in a belt of 
crystalline slates, of six to ten miles in 



36 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



width, that extends west from the lake shore, 
and is bounded north and south by a 
granitic district. They are developed in 
connection with great dikes and ridges of 
trap, which range east and west, and dip 
with the slates at a high angle toward the 
north. The ores also have the same direc- 
tion and dip. Localities of them are of 
frequent occurrence for eighteen miles in a 
westerly direction from the point of their 
nearest approach to Lake Superior. A second 
range of the beds is found along the south- 
ern margin of the slate district; and about 
thirty miles back from the lake, where the 
slates extend south into Wisconsin, similar 
developments of ore accompany them to the 
Menomonee river and toward Green Bay. 
The quality of the ore found at different 
places varies according to the amount of 
quartz, jasper, hornblende, or feldspar that 
may be mixed with it ; but enormous 
bodies are nearly pure ore, yielding from 68 
to 70 per cent, of iron, and free from a trace 
even of manganese, sulphur, phosphorus, or 
titanium. A single ridge, traced for about six 
miles, rising to a maximum height ot fifty 
feet above its base, and spreading out to a 
width of one thousand feet, has been found 
to consist of great longitudinal bands of 
ore, much of which is of this perfectly pure 
character. Another ridge presents precipi- 
tous walls fifty feet high, composed in part 
of pure specular ore, fine graineil, of imper- 
fect slaty structure, and interspersed with 
minute crystals of magnetic oxide ; and in 
part of these minute crystals alone. Another 
body of one thousand feet in width, and 
more than a mile long, forms a hill one hun- 
dred and eighty feet high, which is made up 
of alternate bands of pure, fine grained, steel- 
gray peroxide of iron, and deep red jaspery 
ore — the layers generally less than a fourth 
of an inch in thickness, and curiously con- 
torted. Their appearance is very beautiful 
in the almost vertical walls. On one of the 
head branches of the Esconaba is a cascade 
of thirty-seven feet in height, the ledge over 
which the water falls being a bed of peroxide 
of iron, intermixed with silicious matter. 

For the supply of the few furnaces and 
bloomary establishments already in operation 
in this district, and for the larger demands 
of distant localities, the ores are collected 
from open quarries, and from the loose 
masses lying around. A railroad aff'ords the 
means of transporting them to Marquette, on 
the lake shore, whence they are shipped by 



vessels down the lake. The business already 
amounts to more than 100,000 tons per 
annum, and is increasing very rapidly. The 
name Bay de Noquet and Marquette railroad 
suggests a southern terminus of this road on 
Green Bay, and when an outlet is opened in 
this direction, the production of ii'on ores 
will no doubt exceed that of any other region 
upon the globe. Large quantities will be 
reduced with charcoal in blast furnaces and 
bloomaries in the region itself; and when 
the forests in the vicinity of the works are cut 
off", the extensive timbered lands around 
Lake Michigan and Lake Huron will furnish 
inexhaustible supplies of fuel, which may be 
brought in vessels to the furnaces, as the 
pine wood from the forests around Chesa- 
peake Bay has long been delivered to the 
furnaces on its western shore. Anthracite 
and bituminous coal will also be brought 
back as return cargoes by the vessels that 
carry the ores to the coal fields of Ohio and 
Pennsylvania. With its vast inland naviga- 
tion and wonderful resources of iron and 
of copper also, the north-western portion of 
our country promises to be the scene of a 
more extended and active industry than 
has ever grown out of the mines of any part 
of the world. 

Wisconsin. — Magnetic and specular ores 
in bodies, somewhat resembling those of the 
region just described, are found in the ex- 
treme northern part of Wisconsin, upon 
what is known as the Penokie range, distant 
about 25 miles from Chegwomigon Bay, 
Lake Superior. Bad River and Montreal 
River drain this district. The ores, from 
their remoteness, are not soon likely to be of 
practical importance. Other immense bodies 
of these ores, estimated to contain many 
millions of tons, are found on Black River, 
which empties into the Mississippi below St. 
Croix river, on the line of the Land Grant 
Branch railroad. A furnace has been built 
by a German company to work these mines. 
In the eastern part of Wisconsin the oolitic 
ore of the Clinton group is met with in Dodge 
and Washington counties,and again at Depere, 
seven miles south-east of Green Bay. Li the 
town of Hubbard, Dodge county, forty miles 
west from Lake Michigan, is the largest de- 
posit of this ore ever discovered. It spreads 
in a layer ten feet thick over 500 acres, and 
is estimated to contain 27,000,000 tons. It 
is in grains, like sand, of glistening red 
color, staining the hands. Each grain has a 
minute nucleus of silex, around which the 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



31 



oxide of iron collected. The per-centage of 
metal is about fifty. This ore will probably 
be worked near Milwaukee with Lake 
Superior ores, the La Crosse railroad, which 
passes by the locality, already afl'ording the 
means of cheap transportatjion. 

Missouri. — This state must be classed 
among the first in the abundance of its iron 
ores, though up to this time comparatively 
little has been done in the development of 
its mines. The ores are exclusively hema- 
tites, and the magnetic and specular, and all 
occur in the isolated district of silurian 
rocks — formations which almost everywhere 
else in the western middle states are con- 
cealed beneath the more recent forma- 
tions. In the counties along the line of the 
Pacific railroad south-west branch. Prof. 
Swallow, the state geologist, reports no less 
than ninety localities of hematite. These 
are in Jefferson, Franklin, Crawford, Phelps, 
Pulaski, Marion, Green, and other counties. 
The first attempts to melt iron in Missouri, 
and probably in any state west of Ohio, were 
made in Washington county, in 1823 or 
1824, and with the hematites of the locality 
were mixed magnetic ores from the Iron 
mountain. In Franklin county there is but 
one furnace, though on both sides of the 
Maramec are beds of hematite pipe ore, 
which cover hundreds of acres. The Iron 
mountain district is about sixty miles back 
from the ^lississippi river (the nearest point 
on which is St. Genevieve), and extends from 
the Iron mountain in the south-east part of 
Washington county into Madison county. 
It includes three important localities of 
specular ore : the Iron Mountain, Pilot 
Knob, and Shepherd mountain. The first is 
a hill of gentle slopes, 228 feet high above 
its base, and covering about 500 acres — a 
spur of the porphyritic and syenitic range on 
the east side of Bellevue valley. In its 
original state, as seen by the writer in 1841, 
it presented no appearance of rock in place, 
its surface was covered with a forest of oak, 
the trees thriving in a soil wholly composed 
of fragments of peroxide of iron, comminuted 
and coarse mixed together. Loose lumps 
of the ore were scattered around on every 
side but the north, and upon the top were 
loose blocks of many tons weight each. 
Mining operations, commenced in 1845, de- 
veloped only loose ore closely packed wdth a 
little red clay. An Artesian well was after- 
ward sunk to the depth of 152 feet. It pass- 
ed through thefoUowine: strata in succession : 



iron ore and clay, 16 feet; sandstone, 34 
feet; magnesian limestone, Vi inches; gray 
sandstone, 7i inches; "hard blue rock," 37 
ieet ; " pure iron ore," 5 feet ; porphyritic 
rock, 7 feet; iron ore 50 feet to the bottom. 
The ore appears to be interstratified with 
the silicious rocks Avith which it is associated 
in a similar manner to its occurrence at the 
other localities, and data are yet wanting to 
determine how much may exist in the hill 
itself, as well as below it. Enough is seen to 
justify any operations, however extensive, 
that depend merely upon continued supplies 
of ore. In quality the ore is a very pure 
peroxide ; it melts easily in the furnace, 
making a strong forge pig, well adapted for 
bar iron and steel. Two charcoal furnaces 
have been in operation for a number of 
years, and up to the close of 1854 had pro- 
duced 24,600 tons of iron. The flux is ob- 
tained from the magnesian limestone, which 
spreads over the adjoining valley in horizon- 
tal strata. 

Pilot Knob is a conical hill of 580 feet 
height above its base, situated six miles south 
of the Iron mountain. Its sides are steep, 
and present bold ledges of hard, slaty, sili- 
cious rock, which lie inclined at an angle of 
25° to 30° toward the south-west. Near the 
top the strata are more or less charged with 
the red peroxide of iron, and loose blocks 
of great size are seen scattered around, 
some of them pure ore, and some ore and 
rock mixed. At the height of 440 feet 
above the base, where the horizontal section 
of the mountain is equal to an area of fifty- 
three acres, a bed of ore is exposed to view 
on the north side, Avhich extends 273 feet 
along its line of outcrop, and is from nineteen 
to twenty-four feet in thickness. It is in- 
cluded in the slaty rocks, and dips with 
them. Other similar beds are said to occur 
lower down the hill ; and higher up others 
are met with to the very summit. The 
peak of the mountain is a craggy knob of 
gray rocks of ore, rising sixty feet in height, 
and forming so conspicuous an object as to 
have suggested the name by which the hill 
is called. The ore is generally of more slaty 
structure than that of the Iron mountain, 
and some of it has a micaceous appearance. 
The quantity of very pure ore conveniently at 
hand is inexhaustible. The production of iron 
will be limited more for want of abundance 
of fuel than of ore. Charcoal, however, may 
be obtained in abundance for many years to 
come, and bituminous coal may also t>e 



32 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



brought from tlie coal mines of ilissouri and 
Illinois, as the oi'es also can be carried to 
the river to meet there the fuel. The local- 
ity is already connected with St. Louis by a 
railroad. A blast furnace was built here in 
1846, and another in 1855. A bloomary 
with six tires was started in 1850, and has 
produced blooms at an estimated cost of 
$30 per ton. 

Shepherd mountain, about a mile distant 
from the Pilot Knob toward the south-west, 
is composed of porphyritic rocks, Avhich are 
penetrated with veins or dikes of both mag- 
netic and specular ores. These run in vari- 
ous directions, and the ores they afford are 
of great purity. They are mined to work 
together with those of the Pilot Knob. The 
•mountain covers about 800 acres, and 
rises to the height of 660 feet above its base. 
Other localities of these ores are also known, 
and the occurrence of specular ore is reported 
by the state geologists in several other coun- 
ties, as Phelps, Crawford, Pulaski, La Clede, 
etc. 

In mnny parts of the United States and its 
territories iron is known to exist in great quan- 
tities. In Nebraska and AVyoming territory, 
near the line of the Union Pacific Railroad, 
large beds of iron ore of good quality are found,- 
in proximity to extensive coal deposits, and 
these will be utilized for making rails of iron 
or steel for that great thoroughfare. In 
Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico, are beds 
of specular and other ores in great profusion. 
The northern territories, as well as the Pa- 
cific States and territories, have abundant 
ores of the richest qualities, and coal enough 
and wood enough to melt them success- 
fully. 

IRON MANUFACTURE. 

Iron is known in the arts chiefly in three 
forms — cast iron, steel, and wrought iron. 
The first is a combination of metallic iron, 
with from 1|- to 5 or 5^ per cent, of carbon ; 
the second is metallic iron combined with ^ 
to 1^ per cent, of carbon ; and the third is 
metallic iron, free as may be from foreign 
substances. These differences of composi- 
tion are accompanied with remarkable differ- 
ences in the qualities of the metal, by which 
its usefulness is greatly multiplied. The 
three sorts are producible as desired directly 
from the ores, and they are also convertible 
one into the other; so that the methods of 
manufacture are numerous, and new processes 
ar'e continually introduced. The production 



of wrought iron direct from the rich natural 
oxides, was until modern times the only 
method of obtaining the metal. Cast iron 
was unknown until the 1 5th century. Rude 
nations early learned the simple method of 
separating the oxygen from the ores by heat- 
ing them in the midst of burning charcoal ; 
the effect of which is to cause the oxygen to 
unite with the carbon in the form of carbonic 
acid or carbonic oxide gas, and escape, leav- 
ing the iron free, and in a condition to be 
hammered at once into bars. The heat they 
could command in their small fires was in- 
sufficient to effect the combination of the 
iron, too, with the carbon, and produce the 
fusible compound known as cast iron. In 
modern times the great branch of the busi- 
ness is the production of pig metal or cast 
iron in blast furnaces; and this is afterward 
remelted and cast in moulds into the forms 
required, or it is converted into wrought iron 
to serve some of the innumerable uses of 
this kind of iron, or to be changed again into 
steel. In this order the principal branches 
of the manufacture will be noticed. 

The production of pig metal in blast fur- 
naces is the most economical mode of separa- 
ting iron from its ores, especially if these are 
not extremely rich. The process requiring 
little labor, except in charging the furnaces, 
and this being done in great part by labor- 
saving machines, it can be carried on upon 
an immense scale with the employment of 
few persons, and most of those ordinary la- 
borers. The business, moreover, has been 
greatly simplified and its scale enlarged by 
the substitution of mineral coal for charcoal — 
the latter fuel, indeed, could never have been 
supplied to meet the modern demands of the 
manufacture. 

Blastfurnaces are heavy structures of stone 
work, usually in pyramidal form, built upon 
a base of 30 to 45 feet square, and from 30 
to 60 feet in height. The outer walls, con- 
structed with immense solidity and firmly 
bound together, inclose a central cavity, 
which extends from top to bottom and is 
lined with large fire brick of the most refrac- 
tory character, and specially adapted in their 
shapes to the required contour of the interior. 
The form of this cavity is circular in its hori- 
zontal section, and from the top goes on en- 
larging to the lower portion, where it begins 
to draw in by the walls changing their slope 
toward the centre. This forms what are 
called the boshes of the furnace — the part 
which supports the great weight of the ores 




CASTING PIG IKON. 








BLAST FURNACE. 



CASTING STEEL ING0I8. 



IRON. 



33 



and fuel that fill the interior. For ores that 
melt easily and fast they are made steeper 
than for those which are slowly reduced. 
The boshes open below into the hearth — the 
central contracted space which the French 
name the crucible of the furnace. The 
walls of this are constructed of the most re- 
fractory stones of large size, carefully selected 
for their power to resist the action of fire, 
and seasoned by exposure for a year or more 
after being taken from the quarry. Being 
the first portion to give out, the stack is built 
so that they can be replaced when necessary. 
The hearth is reached on each side of the 
stack by an arch, extending in from the out- 
side. On three sides the blast is introduced 
by iron pipes that pass through the hearth- 
stones, and terminate in a hollow tuyere, 
which is kept from melting by a current of 
water brought by a lead or block-tin pipe, 
and made to flow continually through and 
around its hollow shell. The fourth side is 
the front or working-arch of the furnace, at the 
bottom of which access is had to the melted 
materials as they collect in the receptacle pro- 
vided for them at the base of the hearth or 
crucible. This arch opens out into the cast- 
ing-house, upon the floor of which are the 
beds in the sand for moulding the pigs into 
which the iron is to be cast. Upon the top 
of the stack around the central cavity are 
constructed, in first-class furnaces, large flues, 
which open into this cavity for the purpose 
of taking oft" a portion of the heated gaseous 
mixtures, that they may be conveyed under 
the boilers, to be there more effectually con- 
sumed, and furnish the heat for raising steam 
for the engines. A portion of the gases is 
also led into a large heating-oven, usually 
built on the top of the stack, in which the 
blast (distributed through a series of cast iron 
pipes) is heated by the combustion. These 
pipes are then concentrated into one main, 
which passes down the stack and delivers the 
heated air to the tuyeres, thus returning to 
the furnace a large portion of the heat 
which would otherwise escape at the top, and 
adding powerfully to the efficiency of the 
blast by its high temperature. The boilers, 
also conveniently arranged on the top of the 
furnace, especially when two furnaces are 
constructed near together, are heated by the 
escape gases without extra expense of fuel, 
and they furnish steam to the engines, which 
are usually placed below them. On account 
of the enormous volume of air, and the 
great pressure at which it is blown into the 



furnace, the engines are of the most power- 
ful kind, and the blowing cylinders are of 
great dimensions and strength. Some of 
the large anthracite furnaces employ cylin- 
ders 7i feet diameter, and 9 feet stroke. One 
of these running at the rate of 9 revolutions 
per minute, and its piston acting in both di- 
rections, should propel every minute 7,128 
cubic feet of air (less the loss by leakage) 
into the furnace — a nmch greater weight than 
that of all the other materials introduced. 
It is, moreover, driven in at a pressure (pro- 
duced by the contracted aperture of the 
nozzle of the tuyeres in relation to the great 
volume of air) of 7 or 8 lbs. upon the square 
inch. Two such cylinders answer for a pair 
of the largest furnaces, and should be driven 
by separate engines, so that in case of acci- 
dent the available power may be extended to 
either or both furnaces. It is apparent that 
the engines, too, should be of the largest class 
and most perfect construction ; for the blast 
is designed to be continued Avith only tem- 
porary interruptions that rarely exceed an 
hour at a time, so long as the hearth may 
remain in running order — a period, it may be, 
of 18 months, or even 4 or 5 years. Fur- 
naces were formerly built against a high bank, 
upon the top of which the stock of ore and 
coal was accumulated, and thence carried 
across a bridge, to be delivered into the 
tunnel-head or mouth of the furnace. The 
more common arrangement at present is to 
construct, a little to one side, an elevator, 
provided with two platforms of sufficient 
size to receive sevei*al barrows. The moving 
power is the weight of a body of water let 
into a reservoir under the platform when it 
is at the top. This being allowed to descend 
with the empty barrows, draws up the other 
platform with its load, and the water is dis- 
charged by a self-regulating valve at the 
bottom. The supply of water is furnished 
to a tank in the top either by pumps con- 
nected with the steam engine or by the head 
of its source. 

The furnaces of the United States, though 
not congregated together in such large num- 
bers as at some of the great establishments 
in England and Scotland, are unsurpassed in 
the perfection of their construction, apparatus, 
and capacity ; and none of large size are prob- 
ably worked in any part of Europe with such 
economy of materials. The Siemen's regen- 
erating furnace is adopted in those more 
recently built, wherever an intense heat is 
required lor the reduction of the ores. 



34 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



WROUGUT IRON. 

It lia> been, in the past, a just p'ound of 
complaint against tlie producers of wrong at 
iron and steel, that they could not reduce 
either directly from the ore — but must go 
through the long and tedious processes of first 
making pig or cast iron, then eliminating the 
carbon from the cast iron by a still more 
tedious process to produce the wrought iron, 
and then restore a part of the carbon to make 
steel. It was said with trutli tliat the half 
civilized Hindoo tribes and even the barbar- 
ous Fans of West Africa, made their native 
wrought iron (the wootz of India) tlirectly 
from the ore of an excellent quality, and by 
a much simpler process than was adopted 
either in Europe or the United States. 

There has been, until within the past fif- 
teen or eighteen years, a spirit strongly ad- 
verse to progress or improvement among 
iron producers. By their rude and wasteful 
processes and their adhei'ence to traditional 
methods and tests, they succeeded in making 
a fair though not very uniform quality of 
wrought iron, at a pretty high cost, but they 
deprecated any change even if it were for 
the better. The ))hilosophy and chemistry 
of iron-making were not M'ell understood, 
and the time and way of its '' coming to na- 
ture " a term which conveys the idea of a 
mystery, was a secret which could only be 
learned, it was thought, by some supernatural 
inspiration or some extraordinary skill, only 
to be acquired by long experience and care- 
ful observation. 

The Bessemer process, invented and put 
in practice about 1852, first disturbed this 
popular idea ; but in its earlier history this pro- 
cess was not entirely free from guess-work and 
the coming-to-nature theory by some sudden 
and unexjilicable change; subsequent discov- 
eries and experiments removed this mystery 
entirely, and there is not, to-day, in practical 
chemistry and metallurgy a more thoroughly- 
defined science than that of making iron 
The iron master, who is fully educated foi 
his business, having before him an accurate 
analysis of his ores, and knowing, as ho ran 
if he will, that they are constant in their 
composition, proceeds with the utmost cer- 
tainty to add other ores, or to permeate the 
molten ore with atmospheric air, or to force 
additional oxygen through it by means of 
nitrate of soda, nitrate of potassa, peroxide 
of iron, or other oxygen-yielding compound, 
or introduces a definite quantity of man- 



ganese, powdered charcoal, or spiegeleisen, 
or in some cases silica, to act as flux and 
remove the sulphur, phosphorus, or other im- 
purity, and to destroy the excess of carbon. 
He knows, too, just what heat is requisite, 
and how long it must be continued to pro- 
duce a certain result every time. Here is 
no guess-work, no " rule of thumb," no un- 
certainty. If he requires the best steel for 
rails, he can furnish it of j^recisely standard 
quality every time ; if he is producing steel 
for the finest cutlery he can i)roduce that; if 
he desires a wrought iron which shall be so 
tough and flexible that it can be bent double 
cold without any symptoms of flaw or crack, 
he knows just what jiercentage of the differ- 
ent ores, what elimijiating processes, and 
what amount and duration of heat is neces- 
sary to produce it. 

Now, as in the past, there are different 
grades and qualities of cast iron, wrought 
iron, and steel, intended for different pur- 
poses, made from different ores, and possess- 
ing different degrees of tenacity, hardness, 
and ductility ; but the iron-maker who can- 
not produce from a given ore, or ores, that 
descri^ition of iron which he desires, without 
failure, does not understand his business. 

Cast iron contains, according to the pur- 
pose for which it is intended, from five to 
six and a half j^er cent of pure carbon, 
either chemically or mechanically combined, 
and except the combination of iron with hy- 
drogen, which is its normal condition, it is 
not the better for any admixture of other 
metals or elements, though for some purposes 
a small percentage of manganese, tungsten, 
or even a little silicon, are not disadvantage- 
ous. As a matter of practical fact, however, 
both sulphur and phos])horus are usually 
present, though in good samples in very 
small amount. By sufficient care they can 
be almost entirely eliminated, and are so in 
the Lest steel and wrought iron. 

Steel, according to the purpose to which 

■I is to be applied, contains, in chemical com- 

j uination it is belit'ved, from six-tenths to one 

and six-fentlis per cent, of carbon, and should 

I have no other ingredient. Wrought iron, 

' apart from its ordinary combination with 

i hydrogen, should l)e entirely free from sul- 

i piiur, phos])hoius. nr silicon, and though for 

I some purposes, a little manganese, tungsten, 

and a very small percentage of carbon may 

not prove disadvantageous, yet practically a 

pure iron is preferable to any alloy. Yet it 

is seldom actually free from impurities. 



IRON. 



35 



What is usually denominated pure iron, melts 
with great ditficulty and only at a very much 
greater heat than either steel or cast iron. 
InaL'tuul {)rac;ice it is never melted, but when 
the mass attains a pasty or semi-glutinous 
condition, it is by one process or another, 
either hammered, pressed, or squeezed till 
the impurities are forced out of it. Abso- 
lutely pure iron, i. e. iron free from hydrogen 
as well as other impurities, is one of the 
rarest metals in the world, and was isolated 
completely for the first time in 1860. It is 
a white metal very ductile, and tenacious and 
so soft as to be easily cut with a knife. The 
Bessemer j^rocess for eliminating the car- 
bon both for producing wrought iron and 
steel, as now conducted, is as follows : A 
quantity of jjig iron of some grade whose 
percentage of carbon is known, is melted in 
one or more reverberating furnaces, accord- 
ing to the size of the converting vessel to be 
used, which varies in capacity from five to 
twelve tons. When the metal becomes fiuid, 
it is run into the converting vessel, to which 
is applied a strong blast of air, which com- 
bines with the carbon at an intense white 
heat. This is continiied for about eight or 
ten minutes, until the whole of the carbon is 
consumed, when the blast is stopped. It is 
now wrought iron, recpiiring only to be 
squeezed or hammered tofa-ce out whatever 
impurities there may be in it. If, as is gen- 
erally the case, it is deemed desirable to 
make it into the Bessemer steel or homoge- 
neous steel or iron, as it is called on the con- 
tinent, a quantity of metal, usually a pure 
pig iron, with a known quantity of carbon, 
is melted and run into the converting vessel 
to furnish carbon in the exact proportion to 
make the quality of steel desired, and this 
combining with the refined iron gives to the 
mass all the properties and characteristics of 
steel. This process, though practically a 
very rapid one, is liable to the objection 
Which held against the old processes, that 
th.3re is a time in the process of eliminating 
the carbon from the pig iron when the mass 
of iron has just enough carbon to form good 
steel ; and that by this process that point is 
passed and the wliole of the carbon expelled, 
the mass reduced to the condition of wrought 
iron, and then brought up to the condition 
of steel by the addition of a percentage of 
cast iron. This elimination and restoration 
of the carbon involves waste of time, of heat, 
and of iron ; and hence efforts have been 



made to convert pig iron and iron ore into 
steel by a single process. 

Most of the methods proposed and abiding 
the test of actual manufacture are intended 
for the reduction of pig iron or ore to steel, 
and so come more properly under the head 
of steel; but a few of them are equally ap- 
plicable to the production of wrought ii'on. 

Among these were the ingenious sugges- 
tions of a New York chemist, Prof. A. K. 
Eaton, at first applied to the malleable cast 
iron to partially decarbonize it. He pro- 
posed the use of the native carbonate of zinc 
as a flux to furni-h the oxygen to consume 
the excess of carbon. The objection to this 
process was two-fold — that the zinc com- 
bined in a small proportion with the iron, — 
and that the process was too expensive to be 
successfid. He afterward proposed to sub- 
stitute crude soda-ash for the zinc — a sug- 
gestion in the right direction ; for the sodium 
will combine with the sulphur and phospho- 
rus, and thus help to remove the impurities 
from the iron ; but the crude soda ash is too 
uncertain in its composition, too full of im- 
purities, and does not yield its oxygen with 
sufficient readiness to be practically the best 
flux for this purpose. 

The proces-i of Messrs. Wlielpley & Storer 
seems one of tlie best of the numerous Ameri- 
can processes. The oxide of carbon, ^. e. 
coal gas, half or imperfectly burned, is the 
grand agent for making iron and steel from 
all the German and English furnaces, but 
the great dilHculty has been to apply the 
powerful agent in such a way as to reduce 
directly from the ore without going through 
the pig iron manufacture, the wrought or 
bar iron, or steel, and free it from the impu- 
rities which exist more or less in all ores as 
well as in m ich of the pig iron. Messrs. 
Whelpley & Storer effect tliis by means of a 
machine of their own invention, which is 
really nothing less than the chemist's blow 
pipe on a grand scale. The oxide of carbon 
is generated at the moment of using it upon 
the mass of ore, by the injection of a column 
of hot air carrying an excessively fine dust 
of coal or charcoal. The ore spread out 
upon the floor of a common reverberating 
furnace receives the red hot blast, while it 
is rapidly stirred by the workman, and pure 
iron in minute grains is produced in any 
desired quantity, "from 100 to 2,000 pound.-^ 
or more at a heat. If the mass is balled up, 
squeezed, and passed through roller it id 



36 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



bar iron of superior quality. If the time of 
tlie process is extended one hour, or even 
less, the iron absorbs carbon from the blast 
and becomes a light sponge of steel, which 
melts in the crucible or steel puddling fur- 
nace, and is cast into ingots of sound and pure 
metal. If continued still longer larger quan- 
tities of carbon are absorbed and the mass is 
converted into cast iron. The steel and cast 
ii'on as well as the bar iron are of superior 
quality, and remarkable tenacity and strength. 
Steel is made in this process in eight hours 
from crude ore to finished bar ; and bar iron 
in little more than half tliat time. It is re- 
quisite to the success of the process that the 
carbon should be pulverized to an impalpa- 
ble powder of the last degree of fineness, that 
thus infinitely subdivided and blown upon 
the mass it may carry condensed upon its 
surface nearly oxygen enough to consume 
it, and thus produce extreme rapidity, in- 
tensity, and thoroughness of combustion. 
This pulverization is efi^eeted, for the first 
time, by an ingenious machine invented by 
Messrs. Whelpley& Storer. What Messrs. 
Whelpley & Storer accomplish by their great 
blow-pipe and minute pulverization of car- 
bon, Mr. C. W. Siemens effects in an en- 
tirely different way by his regenerating fur- 
nace ; an apparatus requiring in the first 
place, a somewhat more extensive and costly 
structure, but in the end accomplishing the 
same result of producing a rapid and intense 
heat and" an atmosphere of oxide of carbon 
with a comparatively small expenditure of 
fuel. The necessity that the furnace linings 
should be almost absolutely indestructible by 
the intense heat generated makes the first 
cost of a regenerating furnace very heavy. 

There are three distinct principles em- 
bodied in the Siemens' furnace, viz : the 
application of gaseous fuel; the regeneration 
of heat by means of piles of brirks alternately 
passed over by the waste gases and liy the 
atmospheric air entering the furnace before 
their combustion ; and the chemical action of 
these gases in combining with the impurities 
of the ore or the pig iron, and in modifying 
the quantity of carbon in combination with 
the iron, for the production of steel. 

The gas producer is a brick chamber of 
convenient size, say six feet wide by twelve 
long, with its front wall inclined at an angle 
of 45*^ to 60'^, according to the nature of the 
fuel used. The inclined plane is solid about 
half way down, and below this it is con- 
structed as a grate with horizontal bars. It 



is what is called a base-burner, the openings 
for introducing the coal being on the top or 
roof of this chamber, and the air which en- 
ters through the grate eflfects the combustion 
of the coal at the lowest points of the cham- 
ber. The products of this combustion rise 
and are decomposed by the superposed strata 
of coal above them ; they are, moreover, 
mixed with a quantity of steam which is 
drawn in through the grate from a constant 
supply of water maintained underneath the 
latter. The steam in contact with the in- 
candescent coal also decomposes and produ- 
ces hydrogen and carbonic oxide gas, which 
are mixed with the gases produced by the 
coal direct. The whole volume of these 
gases is then conducted to the furnace itself 
by means of wrought iron pipes. The gases 
enter one of tlie regenerators. The regen- 
erators are chambers packed with fire-bricks, 
which are built up in walls, with interstices 
and air-spaces between them (cob-house fash- 
ion as we should say) allowing of a free pas- 
sage of gas around each brick. Each regen- 
erator consists of two adjoining chambeis of 
this kind, with air-passages parallel to each 
other, one passage destined for the gaseous 
fuel, and the other for the supply of atmos- 
pheric air required for comlnistion. Each 
furnace has two such regenerators, and a 
set of valves is ])rovided in the main passa- 
ges or flues, which permit of directing the 
gases from the pioducer to the bottom of 
either of the two regenerators. The gases 
after passing one regenerator arrive at the 
fiirnace, where they are mixed with the air 
drawn in at the same time, and produce a 
flame of great lieat and intensity within the 
body of the furnace itself. They then pass, 
after combustion, into the second regenerator 
which forms a set of down flues for the waste 
gases, and ultimately leads them off into a 
common chimney. On their way from the 
furnace to tlie cliimney the heated products 
of combustion I'aise the temperature of the 
fire-bricks, over which they pass, to a very 
high degree, and the gases are so much 
cooled that, at the base of the chimney, they 
do not produce a temperature of much more 
than 300'' Fahrenheit. After a certain time 
the fire-bricks close to the furnace obtain a 
temperature almost equal to that of the fur- 
nace itself, and a gradually diminishing tem- 
perature exists in the bricks of the regenera- 
tor proportionate to their distance ft ora the 
furnace. At this moment the attendant, by 
reversing the different valves of the furnace, 



IRON. 



37 



opens the heated regenerator for the entrance 
of the gaseous fuel and atmospheric air, at 
the same time connecting the other regen- 
erator with the chimney for taking off the 
products of combustion. The entire current 
of gases through the furnace is thus reversed. 
The cohi air from the atmosphere, and the 
comparatively cold gases from the producer, 
in passing over bricks of gradually increas- 
ing temperature as they ajjproach the furnace 
become intensely heated, and when they are 
mixed in the furnace itself, enter into com- 
bustion under the most favorable circumstan- 
ces for the production of an intense heat, often 
rising to 4000° Fahreiiheit in the furnace. 
By changing the relative proportion of air 
and gas admitted through the flues, the na- 
ture of the flame may be altered at will. A 
surplus of oxygen from the introduction of 
more than half the volume of atmospheric 
air will produce an oxidizing flame, suited to 
the production of very pure bar iron. By 
the admission of a surplus of gas, on the con- 
trary, the flame can be made of a reductive 
character and used accordingly for deoxida- 
tion. 

Berard's process for making steel by gas, 
directly from pig iron, or ore, requires the 
Siemens furnace, which he constructs with 
the bottom formed into two parts each hol- 
lowed out like a dish, with a bridge between 
them, upon which the pigs introduced into 
the furnace receive a preliminary heating. 
The flame is maintained with a surplus of 
oxygen, and a quantity of pig iron is melted 
in one of the chambers or dishes. The oxi- 
dizing action of the flame decarbonizes and 
refines the pig iron, and after a certain time 
a second quantity of pigs is thrown into 
the second dish and melted there. The flame 
is now reversed in its direction ; the oxidiz- 
ing flame is made to enter at the side where 
the fresh pig is placed. In passing over this, 
and oxidizing the carbon, silicon, and other 
impurities in the iron, the flame loses its sur- 
plus oxygen, and becomes of a neutral, or at 
least only slightly oxidizing character. In 
this state it passes over the other bath of 
molten iron, now partly refined, and it con- 
tinues to act upon the impurities without at- 
tacking the iron itself. At a certain moment 
this portion of iron is completely converted 
into steel, and that part of the furnace is then 
tapped, so as to make room for a fresh charge 
of pigs in that place. After that, the current 
of gases is again reversed, the second bath 
now entering into the position previously 



taken by the first, and so the process is car- 
ried on continuously with two portions of 
iron — one freshly introduced and acted upon 
by the oxidizing flame, the other |)artly con- 
verted into steel and exposed to the neutral 
flame passing away from the first. M. Be- 
rard states that by protracting his process, 
and by adding spiegeleisen he can remove 
sulphur and phosphorus from the iron, and 
make steel from inferior pigs. 

The Messrs. Martin of Sireuil, France, 
have, with a Siemens furnace, succeeded in 
melting with pig iron, old iron rails, wrought 
iron scrap, puddled steel, &c., in the propor- 
tion of two-thirds old rails to one-third pig 
iron, and have made from the compound an 
excellent and low-priced steel for rails. 

Mr. Siemens himself ])atented, in 1868, 
and has since that time worked, a process for 
making natural or " raw " steel directly from 
the ore by means of a modification of his 
furnace. This can only be done successfully 
it is said by the use of the purest and best 
ores. Of other processes we may mention 
that of Mr. James Henderson, an eminent 
founder, of Brooklyn, N. Y., who, using the 
Bessemer process, has improved it by charg- 
ing, the blast furnace with a mixture of iron 
and Manganese ores, or any of the Manga- 
niferous iron ores, thus incorporating the 
mdisjjensable manganese, and causing it to 
exert its beneficial influence in purifying and 
refining the iron, at the beginning, instead 
of the end of the pneumatic process. 

Mr. John Heaton of Nottingham, England, 
has been successful in oxidizing and remov- 
ing the carbon and other impurities with 
great rapidity by the use of nitrate of soda 
with the molten metal in the following way : 
The " converter " consists of a large wrought 
iron pot, lined with fire clay ; into the bot- 
tom of this a suitable quantity (about 6 per 
cent, usually of the weight of the pig iron or • 
ore), of crude nitrate of soda combined with 
silicious sand, is introduced, and the whole 
covered with a cast-iron perforated plate. 
The molten pig is then poured in and in 
abov;t two minutes the reaction commences ; 
at first, brown nitrous fumes are evolved, 
and after a lapse of five or six minutes, a 
violent deflagration occurs attended with a 
loud roaring noise, and a burst from the top 
of the chimney of brilliant yellow flame, 
which, in about a minute and a half subsides" 
as rapidly as it commenced. When all has 
become tranquil the converter is detached 
from the chimney and its contents emptied 



38 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



upon the iron pavement of the foundry. The 
steel thus pro(hiced is pronounced by eminent 
metalhirgists of excellent quality and prac- 
tically free from impurities (the sodium com- 
bining with the sulphur and phosphorus), 
and it was satisfactorily demonsti-ated that 
uniformity of quality was attainable. The 
process is much more rapid than any other, 
but Mr. Bessemer asserts that the addition of 
the nitrate of soda makes the cost of a ton of 
steel about five dollars more than by his 
method. Mr. Hargreaves has patented a 
modiiication of this process, combining the 
nitrate, of soda witli hematite ore to form a 
paste, and claims that he thus obtains addi- 
tional supply of oxygen. He states that he 
can make refined iron for puddling by the 
use of about 3 per cent, of nitrate of soda 
and six per cent, of hematite ; steel by eight 
to ten per cent, of nitrate of soda and an 
equal weight of binoxide of manganese, and 
the best quality of wrought iron. 

JMr. F. Kolm, an P^nglish steel manufac- 
turer, had, in 18G8, made use of the Siemens 
regenerating furnace by a new process, melt- 
ing a given quantity of the best and finest 
wrought iron in a bath of molten cast iron, 
carried to the highest heat of that furnace 
and thus making a pure steel at one heat 
without ]nid(lling or cementation. By his 
process old railroad iron, scrap iron, and scrap 
steel, can be converted at once into steel of 
the best quality for rails. 

A Mr. Wilson, of Stockton-on-Tees, Eng- 
land, has patented a modification of the Sie- 
mens furnace which attains the same object 
with a still greater saving of fuel, by forcing 
air into the fine-bridge by a steam-jet, and 
causing it to pass into a conduit at the back 
of the furnace, and thence into tlie flame- 
bridge and up into a chamber from which, in 
a red-hot condition, it passes into and on to 
the incandescent fuel. By this improvement 
there is no necessity of grate-bars to the fur- 
nace, most of the fettling is saved, the steam 
from the heated water is at once decomposed 
and adds its quota to the intensity of the heat 
which burns up all the smoke and nearly all 
the cinder and slag. The saving in fiiel is 
said to be about one-third over the Siemens 
furnace, and the heat is all applied directly 
to the removal of impurities and slag from 
the ores and cast iron. 

The Shoenberger Junta "Works, at Pitts- 
burgh, Pa., have patented a method of mak- 
ing refined iron and steel by a new process 
which is both simple and ingenious, melting 



in a blast furnace a quantity of crude cast 
iron of whatever quality they may have, they 
run it into a large kettle of a capacity of five 
tons and thence from it in a stream about a 
foot wide into a circular revolving trougli, 
twelve inches wide and ten inches deeji and 
let fall upon the molten metal from a hopper, 
pulverized iron ore, Lake Superior, Cham- 
plain, or Iron mountain, in sufficient quantity 
to cover the melted metal as fost as it is 
poured in. When the trough is full, and 
before the iron cools, it is broken up into 
slabs of suitable size for a heating furnace, 
when it is oidy necessary to heat it as blooms 
are heated, and put it through the machinery 
to produce the best quality of horse-shoe bars, 
or by a slight variation of the process, ex- 
cellent steel. 

Mr. David Stewart, of Kittaniny, Pa., has 
patented a method of freeing cast iron from 
its carbon, sul|)hur, phosphorus, &:c., by pour- 
ing the melted metal at full heat from a 
height of perhaps thirty feet in a thin stream 
or shower upon the ground in such a way as 
that it shall receive the action of atmospheric 
air over its entire surface, or if preferred, 
through a cylinder thirty feet or moi'e in 
height, and open at both ends, into which air 
is constantly ibi'ced. He claims to have 
tested this process very thoroughh^ and to be 
capable of making pure iron or steel by it 
without puddling and without retaining any 
cinder or impurities. Messrs. J. R. Bradley 
and M. D. Brown of Chicago, 111., patented 
in IS 68 eight recipes of ingredients to be 
added to melted scrap or malleable iron 
which they claimed would produce in each 
case the precise kind of steel wanted, and of 
the best quality. A iNIr. J. Edwin Sherman, 
formerly a blacksmith of Bucksport, INIe., but 
more recently a Government clerk at Wa^h- 
ington, D. C, is said to have hit upon a 
method of converting iron into steel of great 
simplicity and chea.pness, and, in the autumn 
of 1870, went by invitation to England to lay 
his process before the lords of the Admiralty. 

Among the most remarkable discoveries 
of the present day, in relation to the manu- 
facture of iron, we must count those by which 
iron ores, hitherto regarded as worthless, have 
proved either by new processes or by mix- 
ture with other ores, or with cast iron, the 
best of all factors for producing the purest 
wrought iron and steel. Thus fiir there are 
two of these instances worthy of special no- 
tice. In the township of North Codorus, 
York Co., Pa., there are extensive beds of a 



IRON. 



39 



peculiar micaceous iron ore ; some of which 
were opened in 1854 or 1855, and attempts 
were made to make iron from them, but the 
ore contained but 41.5 percent, of magnetic 
iron, and its reduction, owing to its peculiar 
combination, was attended with much labor 
and no profit ; the ore beds were therefore 
abandoned. In 1868, it was discovered by 
accident that this luipromising ore, mixed 
with cast or pig iron of ordinary quality in 
the proportion of one to five or six in a re- 
verberating furnace, produced by the ordin- 
ary puddling process, a pure steel of admira- 
ble quality and remarkably uniform in char- 
acter. Having tested this by a very great 
number of experiments the discoverers pur- 
chased the Codorus ore beds, and put up a 
puddling furnace and rolling mill at York to 
carry on the business of making steel for 
railway rails, and other purposes. The an- 
alysis of the Codorus ore, as made by the 
eminent practical chemist, Otto Wurth, of 
Pittsburg, is as follows : 

Silica, 37.35 Potash, 1.87 

Alumina, 3.21 Magnetic Iron, 41.57 

Manganese, 4.45 Peroxide of Iron, 10.46 

Lime, .74 Water and Loss, .35 

100.09 
Further experiments, conducted under the 
eye of the veteran iron master, J. N. Wins- 
low, satisfied the owners of the ore that they 
could safely dispense with the puddling pro- 
cess and produce directly from the ore and 
cast iron the very best quality of steel. We 
have ourselves examined the steel and the 
wrought iron jjroduced by this combination, 
and in every test to which it can be subject- 
ed, whether of tenacity, tensile strength, 
hardness, elasticity, or capacity of receiving 
and retaining the highest temper, it is unsur- 
passed by any steel or iron known to manu- 
facturers. Whether wrought iron and steel 
can be made without puddling from a com- 
bination of this ore with other ores of good 
quality has not yet been ascertained, but we 
believe that it will. By the processes at 
present employed, the best of steel can be 
made with the use of fifteen or twenty per 
cent, of tills ore at a cost of not above $70 
or $75 per ton, and possibly lower. 

Of the other ore, found at Port Leyden, 
Lewis Co., N. Y., still more remarkable 
things are stated. The following account 
of the ores and process of reditction, made in 
the New York Tribune, is believed to be 
fully authenticated. The steel is certainly 
of excellent quality 
*3 



" The discovery of an inexhaustible bed 
of iron ore at Port Leyden, Lewis County, 
about 40 miles above Utica, a few years ago, 
tempted citizens of the latter-named place to 
invest about $500,0U0 in the effort to estab- 
lish the manufacture of iron there. The 
' Port Leyden Iron Works ' were a sad fail- 
ure, and the entire amount of money invested 
in them was lost, as pig iron could not be 
produced from the ore. From this impracti- 
cable ore, steel is now produced, at one fus- 
ion, by a process invented by Prof. E. L. 
Seymour, a metallurgist and chemist, who 
resides in this vicinity. The outlines of the 
process are as follows : The ore is crushed, 
in something like-an ordinary quartz-crusher, 
until it is reduced to about the fineness of 
rifle powder. It is then tlii-own into a re- 
volving cylinder, in which are set numer- 
ous magnets. The ore is of the kind known 
as ' magnetic' By an arrangement ox small 
brushes, the metallic particles are separated 
from the refuse, which is principally stony 
and earthy matter in the shape of fine dust. 
The application of certain chemicals and 
fusion by charcoal are the next steps in the 
process, and the immediate product is pure 
steel, ready for molding into ' ingots. Speci- 
mens of steel thus manufactured and con- 
verted into finely-tempered table cutlei-y, 
and other articles, and the certificate of a 
well-known cutler of Brooklyn, who made 
the articles, that it is as good steel as he ever 
worked, and adapted to all cutlery purposes, 
have been exhibited. The es-timated cost of 
this steel is less than four cents. By the 
Seymour process, it is claimed that the aim 
of iron-masters and chemists for the last 200 
years is accomplished — viz : to rid iron of 
its arch enemies, sulphur and phosphorus — 
the former rendering the metal what is tech- 
nically called ' red-short,' so that it flies to 
pieces under the hammer when at a red heat, 
though it may be quite strong when cold ; 
while the least quantity of phosphorus ren- 
ders the metal ' cold-short,' making it weak 
and brittle when cold, though quite strong 
when hot. 

" The Port Leyden Works are about one- 
eighth of a mile from the railroad and the 
canal. The buildings, fiirnaces, etc., were 
erected several years ago at great expense ; 
and for some time there have lain in the 
forest near by nearly 100,000 bushels of 
charcoal, the overplus of what was made be- 
fore it was found that iron could not be pro- 
duced from the ore by the old processes." 



40 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



It has recently been discovered that there 
are extensive veins of a peculiar coal, called 
block coal in Indiana, which is remarkably 
adapted to the production of the best iron. 
In its constituents and its working, it is very 
nearly a pure charcoal and containing nei- 
ther sulphur nor phosj)horus, it does not im- 
part to iron in the smelting process any in- 
gredient which impairs its value. These 
veins of block coal are of great thickness, 
and extend widely over the central and 
southern part of the state. It has not thus 
far been discovered in any other state. In- 
diana has no great variety of iron ores, but 
her railroad facilities present, and prospec- 
tive, for bringing the Missouri ores from 
Pilot Knob and Iron Mountain and the rich 
hematitic ores from the Lake Superior re- 
gion in Michigan, are such that with this 
excellent coal, her citizens can manufacture 
the finest qualities of iron and steel at con- 
siderably lower prices than they can be pro- 
duced for, elsewhere. As a consequence 
numerous furnaces have been erected in 
1870 and 1871, along the line of the block 
coal veins, and many more are now going 
up. The improved processes and new discov- 
eries to which we have alluded, while they 
will materially reduce the cost of making 
steel, do not, thus far, greatly lower the cost 
of producing iron, except in Indiana, and 
hence the reduction of ten per cent, on iron 
and iron manufactures ni the new tariff of 
1872, may impede the progress of this de- 
sirable manufacture, now fast attaining to 
the first rank among our national produc- 
tions. 

riiough the total production of pig iron 
each year is now very definitely ascertained, 
there is more difficulty in learning the de- 
tails of the oiher branches of iron manufac- 
ture. The rolling mills are really unceasing 
in numbers and in their aggregate production 
of rails both iron and steel, but the re-roll- 
ing of old rails is a large and yet very vari- 
able item in their annual amount of work, 
and it is difficult to ascertain with any con- 
siderable exactness what number of tons of 
new rails are produced by each mill. The 
aggregate product in 1871 was stated in 
round numbers at about 275,000 tons of 
iron and 180,000 tons of steel rails. This 
latter item will, undoubtedly, be largely 
increased during the present and coming 
years. 

Sheet Iron. — For making sheet iron the 



bars are gradually spread out between smooth 
rolls, which are brought nearer together as 
the metal grows thinner. The Russians have 
a method of giving to sheet iron a beautifully 
polished surface, and a pliability and dura- 
bility which no other people have been able 
to imitate. All attempts that have been 
made to learn the secret of this process have 
entirely failed, and the business remains a 
monopoly with the Russians. The nearest 
imitation of this iron is produced at Pitts- 
burg, Pennsylvania, and several eastern estab- 
lishments, by what is called Wood's process. 
This consists in rolling the common sheet at 
a certain temperature while it is covered 
with linseed oil. A very fine surface is thus 
produced, but the pliability and toughness 
of the Russian iron are wanting, even though 
the sheets are often annealed in close vessels, 
and the glaze and color are also inferior. 
Sheet iron is now extensively prepared for 
roofing, and other uses requiring exposure to 
the weather, by protecting its surface with a 
coating of zinc. This application is an 
American invention, having been discovered 
in 1827, by the late Prof. John W. Revere, 
of New York. In March, 1859, he exhibited, 
at a meeting of the Lyceum of Natural His- 
tory, specimens of iron thus protected, which 
had been exposed for two years to the action 
of salt water without rusting. He recom- 
mended it as a means of protecting the iron 
fastenings of ships, and introduced the proc- 
ess into Great Britain. Sheets thus coated 
are known as galvanized iron, though the 
iron is now coated with zinc by other means 
as well as by the galvanic current. One 
method, that of Mallet, is to place the 
sheets, after they are well cleaned by acid 
and scrubbed with emery and sand, in a satu- 
rated solution of hydrochlorate of zinc and 
sulphate of ammonia; and after this in a 
bath composed of 202 parts of mercury and 
1,292 of zinc, to every ton weight of which 
a pound of potassium or sodium is added. 
The compound fuses at 680° Fahrenheit, 
and the zinc is immediately deposited upon 
the iron surface. Another method is to stir 
the sheets in a bath of melted zinc, the sur- 
face of which is covered with sal ammoniac. 
The use of heavy sheets or plates for build- 
ing purposes is also a recent application of 
iron, that adds considerably to the demand 
for the metal. The plates are stiff"ened by 
the fluting, or corrugating, which they re- 
ceive in a powerful machine, and may be 
protected by a coating of zinc. Their prep- 



41 



aration is largely carried on in Philadelphia ; 
and in the same works a great variety of 
other articles of malleable iron, for domestic 
and other uses, are similarly protected with 
zinc, as window shutters, water and gas 
pipes, coal scuttles, chains for pumps, bolts 
for ships' use, hoop iron, and telegraph and 
other wire. 

The production of the principal boiler-plate 
and sheet iron establishments of the United 
States is thus given for the year 1856 : — 

Tons. 
East of the Delaware there are but two mills, 
both of which are in Jersey Citj'. Product 

in 1856 550 

In E. Pennsjlvauia, on the Schuylkill and 

lower Susquehanna, 25 mills 21,218 

Near Wilmington, Delaware, 3 mills 1,374 

Between Wilmington and Baltimore, 7 mills. 2,998 
Pittsburg, Penn.. 14 mills. Sheet iron, 6,437 ; 
boiler iron, 3,212; besides bars, rods, hoops, 

and nails 9,649 

Sheet iron at the Sharon mill, Mercer Co. Penn. 500 
Bloom mill, Portsmouth, S. Ohio, and Globe 

mill, Cincinnati, about 2,000 

38,289 
A mill for boiler plate has be^i erected at St. Louis. 

Iron Wire, — The uses of iron wire have 
greatly increased within a few years past. 
The telegraph has created a large demand 
for it ; and with the demand the manufac- 
ture has been so much improved, especially 
in this country, that the wire has been found 
applicable to many purposes for which brass 
or copper wire was before required. It is 
prepared from small rods, which are passed 
through a succession of holes, of decreasing 
sizes, made in steel plates, the wire being 
annealed as often as may be necessary to 
prevent its becoming brittle. In this branch 
the American manufacturers have attained 
the highest perfection. The iron prepared 
from our magnetic and specular ore is un- 
equalled in the combined qualities of strength 
and flexibility, and is used almost exclusively 
for purposes in which these qualities arc es- 
sential. But where stiffness combined with 
strength is more important, Swedish and 
Norwegian iron also are used. Much of the 
iron wire now made is almost as pliable as 
copper wire, while its strength is about 50 
per cent, greater. In Worcester, Mass., a 
large contract has been satisfactorily filled 
for No. 10 wire, one of the conditions of 
which was that the wire, when cold, might 
be tightly wound around another wire of the 
same size without cracking or becoming 
rouffh on the surface. Such wire is an ex- 



cellent material for ropes, and considerable 
American iron is already required for this 
use, especially for suspension bridges. Wires 
are also used for fences, and are ingenioi;sly 
woven into ornamental patterns. The so- 
called " netting fence," thus made, can be 
rolled up like a carpet. For heavier railing 
and fences, as for the front yards of houses, 
for balconies, window guards, etc., iron bars 
and rods are now worked into ornamental 
open designs, by powerfully crimping them 
and weaving them together like wires. 

Nails. — Among the multitude of other 
important applications of malleable iron, that 
of nail making is particularly worthy of no- 
tice, as being in the machine branch of it — 
the preparation of cut nails — entirely an 
American process. Our advance in this de- 
partment is ascribed to the great demand for 
nails among us in the construction of wooden 
houses. In England, even into the present 
century, nails were wrought only by hand, 
employing a large population. In the vi- 
cinity of Birmingham it was estimated that 
60,000 persons were occupied wholly in nail 
making. Females and children, as well as 
men, worked in the shop, forging the nails 
upon anvils, from the " split iron rods" fur- 
nished for the purpose from the neighboring 
iron works. The contrast is very striking 
between their operations and those of the 
great establishments in Pennsylvania, con- 
sisting of the blast furnaces, in which the 
ores are converted into pig ; of the puddling 
furnaces, in which this is made into wrought 
iron ; of the rolling and slitting mills, by 
which the malleable iron is made into nail- 
plates ; and of the nail machines, which cut 
up the plates and turn them into nails — all 
going on consecutively under the same roof, 
and not allowing time for the iron to cool 
until it is in the finished state, and single 
establishments producing more nails than the 
greater part of the workshops of Birming- 
ham fifty years ago. Public attention was 
directed to machine-made nails as long ago 
as 1810, by a report of the secretary of the 
treasury, in which he referred to the success 
already attained in their manufacture in Mas- 
sachusetts. " Twenty years ago," he states, 
*' some men, now unknown, then in ob- 
scurity, began by cutting slices out of old 
hoops, and, by a common vice gripping these 
pieces, headed them with several strokes of 
the hammer. By progressive improvements, 
slitting mills were built, and the shears and 
the heading tools were perfected, yet much 



42 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



labor and expense were requisite to make 
nails. In a little time, Jacob Perkins, Jona- 
than Ellis, and a few others, put into execu- 
tion the thought of cutting and of heading 
nails by water ; but being more intent upon 
their machinery than upon their pecuniary 
affairs, they were unable to prosecute the 
business. At different times other men have 
spent fortunes in improvements, and it may 
be said with truth that more than a million 
of dollars have been expended ; but at length 
these joint efforts are crowned with com- 
plete success, and we are now able to manu- 
facture, at about one-third of the expense 
that wrought nails can be manufactured for, 
nails which are superior to them for at least 
three-fourths of the purposes to which nails 
are applied, and for most of those purposes 
they are full as good. The machines made 
use of by Odiorne, those invented by Jona- 
than Ellis, and a few others, present very 
fine specimens of American genius." The 
report then describes the peculiar character 
of the cut nail — that it was used by northern 
carpenters without their having to bore a 
hole to prevent its splitting the wood ; that 
it would penetrate harder wood than the 
wrought nail, etc. At that time, it states, 
there were twelve rolling and slitting mills 
in Massachusetts, chiefly employed in rolling 
nail plates, making nail rods, hoops, tires, 
sheet iron, and copper, and turning out about 
3,500 tons, of which about 2,400 tons were 
cut up into nails and brads. From that time 
to the present the manufacture of nails by 
machinery has been a profitable branch of 
industry in the south-eastern part of Massa- 
chusetts, the iron and the coal being fur- 
nished from the middle Atlantic states, and 
the nails, in great part, finding a market 
at the south. The following table presents 
the number of nail mills in operation in 
1856. The smaller establishments are grad- 
ually going out of the business, and this is 
becomino; more concentrated in the coal and 
iron regions, thus saving the cost of trans- 
portation in these heavy articles. The man- 
ufacturers of New England, however, ingeni- 
ously divert a part of their operations to the 
production of smaller articles, with which 
the cost of transportation is a less item in 
proportion to their value, such as tacks, riv- 
ets, screws, butts, wire, and numerous fin- 
ished articles, the value of which consists 
more in the labor performed upon them and 
in the use of ingenious machinery than in 
the cost of the crude materials employed. 



NAIL FACTORIES IN THE UNITED STATES, AND THEIR PRO- 
DUCTION IN 1856. 

Tons. 
In south New- England, 12 mills, nails prin- 
cipally 25,000 

Troy, New York 4,000 

Rockaway, Boonton, New Jersey, nails and 

spikes 8,250 

Southern New Jersey 4,1 67 

On the Schuylkill, 5 mills, about 9,000 

On the lower Susquehanna, 2 mills, about.. . 2,600 

Middle Pennsylvania, 2 mills, about 2,000 

Maryland, 2 mills 2,155 

Richmond, 1 mill- 1,075 

Pittsburg, 14 mills, nails, spikes, rivets, tacks 14,195 

Wheelhig, 2 mills 6,465 

Ironton, southern Ohio, 1 mill 775 

Mahoning Co., N. E. Ohio, 1 mill 380 

Buffalo 1,400 

Total 81,462 

The number of nail machines employed in these 
mills was 2,645. 

A great variety of machines have been 
devised for nail making, very ingenious in 
their designs, and all too complicated for 
description. The iron is rolled out into bars 
for this manufacture, of 10 or 12 feet in 
length, and wide enough to make three or 
more strips, each one of which is as wide as 
the length of the nail it is to make. The 
cutting of these strips fi"om the wider bars 
is the special work of the slitting mill, which 
is, in fact, but a branch of the rolling operar 
tion, and carried on in conjunction with it. 
The slitting machine consists of a pair of 
rolls, one above the other, each having 5 or 
6 steel disks upon its axis, set as far apart as 
the width required for the nail-rod. Those 
upon one roll interlock with those upon tlie 
other, so that when the wide bar is intro- 
duced it is pressed into the grooves above 
and below, and cut into as many strips as 
there are spaces between the disks. This 
work is done with wonderful rapidity, several 
bars being passed through at once. In the 
nail factory each nail-making machine works 
upon one of these strips, or nail-rods, at a 
time, first clipping oft' a piece from the end 
presented to it, and immediately another, as 
the flat rod is turned over and the end is 
again presented to the cutter. The reason 
of turning it over for each successive cut is 
because the piece cut off' for the nail is 
tapering, in order to make it a little wider 
at the end intended for the head than at the 
other, and thus, making the wider cut on al- 
ternate sides of the rod, this is regularly 
worked up into pieces of the proper shape. 
In the older operations a workman always 
sat in front of each machine, holding the 



43 



rod and turning it over with every clip ; but 
by a modern improvement this work is also 
done by mechanical contrivance. Each 
piece, as fast as it is clipped oft", disappears 
in the machine. There it is seized between 
powerful jaws, and the head is pressed up 
from the large end by the short, powerful 
motion imparted to the piece of apparatus 
called the header. As it is released, it slides 
down and drops upon the floor, or in a vessel 
placed to receive the nails. 

Machinery has been applied in the United 
States to the manufacture of horse-shoe nails, 
according to a number of patented plans. 
Of these, the most successful is probably that 
invented about the year 1848, by Mr. L. G. 
Reynolds, of Providence ; also the inventor 
of the solid-headed pin. The form of this 
nail could not be given as in ordinary cut 
nails by the cutter, but the sides required to 
be pressed as well as the head. This in- 
volved the use of movable plates of suitable 
figure ; and as it was found that the nails 
could not be shaped except when the metal 
was softened by heat, the plates must neces- 
sarily be of the hardest steel, and protected 
as effectually as possible from the effects of 
constant working of heated iron. These 
difficulties were fully overcome, and the 
nails, after being turned out, were toughened 
by annealing, giving them all the excellent 
qualities of hand-made nails, with the ad- 
vantage of perfect uniformity of size, so that 
one nail answers as well as another for the 
holes in the horse-shoes. They are, more- 
over, made with great rapidity, each machine 
producing half a ton of nails in 12 hours. 
The process has been taken to Europe, and 
is there in successful operation. Spikes, also, 
have been made and headed in similar ma- 
chines ; and among all small articles in iron, 
none, perhaps, has proved so profitable to 
the inventor as the hook-headed spike, used 
for holding down, by its projecting head, the 
edge of the iron rails to the sill. This was 
the invention of Mr. Henry Burden, of Troy, 
whose machines for wrought-iron spikes and 
for horse-shoes have also proved very success- 
ful. By the latter, perfect shoes are turned 
out at the rate of 60 in a minute. This proc- 
ess has been introduced in most of the 
European countries. 



As already remarked, steel differs in com- 
position from metallic iron only by contain- 
ing from i to li per cent, of carbon, and 



from cast-iron by the latter containing a 
larger proportion of carbon, which may 
amount to 5.5 per cent. To readily convert 
these varieties into each other is an object 
of no small importance, for their properties 
are so entirely distinct, that they really serve 
the purposes of three different metals. Steel 
is particularly valuable for its extreme hard- 
ness, fine grain, and compact texture, which 
admits of its receiving a high polish. It is 
the most elastic of metals, and much less 
liable to rust than iron. It has the peculiar 
property of assuming different degrees of 
hardness, according to the rapidity with 
which it is chilled when heated ; and it may 
be melted and run into moulds like cast iron, 
and the ingots thus prepared may be ham- 
mered, rolled, and forged into shapes like 
wrought iron ; and these may finally be tem- 
pered to any degree of hardness desired. 
Differing so little in composition from me- 
tallic iron and from cast iron, and being 
so universally in demand for a multitude of 
uses, it would seem that it ought to be pro- 
duced as cheaply as one or the other of the 
varieties, between which its composition 
places it. But this is far from being the 
case. While pig iron is worth only $20 to 
$30 per ton, and bar iron $60 to $90, cast 
steel in bars is worth from $250 to $300 per 
ton. This is chiefly owing to the difficulty 
of procuring in large quantities steel of uni- 
form character, which the consumers of the 
article can purchase with perfect confidence 
that it is what they require and have been 
accustomed to use. The English boast, with 
good reason, of the position they occupy in 
this manufacture, which is almost a monopoly 
of the steel trade of the whole world. Though 
producing themselves little or no iron fit for 
making alone the best steel, they have im- 
ported enough of the Swedish and Norwe- 
gian bar iron to insure a good quality, and 
have been especially cautious to render this 
as uniform as possible. Their method of 
manufacture is to introduce carbon into the 
wrought iron by what is called the cementing 
process. On the continent of Europe steel 
is made to some extent, in Silesia and Styria, 
by removing from cast iron enough of its 
carbon to leave the proper proportion for 
steel, and then melting the product and cast- 
ing it into ingot moulds. But this cheaper 
method does not appear to have been taken 
up in Great Britain. In the United States 
several processes are in operation, two of 
which are peculiarly American. The ce- 



44 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



meriting method, as conducted in England, 
has been longest known, and will be first de- 
scribed. The cementing furnace is a sort of 
oven, furnished with troughs or shelves, upon 
which charcoal dust is laid for receiving the 
bars. These are placed edgewise in the 
charcoal, half an inch apart, and the spaces 
are filled in with more sifted coal. Enough 
is added to cover the bars, and upon this a 
second tier is laid in the same way, and so 
on till the trough is filled with several tons 
of iron, all of which is perfectly excluded 
from the air. The troui^h beinff secured 
with others in the oven, a fire is started 
under them. In about six days the bars 
have absorbed enough carbon to acquire the 
properties of the softer kinds of steel, such 
as are used for saws and springs. In a day 
or two lonojer it answers for cuttinix instru- 
ments, and some time after this it gains in 
hardness, so as to be fitted for cold chisels, 
for drills such as miners use, etc. Its 
character is ascertained at any time by 
drawing out one of the bars. After the 
change is effected the fire is extinguished, 
and about a week is allowed for the furnace 
and its contents to cool. When at last the 
bars are obtained, their surface is found to be 
covered with blisters, whence the steel is 
called blistered steel. The fibrous texture 
of the iron has given place to a granular 
structure, but is so irregular and uneven that 
the metal requires further treatment to per- 
fect it. To make the English shear-steel, so 
called from its being originally employed for 
shears used in sheep-shearing, the bars are 
cut into lengths of a foot and a half, and 
a number of these are bound together to 
make a faggot. This is brought to a weld- 
ing heat, and drawn down first under a forge- 
hammer, and then under the tilt-hammer. 
This weighs from 150 to 200 pounds, and 
strikes from 150 to 360 strokes a minute. 
The rapidity of the work keeps the steel at 
a glowing heat, and it is soon fashioned into 
a dense bar of smooth surface, susceptible 
of a polish, and suited for the manufacture 
of cutting instruments. Sometimes it is cut 
into pieces to be refaggoted, and drawn down 
again into bars, which are then called double- 
shear. 

Cast steel is a still more dense and perfect 
variety. It is prepared by melting, in large 
crucibles, blistered steel broken into small 
pieces, and pouring the metal into moulds. 
These are then worked into shapes by the 
forge hammer and the rolls. 



The American methods of making steel 
were discovered by Prof. A. K. Eaton, of 
New York, and the one now employed by the 
Damascus Steel Company was practically 
demonstrated by him in Rochester and its vi- 
cinity in 1851 and 1852. This consists in car- 
bonizinjT and meltinc; malleable iron in cruci- 
bles at one operation, by introducing into the 
pot with the pieces of iron a carbonaceous salt, 
such as the ferro-cyanide of potassium, either 
alone or in combination with charcoal powder. 
At an intense heat this salt rapidly carbon- 
izes the iron, which thus first becomes steel, 
then fuses, and is poured into moulds. The 
quantity of the salt employed is proportional 
to the quantity of the iron and the quality 
of the steel required. The operation is suc- 
cessfully carried on in different establish- 
ments in New Jersey, New York, and Penn- 
sylvania, and cast steel of the very best 
quality is produced at less expense than the 
article has ever before cost in this country. 
For bar steel, according to the prospectus of 
the company, the best charcoal-made iron is 
employed, costing $85 per ton, and this, to- 
gether with the coal used for fuel, the chem- 
ical materials, the melting, crucibles, and 
hammering, make the whole cost about $142 
per ton, while that of the imported article is 
$300 or more. The great difficulty in the 
process is to obtain suitable crucibles for 
withstanding the intense heat required to 
melt the charge of 60 lbs. of malleable iron. 
Those in use are blue-pots, costing $1.60 
each. Though made of the best of plum- 
bago, they stand only two or three meltings. 

The other process, which is just now in- 
troduced into practice, is based upon the prop- 
erty of carbonate of soda to remove from cast 
iron the carbon it contains, when the metal is 
kept for a few hours in a bath of the melted 
alkali. The decarbonizing eftect is in part due 
to the action of the oxygen of the alkaline 
base, which is given up to the carbon of highly 
heated cast iron, but principally to the decom- 
position of the combined carbonic acid, which 
gives to the carbon one of its atoms of oxygen, 
and is resolved into carbonic oxide. Tli is prop- 
erty of soda was discovered by Prof Eaton in 
1856, but the fact that the carbonated or bi- 
carbonated alkalies act principally by virtue 
of their carbonic acid, was only recently rec- 
ognized and made practically available by 
him. The action of soda or its carbonates is 
not limited to the removal of the excess of 
carbon in cast iron. It combines with and 
removes those impurities which would prove 



IRON. 



45 



fatal to the quality of the steel if remaining 
in it, as sulphur, phosphorus, and silicon ; 
and the method thus admits of the use of 
crude irons, such as could never be aj)plied 
to this manufacture by any other mode. 
The cast iron, in the form of thin plates, hav- 
ing been kept at a bright red heat in the 
bath of melted carbonate for a sufficient time, 
which is determined by occasionally taking- 
out and testing some of the pieces, is trans- 
ferred to the crucible, and is then melted 
and poured into moulds, as in the ordinary 
method of making cast steel. The crucibles, 
not being subjected to greater heat than is 
required for melting cast steel, endure much 
longer than when employed for melting 
wrought iron in the carbonizing process ; 
thus a great saving is ett'ected in the expense 
of the conversion ; and this economy is still 
further increased by the use of a crude ma- 
terial, costing only from |20 to $30 per ton, 
in place of the superior qualities of Avrought 
iron, worth $85 per ton. So great, indeed, 
is the saving, that the cost of the cast steel, 
when obtained in ingots, is found not to ex- 



ceed the cost of the malleable iron employed 
in the other process. 

Statistics. — The records of the produc- 
tion of iron of the United States are very in- 
complete up to the year 1854. Even the cen- 
sus returns are highly defective, as they often 
make no distinction between iron made 
from the ore and the products of the second- 
ary operations of remelting and puddling. 
The first systematic attempts to obtain com- 
plete accounts of the business, as conducted 
in Pennsylvania, were made in 1850 by the 
Association of Iron Manufacturers, organized 
in Philadelphia. Mr. Charles E. Smith col- 
lected the returns, and published them in a 
small volume, together with other papers re- 
lating to the manufacture. In 1856 the as- 
sociation, through their secretary, Mr. J. P. 
Lesley, and their treasurer, Mr. C. E. Smith, 
obtained full returns from 832 blast furnaces, 
488 forges, and 225 rolling mills in the Unit' 
ed States, besides others in Canada, exhibit- 
ing their operations for the preceding three 
years. Some of these results are presented 
in the following tables : — 



NO 1.— TABLE OF IRON WORKS IN 

charcoal 



OPERATION AND ABANDONED IN 1858. 



Anthracite 
Furnaces. 

Maine. 

New Hampshire 

Vermont 

Massachusetts 3 

Rhode Island 

Connecticut 1 

New York 14 

New Jersey 4 

Pennsylvania 93 

Delaware 

Maryland 6 

Virginia 

North Carolina 

South Carolina 

Georgia 

Alabama 

Tennessee 

Kentucky 

Ohio 

Indiana 

Illinois. 

Michigan 

Wisconsin 

Missouri 

Arkansas 



i ,, ," Abaudoned Bloomary Abandoned Refinery Abandoned Rollins; . ^ j a 
and Coke !;',,,.„„„„„ f«,.„.o= RL>^n,,.i-iP9 Fnv<rfi« T?^finA..ip= Ml 11= Abandoned. 



Furnaces. 
1 
1 
5 

7 

14 

29 

6 

150 

24 
39 

3 

4 

1 

3 
41 
30 
54 

2 

2 

1 

3 

7 



Furnaces. For 



ges. Bloom 



ivrles. Forges. Refineries. 



6 

12 

102 

1 

7 

56 

3 

4 

1 

1 

33 

17 

26 

3 



42 

48 

1 



36 

2 

4 

14 

50 



1 

29 

3 



6 

3 

2 

110 



43 



44 



Mills. 
1 

1 
19 

2 

5 
11 
10 
91 

4 
13 
12 

1 

3 

2 



15 
1 
1 
2 



Total 



„ 121 439 272 206 35 186 64 210 

In working order, 560 Furnaces, 389 Forges, 210 Rolling Mills. Total, 1,159 



15 



Abandoned, 
In all. 



272 



832 



99 



15 



225 



386 



1,545 



The production of the blast furnaces in the 
diflferent iron districts for the years 1854, 
1855, and 1856, is exhibited in Table No. 



2 ; their arrangement being according to the 
fuel employed and the quantities of iron 
produced in each district in 1856 : — 



46 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



TABLE 'SO. 2 

Fuel. District, 

Anthracite Pennsylvania 

Charcoal and Coke 



-PRODUCTION OF 

1854. 



PIG IRON. 



208,603 

Out of Pennsylvania 99.007 

. ..S. Ohio 56,081 ) 

- P:. Kentucky 2'2.929 ) 

" " " W. Pennsylvania 78.9^7 1 

" " " .N Ohio 11,289} 

" " " E. Pennsylvania 62,724 

Charcoal W.Tennessee 37,9181 

W. Kentucky 12,236 I ,„ n^ 

" S.In.liana.. •. l^lO P^'*'^ 

* 8. Illinois l,500j 

Charcoal and Coke 8. W. Pennsylvania Il,0,i2 

" " '• N.W.Virginia 1,930 

" " " Maryland 

Charcoal E. of the Hudson 

" N. and W. New York 

" Missouri 

" S. New York and N. New Jersey 

" E. and Middle Virginia 

" North and South Carolina 1,820 

" Georgia 2,891 ^ 6,056 

" E. Tennessee and Alabama 1,845 

" Michigan 990 

" Wisconsin 



79,010 
90,216 



12,982 

3r.,658 
30,420 
19.19T 

7,591 
13,435 

5,880 



) 1,630 ) 

)- 6,056 2,T15V 

j 1,516 S 



Total production of pig iron in the United States Tons . 725,823 



1855. 

.... 255,326 

. . . 87,779 

47.982 ) ... ,„„ 

16,18(1 \ '^''^^ 

59,388) gg 3,, 

9,926 ( •'^''^'^ 

.... 60,596 

33,683 ■] 

i;,5oo r ^^'^^^ 

1,500 j 

ISg- [ 20.559 

.... 36,-309 
.... 32,826 
.... 19,736 
.... 10,181 
7,901 
6,926 



6,061 
950 

728,973 



1856. 



116 
76,653 



.... 306,972 

.... 87,587 

T0.4;,5 I Q., 

21,e61 f ^-' 

59,597 

17,056 

.... 52,775 

32,16-2') 

14,902 I „„ .„. 

1,800 r ^"'^^ 

1,800 J 

2y^n 80,867 

.'..'. 80.998 

. . 29.987 

.... 18,847 

.... 10,138 

5.6(-3 

5,730 

7,694 

6,178 



,956 ) 
!,S07 y 
1,931 j 



1,956 
2, 

2, 

3,H7S (^ 
2,500 ) 



812,789 



TABLE NO. 3.— DISTRIBUTION OF THE FUR- 
NACliS BY STATES. 

I. ANTHR.\CI1E rUllNACES. 

No. States. r-"-*" 

3 Massachusetts 4,443 

1 Connecticut 

14 New York 47,257 

4 New Jersey -26,117 

93 Pennsylvania 306,972 

_6 Maryland ■ 10,720 

121 394,509 

II. COKE FURNACES. 

21 Pennsylvania 39,953 

_3 Maryland 4,528 

H 44,481 

III. BAW BITUMINOUS COAL FUBNACES. 

6 Pennsj-lvania 8,417 

13 Ohio 16,656 

T9 25,073 

IV. CHARCOAL FUBNACES. 

1 Maine 2,100 

1 New Hampshire 

5 Vermont 2,420 

7 Mas.sachusetts 8,564 

14 Connecticut 12,876 

29 New York 21,774 

6 New Jersey 2,100 

143 Pennsylvania 96,154 

21 Maryland 26,470 

39 Virginia 14,828 

3 North Carohna 450 

4 South Carohna 1,506 

7 Georgia 2,807 

3 Alabama 1,495 

41 Tennessee 28,476 

30 Kentucky 36,563 

41 Ohio 70,355 

2 Indiana 1,800 

2 Illinois 1,900 

7 Missouri 10,138 

3 Wisconsin 2,500 

7 Michigan 3, 678 

416 



348,954 



No. of Furnaces. Tons. 

Anthracite, as above 121 394,509 

Coke, " 24 44,481 

Raw Coal, " 19 25,073 

Charcoal, " 41^ 348,954 

Total pig. 

Table No. 

DIRECT FROM THE ORE, 1856. 

Bloomaries. States. Product. 

Tons. 



.580 813,017 

4.— PRODUCT OF WROUGHT IRON 



5 
42 
48 
36 

2 

4 
14 
50 

3 

204 



Vermont 1,650 

New York 18,710 

New Jersey 4,487 

North Carolina 1,182 

South Carolina 640 

Georgia 40 

Alabama 252 

Tennessee 1,222 

Michigan 450 



28,633 



Pig iron as above 812,917 



Grand total production of iron from 

the ore in 1856 841,550 

In addition to this amount, the importa- 
tions for the year 1856 of iron designed for 
manufacture are estimated at 303,998 tons, 
consisting of Scotch pig, 55,403 tons ; rolled 
and hammered iron, 'iUhyi'TStons; and scraps, 
10,320 tons; and if to this be added for old 
rails reworked, 100,000 tons, and for scrap, 
25,000 tons, the total amount of iron enter- 
ing into domestic consumption was 1,3.30,548 
tons. The importation of railroad iron not 
included in the above was 167,-100 tons. 
The proportion of foreign iron introduced 
into the general consumption, not including 
rails, was about 30 per cent. 

The value of the immediate products of 
the manufacture of domestic iron is thus 
given at the prices current in 1856 : — 



IRON. 



A1 



Fouadry pig 302,154 tons a $27, $8,158,168 

Foundry cold-blast ) 

charcoal iron for [• 35,000 " a 35, 1,225,000 

car wheels, &c. . . . ) 

Rails 142,555 " a 63, 8,980,965 

Boiler and sheet.... 38,639 " a 120, 4,636,680 

Nails 81,462 " a 84, 6,842,808 

^band'^'^°"^'^'"^[ 235,425 " « 65, 15,302,625 

Hammered iron 21,000 " a 125, 2,625,000 

Total $47,771,236 

Mr. Smith presents tlie following conclu- 
sion to the " Statistical Report of the Iron 
Manufacture : " " The great facts demon- 
strated are, that we have nearly 1,200 effi- 
cient works in the Union ; that these pro- 
duce annually about 850,000 tons of iron, 
the value of which in an ordinary year is 
850,000,000 ; of this amount the portion 
expended for labor alone is about $35,000,- 
000." 

The following table gives the different 
kinds of pig metal and the total amount pro- 
duced in each year since 1856 : 





Toa5 


Tons raw 


Tons 






Anthracite 


Bituminous 


Charcoal 




TKAR. 


Pig Iroa. 


Coal aud Coke 
Pig Iron. 


Pig Iron. 


Total. 


1857, 


390,385 


77,451 


330,321 


798,157 


1858, 


361.430 


58,351 


285,313 


705,095 


1859, 


471,745 


84,841 


284,041 


840,627 


1860, 


51!), 211 


122,2M 


278,331 


919,770 


1861, 


409,229 


127,037 


195,278 


731,544 


1862, 


470,315 


130,687 


186,660 


787,662 


1863, 


577,638 


157,961 


212,005 


947,604 


1864, 


684,018 


209.626 


241,853 


1,135,497 


l>-65, 


479,.i88 


189,682 


262,342 


831,282 


l^S, 


749,367 


286,996 


332.280 


1,350,943 


1867, 


798.638 


318,647 


344,3tl 


1,461,626 


1868, 


893,000 


' 340.000 


370.000 


1,603,000 


1839, 


971.150 


553,341 


3»2.1.)0 


1,916.641 


1870, 


940.500 


550,000 


360.000 


1,850.000 


1871, 


875,999 


650,000 


375,000 


1,900,000 



The manufacture of iron rails has existed 
for nearly twenty-five years in the United 
States, but has only assumed any great mag- 
nitude since 1854. The annual production 
of American rails .since 1861 has been : 1861, 
189,818 tons; 1862, 21B.912; 1863, 275,- 
768; 1864,835,389; 1865, 356,292 ; 1866, 
430,778; 1867, 462,108; 1868, 506,714; 
1869, 593,586 ; 1870, 620,000 ; 1871, 722,- 
000 tons. In the last named year, 572,386 
tons were imported from Great Britain. 

The census of 1860 gives the following 
statistics of the iron pi'oduction and manu- 
facture of that year. There had been very 
little progress in the production of iron in 
the country for several years previous, in 
consequence of the very low rate of duty at 
which foreign railroad and other iron was 
admitted. 

Iron blooms, valued at $2,623,178 

Pig iron 20,870,120 

Bar, sheet and railroad iron.. 31,888,705 



Iron wire 1,643,857 

Iron forgings 1,907,460 

Car wheels 2,083,350 

Iron castings of all kinds 36,132,033 

$97,148,705 



The opening of the war, in 1861, gave an 
extraordinary impetus to iron production 
and manufacture. The tariff and other 
causes reduced the importation to a mini- 
mum, while the demand for iron for the 
fabrication of small arms and cannon ; for 
the construction of the large fleet of iron- 
clads, and for the other war vessels ; for the 
building of locomotives, the casting of car 
wheels and furnishing the vast quantity of 
railroad iron needed to repair the old tracks 
destroyed by the contending armies, and to 
lay the tracks of new roads, extended the 
business vastly beyond all former precedent ; 
and the requirement that the Pacific railroad 
and its branches shall be constructed solely 
of American ii'on, as well as the increase in 
its use for buildings, and for shipping, have 
maintained it in a prosperous condition. 

The manufacture of steel and the other 
manufactures of iron, aside from those al- 
ready enumerated, brought the aggregate 
production and manufacture of iron and 
steel, in 1860, up to 1285,879,510. The 
revenue tax paid on iron and steel manufac- 
tures in 1864 indicates that the product of 
the branches taxed amounted to about 
$123,000,000. This estimate was far below 
the pi'oduction, as many branches were not 
taxed, and the returns of that year were im- 
perfect. The production and manufacture of 
1865 were not less than 400 millionsof dollars. 
There is every reason to expect that the de- 
velopment of the iron mines will be pushed 
forward with constantly increasing energy, 
and that the time is not far distant when 
many of the great repositories of ores we 
have described — now almost untouched — 
will be the seats of an active industry and 
centres of a thriving population, supported 
by the home markets they will create. The 
great valley of the west, when filled with 
the population it is capable of supporting, 
and intersected in every direction with the 
vast system of railroads, of which the present 
lines form but the mere outlines, will itself 
require more iron than the world now pro- 
duces, and the transportation of large por- 
tions of this from the great iron regions of 
northern Michigan and Wisconsin, and of 



48 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



coal back to the mines, will sustain larger 
linesof transportation than have ever yet been 
employed in conveying to their markets the 
most important products of the country. 
The importation of foreign iron — already 
falling otf in proportion to the increased con- 
sumption — must, before many years, cease, 
end be succeeded by exports for the supplies 
of other nations less bountifully provided for 
in this respect than the United States and 
Great Britain. 



CHAPTER 11. 

COPPER. 

The early attempts to work copper mines 
in the United States have already been f\,l- 
luded to in the introductory remarks to the 
department of this work relating to mining 
industry. The ores of this metal are widely 
distributed throughout the country, and in 
almost every one of the states have been 
found in quantities that encouraged their ex- 
ploration — in the great majority of cases to 
the loss of those interested. The metal is 
met with in all the New England states, but 
only those localities need be named which 
have at times been looked upon as important. 

Copper occurs in a native or metallic state, 
and also in a variety of ores, or combi- 
nations of the metal with other substances. 
In these forms the metallic appearance is 
lost, and the metal is obtained by different 
metallurgical operations, an account of some 
of which will be presented in the course of 
this chapter. Until the discovery of the 
Lake Superior mines, native copper, from its 
scarcity, was regarded rather as a curiosity 
than as an important source of supply. The 
workable ores were- chiefly pyritous copper, 
vitreous copper, variegated copper, the red 
oxide, the green carbonate or malachite, and 
chrysocoUa. The first named, though con- 
taining the least proportion of copper, has 
furnished more of the metal than all the 
other ores together, and is tlie chief depen- 
dence of most of the mines. It is a double 
sulphuret of copper and iron, of bright yel- 
low color, and consists, when pure, of about 
34 per cent, of copper, 35 of sulphur, and 
30 of iron. But the ore is always inter- 
mixed with quartz or other earthy minerals, 
by which its richness is greatly reduced. As 
broue;ht out from the mine it may not con- 
tain more than 1 per cent, of copper, and 
when freed as far as practicable from foreign 



substances by the mechanical processes of 
assorting, crushing, washing, jigging, etc., 
and brought up to a percentage of 6 or Y of 
copper, it is in Cornwall a merchantable ore, 
and the mine producing in large quantity tlie 
poor material from which it is obtained may 
be a profitable one. Vitreous copper, known 
also as copper glance, and sulphuret of cop- 
per, is a lead gray ore, very soft, and con- 
tains 79.8 per cent, of copper, nnitcd with 
20.2 per cent, of sulphur. It is not often 
found in large quantity. Variegated or pur- 
ple copper is distinguished by its various 
shades of color and brittle texture. It yields, 
when pure, from 56 to 63 per cent, of copper, 
21 to 28 of sulphur, and 7 to 14 of iron. 
The red oxide is a beautiful ore of ruby red 
color, and consists of 88.8 per cent, of cop- 
per and 11.2 per cent, of oxygen. It is 
rarely found in sufficient quantity to add 
nmch to the products of the mines. Green 
malachite is a highly ornamental stone, of 
richly variegated shades of green, famous as 
the matei'ial of costly vases, tables, etc., man- 
ufactured in Siberia for the Russian govern- 
ment. It is always met with in copper 
mines, especially near the surface, but rarely 
in large or handsome masses. It consists 
of copper 57.5, oxygen 14.4, carbonic acid 
19.9, and water 8.2 per cent. ChrysocoUa 
is a combination of oxide of copper and 
silica, of greenish shades, and is met with as 
an incrustation upon other copper ores. It 
often closely resembles the malachite in ap- 
pearance. It contains about 36 per cent, of 
copper. 

The first mines worked in the United 
States were peculiar for the rich character 
of their ores. These Avere, in great part, 
vitreous and variegated copper, with some 
malachite, and were found in beds, strings, 
and bunches in the red sandstone formation, 
especially along its line of contact with the 
gneiss and granitic rocks in Connecticut, and 
with the trap rocks in New Jersey. The 
mine at Simsbury, in Connecticut, furnished 
a considei'able amount of such ores from the 
year 1709 till it was purchased, about the 
middle of the last century, by the state, 
from which time it was occupied for sixty 
years as a prison, and worked by the con- 
victs ; not, however, to much profit. In 
1830 it came into possession of a company, 
but was only woi'ked for a short time after- 
ward. On the same geological range, but 
lying chiefly in the gneiss rocks, the most 
productive of these mines Avas opened in 



49 



1836, in Bristol, Conn. It was vigorously 
worked from 1847 to 1857, and produced 
larger amounts of rich vitreous andpyritous 
ores than have been obtained from any other 
mine in the United States. No expense was 
spared in prosecuting the mining, and in 
furnishing efficient machinery for dressing the 
ores. Although 1800 tons of ore, producing 
over S2U0,000, were sent to market, the ore 
yielding from 18 to 50 per cent, of copper, 
the mine proved a losing affair, and was 
finally abandoned in 1857. 

The New Jersey mines have all failed, 
from insufficient supply of the ores. The 
Schuyler mine, at Belleville, produced rich 
vitreous copper and chrysocolla, disseminated 
through a stratum of light brown sandstone, 
of 20 to 30 feet in thickness, and dipping at 
an angle of 12°. During the periods of its 
being worked in the last century, the exca- 
vations reached the depth of 200 feet, and 
were carried to great distances on the course 
of the metalliferous stratum. The mine was 
then so highly valued that an offer of £500,- 
000, made for it by an English company, was 
refused by the proprietor, Mr. Schuyler. In 
1857-58 attempts were made by a New 
York company to work the mine again, but 
the enterprise soon failed. Among the other 
mines which have been worked to consid- 
erable extent in New Jersey are the Flem- 
ington mine, which resembled in the char- 
acter of its ore the Schuyler mine, and the 
Bridgewater mine, near Somerville, at which 
native copper in some quantity was found in 
the last century; two pieces met within 1754 
weighing together, it was reported, 1,900 lbs. 
A mine near New Brunswick also furnished 
many lumps of native copper, and thin sheets 
of the metal were found included in the sand- 
stone. At different times this mine has been 
thoroughly explored, to the loss of those en- 
gaged in the enterprise. In Somerset county, 
the Franklin mine, near Griggstown, has been 
worked to the depth of 100 feet. Carbonate 
and red oxide of copper were found in the 
shales near the trap, but not in quantity suf- 
ficient to pay expenses. In Pennsylvania, 
near the Schuylkill river, in Montgomery and 
Chester counties, many mines have been 
worked for copper and lead at the junction 
of the red sandstone and gneiss. Those 
veins included wholly in the shales of the 
red sandstone group were found to produce 
copper chiefly, while those in the gneiss were 
productive in lead ores. At the Perkiomen 
and Ecton mines — both upon the same lode 



— extensive mining operations have been 
carried on ; a shaft upon the latter having 
reached in 1853 the depth of 396 feet. The 
sales of copper ores during the three years 
the mines were actively worked amounted 
to over $40,500 ; but the product was not 
sufficient to meet the expenditures. 

The mines in Frederick county, Maryland, 
in the neighborhood of Liberty, were near 
the red sandstone formation, though included 
in argillaceous and talcose slates. A num- 
ber of them have been worked at different 
times up to the year 1853, when they were 
finally given up as unprofitable. 

A more newly discovered and richer cop- 
per district in Maryland is near Sykesville, 
on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, 32 miles 
from Baltimore, in a region of micaceous, 
talcose, and chloritic slates. A large bed of 
specular iron ore lying between the slates 
was found to contain, at some depth below 
the surface, carbonates and silicates of cop- 
per, and still further down copper pyrites. 
In the twelve months preceding April 1, 
1857, 300 tons had been mined and sent to 
market, the value of which was $17,896.92, 
and the mine was reported as improvino-. 
The ore sent to the smelting works at Balti- 
more, in December of that year, yielded 
16.03 per cent, of copper. Within seven 
miles of Baltimore the Bare Hill mine has 
produced considerable copper, associated 
with the chromic iron of that region. 

Like the last two named, all the other lo- 
calities of copper ores of any importance 
along the Appalachian chain and east of it 
are remote from the range of the red sand- 
stone, and belong to older rock formations. 
In the granites of New Hampshire, pyritous 
copper has been found in many places, but has 
nowhere been mined to any extent. In Ver- 
mont, mining operations were carried on for 
several years upon a large lode of pyritous 
copper, which was traced several miles 
through Vershire and Corinth. At Straf- 
ford, pyritous ores were worked in 1829 and 
afterward, both for copperas and copper. lu 
New York, excellent pyritous ores were pro- 
duced at the Ulster lead mine in 1853. 
Among other sales of similar qualities of ore, 
one lot of 50 tons produced 24.3 per cent, of 
copper. 

In Virginia, rich ores of red oxide of cop- 
per, associated with native copper and pyri- 
tous copper, are found in the metamorphic 
slates at Manasses Gap, and also in many 
other places further south along the Blue 



50 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Ridge. The very promising appearance of 
tlie ores, and their numerous localities, would 
encourage one to believe that this will prove 
to be a copper region, were it not tliat, when 
explored, the ores do not seem to lie in any 
regular form of vein. In the southern part 
of the state, in Carroll, Floyd, and Grayson 
counties, copper was discovered in 1852, and 
mines were soon after opened in a district 
of metamorphic slates, near their junction 
with the lower silurian limestones. The 
copper was met with in the form of pyritous 
ore, red oxide, and black copper, beneath 
large outcropping masses of hematite iron 
ore, or gossan. Some of the shipments are 
said to have yielded over 20 per cent, of 
copper. The amount of ores sent east, over 
the Virginia and Tennessee railroad, in 1855, 
was l,9'31,403lbs. ; in 1856, 1,972,834 lbs.; 
and in the nine months ending June 30, 
1857, 1,085,997 lbs.; 1858, 688,418 lbs.; 
1859, 1,151,132 lbs.; and 1860, 2,679,673 
lbs. Copper ores are very generally met with 
in the gold mines of this state, and further 
south, but the only one of them that has been 
worked expressly for copper is that of the 
North Carolina Copper Companj'^, in Guilford 
county. From this a considerable amount 
of pyritous copper ores were sent to the 
north in 1852 and 1853. 

In Tennessee, an important copper region 
lies along the southern line of Polk county, 
and extends into Gilmer county, Georgia. 
The ore was first found in 1847, associated 
with masses of hematite iron ores, which 
formed great outcropping ledges, traceable 
for miles from south-west to north-cast along 
the range of the micaceous and talcose slates. 
An examination of the ores, made to ascer- 
tain the cause of their working badly in the 
furnace, was the means of corroborating or 
giving importance to the discovery of the 
copper. In 1851 copper mining was com- 
menced, and afterward prosecuted with great 
activity by a number of companies. The 
ore was found in seven or eight parallel lodes 
of the ferruginous matters, all within a belt 
of a mile in width. At the surface there 
was no appearance of it, but as the explora- 
tions reached the depth of seventy-five or 
one hundred feet below the surface of the 
hills, it was met with in various forms, re- 
sulting from the decomposition of pyritous 
copper, and much mixed with the ochreous 
matters derived from a similar source. In a 
soft black mass, easily worked by the pick, 
and of extraordinary dimensions, were found 



intermixed different oxides and other ores 
of copper, yielding various proportions of 
metal, and much of it producing 20 per cent, 
and more, fit to be barrelled up at once for 
transportation. This ore spread out in a 
sheet, varying in width at the difterent 
mines ; at the Eureka mine it was 50 feet 
wide, and at the Hiwassee 45 feet, while at 
the Isabella mine the excavations have been 
extended between two walls 250 feet apart. 
In depth this ore is limited to a few feet only, 
except as it forms bunches running up into 
the gossan or ochreous ores. Below the 
black ore is the undecomposed lode, consist- 
ing of quartz, more or less charged with 
pyritous copper, red oxide, green carbonate, 
and gray sulphuret of copper ; and it is upon 
these the permanent success of the mines 
must depend. About 14 mining companies 
have been engaged in this district, and the 
production of the most successful of them 
was as follows, up to the year 1858: Isa- 
bella, 2,500 tons; Calloway, 200; Mary's, 
1,500 ; Polk county, 2,100 ; Tennessee, 
2,200 ; Hiwassee, 2,500 ; Hancock, 2,000 — 
making a total of 1 3,000 tons, yielding from 
15 to 40 per cent, of copper, and worth $100 
per ton, or $1,300,000. In addition to this, 
the products of the London mine, yielding 
an average of 45 per cent, of copper, amount- 
ed to over $200,000 in value ; and the prod- 
ucts of the Eureka mine were rated for 
1855 at $86,000; for 1856 at $123,000; 
and for 1857 at $136,000. The value of the 
ores remaining at the mines too poor to 
transport, but valuable to smelt in furnaces 
on the spot, was estimated at $200,000 more. 
Furnaces for smelting, on the German plan, 
were in operation in 1857, and produced 
the next year 850 tons of matt, or regulus. 
At the Eureka mine, in 1858, there were 4 
reverberatory furnaces, 2 blast, and 2 cal- 
cining furnaces. The fuel employed is wood 
and charcoal. By the introduction of smelt- 
ing operations, ores of 5 to 6 per cent, are 
now advantageously reduced. 

In 1857 the mines of a large portion of 
this district were incorporated into the so- 
called Union Consolidated Mining Company, 
and most of the other mines were taken up 
by the Burra Burra Company and the Polk 
County Company. The principal interests 
in the last two are held in New Orleans. 
The first named own 11 mines, of which 
they are working three only, with a monthly 
production of 750 to 800 tons of 12 per cent, 
copper, besides 5 or 6 tons of precipitate 



COPPER. 



51 



copper. This is metallic copper, precipitated 
from the waters of the mine by means of 
scrap iron thrown into tbe vats in which 
these waters are collected. The iron being 
taken up by the acids which hold the cop- 
per in solution, the latter is set free, and de- 
posited in fine metallic powder. The ore is 
smelted in furnaces constructed on the Ger- 
man plan, and being put through twice, pro- 
duce a regulus of 55 per cent. As soon as 
the proper furnaces and refineries can be 
constructed, it is intended to make ingot 
copper, and by working more of the mines 
belonging to the company it is expected the 
monthly production will soon be raised to 
2,000 tons of 10 to 12 per cent. ore. 

The two other companies have erected ex- 
tensive smelting works ; and the mines of 
the Burra Burra are producing 450 to 500 
tons per month of 14 per cent, ore, and 
those of the Polk County Company about 
300 tons of 15 per cent. ore. Both com- 
panies will soon be able to make ingot cop- 
per. The report of the Union Consolidated 
Company for the first year of their opera- 
tions presents, against expenditures amount- 
ing to $307,182.'77, receipts of $457,803.73, 
leaving a profit of 1150,620.96. A large 
portion of the regulus is shipped to England 
for sale. 

The profits of these mines were greatly 
reduced the first few years of their operation 
by the necessity of transporting the ores 40 
miles to a railroad, and thence more than 
1,000 miles by land and water to the north- 
ern smelting works. The establishment of 
furnaces at the mines not only reduces this 
source of loss, but renders the great body 
of poorer ores available, which they were not 
before. A railroad is now in process of con- 
struction to connect the mines with the 
Georgia railroads. 

West of the Alleghanies, the only copper 
mines, besides those of Lake Superior, are 
in the lead region of Wisconsin, Iowa, and 
Missouri. A considerable number of them 
have been worked to limited extent, and 
small blast furnaces have been in operation 
smelting the ores. These were found only 
near the surface, in the crevices that con- 
tained the lead ores ; and in Missouri, in 
horizontal beds in the limestone, along the 
line of contact of the granite. The ores 
were mixed pyritous copper and carbonate, 
always in very limited quantity. The amount 
of copper produced has been unimportant, 
and it is not likely that any considerable in- 



crease in the supply of the metal will be de- 
rived from this source. 

The existence of native copper on th« 
shores of Lake Superior, is noticed in the 
reports of the Jesuit missionaries of 1659 
and 1666. Pieces of the metal 10 to 20 lbs. 
in weight were seen, which it is said the 
Indians reverenced as sacred ; similar reports 
were brought by Father Dablou in 1670, and 
by Charlevoix in 1744. An attempt was 
made in l77l by an Englishman, named 
Alexander Henry, to open a mine near the 
forks of the Ontonagon, on the bank of the 
river, where a large mass of the metal lay ex- 
posed. He had visited the region in 1763, 
and returned with a party prepared for more 
thoroughly exploring its resources. They, 
however, found no more copper besides the 
loose mass, which they were unable to re- 
move. They then went over to the north 
shore of the lake, but met with no better 
success there. General Cass and Mr. II. R. 
Schoolcraft visited the region in 1819, and 
reported on the great mass upon the Onton- 
agon. Major Long, also, in 1823, bore wit- 
ness to the occurrence of the metal along 
the shores of the lake. The country, till 
the ratification of the treaty with the Chip- 
pewa Indians in 1842, was scarcely ever 
visited except by hunters and fur-traders, 
and was only accessible by a tedious voyage 
in canoes from Mackinaw. The fur com- 
panies discouraged, and could exclude from 
the territory, all explorers not going there 
under their auspices. Dr. Douglass Hough- 
ton, the state geologist of Michigan, in the 
territory of which these Indian lands were 
included, made the first scientific examina- 
tion of the country in 1841, and his reports 
first drew public attention to its great re- 
sources in copper. His explorations were 
continued both under the state and general 
government until they were suddenly termi- 
nated with his life by the unfortunate swamp- 
ing of his boat in the lake, near Eagle river, 
October 13, 1845. 

In 1844 adventurers from the eastern states 
began to pour into the country, and mining 
operations were commenced at various places 
near the shore, on Keweenaw Point. The 
companies took possession under permits 
from the general land ofiicc, in anticipation 
of the regular surveys, when the tracts could 
be properly designated for sale. Nearly 
one thousand tracts, of one mile square each, 
were selected — the greater part of them at 
random-, and afterward explored and aban- 



52 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



doned. In 1846 a geological survey of the 
region was authorized by Congress, which 
was commenced under Dr. C. T. Jackson, 
and completed by Messrs. Foster and Whit- 
ney in 1850. At this time many mines were 
in full operation, and titles to them had been 
acquired at the government sales. 

The copper region, as indicated by Dr. 
Houghton, was found to be nearly limited to 
the range of trap hills, which are traced from 
the termination of Keweenaw Point toward 
the south-west in a belt of not more than two 
miles in width, gradually receding from the 
lake shore. The upper portion of the hills 
is of trap rock, lying in beds which dip to- 
ward the lake, and pass in this direction 
under others of sandstone, the outcrop of 
which is along the northern flanks of the 
hills. Isle Royale, near the north shore of 
the lake, is made up of similar formations, 
which dip toward the south. These rocks 
thus appear to form the basin in which the 
portion of Lake Superior lying between is 
held. The trap hills are traced from Kewee- 
naw Point in two or three parallel ridges of 
500 to 1,000 feet elevation, crossing Portage 
lake not far from the shore of Lake Superior, 
and the Ontonagon river about 1 3 miles from 
its mouth. They thence reach further back 
into the country beyond Agogebic lake, full 
120 miles from the north-eastern termina- 
tion. Another group of trap hills, known as 
the Porcupine mountains, comes out to the 
lake shore some 20 miles above the mouth 
of the Ontonagon, and this also contains 
veins of copper, which have been little de- 
veloped until the explorations commenced 
near Carp lake in these mountains in 1859. 
These have resulted in a shipment of over 20 
tons of rough copper in 1860, and give en- 
couragement to this proving a copper-pro- 
ducing district. The formations upon Isle 
Royale, which is within the boundary of the 
United States, although they are similar to 
those of the south shore, and contain copper 
veins upon Avliich explorations were vigor- 
ously prosecuted, have not proved of impor- 
tance, and no mines are now worked there. 
The productive mines are comprised in three 
disti'icts along the main range of the trap 
hills. The first is on Keweenaw Point, the 
second about Portage lake, and the third 
near the Ontonagon river. All the veins 
are remarkable for producing native copper 
alone, the only ores of the metal being 
chiefly of vitreous copper found in a range 
of hills on the south side of Keweenaw Point, 



and nowhere in quantities to justify the con- 
tinuation of mining operations that were 
commenced upon them. The veins on Ke- 
weenaw Point cross the ridges nearly at right 
angles, penetrating almost vertically through 
the trap and the sandstones. Their produc- 
tiveness is, for the most part, limited to cer- 
tain amygdaloidal belts of the trap, which 
alternate with other unproductive beds of 
gray compact trap, and the mining explora- 
tions follow the former down their slope of 
40'', more or less, toward the north. The 
thickness of the veins is very variable, and 
also their richness, even in the amygdaloid. 
The copper is found interspersed in pieces 
of all sizes through the quartz vein stones 
and among the calcareous spar, laumonite, 
prehnite, and other minerals associated with 
the quartz. These being extracted, piles are 
made of the poorer sorts, in which the metal 
is not sufficiently clear of stone for shipment, 
and these ai'c roasted by firing the wood in- 
termixed through the heaps. By this proc- 
ess the stone entangled among the copper 
is more readily broken and removed. The 
lumps that will go into barrels are called 
" barrel work," and are packed in this way 
for shipment. Larger ones, called " masses," 
some of which are huge, iri'egular-shaped 
blocks of clean copper, are cut into pieces 
that can be conveniently transported, as of 
one to three tons weight each. This is done 
by means of a long chisel with a bit three- 
fourths of an inch wide, which is held by one 
man and struck in turns by two others with 
a hammer weighing 7 or 8 lbs. A groove is 
thus cut across the narrowest part of the 
mass, turning out long chips of copper one- 
fourth of an inch thick, and with each suc- 
ceeding cut the groove is deepened to the 
same extent until it reaches through the mass. 
The process is slow and tedious, a single cut 
sometimes occupying the continual labor of 
three men for as many weeks, or even long- 
er. This work is done in great part be- 
fore the masses can be got out of the 
mine. The masses are found in working the 
vein, often occupying the whole space be- 
tween the walls of trap rock, standing up- 
on their edges, and shut in as solidly as if 
all were one material. To remove one of the 
very large masses is a work of many months. 
It is first laid bare along one side by extend- 
ing the level or drift of the mine through 
the trap rock. The excavation is carried 
high enough to expose its upper edge and 
down to its lower line ; but on account of ir- 



COPPER. 



53 



regular shape and projcctino; arms of copper, 
which often stretch forward, and up and down, 
connecting with other masses, it requires long 
and tedious mining operations to determine 
its dimensions. When it is supposed to 
be nearly freed along one side, very heavy 
charges of powder are introduced in the rock 
behind the mass, with the view of starting 
it from its bed. When cracks are produced 
by these, heavier chai'ges are introduced in 
the form of sand-blasts, and these are re- 
peated until the mass is thrown partly over on 
its side as well as the space excavated will 
admit. In speaking further of the Minesota 
mine, the enormous sizes of some of the 
masses, and the amount of powder consumed 
in loosening them, will be more particularly 
noticed. 

To separate the finer particles of copper 
from the stones in which they are contained, 
these, after being roasted, are crushed under 
heavy stamps to the condition of fine sand, 
and this is then washed after the usual 
method of washing fine ores, until the earthy 
matters are removed and the metallic par- 
ticles are left behind. This is shovelled into 
small casks for shipment, and is known as 
stamp coppei*. The stamping and crushing- 
machinery, such as have long been used at 
the mining establishments of other countries, 
were found to be entirely too slow for the 
requirements of these mines, and they have 
been replaced by new apparatus of Amer- 
ican contrivance, which is far more efficient 
than any thing of the kind ever before ap- 
plied to such operations. The stamps here- 
tofore in use have been of 100 lbs. to 300 lbs. 
weight, and at the California mines were first 
introduced of 800 lbs. to 1,000 lbs. weight. 
At Lake Superior they are in use on the plan 
of the steam hammer, weighing, with the rod 
or stamp-leg, 2,500 lbs. and making 90 to 
100 strokes in a minute. The capacity of 
each stamp is to crush over one ton of hard 
trap rock every hour. It falls upon a large 
mortar that rests upon springs of vulcanized 
rubber, and the force of its fall is increased 
by the pressure of steam applied above the 
piston to throw it more suddenly down. The 
stamp-head covers about one-fourth of the 
fjice of the mortar, and with every succeed- 
ing stroke it moves to the adjoining quarter, 
covering the whole face in four strokes. 

The only other metal found with the cop- 
per is silver, and this does not occur as an 
alloy, but the two are as if welded together, 
and neither, when assayed, gives more than 



a trace of the other. It is evident from this 
that they cannot have been in a fused state 
in contact. The quantity of silver is small ; 
the largest piece ever found weighing a little 
more than 8 lbs. troy. This was met with 
at the mines near the mouth of Eagle river, 
where a considerable number of loose pieces, 
together with loose masses of copper, were 
obtained in exploring deep under the bed of 
the stream an ancient deposit of rounded 
boulders of sandstone and trap. The veins 
of even the trap rocks themselves of this lo- 
cality exhibited so much silver that in the 
early operations of the mines a very high 
value was set upon them on this account. 
But at none of the Lake Superior mines has 
the silver collected paid the proprietors for 
the loss it has occasioned by distracting the 
attention of the miners, and leading them to 
seek for it with the purpose of appropriating 
it to their own use. Probably they have car- 
lied away much the greater part of this 
metal ; at least until the stamp mills were in 
operation. 

The principal mine of this district is the 
CliflT mine of the Pittsburg and Boston Com- 
pany, opened in 1 845, and steadily worked ever 
since. In 1858 the extent of the horizontal 
workings on the vein had amounted to 
12,368 feet, besides 831 feet in cross-cuts. 
Five shafts had been sunk, one of which was 
817 feet deep, 587 feet being below the adit 
level, and 230 feet being from this level to the 
summit of the ridge. The shaft of least 
depth was sunk 422 feet. 

The production of the mine from the year 
1853 is exhibited in the following table: — 

Price per lb. 

Mineral Eeflned Yield deducting Value 

Year, produced. copper, per cent, cost of realized, 

lbs. llis. smelting. 

1853, 2,2ti3,lS2 1.071,288 47.3.3 cts. 2T.32 $292,647 05 

1854, 2.332,614 l,3i5,3()8 56.33 •.4,38 320,TS;5 01 

1855, 2,905,837 1.874,197 62.56 25 33 47.5,911 26 

1856, 3,291.2.39 2.220,934 67 48 24.12 5.S5.84.3 67 

1857, 8,36.3..5.57 2.o63.HoO 70.28 20.44 497,870 47 

1858, 8,18.3,085 2,331.964 71.00 21.03 47,5,.321 89 

1859, 2,189,6.32 1,415,007 64.35 20.50 290,097 97 
1860 2,805,442 

22,.374,.58S ., .. .. .^ ' 

Product from .accu- I ., .oq p,j(.in=ive of sli<^s 
mulated slags. . . . f ' ' «^^"^*'^^ °' ^'^S^- 

The quantities of the different sorts for 
the year 1857 are as follows: — 

941 masses 1,958.181 lbs. 

869 bbls. of barrel work 618,731 " 

1,020 " ofst:impings 791,645" 

Total 3,363,557 " 

The Portage lake mining district is from 
twenty to twenty-five miles west from the 



54 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Clift' mine on the same range of hills. This 
region is of more recent deyelopment, the 
explorations having been attended with little 
success previous to 1854. The veins are 
here found productive in a gray variety of 
trap as well as the aniygdaloidal, and instead 
of lying across the ridges, follow the same 
course with them, and dip in general with 
the slope of the strata. Some of the larger 
veins consist in great part of epidote, and 
the copper in these is much less dense 
than in the quartz veins, forming tangled 
masses which are rarely of any considerable 
size. On the eastern side of this lake are 
worked, among other mines, the Quincy, 
Pewabic, and Franklin, and on the opposite 
side the Isle Royale, Portage, and Columbian 
mines. The most successful of these has 
been the Pewabic. Operations were com- 
menced here in 1855 upon an unimproved 
tract, requiring the construction of roads and 
buildings, clearing of laud, etc. etc., all in- 
volving for several years a continued heavy 
outlay. The immediate and rapid produc- 
tion of the mine required the construction of 
costly mills, without which a large propor- 
tion of the copper would be unavailable for 
the market. The first three years the as- 
sessments were $50,000, and the shipments 
of barrel and mass copper were in 1856 
97_8_s^s. tons; in 1857, SOO^^fj.. tons; in 

1858, 402 tons; in 1859, SIS^^W tons. The 
proceeds from the sales up to this time paid 
off all the expenditures, and left besides a 
considerable surplus. The Franklin Com- 
pany, working the same lode upon the ad- 
joining location, commenced operations in 
July, 1857, and that year shipped 20 tons 
of copper, the next year 110 tons, and in 

1859, 218 tons; the total amount in capital 
furnished by assessments was $10,000. These 
two mines have been the most rapidly de- 
veloped of any of the Lake Superior mines. 

The Ontonagon river crosses the trap hills 
about forty miles south-west from Portage 
lake, and the mines worked in the Onton- 
agon district are scattered along the hills 
north-east from the river for a distance of 
nearly twenty miles. The outlet for the 
greater number of them is by a road through 
the woods to the village at the mouth of the 
river. The veins of this district also lie 
along the course of the ridges, and dip with 
the trap rocks toward the lake. As they 
are worked, however, they are found occa- 
sionally to cut across the strata, and neighbor- 
ing veins to run into each other. In some 



places copper occurs in masses scattered 
through the trap rock with no sign of a 
vein, not even a seam or crevice connecting 
one mass with another. They appear, how- 
ever, to be ranged on the general course of 
the strata. At the Adventure mine they 
were so abundant, that it has been found 
profitable to collect them, and the cliffs of 
the trap rock present a curious appearance, 
studded over with numerous dark cavities in 
apparently inaccessible places leading into 
the solid face of the mountain. 

The great mine of this district for fifteen 
years was the Minnesota, two miles east from 
the Ontonagon river. The exploi'ers in this 
region in tlie winter of 1847—48, found par- 
allel lines of trenches, extending along the 
trap hills, evidently made by man at some 
distant period. They were so well mark- 
ed, as to be noticed even under a cover of 
three feet depth of snow. On examination 
they proved to be on the course of veins , 
of copper, and the excavations were found 
to extend down into the solid rock, por- 
tions of which were sometimes left standing 
over the workings. \\ hen these pits were 
afterward explored, there were found in 
them large quantities of rude hammers, made 
of the hardest kind of greenstone, from the 
trap rocks of the neighborhood. These 
were of all sizes, ranging from four to forty 
pounds Aveight, and of the same general 
shape — one end being rounded off for the 
end of the hammer, and the other shaped 
like a wedge. Around the middle was a 
groove — the large hammers had two — evi- 
dently intended for securing the handle by 




STONE HAMMER. 



which they were wielded. In every instance 
the hammers were more or less broken, evi- 



55 



dently in service. One of them brought from 
the mine by the writer, and now in the col- 
lection of the Cooper Union of New York, 
is represented in the accompanying sketch. 
It measures 6-i inches in length, the same in 
breadth, and 2^ inches in thickness. 

The quantity of hammers found in these 
old workings was so great that they were col- 
lected by cart-loads. How they could have 
been made with such tools as the ancient 
miners had, is unaccountable, for the stone 
itself is the hardest material they could find. 
And it is not any more clear, how they ap- 
plied such clumsy tools to excavating solid 
rock nearly as hard as the hammers them- 
selves. Every hammer is broken on the 
edge, as if worn out in service. The only 
tools found besides these were a copper gad 
or wedge, a copper chisel with a socket head, 
and a wooden bowl. The great extent of 
the ancient mining operations indicates that 
the country must have been long occupied 
by an industrious people, possessed of more 
mechanical skill than the pi'csent race of In- 
dians. They must also have spread over the 
whole of the copper region, for similar evi- 
dences of their occupancy are found about 
all the copper mines, and even upon Isle 
Royale. It is not improbable that they be- 
longed to the race of the mound builders of 
the western states, among the vestiges of 
whom, found in the mounds, various utensils 
of copper have been met with. But of the 
period when they lived, the copper mines 
afford no more evidence than the mounds. 
Some of the trenches at the Minesota mine, 
originally excavated to the depth of more 
than twenty-five feet, have since filled up 
with gravel and rubbish to within a few 
feet of the surface, a work which in this 
region would seem to require centuries ; and 
upon the surface of this material large trees 
are now standing, and stumps of much older 
ones are seen, that have long been rotting. 
In clearing out the pits a mass of copper 
was discovered, buried in the gravel nearly 
twenty feet below the surface, which the an- 
cients had entirely separated from the vein. 
They had supported it upon blocks of wood, 
and, probably by means of fire and their 
hammers, had removed from it all the adhering 
stone and projecting points of copper. Under 
it were quantities of ashes and charred wood. 
The weight of the mass, after all their at- 
tempts to reduce it, appears to have been 
too great for them to raise ; and when it was 
finally taken out in 1848, it was found to 
4* 



weigh over six tons. It was about ten feet 
long, three feet wide, and nearly two feet 
thick. Beneath this spot the vein after- 
ward proved extremely rich, aff'ording many 
masses of great size. 

The veins worked by the Minesota Com- 
pany all lie along the southern slope of tlie 
northern trap ridge, not far below the sum- 
mit. Three veins have been discovered whicii 
lie nearly parallel to each other. The lowest 
one is along the contact of the gray trap of 
the upper part of the hill and a stratum of 
conglomerate which underlies this. It dips 
with the slope of this rock toward the north- 
north-west at an angle of about 46° with the 
horizon. The next upper vein outcropping, 80 
or 90 feet further up the hill, dips about 61 °, 
and falls into the lower vein along a very 
irregular line. Both veins are worked, and 
the greatest yield of the mine has been near 
their line of meeting. 

The position of the veins along the range 
of the rocks, instead of across them, gives to 
the mines of this character a great advantage, 
as their productiveness is not limited to the 
thickness of any one belt which proves favor- 
able for the occurrence of the metal ; and 
the outcrop of the vein can be traced a great 
distance along the surface, affording conve- 
nient opportunities for sinking directly upon 
it at any point. 

The Minnesota Company, having abund- 
ant room, were soon able to sink a large 
number of shafts along a line of outcrop 
of 1,800 feet, and several of the levels be- 
low extended considerably further than this 
entire length. In 1858 nine shafts were 
in operation, and ten levels were driven on 
the vein, the deepest at 536 feet down the 
slope. The ten fathom level at that time 
was 1,960 feet in length. This mine has 
been remarkable for the large size and great 
number of its masses. The largest one of 
these, taken out during the year 1857, after 
being uncovered along its side, refused to 
give way, though 1,450 pounds of powder 
had been exploded behind it in five succes- 
sive sand-blasts. A charge of 625 pounds 
being then fired beneath it, the mass was so 
much loosened that by a succeeding blast of 
750 pounds it was torn off from the masses 
with which it connected, and thrown over 
in one immense piece. It measured fort}-- 
five feet in length, and its greatest thickness 
was over eight feet. Its weight was estima- 
ted at about 500 tons. What it proved to 
be is not certain, as no account was preserved 



156 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



of the pieces into which it was cut, but it is 
known to have exceeded 400 tons. Other 
masses have been taken out which presented 
a thickness of over five feet solid copper. 
The value of the silver picked out from 



among the copper has amounted in one year 
to about $1,000. 

The reports of the company present the 
following statistics of the mine from its 
earliest operations: — 









Mineral 












Years. 


No.of men 


Expenditure. 


product. 


'er-centage 


Value of 


Assessments 


Dividends. 




employed. 




Tons. 




Copper. 


paid. 




1848, 


20 


$14,000 


6i 




$1,700 


$10,500 




1849, 


60 


28,000 


52 




14,000 


16,500 




1850, 


90 


58,000 


103 




29,000 


36,000 




1851, 


175 


88,000 


307i 




90,000 


3,000 




1852, 


212 


108,000 


520 




196,000 




$30,000 


1853, 


280 


168,000 


523 




210,000 






60,000 


1854, 


392 


218,000 


763 




290,000 






90,000 


1855, 


471 


280,933 


1.434 


71 


549,876 






200,000 


1856, 


537 


356,541 


1,859 


72.5 


701,906 






300,000 


1857, 


615 


402,538 


2,058 


74 


736,000 






300,000 


1858, 


713 


384,827 


1,833 


70.1 


595,000 






180,000 


1859, 


718 


384,394 


1,626 


71 


515,786 






120,000 


1860, 


8 months to Sept. 1 . . . . 


. . 1,431 










Estimate, 


for the year. . 


. . 2,250 













In consequence of recent discoveries of 
masses of copper running into the sandstone 
off from the vein itself, the product of the 
year 1860 will considerably exceed that of 
any other year ; the profits, however, are not 
proportionally large, owing to the low price 
of copper. To this the diminished prof- 
its of 1858 and 1859 are partly to be attrib- 
uted. The product for 1857, 1858, and 
1859 was divided as follows : — 



Tears. 

1857, 
1858, 
1859, 



Masses, 
lbs. 

3,015,581 
2,429,989 
2,040,454 



Barrel work. 

lbs. 

819,900 
903,871 
929,571 



Stamp work. 
lbs. 

280,512 
333,352 
282,092 



Besides the dividends named, the original 
stockholders have derived large profits from 
the sale of portions of the extensive terri- 
tory, three miles square, which belonged to 
the company, and the organization upon 
these tracts of new companies. 

Before the completion of the St. Mary's 
Canal, no exact records were preserved of 
the amount of copper sent from Lake Su- 
perior. But up to the close of navigation in 
1854 it is supposed the total shipments from 
the commencement of mining in 1845 had 
been about 7642 tons of pure copper. 

Since that time, the annual product of 
rough copper has been as follows : — 



Districts. 1855. 

Keweenaw 2,245 

Portage 315 

Ontonagon 1,984 

Porcupine, Mo., etc 



1856. 
2,128 
462 
2,767 



Total 4,544 



5,357 



1857. 

2,200 

704 

3,190 



6,094 



1858. 
2,125 
1,116 
2,655 



1S59. 
1,910.3 
1,533.1 
2,597.6 



5,896 6,041.0 



1860. 

1,910.8 

3,064.8 

3,588.7 

28.1 

8,543.4 



The condition of the Lake Superior mines 
at the close of the year 1860 is well pre- 
sented in the business circular of Messrs. 
Dupee, Beck, & Sayles, of Bo.ston, received 
since the preceding pages passed through 
the hands of the printer and stereotyper. 
From this we introduce the following ad- 
ditional matter. The depreciation in the 
price of copper from a maximum of 29^ 
cents a pound of the few preceding years to 
a maximum of 24d cents and a minimum of 
19 cents, had induced increased economy 
and care in the administration of the mines, 
the good eft'ects of which were already be- 
ginning to be experienced : — 



"Freights to and from the mines from 
May to September were 25 per cent, less 
than in 1859. The transportation of a ton 
of copper from the lake shore to Boston, 
cost, after the opening of St. Mary's Canal, 
1855, $20; in 1860, to Boston, $11, and to 
New York, $9. The substitution of bitu- 
minous coal for wood, which has been de- 
livered during the past summer at the 
wharves of Portage Lake for $3.25 per ton, 
will save much money and leave the forests 
of the country for building materials and 
for timbering of the mines. With the wants 
of a rapidly increasing population, new and 
cheaper sources of supply are constantly 



57 



opening in the region itself. Many agricul- 
tural products, hitherto sent up at great cost 
from Lower Michigan, are now raised in the 
neighborhood of the mines, and at the new 
settlements on the south-western shores of 
the lake, cheaply and abundantly. At 
Portage Lake, a machine shop, an iron 
foundry, and a manufactory of doors, sash- 
es, blinds, etc., have been put in operation 
during 1860. The smelting works of the 
Portage Lake Company are now success- 
fully refining the products of that district. 
These works consist of four reverberatory and 
two cupola furnaces, capable of refining 6000 
tons per annum. The buildings are of the 
most thorough and substantial character, 
and the location of the works accessible, at 
a very small cost of transportation, to all the 
mines now wrought, or likely to be wrought 
for many years hence, in that neighbor- 
hood. Hitherto, to save cost of transporta- 
tion to the smelting companies in other 
states, it has been necessary to dress the 
rough copper to an average probably of 70 
per cent. Now, by the proximity of the 
furnaces to the mines, a dressing of 50 per 
cent, will answer the same purpose, while 
the refined copper, hitherto rarely ready for 
the market before the 1st to 15th July, will 
be sent directly from the lake to New 
York or Boston, arriving there in ordinary 
seasons by the 1st of June. Further, there 
•will be added the new facility of obtaining 
cash advances through the winter on the 
warehouse receipts of the smelting company. 

" The opening of the entry into Portage 
Lake during the past season has been one of 
the greatest improvements in the navigation 
of the Lake Suj)erior region since the com- 
pletion of the ship canal around the falls of 
St. Mary's river. At the comparatively 
small cost of $50,000, steamers of the larg- 
est class able to pass through the St. Mary's 
Canal may now enter Portage Lake, and dis- 
charge their cargoes at the docks of the sever- 
al companies located on its shores. Besides 
avoiding the loss of time and expense of tran- 
shipment hitherto necessary, the opening of 
Portage Lake has provided one of the most 
capacious and safest harbors in the world. 

" In the Ontonagon district, a plank road 
lias been completed recently, facilitating to 
a very great extent the transportation to 
and from the Minesota, National, Rock- 
land, and Superior mines. 

" The iron interests of Lake Superior are 
rapidly attaining great importance. The 



amount brought down to Marquette, the 
port of shipment, in 1860, was : of iron ore 
from the Jackson Company, 62,980 tons ; 
Cleveland Company, 47,889 ; Lake Superior 
Company, 39,394 ; total, 150,263. Of pig 
iron. Pioneer Company, 3050 tons; S. R. 
Gay, 18uO; Northern Company, 650; total, 
6500. Ore valued at $3 ; pig at $25 ; ag- 
gregate value, $588,289." 

The following statistics are presented of 
the principal mines : — '- 

COMPARATIVE TABLE OF SHIPMENTS OF HOUGH COPPER 
FROM LAKE SUPERIOE DURING THE SEASONS OF 1859 
AND 1860. 

The weights of the barrels have been deducted, and the 
results are given iu tons (2000 lbs.) and tenths. 

KEWEENAW DISTRICT. 

1859. 1860. 

Central 172.3 78.6 

Clark 5.6 7.2 

Connecticut 24. 5.3 

Copper Falls 329.4 328. 

Kagle River 6. 

North American 8.7 . 

Nortliwest 73.8 103.5 

Phoenix 32. 31.2 

Pittsburg and Boston 1,254.5 1,357. 

Summit 4. 

1,910.3 1,910.8 

PORTAGE DISTRICT. 

C. C. Douglass 24. 

Isle Royale 241.3 458.6 

Franklin 204.7 267. 

Hancock 7.2 

Huron 7.4 78. 

Mesnard .6 

Pewabic. . 734.4 1,363.8 

Portage 8.7 

Quincy 336. 866.2 

1,533.1 3,064.8 

ONTONAGON DISTRICT. 

Adventure 139,4 29.7 

Aztec 15.3 4.9 

Bohemian 3. 

Evergreen Bluff 27. 41.9 

Hamilton 7 7.9 

Mass 12.3 

Minesota 1.623.6 2,183.4 

National 323.2 727.8 

Nebraska 9.8 26.4 

Norwich 22. 

Ogima 35.4 

Ridge 27.8 

Rockland 347. 552.7 

Superior 1.7 14. 

Toltec 9.4 

2,597.6 3,588.7 

Keweenaw District 1,910.3 1,910.8 

Portage 1,533.1 3,050 8 

Ontonagon 2,597.6 3,553.7 

Porcupine Mountain 20.5 

Sundry mines 7.6 

6,041.0 8,543.4 



58 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Franklin : the product for the year end- 
ing November 30 has been 112 masses, 
weighing 72,1 G6 lbs. ; 721 barrels of barrel 
work, 469,116 lbs.; and 67 barrels stamp 
work, 63,816 lbs. Total, 6U5,098 lbs., 
equal to 180y\ tons refined copper. The 
actual sliipments were about 207 tons rough, 
or 158 tons ingot copper. The stamps are 
Ball's, consisting of two pairs of two heads 
each. They did not commence work till 
November 19. 

Huron : total shipments this year, 65y»g 
tons of 64i per cent, barrel work, and 12,- 
311 lbs. of refined copper, smelted at the 
Portage Lake works. There is ready for 
the stamps an amount equivalent, at a fair 
estimate, to the quantity shipped this sea- 
son. 

Isle Royale : total shipments this season 
458y''„ tons, averaging over 70 per cent. 
Preparations have been made for opening a 
large amount of ground during the winter, 
with a view to lai'ge shipments at the open- 
ing of navigation. 

Minesota: November returns, 150 tons. 
The total shipments in 1860 were 1992 
masses, and 2127 barrels of barrel and 
stamp work. Net weight, 4,366,718 lbs. 
This is the largest shipment made in one 
year by any mine at the lake. The promise 
for future production is as great, at least, as 
the result for this year. 

Pewabic : November product, 304^0 tons. 
The actual shipments for the season have 
been 2,727,632 lbs. The product for one 
year to November 30 was as follows: 467 
masses, weighing 348,658 lbs. ; 2294 bar- 
rels kiln ov barrel work, weighing net, 
1,450,778 lbs.; 342 barrels No. 1, stamp, 
379,718 lbs.; 399 barrels No. 2, stamp, 
389,073 lbs.; 401 barrels No. 3, stamp, 
346,912 lbs.; add on tributers' account, 
27,428. Total, 2,943,467 lbs. 

The smelting returns are not yet all made, 
but on an estimate based on past experience, 
the result will not vary much from 2,030,- 
992 lbs., or about 1000 tons of ingot cop- 
per. 

During the year there have been shipped 
1633 ounces of silver. 

Pittsburg and Boston : November prod- 
uct, 114 tons. Total shipments, 1357 tons. 
Total product for the year, 1402 tons. The 
annual report recently published gives the 
result of the year ending December 1, 1859. 
The product for that year was l,099y«„ tons, 
yielding 64yVo V^^' cent., or 707y\ tons in- 



got copper. The receipts, including $2,- 
405 17 from sales of silver, were |292,- 
503 14. The expenditures were $272,- 
175 75, leaving net profit, $20,327 39. 

COPPER SMELTING 

The ores of copper, unlike those of most 
of the other metals, are not in general re- 
duced at the mines ; but after being concen- 
trated by mechanical processes called dress- 
ing — which consist in assorting the piles ac- 
cording to their qualities, and crushing, jig- 
ging, and otherwise washing the poorer sorts 
— they are sold to the smelters, whose estab- 
lishments may be at great distances off", even 
on the other side of the globe. The richer 
ores, worth per ton three or four times as 
many dollars as the figures that represent 
their percentage of metal, well repay the 
cost of transportation, and are conveniently 
reduced at smelting works situated on the 
coast near the markets for copper, and where 
the fuel required for their reduction is cheap. 
At Swansea, in South Wales, there are eight 
great smelting establishments, to which all 
the ores from Cornwall and Devon arc car- 
ried, and which receive other ores from al- 
most all parts of the world. It is stated that 
in this district there are nearly 600 furnaces 
employed, which consume about 500,000 
tons of coal per annum, and give employ- 
ment to about 4,000 persons besides colliers. 
The amount of copper they supply is more 
than half of that consumed by all nations. 
The total product of fine copper produced 
by all the smelting establishments of Great 
Britain for 1857 is stated to be 18,238 tons, 
worth £2,079,323. 

The copper smelting works of the United 
States are those upon the coast, depending 
chiefly upon foreign supplies of ores, and 
those of the interior for melting and refining 
the Lake Superior copper. There are also 
the furnaces at the Tennessee mines, which 
have been already noticed. The former are 
situated at the following localities : At 
Point Shirley, in Boston harbor, are the 
furnaces of the Revere Copper Company, 
which also has rolling mills and other works 
connected with the manufacture of copper 
at Canton, on the Boston and Providence 
railroad. At Taunton, Mass., a similar estab- 
lishment to that at Canton is owned by the 
Messrs. Crocker, of that town. There are 
smelting furnaces at New Haven, Conn. ; at 
Bergen Point, in New York harbor ; and at 
Baltimore, on a point in the outer harbor. 



69 



The furnaces established for working the 
Lake Superior copper are at Detroit, Cleve- 
land, and Pittsburg, At the last named 
are two separate establishments, with each 
of which is connected a rolling mill, at 
which the ingot copper is converted into 
sheets for home consumption and the eastern 
market. A furnace was also built at Port- 
age lake, Lake Superior, in 1860, of capacity 
equal to melting 6000 tons of copper annu- 
ally. The details and extent of the opera- 
tions carried on by the smelting works ap- 
pear to have been carefully kept from publi- 
cation. In a work on " Copper and Copper 
Smelting," by A. Snowdon Piggott, M. D., 
who had charge of the chemical assays, etc., 
for the Baltimore Company, published in 
1858, while the English processes are fully 
described, no information is given as to the 
methods adopted at the American works ; 
and of their production all the information 
is contained in the two closing sentences of 
the appendix, as follows: " Of the copper- 
smelting establishments of the United States 
I have no statistics. Baltimore turns out 
about 8,000,000 pounds of refined copper 
annually." Applications which have been 
made by the writer to the proprietors of 
several of the establishments for information 
as to the business, have been entirely unsuc- 
cessful. The total production of copper in 
1858 was supposed to be about 13,000 tons 
per annum; and of this about 7000 tons 
were required by the rolling mills for mak- 
ing sheet copper, sheet brass, and yellow 
metal. 

The French treatise on Metallurgy by 
Professor Rivot contains the only published 
description of the American method of 
smelting copper. By the English process, 
the separation of the metal from its ores is 
a long and tedious series of alternate roast- 
ings or calcinations, and fusions in rever- 
beratory furnaces. The system is particu- 
larly applicable to the treatment of poor, 
sulphurous ores contaminated with other 
metals, as iron, arsenic, etc., and can only be 
conducted to advantage where fuel is very 
cheap, the consumption of this being at the 
rate of about 20 tons to the ton of copper 
obtained. The process employed in Ger- 
many is much more simple, and the methods 
in use at the American smelting works are 
more upon the plan of these. Blast or cu- 
pola furnaces supply at some of them the 
place of reverberatories, and the separation 
of the metal is completed in great part by 



one or two smeltings. The treatment of the 
Lake Superior copper is comparatively an 
easy operation. For this large reverberatory 
furnaces are employed, through the roof of 
which is an opening large enough to admit 
masses of 3 to 3A tons weight, which are 
raised by cranes and lowered into the fur- 
nace. The barrels of barrel work are intro- 
duced in the same way, and left in the fur- 
nace without unpacking. When the furnace 
is charged, the opening in the top is secure- 
ly closed by fire-proof masonry, and the fire 
of bituminous coal is started, the flame from 
which plays over the bridge, and, reflected 
from the roof, strikes upon the copper, caus- 
ing it gradually to sink down and at last 
flow in a liquid mass. A small portion of 
the copper by the oxidizing action of the 
heated gases is converted into a suboxide, 
which is partially reduced again, and in part 
goes into the slags in the condition of a 
silicate of copper, the metal of which is not 
entirely recovered. The mixture of quartz, 
calcareous spar, and epidote accompanying 
the copper, is sometimes such as to melt 
and form a good cinder without addition of 
any other substance, but usually some lime- 
stone or other suitable material is added as 
a flux. Complete fusion is effected in 12 to 
15 hours according to the size of the masses, 
and this is kept up for about an hour in 
order that the fine particles of copper may 
find their way through the fluid slag, which 
floats upon the metal. Working tools call- 
ed rabbles are then introduced through the 
side-doors of the furnace, and the charge is 
stirred up and the slag is drawn out through 
the door. It falls upon the ground, and is 
taken when sufficiently cool to the cupola or 
slag furnaces where it is chilled with water 
to render it easy to break up. Those por- 
tions which contain as much as one fourth 
per cent, of copper are reserved to be pass- 
ed through the slag furnace. The total 
amount of slag is usually less than 20 per 
cent, of the whole charge. In the melting 
the copper absorbs carbon, which if allow- 
ed to remain would render it brittle and 
unfit for use. To remove it the fire is so 
arranged that the gases pass through with 
much unconsumed air ; this playing on the 
surface of the copper produces a suboxide 
of the metal, which in the course of half an 
hour is quite taken up by the copper, and 
coming in contact with the particles of car- 
bon the oxygen combines with this, and re- 
moves it in the form of carbonic acid gas. 



60 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



It now remains to remove the excess of 
oxygen introduced, which is effected by the 
ordinary method of refining. A large pro- 
portion of fuel is employed on the grate for 
the amount of air admitted through it, so 
that the flames as they pass over the bridge 
convey little free oxygen, and the surface of 
the metal is covered with fine charcoal. 
After a little time a pole of green wood is 
thrust into the melted copper and stirred 
about so long as gases escape from the sur- 
face. It is then taken out, and if on testing 
the copper some suboxide still remains, the 
refining is cautiously continued with char- 
coal, and just when, as appears by the tests, 
all the oxide is reduced, the work of dipping 
out the metal is commenced. This is done 
by large iron ladles, the whole set of men 
employed at two furnaces, to the number 
of about 12, coming to this work and tak- 
ing turns in the severe task. They protect 
themselves from the intense heat by wet 
cloths about their arms, and as quickly as 
possible bale out a ladle full of copper and 
empty it into one or more of the ingot 
moulds, of which 36 are arranged in front 
of the furnace-door upon three parallel bars 
over a trough of water. As the metal be- 
comes solid in each mould, this is upset, 
letting the ingot fall into the water. The 
weight of the ingot being 20 pounds, the 
filling of them all removes 720 pounds of 
copper from the furnace. The metal that 
remains is then tested, and according to its 
condition the discharging may be continued 
or it may be necessary to oxidize the copper 
again and repeat the refining, or merely to 
throw more charcoal upon the surface and 
increase the heat. The time required to 
ladle out the whole charge is from four to 
six hours. When this is completed the sole 
of the furnace is repaired, by stopping the 
cracks with sand and smoothing the surface 
to get all ready for the next charge ; and at 
the same time the second furnace has reach- 
ed the refining stage of the process. One 
charge to a furnace is made every evening, 
and as in the night it is necessary only to 
keep up the fires, the great labor of the proc- 
ess comes wholly in the day time. 

The following is the estimated cost at 
Detroit of the smelting, on a basis of two 
furnaces, each of which is charged with four 
and a half to five tons of mass copper, con- 
suming two and a half tons of coal, and pro- 
ducing from three to three and a half tons 
of ingots : — 



Labor, 15 hands, at $1.50 $22.50 

Bituminous coal, 5 tons, at $5 25.00 

Wood and charcoal 1.25 

Repairs to furnace, average for the season.. 2.00 

$50.75 

To this should be added, for superintend- 
ence, office, and general expenses, perhaps 
ten dollars more, which would make the 
cost for six or seven tons of ingot copper, 
$60.75, or $9 to $10 per ton. At Pitts- 
burg the rate charged has been $11 per ton; 
and fuel is there afforded at about one third 
the amount allowed in the above estimate. 

The cupola furnaces for treating the slags 
are of very simple plan and construction. 
They are of cylindrical form, about ten feet 
high, and three feet diameter inside. Their 
walls, the thickness of a single length of 
fire brick, are incased in boiler-plate iron, 
and stand upon a cast-iron ring, which is 
itself supported upon four cast-iron columns 
about three feet above the ground. Trans- 
verse iron bars support a circular plate, and 
upon this the refractory sand for the sole of 
the furnace is placed, and well beaten down 
to the thickness of a foot, with a sharp slope 
toward the tapping hole. A low chimney 
conveys away the gaseous products of com- 
bustion, and through the base of it the 
workmen introduce the charges. The blast 
is introduced by three tuyeres a foot above 
the sole ; but before it enters the furnace it 
is heated bypassing through a channel around 
the furnace. A steady current is obtained by 
the use of three double acting blowing cylin- 
ders, which give a pressure equal to about 
three and a half inches of mercury. 

The hands employed at the Detroit es- 
tablishment, besides the superintendent and 
head smelter, are eighteen furnace men and 
from five to ten workmen, according to the 
arrivals of copper during the season of navi- 
gation. After the stock thus received is 
worked up, the furnaces remain idle during 
the remainder of the winter. 

USEFUL APPLICATIONS OF COPPER. 

The uses of copper are so numerous and 
important that the metal must rank next in 
value to iron. In ancient times, indeed, it 
was the more useful metal of the two, being 
abundant among many nations to whom iron 
was not known. In the ancient Scandina- 
vian tumuli recently opened in Denmark, 
among the various implements of stone were 
found swords, daggers, and knives, the blades 
of which were, in some instances, of copper, 



61 



and in some of gold, while the cutting edges 
were formed of iron, showing that this was 
more rare and valuable than either copper or 
gold. It has been supposed that several of 
the ancient nations, as the Egyptians, Greeks, 
etc., possessed the art of hardening copper, 
so as to make it serve the purposes of steel. 
That they employed it for such uses as those 
to which we now apply tools of steel is cer- 
tain, and also that the specimens of some of 
their copper tools are considerably harder 
than any we make of the same metal. These 
are found, on analysis, to contain about one 
part in ten of tin, which, it is known, in- 
creases, when added in small proportions, 
the hardness of copper, and this was prob- 
ably still further added to by hammering. 

Among the most important uses of the metal 
at present is that of sheathing the bottoms 
of ships in order to protect the timbers from 
the ravages of marine animals, and present a 
smooth surface for the easy passage of the 
vessel through the water. The metal is well 
adapted, from its softness and tenacity, for 
rolling into sheets, and these were first pre- 
pared for this use for the Alarm frigate of 
the royal navy, in 1761. Sheet lead had 
been in use before this time, but was soon 
after given up for copper. On account of 
ihe rapid deterioration of the copper by the 
action of the sea-water, the naval depai'tment 
of the British government applied, in 1823, 
to the Royal Society for some method of 
preserving the metal. This was furnished 
by Sir Humphry Davy, who recommend- 
ed applymg strips of cast iron under the 
copper sheets, which, by the galvanic cur- 
rent excited, would be corroded instead 
of the copper. The application answered 
the purpose intended, but soon had to be 
given up, for the copper, protected from 
chemical action, it was found, became cov- 
ered with barnacles and other shell-fish, so 
as seriously to impair the sailing qualities of 
the vessels, and for this reason it has been 
found necessary to submit to the natural wast- 
ing of the metal, and replace the sheets as fast 
as they become corroded. 

Various alloys have been proposed as sub- 
stitutes for copper. That known as yellow 
metal, or Muntz's, has been the most success- 
ful and has been very generally introduced. 
It consists of copper alloyed with about 40 
per cent, of zinc, and is prepared by plung- 
ing cakes of zinc into a bath of melted cop- 
per contained in a reverberatory furnace. 
The volatilization of the zinc and oxidation 



of the metals is guarded against by a cover- 
ing of fine charcoal" kept upon the melted 
surface. The bolts, nails, and other fasten- 
ings for the sheathing, and for various other 
parts of the ship, are made also of copper 
aiid of yellow metal ; and to secure the great- 
est strength, they should be cast at once in 
the forms in which they are to be used. 
The manufacture of all these articles is ex- 
tensively carried on at the diff'erent copper 
establishments in Massachusetts, Connecti- 
cut, and Baltimore. 

Sheet copper is also applied to many other 
very important uses, as for copper boilers 
and pipes, for large stills and condensers, 
the vacuum pans of sugar refineries, and a 
multitude of utensils for domestic purposes, 
and for employment in the dift'erent arts. 
For engraving upon it is prepared of the 
purest quality and of dift'erent thicknesses, ac- 
cording to the kind of engraving for which 
it is to be used. The engraver cuts it to the 
size he requires, planishes it,and gives to it the 
dead smooth surface peculiar to engraving 
plates. Thesmaller utensils of sheet copper, as 
urns, vases, etc., are very ingeniously hammer- 
ed out from a flat circular sheet. As the ham- 
mering is first applied to the central portion, 
this spreads and takes the form of a bowl. 
As the metal becomes harder and brittle by 
the operation, its softness and ductility are 
restored by annealing, a process that must 
often be repeated as the hammering is con- 
tinued, and toward the last, when the metal 
has become more susceptible to the change 
induced by the application of the hammer, 
the annealing must be very carefully attended 
to, and the whole process be conducted with 
much skill and judgment acquired by long 
experience. 

For larger and more common hollow ar- 
ticles, the sheet copper is folded around, and 
lapped by various sorts of joints, some of 
which are secured by rivets, and some by a 
double lap, the two edges locking into each 
other, and made close by hammering. The 
edges are also soldered either with soft 
or hard solder. For the latter an alloy is 
made for the purpose, by melting in a crucible 
a quantity of brass, and then stirring in one- 
half or one-third as much zinc, until the blue 
flame disappears. The mixture is then turn- 
ed out into a shallow pan, and when cold the 
plate is heated nearly red hot, and beaten 
on an anvil or in a mortar. This is the hard 
solder of the braziers. 

A still more important application of the 



62 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



copper is in the manufacture of the alloy 
known as brass ; and that called bronze also 
serves many useful purposes. The former is 
composed of copper and zinc, the latter of 
copper and tin. It is a curious fact in met- 
al lur^L^y that brass was extensively manufac- 
tured, and used more commonly than any 
sinjrle metal or other alloy, many centuries 
before the existence of such a metal as zinc 
was known. It was prepared by melting 
copper and introducing fragments of the 
lapis calarninaris, an ore of zinc, in which 
the oxide of the metal is combined with car- 
bonic acid. Charcoal was also added to the 
mixture, and by the reaction with this the 
zinc ore was reduced to the metallic state, 
and at once united with the copper, without 
appearing as a distinct metal. This process 
is still in use for making brass, but the more 
common method is to introduce slips of 
copper into melted zinc, or to plunge beneath 
melted copper lumps of zinc held in iron 
tongs. The proportion of the two metals is 
always uncertain, owing to the unknown 
quantity of zinc that is consumed and es- 
capes in fumes This is prevented as much 
as possible by covering the melted metal 
with fine charcoal, and by throwing in pieces 
of glass, which melt and cover the mixture 
with a thin protecting layer. Old brass is 
much used in making new, and the addition 
of quantities of this to the pot containingthe 
other ingredients, adds to the uncertainty of 
the composition. The best proportion of 
the two metals is believed to be two parts of 
copper to one of zinc, which is expressed by 
the term " eight-ounce brass," meaning eight 
ounces of zinc to sixteen of copper. Sixteen- 
ounce brass — the two metals being equal — 
is a beautiful golden yellow alloy called 
prince's metal. But all brass of more than 
ten ounces of zinc to the pound of copper is 
whitish, crystalline, hard, and brittle ; of less 
than ten ounces it is malleable, soft, and 
ductile. The alloys known as pinchbeck, 
Manheim gold, bath metal, etc., formerly 
much in use as imitations of gold, are about 
three to four ounce brass. 

Brass combines a number of excellent 
qualities, which adapt it for many uses. Its 
compactness, durability, strength, and soft- 
ness, render it an excellent material for fine 
work, and nothing, except tin, [jerhaps, is bet- 
ter adapted for shapiig in the lathe. In use 
it is not liable to rust l>y exposure, is easily 
kept clean, and takes a polish almost as beau- 
tiful as that of gfold. It is hence a favorite 



material for the works of watches and clocks, 
almost all sorts of instriunents in which great 
hardness is not essential, and for various 
household utensils, and ornaments upon fur- 
niture. In thin plates it is stamped and em- 
bossed in hgures, and is thus cheaply applied 
to many useful and ornamental purposes. 
Its ductility is such, that those sorts contain- 
ing little zinc are beaten out, as in Dutch 
gilding, like gold-leaf itself, so as to be used 
as a cheap substitute for this in gilding in 
some cases. It is also drawn out into wire, 
often of great fineness ; and of the suitable 
sizes of this there is a very large consumption 
in the manufacture of })ins, and hooks and 
eyes. By ingenious machinery the brass 
wires are clipped to their projjer length for 
pins, pointed, headed, and after being tinned, 
are stuck in paper, with very little atten- 
tion from the workmen. This manufacture 
serves to exemplify the perfection of machin- 
ery, and some of the most admirable of this, 
particularly that by which the finished pins 
are stuck in their papers, is a peculiarly 
American invention, and worth, to the manu- 
facturers at Waterbury alone, many tb.ousand 
dollars annually. The solid-headed pin, 
made somewhat after the manner in which 
cut nails are headed, was invented by two cit- 
izens of Rhode Island, Mr. Slocum and JMr. S. 
G. Reynolds. This was before the year 1840. 
The brass pins and hooks and eyes are cov- 
ered with a coating of tin by placing them 
in a barrel, together with about twice their 
weight of tin in grains, several ounces of 
cream of tartar, and several gallons of warm 
water. The barrel is then made to revolve 
upon its axis, until the pins or other articles 
are perfectly clean. After this they are 
boiled in a similar mixture. 

Much of the brass of the ancients was 
properly bronze — that is, a compound of cop- 
per and tin. This alloy, in different propor- 
tions of its ingredients, is still of very great 
service. Gun metal — the material of the so- 
called brass cannon — is composed of copper 
96 to 108 parts, and tin 11 parts. The com- 
pound resists wear extremely well, but its 
strength is only about one-half that of 
wrought iron. Statues, and hard castings for 
ijiachinery, are formed of this alloy. Messrs. 
Mitchell, Vance & Co., of New York, have 
been very successful in casting bronze statu- 
ettes and ornaments, clock cases, &c., which 
rival the anti(|ue bronze in beauty. One 
of the most noted foundries for the casting 
ot caimon, statues, and bronze ornaments in 



63 



the United States is that of the Messrs. 
Ames, at Chicopee, Mass. The equestrian 
statue of Washington, in Union square, New 
York, is one of their most successful produc- 
tions. The French bronze contains 2 parts 
of tin, 1 of lead, 6 of zinc, and 91 of copper. 
Bell-metal is a bronze usually consisting of 
7 parts of copper and 22 of tin. The larg- 
est bell in the country, that formerly on 
the City Hall, in New York, weighs 23,000 
pounds, and was cast in Boston. The 
largest number of bells is probably pro- 
duced at the foundry of the IMessrs. Men- 
eely, at Troy, N. Y. The Chinese gong is 
.now an American manufacture, composed of 
bell-metal, which, after being cast, is forged 
under the hammer, between two disks of 
iron. The casting is made malleable by 
plunging, while hot, into cold water. 

As with zinc, copper forms an alloy made 
to imitate gold, so with tin and nickel it forms 
a combination resembling silver, known as 
German silver. The proportions of the met- 
als are 8 parts of copper to either 3 or 4 each 
of the two other metals. This is used in the 
manufacture of spoons, forks, and other uten- 
sils, and instead of brass in various instru- 
ments. It is plated with silver, and is as 
beautiful as the genuine silver. 

Another alloy of copper and tin is the 
telescope or speculum metal, which consists 
of about one-third tin and two-thirds copper. 
It is of a steel-white color, very hard and 
brittle, and susceptible of a high polish, 
which is not soon tarnished, qualities that 
cause it to be used for the mirrors of tele- 
scopes. 

Copper is largely used in the coinage, pure 
in the cent, combined with nickel in the 
three and live cent pieces, and as an alloy in 
the silver and gold pieces. Copper is also 
in demand both for electro-plating purposes 
and for electrotype plates, which have almost 
superseded the old stereotype plates. 

Among the later alloys of copper, is what 
is called oroide of gold, which in its best 
qualities consists of inxre copper, 100 parts ; 
zinc or tin, 17 parts ; magnesia, 6 parts ; sal- 
ammonia, 0.5 parts; quicklime, 0.125 parts ; 
tartar of commerce, 9 parts. Aluminium 
Bronze 90 parts copper and 10 of aluminium. 

There are several alloys closely imitating 
silver in which copper is the largest constit- 
uent. One consists of 70 parts copper, 20 
nickel, 5^ zinc, and 4|- cadnium. Minargent 
consists of 100 parts copper, 70 nickel, 5 
tungsten, and 1 aluminium. 



CHAPTER III. 

GOLD. 

Although the discovery of gold mines 
was the chief motive that led to the settle- 
ment of the American continent, those of the 
United States appear to have escaped notice 
until the present century. The only excep- 
tion to this may be in the discovery made 
by some Europeans of the gold region of 
northern Georgia at a period long antece- 
dent to the occupation of this district by the 
whites. Of this fact no written record is 
preserved ; but in working the deposit mines 
of the Nacoochee valley, in Habersham coun- 
ty, there were discovered, about the year 
1842, various utensils and vestiges of huts, 
which evidently had been constructed by 
civilized men, and had been buried there 
several centuries. It is supposed they be- 
longed to De Soto's party, which passed 
through this region in the sixteenth century 
on their exploring expedition from Florida 
to the Mississippi river. The earlier his- 
torians hardly mention gold as even being 
supposed to exist in the colonics. Salmon, 
in the third volume of his "Modern His- 
tory," 1746, merely alludes to a gold mine 
in Virginia, which of late " had made much 
noise," but does not even name the locality, 
and evidently attaches no importance to it. 
In Jefferson's " Notes on Virginia " mention 
is made of the discovery of a piece of gold 
of 17 dwts. near the Rappahannock. In 
1799, as mentioned by Wheeler in his " His- 
tory of North Carolina," a son of Conrad 
Reed picked up a piece of gold as large as 
a small smoothing iron from the bed of a 
brook on his father's farm, in Cabarrus coun- 
ty, and its value not being known it was 
kept for several years in the house to hold 
the door open, and was then sold to a silver- 
smith for $3.50. In Drayton's "View of 
South Carolina," 1802, the metal is stated 
to have been found on Paris Mountain, in 
Greenville district. About this time it be- 
gan to be met with in considerable lumps in 
Cabarrus county, N. C, and not long after- 
ward in Montgomery and Anson counties. 
At Reed's mine, in Cabarrus, the discovery 
by a negro of a lump weighing 28 lbs. avoir- 
dupois, near the same stream ali'eady referred 
to, led to increased activity in exploring the 
gravelly deposits along the courses of the 
brooks and rivers of this region, and numer- 
ous new localities of the metal were rapidly 
discovered. A much larger proportion of 



64 



MINING INDUSTEY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



gold was collected, durino; these earlier work- 
ings, in coarse lumps than in the operations 
of later times — pieces of metal of one to 
several pounds weight being often found. 
Before the year 1820, as stated in Bruce' s 
Mineralogicul Journal (vol. i., p. 125), the 
quantity of American gold received at the 
mint at Philadelphia amounted to $43,689. 
All of this was from North Carolina. In 
1827 there had been received from the same 
source $110,000. But besides this amount, 
a considerable pi'oportion of the gold prod- 
uct was consumed by jewellers, who paid a 
better price than was received from the mint, 
and was retained by the banks, in which it 
was deposited. It also circulated to some 
extent as a medium of exchange in the min- 
ing region, being carried about in quills, and 
received by the merchants usually at the rate 
of ninety cents a dwt. The total product 
of the mines must, therefore, have been 
much larger than appears from the mint re- 
turns. In 1829, Virginia and South Caro- 
lina began to appear as gold-producing states 
— there being deposited in the mint from 
the former gold to the value of $2,500, and 
from the latter of $3,500. The same year 
the rich gold deposits of northern Georgia 
were discovered, and suddenly became very 
productive, so that the receipts at the mint 
from this state for the year 1830 amounted 
to $2 1 2,000. Gold mining had now become 
an established branch of the productive in- 
dustry of the states, and as its importance 
increased, the necessity was felt of the estab- 
lishment of branch mints in the mining 
region. One was constructed by act of Con- 
gress at Dahlonega, Lumpkin county, Geor- 
gia, and anotlier at Charlotte, Mecklenburg 
county, N. C. ; and both commenced coining- 
gold in 1838. From the irregular manner 
in which the gold deposits were worked, and 
their uncertain yield, the annual production 
of the mines was very variable. In a single 
year the mint at Dahlonega received and 
coined gold to the value of $600,000 ; and 
until the discovery of the California gold 
mines, the American production was estima- 
ted to average annually about $100,000. It 
was, however, gradually declining in impor- 
tance from the year 1845 ; and of late years 
has dwindled away, so as not to amount to 
enough for the support of the branch mints, 
the abolition of which by act of Congress 
was generally looked for in 1857 and 1858. 
The late introduction at the mines of North 
Carolina and Georgia of the hvdraulic and 



sluice washing, which has proved highly suc- 
cessful in Califurnia, gives encouragement 
that these mines may again soon became as 
productive as before. 

The rock formations of the United States, 
in which gold mines are worked, follow the 
range of the Appalachians, and are produc- 
tive chiefly along their eastern side in a belt 
of country sometimes attaining a width of 
75 miles, as along the southern part of North 
Carolina, and in Georgia in two distinct belts 
which are separated by a district of forma- 
tions unproductive in gold. The extreme 
northern gold mines on this range are in 
Canada East, upon the Chaudiere river and 
its tributaries, the Du Loup and the Toufie 
des Pins. In 1851 and 1852, deposits were 
worked upon these streams, and about 1,900 
dwts. were collected — found among the 
gravel which lay in the crevices formed by 
the ragged edges of the upturned argillaceous 
and talcose slates. The pieces were all small, 
only one weigliing as much as 4 ounces. The 
returns were not sufficient to cover the out- 
lays, and the working was consequently 
abandoned. 

The next localities on the range toward 
the south which have furnished gold are in 
Vermont, on the western border of Wind- 
sor county, in the towns of Bridgewater and 
Plymouth. At Newfane, in AVindham county, 
a piece of gold was found in 1826, which 
weighed Sh oz. ; but the only successful at- 
tempts to work the deposits were com- 
menced in 1859, in Windsor county, and 
have since been prosecuted to limited ex- 
tent. At Bridgewater, the gold has been 
found in place, in a quartz vein, associated 
with galena, and pyritous copper, and iron. 
It has not proved sufficiently rich to work. 
Through western Massachusetts and Connect- 
icut, and the south-east part of New York, 
and through New Jersey and Pennsylvania, 
the talcose and argillaceous slates, and the 
other rocks of the gold belt, appear to be 
unproductive in this metal, a little gold only 
having been met with in some of the ores 
worked for lead and copper in Lancaster 
county, near the borders of Maryland. 
Specimens of quartz rich in gold have been 
found in Montgomery county, in the last- 
named state ; but no mine has been worked 
there. 

In Virginia the deposit mines of Louisa 
county especially were very productive even 
in 1833, and they had not been worked long 
before rich veins were found, and operations 




nYDKAULIC MINING. 



By this operation, as described in the text, hills of loose materials or of decomposed slates and other 
rocks containing gold, are washed down, and the earthy matters are swept away through the sluices 
made either of wooden troughs or by excavating channels in ihe bed-rock. In these the coarse gold is 
caught against the bars placed at intervals across tlie sluices. This is a purely Californian method, and 
has proved so effectual in collecting the little gold buried in large bodies of earth, that it is now generally 
adopted in other gold regions in which the conditions are favorable for its practice 




TUNNKLLING AT TABLE MOUNTAIN, CALIFORNIA. 



This represents a common method of reaching beds of rich ores that he at considerable depths 
below the surface, by which the labor of removing tlie superficial deposits is avoided. Veins of ores, 
whether lying- at a steep or gentle inclination, are often explored by such tunnels driven in upon their 
course. The sides and roof may he protected or not, as the ground is soft or solid, by timbering. 

At the outside of the tunnel below the railroad track is tlie machine called the "long tom," a shallow 
trough, ten to twenty feet long, and about sixteen inches wide. The lower end, which turns up gently 
from the plane of the bottom, is shod with iron and perforated with holes. The water from the mine is 
turned on the upper end, and flows up this slope and through the holes, carrying with it the finer mud 
and sand which are continually thrown into the tom. One man at the lower end keeps the mud in motion 
and removes the coarse lumps. Under the lower end of the tom is placed a " riflfle box," in which mer- 
cury may be used to advantage if the gold is in fine particles. 




LARGE ROCKER USED IN CALIFORNIA WITH QUICKSILVER. 



The above cut represents a rocker of unusual dimensions, which has lieen introduced in some places 
in California, and is employed particularly for auriferous deposits in which the gold is in too fine particles 
to be caught in the long tom. It is slightly inclined, and is rocked by one man while the others collect 
the gravel and throw it upon the perforated iron plate. Across the bottom of the trough are placed 
"riffle bars," and behind each one of these some mercury. The fine particles of gold coming in contact 
with this are caught and retained in the form of amalgam. The coarse gravel falls off the lower end of 
the plate, while the fine mud and sand are washed by the water through the holes in the plate. 




STAMPS FOR CRUSHING GOLD ORES. 



This cut represents a common form of stamps, such as are used for pulverizing auriferous quartz 
or other ores. They are variously arranged at different mills ; sometimes four or five running in one 
set, and several sets being placed on the same line, but separate from each other. This arrangement is 
more convenient for stopping a portion at a time as may I30 required for repairs or for collecting the very 
coarse gold imder the stamps which cannot pass through the grating or the plates, perforated with many 
holes, that are usually employed in front of the stamps. 



69 



upon these had been carried on to consider- 
able extent previous to 1836, principally in 
the counties of Spottsylvania, Orange, Louisa, 
Fluvanna, and Buckingham. Some of the 
mines produced at times very rich returns, but 
their yield was, for the most part, exceedingly 
irregular, the gold occurring in rich pockets 
or nests, very unequally scattered in the vein. 
The occasional richness of the veins caused 
the attention of wealthy capitalists in this 
country and in England to be directed to 
this region, and large outlays were made, in 
providing powerful engines and other suita- 
ble machinery for working the ores, and in 
opening the mines. But, although the oper- 
ations have been directed by the best mining 
skill, supported by abundant capital, the en- 
terprise, on the whole, has not proved suc- 
cessful, and since 1853 the business has 
greatly declined in importance. 

In North Carolina numerous quartz veins 
have been worked during the last 30 years, 
and operations arc still carried on with mod- 
erate success at several mines in Guilford, 
Davidson, Montgomery, Cabarrus, Rowan, 
and Mecklenburg counties. Deposit mines 
have been worked with great success, also, 
in Burke, Rutherford, and McDowell coun- 
ties. At a single time, it is stated, there 
might have been seen, from one point of 
view in McDowell county, no less than 3,000 
persons engaged in washing the deposits. 
In this district sluice-washing has recently 
been successfully introduced by Dr. Van 
Dyke, who is also engaged in the same proc- 
ess in Georgia. The most important group 
of mines is at Gold Hill, on the southern 
line of Rowan and Cabarrus counties. Min- 
ing operations were begun here in 1843, and 
for 10 years the annual product averaged 
about $100,000; the last four years of this 
period more than one-third of all the gold 
coined at the Charlotte mint was from Gold 
HiU. In 1853 the property was purchased 
by a New York company, by which it has 
since been worked, but with greatly reduced 
profits, although the mines have been fur- 
nished with the most efficient machinery. 
These are the deepest gold mines in the At- 
lantic states, one of the shafts having now 
reached the depth of 680 feet. The ore is pyr- 
itous iron, containing gold in particles rarely 
visible, and probably chemically combined 
with the iron and sulphur in the form of a 
double sulphuret. It is separated with difficul- 
ty, and very imperfectly, by the processes of 
crushing and amalgamating ; and the immense 



heaps of tailings collected below the mines, 
amounting probably to over two million bush- 
els, still retain quantities of gold worth from 
fifty cents to two dollars the bushel. In Da- 
vidson county amine was opened in 1839, 
which produced in the three succeeding 
years about $7,000 worth of gold, when the 
ore was proved to be more valuable for sil- 
ver than for gold. These metals were as- 
sociated with a variety of metallic ores, 
among which the sulphuret, carbonate, and 
phosphate of lead were especially abundant. 
Furnaces were constructed for reducing these, 
and separating the silver obtained with the 
lead. This is the only mine east of the 
Rocky Mountains which has furnished any 
considerable amount of silver to the mint. 
It is now known as the Washington mine. 

Although many gold mines have been 
worked in South Carolina, the only one of 
much note is the Dorn mine, in Abbeville 
district. In 1 850 this mine, then quite new, 
produced gold to the value of $19,000, and 
in 1852 the production rose to $202,216, al- 
though the mine was provided with very im- 
perfect machinery and worked in a very 
rude manner. This large yield was, how- 
ever, of short duration, the gold occurring 
in great quantity only in streaks or pockets 
upon a short portion of the vein. 

The Georgia gold mines, first worked in 
the north-east part of the state in 1829, were 
soon found to extend south-west into the 
country beyond the Chestatee river, which 
was then possessed by the Cherokee Indians. 
In 1830 the borders of this territory were 
overrun by a reckless set of adventurers, not- 
withstanding the attempts made, first by a 
force of United States troops stationed for 
the protection of the Indians, and afterward 
by Georgia troops, when the state extended 
her laws in 1830 over the Cherokee country. 
On the removal of the Indians, their lands 
were distributed in 40 acre lots, by lottery, 
among the inhabitants of the state, and thus 
titles were obtained to the gold mines. The 
deposit mines yielded richly for a few years, 
and the whole product of gold for the first 
ten years of their working is supposed to 
have amounted to $16,000,000, a large por- 
tion of which never reached the United States 
mints, but was distributed in barter through- 
out the neighboring states and worked up in 
jewelry. From 1839 fo 1849 the produc- 
tion did not probably exceed $4,000,000. A 
number of quartz veins were opened in Hab- 
ersham, Lumpkin, Cherokee, Carroll, Colum- 



10 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



bia, and other counties, and considerable 
amounts of gold were obtained from these. 
They were, however, generally abandoned 
when the workings reached a depth at which 
machinery would be required for draining 
the mines. In Cohnnbia county, about 20 
miles from Augusta, the McCormack mine 
has been worked without interruption for 
about 20 years steadily, producing very fair 
profits. The gold is found in small particles 
in a honey-combed quartz, Avhich contains 
but little pyrites and some galena. Nearly 
all the gold was obtained within VO feet of 
the surface. 

In Lumpkin county the gold is found in 
immense beds of decomposed micaceous and 
talcose slates, which, too poor to be worked 
by the slow process of crushing the whole 
material in mills and then washing away the 
earthy matter, Avill probably well repay the 
more thorough system of operations accord- 
ing to the CaUfornia hydraulic process. Af- 
ter these beds had remained neglected for 
many years. Dr. II. M. Van Dyke, who had 
gained experience in California, and already 
applied it in introduefng the system into 
North California, found in Boston, Mass., 
capitalists who agreed to furnish the money 
required for securing the richest tracts in the 
vicinity of Dahlonega, and conveying to 
them the water for washing down the hills 
on the plan, which will be more particularly 
noticed in speaking of the California mines. 
In 1858 he commenced operations, which 
have since been actively conducted ; taking 
the water of the Yahoola river at a point 
about 13 miles above the spot where it will 
be first used, and conveying it by a canal or 
ditch over the more elevated portion of the 
country, crossing the valleys by means of 
sluices supported upon trestle-work, the 
height of which gradually increases with the 
descent of the streams, until at the crossing 
of the Yahoola near Dahlonega the high 
trestle now in construction is at the level of 
240 feet above the bed of the river, with a 
span between the hills of 1,400 feet. Be- 
yond this crossing the canal is to be extended 
two miles further, to reach the rich deposits 
upon which the hose washing will be first 
applied. It is expected that the arrange- 
ments will be completed early in 1861, and 
that from the numerous localities controlled 
by the company, at which the water can be 
used to advantage, the proceeds will revive 
the reputation of the Georgia gold mines. 
Another association was formed in Bostoi> 



in 185*7, called the Nacoochee Hydraulic 
Mining Company, for the purpose of apply- 
ing the same system to the high grounds in 
White county, recently a part of Haber- 
sham, in which are the mines of the Nacoo- 
chee valley and its vicinity, at one period 
highly productive, and where many deposits 
exist at so great an elevation, that no water 
has heretofore been brought to bear upon 
them. By damming the Nacoochee river, 
this company can carry water to these points ; 
and their arrangements are already nearly 
completed. In some experimental trials they 
have, by the use of a current of water that 
would flow through a six-inch pipe, obtained 
several hundred dollars per week with the 
labor of two miners. From one spot more 
than 1,500 dwts. were washed out in small 
nuggets, several of about 1 00 dwts. each, and 
one of 387 dwts. The value of these is $1 
the dwt., and of the gold dust 97 cents. 
The auriferous belt of rocks consists of al- 
ternating beds of micaceous, hornblende, and 
talcose slates and gneiss, which stand nearly 
vertically, and contain between their layers 
bands of quartz. The gold is found in the 
quartz and in the auriferous pyrites accom- 
panj'ing it, and to some extent in the slates 
also. Detached or " free" gold is also met 
with, derived, no doubt, from pyrites which 
has decomposed and disappeared. From 
the general disintegration of the edges of 
these strata, gold has been distributed in the 
deposits around. 

From Georgia, the gold-bearing rocks are 
traced into eastern Tennessee, where they 
have been worked along the range of the 
Coweta and Smoky Mountains; and from 
the south side of the Blue Ridge, in Georgia, 
they have proved productive in a south-west 
direction, through Carroll county, into Ala- 
bama; but the formation is soon lost in the 
last-named state. 

The gold regions along both slopes of the 
Rocky Mountains are, however, the most re- 
markable yet discovered on this continent. 
In Colorado, "the whole range of moun- 
tains seems crowded with veins of rich 
mineral ore. They run into and through 
the hill sides like the bars of a gridiron — 
every hundred feet, every fifty feet, every 
twenty feet." The first and largest develop- 
ment of these rames lies along and up the 
Clear Creek and centres around its sources. 
The principal mining villages of this section 
are Central City, Black Hawk and Nevada. 
Another centre of productive mining interests 



71 



is in tlie South Park. The gold in Colorado 
is combined with sulphur and forms a sort 
of pyrites. This renders its extraction more 
ditBcult ; but processes have lately been de- 
vised which, without increasing materially 
the expense, will raise the production of gold 
per cord of ore to three or five-fold what it 
has hitherto been. There are also large 
deposits of gold in New Mexico and Utah, 
which are not yet developed to any con- 
siderable extent. 

Idaho and Montana are also immensely 
rich in gold mines and placers. The Boise 
Basin, in Idaho, has yielded, and still yields 
to the placer miner in many parts a fair re- 
turn for his labor, and possesses, beside, 
many valuable gold-bearing quartz leads. 
The South Boise has also many valuable 
leads. The Owyhee mines, sixty miles south 
of Boise City. They are almost entirely 
silver-producing, though some gold is ex- 
tracted from the silver. In Montana, the 
placer diggings are yet paying largely, and 
the quartz leads are richer in gold than in 
any section yet discovered; and the two 
localities which have been thus far princi- 
pally worked. Alder Gulch, and the vicinity 
of Helena, about one hundred and fifty 
miles apart, are yielding both gold and sil- 
ver in great profusion. 

Still another region rich in gold, richer 
perhaps than either of the others, though as 
yet developed with difficulty, on account of 
the hostile and treacherous Indians who 
roam over it, is the Territory of Arizona. Its 
gulches and canons abound in the precious 
metal, and it cannot be long before they 
yield in profusion their long hidden wealth. 
The completion of the Pacific railroad will 
soon make this wealth available. 

The most important gold region of the 
United States and of the world is that of 
California. Its development has not only 
largely multiplied the previous gold produc- 
tion of the globe, but it has been the means 
of rapidly bringing into the use of civilized 
nations large territories of productive lands, 
which before were an unprofitable wilderness, 
founding new states, enlarging the commerce 
of the world, and bringing into closer inter- 
course nations which before were the most 
widely separated. At the period when the 
wealth of the gold mines of California began 
to be realized, the annual production of gold 
throughout the world had gradually fallen to 
about"" $20,000,000, and more than half of 
this was furnished by Russia alone. In 1853, 



only five years later, California produced an 
amount estimated at 8*70,000,000, and the 
total production, through the supplies, nearly 
as large, furnished at the same time by 
Australia, had increased to almost double 
this amount. Little was known of California 
previous to the discovery of gold at Sutter's 
mill, on the American fork of the Sacramento, 
in February, 1848; yet its being a country, 
containing gold was made known by Hak- 
luvt in his account of Drake's expedition of 
1577-9, and by Cavello, a Jesuit priest of 
San Jose, Bay of Francisco, who published a 
work on the country in Spain in 1690. Re- 
ports from later travellers confirmed these 
statements at various times, and in Hunt's 
Merchants' Magazine for April, 1 847, a report 
is presented by Mr. Sloat, which speaks in 
very decided terms of the richness of the 
gold placers of the country, as noticed by 
him during his observations of the two pre- 
ceding years. The Rev. C. S. Lyman, in a 
letter written to the editor of the American 
Journal of Science from San Jose, in March 
1848, notices the discovery of the preceding 
month as very promising. In August of that 
year it was reported that four thousand men 
were engaged in working the deposits on the 
American fork, and were taking out from 
$30,000 to $40,000 a day. "This com- 
prised a large portion of the population of 
California. San Francisco was almost de- 
serted, and people were pouring in from 
distant regions. The next year the emigra- 
tion commenced in the United States, both 
by sea around Cape Horn, and across the 
plains and Rocky Mountains in large parties. 
By the close of the year 1849 the number 
of persons engaged in mining was estimated 
at from 40,000" to 50,000 Americans, and 
about 5,000 foreigners: the total product of 
gold at about $40,000,000. The mining 
district was traced up the valley of the 
Sacramento toward the north, and the con- 
tinuation of the same formations up that of 
the San Joaquin in the opposite direction was 
also beginning to be iinderstood. Along the 
valleys of the streams, which flowed into 
these rivers from the Sierra Nevada range to 
the east, gold was almost everywhere found, 
and upon the hills and elevated plains it was 
met with beneath the sands and clays which 
covered the surfoce to the depth of fifteen to 
thirty feet or more ; all the materials, earthy 
and metallic, appearing either to have been 
derived from the superficial disintegration of 
the slaty formations, or to have been depos- 



72 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



ited by ancient rivers, which have since been 
diverted in other directions. Deposits of 
this character were called dry diggings, and, 
except in the wet season, were worked to 
great disadvantage for the want of water to 
separate the earthy matters from the gold. 
In the bottoms of the streams the deposits 
contained much coarse gold, derived from 
the wearing down of the slate formations 
through which they had made their way in 
their rapid descent from the Sierra Nevada 
mountains. By the excavation of the vast 
gulches or ravines of these streams, some of 
which presented precipitous walls of about 
3,000 feet in height, an inmiense amount of 
gold must have been removed from its orig- 
inal beds, which, as the lighter earthy mat- 
ters were swept down the rivers, remained 
behind, forming the riches of the auriferous 
deposits. The country of this peculiar 
character AVlas found to extend along the 
western slopes of the Sierra Nevada for 400 
or 500 miles, and the gold-bearing slates to 
spread over a width of from forty to sixty 
miles. 

Whether or no the natural processes by 
which the gold had been collected from its 
original beds suggested to the California 
miner an improved method of washing the 
auriferous formations upon a gigantic scale, 
it was soon found that the riclmess of the de- 
posits would justify, especially in the dry 
diggings, large outlays in conveying water 
from great distances by canals or ditches, 
and applying this, either under the pressure 
of a great head, to tear up the material from 
its bed and wash away the earthy portions, 
or to wash the auriferous gravels as these 
were carried to the water sluices and thrown 
into them for this purpose. On this plan 
hydraulic operations were soon laid out of 
extraordinary extent. Currents were di- 
verted well up the slope of the Sierra Nevada 
mountains, and conveyed in canals along the 
sides of the hills, 'and in sluices, supported 
upon trestle-work, from one hill to another, 
sometimes at a height of more than 200 feet 
above the bottoms. On the hills where the 
water was required for " hose washing," it 
was taken from the canal or sluice in a large 
and strong canvas hose, to the lower end of 
which a nozzle, like that of a fire engine, was 
attached. The least head for efficient ser- 
vice was about 60 feet, and a head of 100 
feet was used where it could be had and the 
bose would bear it. Large liose and nozzles 
proved much more efficient than several 



smaller ones of equal or even greater capac- 
ity. As estimated by Mr. Wm. P. Blake, 
with a pipe of an inch and a half or two inches 
aperture, and a pressure of 90 feet head, 
a boy can excavate and wash as much aurif- 
erous earth as 10 or 15 men by the ordinary 
methods. In suitable places, where the waste 
water can flow rapidly away though the 
sluices made for its channel and for catching 
the gold, the jet of water is directed against 
the side of a hill, which it rapidly excavates, 
sweeping off the earthy portions, undermin- 
ing the trees, and rolling down the loose 
stones, and, where the ground is favorable 
for the operation, cutting every thing away, 
it may be to a depth of 100 feet from the 
top to the bottom of the excavation, leaving 
behind barren acres of loose stone in un- 
sightly piles — a perfect picture of desola- 
tion. At the close of the year 1858 it was 
estimated that the artificial water-courses al- 
ready constructed for mining purposes in 
California amounted to 5,726 miles in length, 
and their cost to 1113,575,400; and besides 
these there were branches not enumerated, 
and others in construction, to the extent of 
about 1,000 miles more. Among the prin- 
cipal of these canals are the Columbia and 
Stanislaus, in Tuolumne county, which is 
80 miles long, and cost $600,000'; the Butte, 
in Amador county, 50 miles long, cost 
$400,000 ; that of the Union Water Com- 
pany, in Calaveras county, 78 miles long, 
cost $320,000 ; and that of the Tuolumne 
Hydraulic Company, 60 miles long, cost 
$300,000. Notwithstanding the cost of 
these enterprises, they have proved in gen- 
eral highly profitable, paying, after deducting 
the expenses of keeping them up, from one to 
more than five per cent, a month. The water 
is sold to the miners by the canal companies 
at so much per inch of the discharge — this 
being from a horizontal aperture, one inch 
high, at the bottom of a box in which the 
water is kept six inches deep. The length 
of the aperture is regulated by a slide. The 
price has fallen from $3.00 an inch per day 
in 1851, to 50 cents in 1854, and is now 
still less. 

Sluice-washing, which is a necessary part 
of the hydraulic or hose process, is also 
carried on independently of it, and by a 
method which was first adopted in Califor> 
nia. Channels are made sometimes upon 
the surface of the slaty beds in place, the 
ragged edges of which are very favorable for 
catching the gold, or sometimes of boards. 



GOLD. 



73 



in the form of an open trough, a foot or 15 
inches in width, and 8 or ten inches deep, 
which are extended to several liundred feet 
in length. These are set at a suitable slope, 
usually about one in twelve, and " riffle " bars 
are laid across to obstruct the flow of the 
heavy metallic particles which sweep along 
the bottom, while the muddy portions and 
stones are carried over with a flow of the 
water, and discharged at the lower end. 
Fi-esh gravel is continually shoveled into 
the sluices, and once a day, or oftener, these 
are cleaned up to collect the gold from the 
riffles and pools, which are sometimes used 
at the head of one joint of the sluice to re- 
ceive the discharge from the next one above. 
Where the descent is rapid enough to keep 
the pool "in a boil," a considerable jiortion 
of the gold may be caught in it, especially if 
mercury be inti'oduced. 

In 1851, attention began to be turned to 
the quartz veins, or " ledges," as they were 
called, and numerous companies were soon 
established in the United States and in Eng- 
land for carrying on regular mining opera- 
tions upon these. Within five years after, 
many deep shafts had been sunk upon veins 
in different parts of the country, and mills 
wire in ojjeration, furnished with the most 
efficient machinery for crushing and wash- 
ing the ore. The uncertain supply of wa- 
ter, and the great expense attending the pro- 
curing it by canals from a distance, operated 
for a time strongly against the success of 
these works. Upon the Mariposa estate, 
once the property of Gen. J. C. Fremont, 
one of the earliest and mo-t extensive ex- 
periments in quartz mining was made. The 
quartz veins on that estate were not so rich 
as some which have since been discovered 
elsewhere, yielding by the old Mexican pro- 
cess with the arasteus only eight or nine 
dollars to the ton. By a new and improved 
method, known as the " Eureka Process," 
the yield was increased to forty or fifty dol- 
lars per ton, and from the Princeton mine 
alone over three million dollars were taken 
out before 1867. Had this noble property 
been wisely or well managed, it would have 
made the General the wealthiest of Ameri- 
can millionaires ; but, unfortunately, prose- 
cuting his great schemes too rapidly, he fell 
into the hands of men who stri])ped him of 
his grand estate and squandered its profits. 

But whatever may be the ultimate fate of 
this great estate, the success of quartz mining 



in California is assured ; there were in the 
State, in the spring of 1868, 472 quartz 
mills carrying a total of 5,120 stamps, and 
nearly all were doing a profitable business. 
There is, of course, a great difference in the 
yield of different veil s ; some after a period 
of great productiveness, coming upon a con- 
siderable stretch of barren quartz, where the 
yield is insufficient to pay expenses, and then 
passing on to a gangue richer and more pro- 
ductive than the portion of the vein firft 
opened. Others will have the precious 
metal in " chutes " or " chimneys " scattered 
here and there along the course of the vein, 
which are enormously prodiTCtive while the 
intervening portions are entirely barren. 
Others still will yield a steady and very uni- 
form percentage, not large but fair. In 
general it may be said that quartz mining 
yields a more certain though more moderate 
success than any other kind of gold mining. 
The total production of the mines of Cali- 
fornia, from the commencement of extensive 
mining there to the year 1870, was as fol- 
lows, accordiuij to the best authorities : 



1848 $lo,noo,ooo 

1849 40,000,000 

1850, 50,000,000 

1851, 55,000,000 

1852, 60,000,000 

1853, 65,000,(100 

1854 60,000,000 

1855, 55,000,000 

1856, 55,0O(),Oi'0 

1857, 55,.)O(),0O0 

1858, 50 0(10,000 

1859, 50.000,000 



1860, $4 5,000,000 

1861, 40,000,000 

1862, 34,700,('00 

1863, 30,000,000 

1864, 26,600,000 

1865, 28,500,000 

1866 26,500,000 

1867, 25,000,000 

1868, 2S, 000, 000 

1869 27.800,000 

1870, 28,500,000 



$945,600,000 



The deposits of gold at the mint, and its 
branches, for the year ending June oO, 1870, 
were $29,48o,-Uo.45. Of silver, for the 
same time, f 3, •VJ4, 942.51. Total deposits 
$32,990,210.96. 

The coinage for the same period was — 
gold coin, number of pieces, 1,156,087 ; val- 
ue, $22,257,3 1 iJ.'iO ; unparted and fine gold 
bars, $87,846,0.'j2.25 ; silver coin, pieces, 
4,649,398; value, Sl,767,253.50 ; silver 
bars, $902,800.66 ; nickel, copper, and bronze 
pieces, 18,154,000; value, $611,445; total 
number of pieces struck, 23,961,292 ; total 
value of coinage, $.)3,384,863.91. 

New localities are tested by trying the 
earth in different places, by washing it in an 
iron pan or upon a shovel, an experienced 
hand readily throwing the heavy particles 
by themselves, while tlie lighter are allowed 
to flow away. 1 his melhod is one of the 



74 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



means in use for collecting gold upon a 
small scale, and the Mexicans of the gold 
regions, by long practice, are particularly 
expert in it. If a vein is to be tested, the 
quartz is finely crushed, and the powder is 
then washed in the same manner. Gold 
may be thus brought to view when none 
was visible in the stones, however closely ex- 
amined. I>y placing a little mercury or 
quicksilver in the pan, the gold will be more 
perfectly secured, as, by coming in contact 
with each other, these metals instantly unite 
to form a heavy amalgam, and the mercury 
thus holds the finest particles of gold so that 
they cannot escape. The mixture, separated 
from the sand, is squeezed in a piece of thick 
linen or deerskin, through which the excess 
of mercury escapes, leaving the amalgam. 
This may then be heated on a shovel, when 
the mercury goes off in vapor, and the gold 
is left in its original-shaped particles, coher- 
ing together in a cake. If the quantity of 
amalgam is considerable, it is distilled in a 
retort, and the mercury is condensed to be 
used again. This amalgamation fails entirely 
if the slightest quantity of any greasy sub- 
stance is present, as a film of the grease coats 
every portion of the mercury, and eft'ectually 
prevents its contact with the gold. These 
processes contain the principles of nearly all 
the methods in use for separating gold. A 
great variety of machines have been based 
upon them, the simplest of which have proved 
the most valuable. The Burke rocker has 
always been a favorite machine in the south- 
ern states, and has been largely used in Cali- 
fornia by small companies of miners, and in 
localities where operations were not carried 




BURKE ROCKEK. 



on upon a very extensive scale. It is a cradle- 
shaped trough, about six feet long, set on 
two rockers, the upper end a few inches 
higher than the lower, and placed so as to 
receive at its head a current of water from 
the end of a leading trough above. This 
falls upon a perforated iron plate, set as a 
shelf in the machine, and upon this the 
auriferous gravel is thrown. The finer par- 
ticles fall through as the rocker is kept in 
motion by hand, and the coarse gravel rolls 
down to the lower end, and falls off upon 
the ground. Across the bottom of the 
rocker are placed, at intervals of 6 or 8 
inches, low bars or partitions which catch 
the heavy sands, and prevent their being 
washed out of the lower end with the water 
and mud. This lower portion is sometimes 
arranged as a drawer, which can be secured 
by a lock, so that the gold which falls into 
it is safe against robbery. The drawer is 
called the " riffle box." Some rockers are 
mere open troughs without a shelf. The 
" torn" is often preferred to the rocker, which 
it resembles, except in its being a trough 
without rockers, on the plan of the sluices 
already described. Both it and the rocker 
are of convenient size for moving about from 
one place to another, as the working of the 
deposit advances. 

Vein mining requires more efficient ma- 
chinery, and stamping mills are constructed 
as near as may be to the mines, for reducing 
the stony materials to powder, and the sands 
from tlie stamps are passed through a variety 
of machines designed to catch the gold. 
Stamps are solid blocks of the heaviest cast 
iron attached to the end of a wooden or iron 
rod called the leg, to which the lifting cam 
is applied for raising them. They common- 
ly weigh al)Out 300 lbs. each, though in 
California they are made of twice and even 
three times this weight. Several of them 
are set together in a frame side by side, and 
are lifted in succession by the cams upon a 
horizontal shaft, which revolves in front of 
them. The bed in which they stand, and 
into which the ore to be crushed is thrown, 
is sometimes a massive anvil, hollow in the 
top, firmly imbedded in a heavy stick of 
timber, or is formed of stones, beaten by the 
stamps themselves into a solid bed. Water 
is usually supplied in small currents to the 
stamps, and sometimes mercury also is pour- 
ed into the bed. The only exit for the 
crushed materials is through small holes 
punched in a sheet of copper, of which the 




YOSLMlTi: V.VLLLV. 




"■AlUbK Oi' THE 1-OKEM. 




PROSPECTER IN CALIFORNIA GOLD JUNES. 




CHINESE IN CALIFORNIA OuLD MINES. 



GOLD. 



15 



side of the boxing around the stamps is form- 
ed, opposite to that at which the ore is fed. 
Through these holes the mud and water 
are projected with every blow into a capa- 
cious box, the floor of which inclines gently 
back toward the stamp, and contains along 
this edge a quantity of mercury, in which a 
considerable portion of the gold is caught. 
From the box a spout leads the current into 
the other machines, often through an inclined 
trough, in the bottom of which baize or 
blanket stuff is laid for the purpose of en- 
tangling in its fibres the particles of gold 
that are swept along. These are frequently 
taken up and cleaned. Much of the gold, 
however, always escapes them, and the cur- 
rent is variously treated before it is finally 
allowed to flow away. The sands require to 
be more finely pulverized, and the current 
first flows into mills of some sort, as the 
Chilian mill, arrastre, etc. The former con- 
sists of a pair of heavy wheels of granite, from 
four to six feet in diameter when new, set in 
a horizontal frame, one on each side of an 
upright shaft, and carried around with the 
shaft as it revolves upon its axis. The stones 



They revolve in a water-tight box or tub 
upon a granite floor. Sometimes they are 
used in the place of stamps for breaking up 
the coarse ore ; and worked at the rate of 
eight to twelve revolutions a minute, they 
should crush to fine sand from one to two 
tons of quartz in twelve hours. The water, 
which flows in one side the tub, passes out 
over the opposite edge with the light slimo 
and fine mud, while much of the gold re- 
mains in the bottom, caught by the mercury 
placed there to secure it. The arrastre is 
something like the Chilian mill, only instead 
of revolving stones, heavy flat ones are drag- 
ged round with the shaft by chains, secured 
to the horizontal arms. These machines in 
Mexico are worked by horses or mules, but 
in this country by water or steam power. 
The slowness of their operation is not regard- 
ed as an objectionable feature, but on the 
contrary is favorable for eftectually securing 
the gold. Among the simplest and best 
contrivances employed below tlie Chilian 
mill are the " shaking tables." These are 
platforms seven or eight feet long, of plank 
in a single piece, as wide as can be procured. 




CRUSHING MILL, OR ARRASTRE. 



being as close as possible to the shaft, have 
a twisting motion which acts powerfully to 
grind the particles crushed by their weight. 
5* 



The planks, of two inches thickness, are 
worked down from a line across the middle 
to a thin edge at one end, and from the other 



76 



MINING INDUSTRY OP THE UNITED STATES. 



end they are made to diminish to half an 
inch thickness at the line across the middle. 
Each one is furnished with sides, and a strip 
across the thin end of six inches in height, 
the joining made perfectly tight, and is then 
swung between four posts in a horizontal 
position by four rods or chains, which should 
be at least eight feet long. Mercury is pour- 
ed into the two divisions, until they are 
more than half tilled. The sands are made 
to flow in upon the thin end, and are receiv- 
ed upon the surface of the mercury ; and the 
table is made to swing forward and back by 
the revolution of a crank. By the motion 
the sands are mixed in with the mercury, 
and swept along in successive waves, and 
falling over the middle ridge are treated in 
the same manner in the succeeding division. 
The mercury is retained by its weight in the 
depressed portions of the table, and the wa- 
ter and sands are discharged over the open 
end. Of the numerous machines designed 
for effecting the amalgamation of the gold 
patented within the last few years ; few in- 
volve any new principles, but are merely 
modified forms of the old contrivances. Prof. 
A. K. Eaton, of New York, found that amal- 
gamated metallic surfaces could be made to 
collect most completely the very fine parti- 
cles of gold, which by all other processes it 
has been found impossible to secure. The 
use of copper, brass, or zinc proved trouble- 
some and impracticable from the rai^idity 
with which they were dissolved in the mer- 
cury, adulterating the amalgam. An amal- 
gamated iron surface proved to be free from 
this objection, and the following description 
of apj)aratus was finally decided on as the 
most etlicient : A circular plate of wrought 
iron is amalgamated over what is intended 
to be its inferior surface, and an open tube 
is fixed in its center, rising three or four feet 
higli, and furnished at the top with a bowl 
or funnel. This tube and disk are supported 
upon a surface of mercury contained in a 
shallow tub of larger diameter than the disk, 
a frame-work being attached to the tub for 
this purpose. A pulley is fixed upon the 
hollow shaft, so that a belt may be attached 
for causing the disk to rotate upon the mer- 
cury. The sands are fed with water into 
the funnel at the top of the tube, and the 
pressure caused by the height of the column 
carries them down upon tl.e mercurial sur- 
face, and, l)y reason of this p.-essure and the 
centrifugal action of the revolving disk, they 
gradually work outward between this sur- 



face and the amalgamated surface above, be- 
ing pressed an 1 rubbed between them till 
they escape round the circumference of the 
disk, and flow over the edge of the tub. 
Hot water, as in all other modes of amalga- 
mating, is preferable to cold. By this pro- 
cess all free gold, however fine the particles, 
must come in contact with the amalgamated 
surface, and be taken up by the mercury. 
It perfectly separates the gold that in other 
machines floats off in the fine slime. In gold 
ores, especially those of suljihurous character, 
much of the gold is so fine that it remains 
suspended a long time in water, and is en- 
tirely lost. The important feature of this 
invention is the use of an inferior amalga- 
mated surface, against which these floating 
particles are pressed. The pressure is se- 
cured by any desired depth of the mercury, 
but in practice less than an inch above the 
lower edge of the plate is found to be suffi- 
cient. The efficiency of the machine was 
fully tested in November, 1860, at the Gold 
Hill mine, in North Carolina, where good 
results were obtained with it. In the same 
month it was tried at the U. S. assay office, 
N. Y., upon the tailings of the sweeps from 
which all the gold had been extracted that 
could be removed by the amalgamating ma- 
chines in use, and from these it readily sepa- 
rated the remaining portion. 

As remarked in the mention made of the 
Gold Hill mines, when gold is associated 
with iron and copper pyrites it is held very 
tenaciously, as if combined itself with the 
sulphur, like the other metals. However 
finely such ores are i)ulverized, every micro- 
scopic particle of pyi'ites appears to retain a 
portion of gold, and prevent its uniting with 
the mercury. This portion of the gold, con- 
sequently, escapes in the tailings ; and if 
these are kept in refuse heaps, exposed to 
the weather, the pyrites slowly decompose, 
and more gold is continually set free. Thus 
it is the heaps may be washed over with 
profit for many successive years. Roasting 
of the ores is recommended by high authori- 
ties for freeing the gold at once, the effect 
of it being to break up the sulphurets, caus- 
ing the sulphur to escape in vapor, and the 
iron to crumble down in the state of an oxide, 
or an ochreous powder, from which the gold 
is readily separated. This is ol)jected to by 
others, who assert that it involves a great 
loss of gold, which is volatilized or carried 
off mechanically in the sulj)hur fumes. Two 
other methods adopted, since 1857, for the 



GOLD. 



77 



reduction of those ores containing large pro- 
portions of the sulphurets of iron and cop- 
per, deserve notice — viz., the " Sodium Amal- 
gamating Process," and the " Plattner 
Chlorination Process." 

The use of the Sodium in mechanical com- 
bination with mercury to oxidize and thus 
remove more readily the impurities, sulphur, 
arsenic, and antimony, which interfere with 
the reduction or extraction of gold from the 
quartz, was suggested about 1861, and has 
been made the subject of two patents, one 
by Dr. Chas. Wurtz in New York, in 18G4, 
the other by Mr. Crookes, of London, in 
1865. It has proved very successful in Col- 
orado, Nova Scotia, and California, in those 
mines where the gold was so difficult of ex- 
traction, on account of the presence of a 
large percentage of refractory jiyrites. The 
yield of gold from these ores has been in- 
creased from 20 to 30 per cent. The sodium 
is however as yet so costly, that it is only 
the richer ores in which it pays, commercial- 
ly, to use it. Amalgams are now put up 
according to the formulte of the patentees, 
containing the requisite quantity of sodium 
in combination with other metallic com- 
pounds. These are to be used, according 
to the amount of concentration, with from 
20 to 150 times their weight of mercury. 
The Amalgam varies from $1.25 to $1.75 
per pound. Recently it has been announc- 
ed that cyanide of potassium was to be 
preferred for this purpose to sodium — 
while it is much cheaper. The Plattner 
chlorination process requires as a prelimin- 
ary a double roasting of the ores, the first 
time at a low heat to oxidize the ore and 
burn out, as far as possible, the sulphurets 
and other impurities, and the second time, at 
a higher heat, to decompose the metallic salts 
formed at the first roasting. If sulphates 
of lime and magnesia are present they are 
removed by the addition of some common 
salt to the roasting mass. When the roast- 
ing is completed the ore is discharged from 
the furnace and allowed to cool, and then 
being damped is sifted into a large vat, lined 
with bitumen, and having a false bottom on 
which rests a filter composed of broken 
quartz and sand. The vat is provided with 
a close-fitting cover which can be luted on 
and made air-tight. The chlorine is then 
generated in a leaden vessel by means of 
sulphuric acid, and conducted into the bot- 
tom of the vat through a leaden pipe. As 
it passes up through the ore more ore is 



sifted in and the vat is gradually thoroughly 
charged with the gas, when the cover, having 
been luted on and all escape prevented, and 
the whole allowed to stand for twelve or 
eighteen hours the gold is completely chlori- 
dized. Water is then introduced which ab- 
sorbs the chlorine and dissolves the chloride 
of gold, and a stream of water is permitted to 
run in at the top of the vat till the lixiviation 
is complete. The residue in the vat is then 
thrown away, and the solution of chloride of 
gold goes to the precipitating vat when a 
solution of proto-sulphate of iron is added 
to it, and it is permitted to stand for eight 
or ten hours. The water is then carefully 
drawn off, the precipitated gold collected 
upon a paper filter, dried, melted and run 
into bars. This gold will be, if the process 
is carefully conducted, 999 fine, or almost 
absolutely pure gold. 

In the " branch mining " of the southern 
states, deposits worked by the rocker are 
regarded as profitable which pay a penny- 
weight or nearly one dollar per day to the 
hand employed. The great beds of decom- 
posed slates of Georgia can be worked to 
profit when they yield from four to five cents 
worth of gold to the bushel of stuff, or about 
100 lbs. weight; but the mill for crushing 
and washing it must then be close at hand. 
The proportion of the gold, in this case, is 
less than 2 parts in 1,000,000. The hard 
quartz ores must contain nearly or quite 20 
cents worth of gold in the bushel, especially 
if they are pyritiferous. 

Although the gold is obtained in a metal- 
lic state, it differs very much in value in dif- 
ferent localities. Deposit gold from the 
vicinity of Dahlonega, in Georgia, is worth 
93 cents the pennyweight ; that of Hart 
county, in the same state, 98 cents ; of Car- 
roll county, Georgia, and Chesterfield dis- 
trict, South Carolina, $1.02 ; of Union coun- 
ty, Georgia, or the Tennessee line, 72 cents ; 
Charlotte, North Carolina $1.00 ; and that 
of Burke county. North Carolma, only 50 
cents. The average fineness of California 
gold is found to be from 875 to 885 parts in 
1,000, which is very near that of our gold 
coin, viz , 900 in 1,000. The native gold 
from Australia has from 960 to 966 parts in 
1,000 pure gold, and some from the Chau- 
diere, in Canada, 877.3 pure gold, and 122.3 
silver ; another specimen §92.4, silver 107.6. 
The specific gravity of the metal has been 
increased by casting from 14.6 in the native 
state to 17.48. 



78 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



_J OO.-l-^C*><0OO^H00±-i— IMCO^ 

"5 o in CD m o CO lO -^IH^^ oi^ rc^ -^^^ t- 05^ CO t-__ 
E-" o~ co' co" ■-<" t- o" -*~ --<" t-' co" i-<" oo" o' CO c-i" 

p-HOCOC^lT-t-OOOOOt-COOlCl'^O 
^ Iff of 



5=^ 
og 



o t~ -^ to 

o CO . Ti* c-1 
' oi *^ , I— t CO 



o o 

O CO 

■ «o a> 



-tj o 



w 




CU 




H^ 




w 


, 


ft 


tf« 


< 


« M 


1-4 


^. 


w 




(:1h 






<A 


r/f 


6 


W 


^ 


H 




<^ 


-^ 


H 




CO 




o 


SK 


W 


a 


H 




12; 


H 


P 




w 




a 


rt 


H 


rn 




Ih 


(^ 




O 


o 


H 




(25 




1 


5n 



©OOOOOOCOOO^l-OJ 
OOOOOOOCOurS-^Ol:- 

t— OiiOl:-C0r-'Ot--^COCOi— ( 
Jt-COOCOCJCQOOCICOCDOOJ 
1— (t}(iOCOCOC<1'— l<Mr— imiOr-l 

■ •<*" 1— r t— ' ai" fo~ (m" r-T ■riT o" io~ of oT 

-*CSOCOOTCOCOl:-CO'*Ot-iO 
^•^ COOlCOt-COCDTjHurjCOoS 



0000O5O31— ICOCOOO 
■CO00CO0000«Or-Oi-* 



CO O t- 00 t- ■^ 
0> I:- t~ t- rH O 

■^ O 05 i-H 00 C^ 



O 05 1^ 05 t" ^ 
O 05 05 CO O <M 
•^ -rji ^ t~ CO r-t 

of «5"co"o4" 



OOOOOOOOOOOOOO 
OOOOOOOOOiOOOOO 

OOOii^-^OOcMp-lCOOCillOO 

o^t-oi'— 'Cf5<^'■-'^cO'-lTJ^coa3 

OSCOCOurS'— '"^"^O^iCDlr-OJiOCOrH 

• co"cd~co'o"'fl'of co'i— 1 1-"!— T'* cfToo'o 

. CO «0 r-H l-H <M 



ocooooiosoomwooomoio 

Oco<MO>OCOOC~5(MOOOCDOI- 

.mcoc<icot-co»oiooic^a^iococo 
• t- of ctT T^ oT T^r co" r-i r-i ta of •<^'' 

(B 5 s; >^ '-' '-' 

ooooooooooooooo 
ooooooooooooooo 

jooco-*oo-*ooooo)cooin>raio 
jrtSoocococcco-t-toicooi^Hot-o 
"S ~ o m CO o CO t-__ Tff oi o o co__ (j> 00 t-H co__ 
^ "p o" cT co" of of ot" ctT in" lo" cT of of co" to a^ 

?5?^ — 000Tt4-.^0-* Olrl 1-1 

ft ,-1 in CO l-H rl 

^^^of^- 



o-^cooi-^oicoot-mjr-int-o 

oa30oco05iooio-^a50oi-oi 

•ooioccooiOcoojcoGocDiracot- 

* t-^ co" i-" of i.o' of co" of co' oo' r-T cf" aS lo" 

Ol-HUD0»C0CO00mO)OlO» rni-H 



i— t- t— 

. So 00 00 

•E O O O 

CU ■^ooooooo50i-Hoicor)<iaco-.-^w- 
c>ojcO'H<'^inioiomioio»ooioo 
oooooooooooooooooooooooocooooo 



o> -^ 

03 r-l 

a<y> -^ 

~ CO CO 

E CO lO 
.2-:i<"oo'" 
;s o oj 

~^ 05 Tt( 



.2io in 
fe oo 00 



CO t/J <s 



.S 00 CO 

C l-H OI 
gOl CO 

*" oTco" 

sO OI 

Q oi m 
oToT 



Ol 



o CO t- 
'C lO m 
» CO oo 

PUnH rH 



2-H I- 
B 00 CO 

i: oi o 

^ T)< CO 

U CO oo_ 

l-H OI 



o ■* lO 
"Emm 
« 00 00 

P< ft r-t 



^OJMC5001-^COt-lt--*OOC0 01 
olOJOSOOCOt-OOt— i-Hi-H--t(01COt— 

"Scomi-HOir-t-coinmcocorHoi 
H of of r-''o"o~t-"co'"i-H-^' co'of cTco" 

1— If-Ht— 00t-t-O00i-H00O1i003 

f-H COlflt— i-OlJ5Ti40Jl-HT^ 

*^ Tfoo'crTof 



oi -i!j't-HCOOl-<l(C0i-Ht--*0005OI 

■g oioit-oooot-i— ir-i--t*oicoi— 

£ •i-HO>ocoi:-commcoco^o) 

^ * r-T ctT irT ■*" t-^ co" i-T i-T co" of oo' co" 



o! CO t- oi o o 
a o l-H CO CO -^ 
5 o> r— o lo o 



CO 



(^ 

M 
O 

p aJo o 

^ OI OI r- 

gr- ^ 

a 

■5 T, =o ^ 

<; jfco M 

M gt-'of 



"o 


CO 


00 


CO 


o 


00 


Ol 


C3 CO 


tH ■* 


O 


■* 






^ 








3 


©* 







JT- 



pL)000005Oi-HO>C0'<*mC0l:-00OT 

coTt<T^ioiominiomioioicio 

00000000000000000000000000 



GOLD. 



70 



O CD CO 05 r- C-l 
O oo irj -^ TjH CO 

"5 to 00 (M Jt- CD IM 

■g O 00 05 CD r- in 
t; «^05 lO O CO C-J 

fc" cd" crT cd" lo" lo" 

rH rt t- t- t- O 
C<1 M rH 1— I C<l 



J O O 113 
<2<M r-i CV5 

s: CO 00 iM 



^G- ^ 


i-i r- 


a 




S «D t- 


. i- • eq 


o O r- 


o • o 




00 I:- 


\a iM 






w^ 




O CO 


00 CO r- 1—1 


:0 O 


r-l CO Tjt CD 



^ 



-J! 

O 
PS 
< 

w 

H 

O 

H 
O 

)-^ 

<1 
td 
u 

E-T 

(z; 

w 
;?; 

« 

PQ S 



i: t- ^ >0 O CD 05 
"S I- C5 in CO l:- 00 

C c<) 00 CO lO CO •* 

(3 oo" CD' t-^ o" lo" c<r 

00 as irj t- t- 00 



^ 



g ■* in CD 1- 00 05 

p in in in in in in 
•-< 00 00 00 00 00 00 



E-ico 



a 



in (M o I— I o t™ 
oo CO 00 CD o in 

r- ir- C<l O C5 *— I 

©" o" o" co" o" in" 

i:- O (M I— I CO O 

CO CO CO CO •<i( CO 



' rH eq in 

i-H CD CO 
>-l CO ■* 



© o o o o o o 
! o o o o o © o 



, in © -^ Ci^oo 
KJ fo~--r(M''co'"in''-*~i-r 
. -^ 1— I I-I 1-H (M CD CD 
5D.-I 

o © © © © © © 

^•©©©©©©o 
£t-inco05e^-*t- 

f.r-©<MC<ll:-CD00 

rj oroTocTir-^in^t— ~t-^ 

Cqmi^-©l:-CO(M 

; in CO CO CO c^ CO w 



4e- 



»0 "-H 

•go 



P-i 00 00 Oi O 1— I fM 
CC -^ tJI lO lO lO IC 
CO 00 00 CO 00 00 00 



oooooooot-tciTttao-^ 

» ^-i lO CC OS O' UC OS c- ■ 






iOC^^<NOSGOh-aOMO» 
.', b-C0C^5CC^5DOsO5OS 
• O O^Ol •— — '^^'<r TT w «o 

o ■^*" V oT -- tr" ^' ccT o" 

CO — C^*Ci-<^CO 
«^C4C0COC4 



-^ ggoooo 

^"^ t , ift 1-H O ift 



mOOOOOOOO e^ 

gooooocoo ^tH 
'S^d^i^T^ ^r-'C>Oi v:i -co 



.oooo<oooi^ccos(0'**»-' 

^ ^ CO <0 ■* CO CO (TJ -^ b- «0 I— 1^ 5-" CO 
HH ^lO t^ ^*-- <>* C^ CO OJ <» O OS *S01 



Jrt-*oc^o»coso'«*<»n'*c^»no 

CP OS Ol C^ <M 1-1 



^OoOOOpOOt-'OOiOOift 

pOOOOOOOOCMtr-CO<MCO 

;=;r— — -COOCOCOOOOCOCOCOG^O 

co^^r^c■JOco■^«:JcO"OlQow — 

Jj ■^ — CO *~^C^ *»• OS OS ^^ b" O CS CO 

f^ *rrocrt* »o'cd *-'"co'»i5"os"»rf Qco^"^ 



c o oo o oo 



SS! 



COCOCOOt;-^C&— ■* 
5 CO -^ UD O^OS^TT O 00 ^ 



^s 



00000sOT-nMC0*^lft«?^-000> 
CO"*^iO»ft*'^ii^»OtOir^«400 
CO</3CO00CO0000QDQ00D000D0D 



Oi— «o o <D*n 

Of-<t-( OrPC^ 

' t- tC OS «D OS -*< 

^ t- GO (N CO '. ' OS 
'*^ '-;<O^'~;00^<D <© 

H <>» ift 00 ^ (N CO 
<N O *0 OS t— t^ 

OS irf"^ OS oT"-^ 



OOCO — t^O»CD 



O T-H ^* 



. © r^ O © «0 O 
^« O r- OS O '^ (M 

g Jr «£> CO fr- — *^ 

(C "^ 00 ;i Os_*0 00 
;^ ^- toaToi o'^ 

03 c* fM *C OS tc OS 
O '^.- '^r "^^ '^ ^ 

Oi tft' crT OS oT ^ 

^C5r-. 1-111 



o «oo o o 
; ocoio — CO 



; S "^ CO o o o 

5 ^ oo O iCi»£5 



c o ooso o o 

^^o o C^OOO 

2*n OtMcO-^O 

2 OS '^* *c «o »n o 

«« CO «© O CC CO t- 
OQ 



^o ooSoS 

'o «o o ic OS tr c» 

>- <-" »ni o oo o e^ 

c3 Os__b- (/J CD O (-( 



.28S§SS§ 

^^OOO-H ^<o 
otCO l-» (N CO O CO 
^ -^ CQ Os^iC »0 -tf 



" »0 (O b- 00 o» 
> 00 00 00 00 00 



in 


TT t-OltOtOOi 








M too 






o 

CO 


■je lO o CO 00 a CO 

>> C ■* 0-. ■£ 00 Tp 
H C^ <0 <M 00 Oi CM 






^OO) 


w 




o. 


^ 


«» 




p 


oS 




•-5 








go o 




r\ 


Buj -o 


— en 


Er. 


• OlM 




CO m 










«■* 


©1 


ja«& 




H 


O 




O 


o 


o 


!<=. 


gu5 . . 






Is • • 


• •:5^ 


CP 


<^S 




n 






^ 


sS 


Ji^ 


«< 

H 




O. 

co' 


k5 







S oocoo»-"=S« 

^r-t-omir- 

c! o. >- W — iC (M 
•2 i— 'J5 t- CM O (M 

O rJ." (C t- O « 
^♦-1 f^ ^ ■•1' 00 CO CO 

"5 _,'to' (n' t-Tcj 



W 

W . 
H So 



1^' 



03 CO 

. a> CM 
• c^ o 

CO^C3 



h-( S^O *C0 'OS 






JiO <M g 



■ (T) O 
CN^CO 



go O OiocM 
O CD . ^ «0 t— (X» 



o o o» o »- 



rfO OCC 



a 

H 

o 

z ^ 

i? O 

B 

M 



-co T- OS ?0 OS 

g. ■«# CO QO CO 
•fc- <N C^ CM 






CO 00 CO 



Is- 



^o 



i ltg|ss§ 

CC = a & rt J S 



80 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



The most important use of gold is as a 
medium of exchange. For this purpose it 
is converted into coin at the mints, and into 
bars or bullion at the government assay of- 
fice. In this form a large portion of the re- 
ceipts from California is immediately ex- 
ported from New York to make up the bal- 
ance of foreign trade. Each bar is stamped 
with marks, representing its fineness and 
weight, and may continue to be thus used, 
or when received at foreign mints, is convert- 
ed into coin. A large amount of gold is 
consumed in jewelry, trinkets,' watches, and 
plate, and still more in the form of gold- 
leaf. This last being worn out in the using, 
or being distributed in too small quantities 
together to pay for recovering it, is altogether 
lost to the community, after the articles have 
served the purpose intended. This loss in 
the time of James I. was considered so 
serious, that a special act was passed, re- 
stricting the use of gold and silver-leaf, ex- 
cept for specified objects, which, singularly 
enough, were chiefly for military accoutre- 
ments. Gold employed in the recently in- 
vented process of electrotyping, in which 
large quantities are consumed, is similarly 
lost in the using. 

Besides the use of gold-leaf in gilding, it is 
employed quite largely by dentists as the 
best material for filling teeth. They also 
use much gold plate and wire for securing 
the artificial sets in the mouth. In book- 
binding, gold is consumed to considerable 
extent for lettering and ornamenting the 
backs of the books. The manufacture of 
gold-leaf is carried on in various places, both 
in the cities and country. It is a simple 
process, known in ancient times, but only of 
late years carried to a high degree of per- 
fection. The ingots, moulded for the pur- 
pose, and annealed in hot ashes, are rolled 
between rollers of polished steel, until the 
sheet is reduced from its original thickness 
of half an inch to a little more than ^ i^ of 
an inch, an ounce weight making a strip ten 
feet long and 1^ inches wide. This is an- 
nealed and cut into pieces an inch square, 
each weighing about six grains. A pile is 
then made of 150 of these pieces, alternating 
with leaves of fine calf-skin vellum, each one 
of which is four inches square, and a number 
of extra leaves of the vellum are added at 
the top and bottom of the pile. The heap, 
called a tool or kutch, is slipped into a 
parchment case open at the two ends, and 
this into a similar one, so that each side of 



the pack is protected by one of the case. It 
is placed upon a block of marble, and then 
beaten with a hammer weighing sixteen 
pounds, and furnished with a convex face, 
the effect of which is to cause the gold to 
spread more rapidly. The workman wields 
this with great dexterity, shifting it from one 
hand to the other, without interfering with 
the regularity of the blow. The pack is oc- 
casionally turned over, and is bent and rolled 
in the hands to cause the gold to extend 
freely between the leaves, as it is expanded. 
The gold-leaves are also interchanged to ex- 
pose them all equally to the beating. When 
they have attained the full size of the vellum, 
which is done in about twenty minutes, they 
are taken apart, and cut each one into four 
pieces, making 600 of the original 150. 
These are packed in gold-beater's skin, and 
the pack is beaten as before, but with a 
lighter hammer, until they are extended 
again to sixteen square inches. This oc- 
cupies about two hours. The gold-leaves 
are then taken out, and spread singly upon 
a leather cushion, where they are cut into 
four squares by two sharp edges of cane, ar- 
ranged in the form of a cross. To any 
other kind of a knife the gold would adhere. 
These leaves are again packed, 800 together, 
in the finest kind of gold-beater's skin, and 
expanded till each leaf is from 3 to 31 
inches square. The aggregate surface is 
about 1 92 times larger than that of the orig- 
inal sheet, and the thickness is reduced to 
about the yjoVo o ^^ ^^ inch. The beating 
is sometimes carried further than this, es- 
pecially by the French, so that an ounce of 
gold is extended over 160 square feet, and 
its thickness is reduced to 2 3 4V0 o ^^ ^" inch, 
or even to oj oVo o- When the pack is open- 
ed, the leaves are carefully lifted by a pair 
of wooden pliers, spread upon a leather 
cushion by the aid of the breath, and cut 
into four squares of about 31 inches each, 
which are immediately transferred one by 
one between the leaves of a little book of 
smooth paper, which are prevented from ad- 
hering to the gold-leaves by an application 
of red ochre or red chalk. Twenty-five 
leaves are put into each book, and when fill- 
ed, it is pressed hard, and all projecting edges 
of the gold are wiped away with a bit of 
linen. The books are then put up in pack- 
ages of a dozen together for sale. 

An imitation gold-leaf, called Dutch gold- 
leaf, is used to some extent. It is prepared 
from sheets of brass, which are gilded, and 



LEAD. 



81 



beaten down in the manner already described. 
When new it appears like genuine gold- 
leaf, but soon becomes tarnished in use. 
Party gold-leaf is formed of leaves of gold 
and of silver, laid together and made to unite 
by beating and hammering. It is then beaten 
down like gold-leaf. 

The gold-beater's skin used in this manu- 
facture is a peculiar preparation made from 
the .caecum of the ox.. The membrane is 
doubled together, the two mucous surfaces 
face to face, in which state they unite firmly. 
It is then treated with preparations of alum, 
isinglass, whites of eggs, etc., sometimes 
with creosote, and after being beaten be- 
tween folds of paper to expel the grease, is 
pressed and dried. In this way leaves are 
obtained 5i inches square, of which moulds 
are made up, containing each 850 leaves. 
After being used for a considerable time, the 
leaves become dry and stiff, so that the gold 
cannot spread freely between them. To 
remedy this, they are moistened with wine 
or with vinegar and water, laid between 
parchment, and thoroughly beaten. They 
are then dusted over with calcined selenite 
or gypsum, reduced to a fine powder. The 
vellum, which is used before the gold-beater's 
skin, is selected from the finest varieties, 
and this, too, after being well washed and 
dried under a press, is brushed over with 
pulverized gypsum. 

In the great exhibition at London in 1851, 
machines were exhibited from the United 
States, and also from Paris, which were de- 
signed for gold-beating, and it was supposed 
they would take the place of the hand proc- 
ess. They have been put into operation at 
Hartford, in Connecticut, but after being 
tried, they have been laid aside for the old 
method. 



CHAPTER IV. 

LEAD. 

Lead is met with in a great number of 
combinations, and has also been found in 
small quantity, at a few localities in Europe, 
in a native state. The common ore, from 
which nearly all the lead of commerce is ob- 
tained, is the sulphuret, called galena, a com- 
bination of 86.55 per cent, of lead and 13.45 
of sulphur. It is a steel gray mineral of bril- 
liant metallic lustre when freshly broken, and 
is often obtained in large cubical crystals : the 



fragments of these are all in cubical forms. 
The ore is also sometimes in masses of gran- 
ular structure. Very frequently galena con- 
tains silver in the form of sulphuret of that 
metal, and gold, too, has often been detected 
in it. The quantity of silver is estimated by 
the number of ounces to the ton, and this 
may amount to 100 or 200, or even more; 
but when lead contains three ounces of silver 
to the ton this may be profitably separated. 
Ores of this character are known as argentif- 
erous galena ; if the silver is more valuable 
than the lead they are more properly called 
silver ores. In Mexico and Germany such 
are worked, but not in the United States. 
Galena is easily melted, and in contact with 
charcoal the sulphur is expelled and the lead 
obtained. The ore is found in veins in rocks 
of diff'erent geological formations, as in the 
metamorphic rocks of New England, the 
lower Silurian rocks of Iowa, Wisconsin, 
and Missouri, in limestones and sandstones 
of later age in New York and the middle 
states, belonging to higher groups of the Ap- 
palachian system of rocks, and in the new red 
sandstone of Pennsylvania at its contact with 
the gneiss. 

Carbonate of lead is another ore often as- 
sociated with galena, though usually in small 
quantity. It is of light color, whitish or 
grayish, commonly crystallized, and in an im- 
pulse form is sometimes obtained in an earthy 
powder. At St. Lawrence county. New 
York, large quantities of it have been col- 
lected for smelting, and were called lead 
ashes. The ore may escape notice from its 
unmetallic appearance, and at the Missouri 
mines large quantities were formerly thrown 
aside as worthless. It contains 77.5 per 
cent, of lead combined with 6 per cent, of 
oxygen, and this compound with 16.5 per 
cent, of carbonic acid. Beautiful crystals of 
the ore, some transparent, have been ob- 
tained at the mines on the Schuylkill, near 
Phoenixville. Pennsylvania ; the Washington 
mine, Davidson county. North Carolina ; and 
Mine La Motte, Missouri. 

Another ore, the phosphate or pyromor- 
phite, has been known only as a rare min- 
eral until it was produced at the Phoenixville 
mines so abundantly as to constitute much 
the larger portion of the ores smelted. It is 
obtained in masses of small crystals of a green 
color, and sometimes of other shades, as 
yellow, orange, brown, etc., derived from the 
minute portions of chrome in combination. 
With these a variety of other compounds of 



82 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



lead are mixed, together witli phosphate of 
lime and tiuoride of calcimn, so that the per- 
centage of the metal is variable. The com- 
pounds of lead met -with at these mines are 
the sulphuret, sulphate, carbonate, phosphate, 
arseniate, molybdatc, chromate, chromo-mol- 
vbdate, arsenio-phosphate, and antimonial 
argentiferous. Besides all these, a single 
vein contained native silver, native copper, 
and native sulphur, three compounds of zinc, 
four of copper, four of iron, black oxide of 
manganese, sulphate of barytes, and quartz. 
The eastern portion of the United States 
is supplied with lead almost exclusively from 
Spain and Great Britain, but the western 
states are furnished with this metal from 
mines in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Missouri. 
The lead veins of the eastern and southern 
states are of little importance. In Maine the 
ores are found in Cobscook Bay, near Lubec 
and Eastport, in limestone rocks near dikes 
of trap. Amine was opened in 1832, and 
a drift was carried in about 155 feet at the 
base of a rocky clift' on the course of the 
vein ; it was then abandoned, but operations 
have recently been recommenced. In New 
Hampshire argentiferous galena is found in 
numerous places, but always in too small 
quantity to pay the expenses of extraction. 
At Shelburne a large quartz vein was worked 
from 1846 to 1849, and three shafts were 
sunk, one of them 275 feet in depth. The 
ore was found in bunches and narrow streaks, 
but in small quantity. Some of it was 
smelted on the spot, and live tons were 
shipped to England, which sold for £16 per 
ton. The richest yielded 84 ounces of silver 
to the ton. Another vein of argentiferous ga- 
lena has been partially explored at Eaton, and 
this is most likely of any to prove valuable. 
Massachusetts, also, contains a number of 
lead veins, none of which have proved prof- 
itable, though some of them have been 
worked to considerable extent. The most 
noted are those of Southampton and East- 
hampton. Operations were commenced at 
the former place in 1765 upon a great lode 
of quartz containing galena, blende, copper 
pyrites, and sulphate of barytes. It is in a 
coarse granitic rock near its contact with the 
red sandstone of the Connecticut valley. 
About the year 1810 an adit level was 
boldly laid out to be driven in from 1,100 to 
1,200 feet, to intersect the vein at 140 feet 
below the surface. A single miner is said to 
have worked at it till his death, in 1828, 
when it had reached the length of 900 feet. 



At different times this adit has been pushed 
on, and when last abandoned, in 1854, it was 
supposed to be within a few feet of the vein. 
The rock was so excessively hard that the 
cost of driving the adit was about 825 per 
foot. Lead veins are found in Whately, Hat- 
field, and other towns in Hampshire county. 

In Connecticut, also, several veins have 
been worked to some extent. That at Mid- 
dletown, referred to in the introductory re- 
marks as one of the earliest opened mines in 
the United States, is the most noticeable. 
It is unknown when this mine was first 
worked. In 1852 operations were renewed 
upon it, and a shaft sunk 120 feet below the 
old workings. The vein is among strata of 
a silicious slate, in some places quite rich, 
but on the whole it has proved too poor to 
work. The ore contained silver to the value 
of from $25 to §75 to the ton of lead. 

Lead mines have been opened in New 
York, in Dutchess, Columbia, Washington, 
Rensselaer, Ulster, and St. Lawrence coun- 
ties. In the first four of these the ore is 
found in veins near the junction of the meta- 
morphic slates and limestones. The Ancram 
or Livingston mine, in Columbia county, has 
been worked at different times at consider- 
able expense, but with no returns. A mine in 
Northeast, Dutchess county, was first opened 
by some German miners in 1740, and ore 
from it was exported. The Committee of 
Public Safety, during the revolutionary war, 
sought to obtain supplies of lead from it. 
The lead veins of this part of New York have 
attracted more interest, on account of their 
highly argentiferous character, than the quan- 
tity of ore they promise would justify ; but 
it seems to be almost universally the case 
throughout the United States that the galena 
yielding much silver fails in quantity. The 
Ulster county mines are found on the west 
side of the Shawangunk mountain in the 
strata of hard grit rock which cover its west- 
ern slope. At different places along this 
ridge veins have been found cutting across 
the strata in nearly vertical lines, and havo 
produced some lead, zinc, and copper. The 
Montgomery mine, near Wurtsboro, in Sul- 
livan county, was chiefly productive in zinc. 
Near EUenville, Ulster county, several veins 
have been followed into the mountain, and 
one of these, which was worked in 1853, 
afforded for a short time considerable quan- 
tities of rich lead and copper ores. From 
the former there Avere smelted about 459,000 
pounds of lead, and the sales of the latter 



LEAD. 



83 



amounted to from 60 to 70 tons, of which 50 
tons yielded 24.3 per cent, of copper. Where 
the vein was productive it contained the rich 
ores unmixed with stony gangues, and some- 
times presenting a thickness of five feet of 
pure ore ; where it became poor it closed in 
sometimes to a mere crack in the grit rock, 
and then the expense of extending the work- 
ings became very great from the extreme 
hardness of this rock. Open fissures were 
met with, one of which was more than 100 
feet long and deep, and in places 12 feet or 
more wide. It was partially filled with 
tough yellow clay, through which were dis- 
persed fragments of sandstone, magnificent 
bunches of quartz crystals, and lumps of lead 
and copper ores. The walls on the sides 
also presented a lining in places of the same 
ores. A drift was run into the base of the 
mountain about 200 feet, and a shaft was 
sunk at the foot of the slope about 100 feet. 
The expense of working in the hard rock 
proved to be too great for the amount of ore 
obtained, and the mine was abandoned in 
1854, although its production, for the extent 
of ground opened, has been exceeded by but 
few other mines in the eastern states. The 
most promising veins in the state are those 
of St. Lawrence county in the vicinity of 
Rossie. They occur in gneiss rock, which 
they cut in nearly vertical lines. One of 
these was opened along the summit of Coal 
Hill, and was worked m 1837 and 1838 by 
an open cut of 440 feet in length, to the 
depth, in some places, of 180 feet. In 1839 
the mine was abandoned, after the company 
had realized about $241,000 by the sale of 
some 1,800 tons of lead they had extracted. 
The galena was remarkably free from blende, 
and from pyritous iron and copper, which 
(especially the first-named) are so often asso- 
ciated with the ore, rendering it difiicult to 
smelt. Calcareous spar, often finely crystal- 
lized, formed the gangue of the vein. A 
nearly transparent crystal, weighing 1 65 lbs., 
is preserved in the cabinet of Yale College. 
Other attempts have been made to work the 
mine ; and the cause of its being allowed to 
lie idle appears to be the difliculty of nego- 
tiating a mining right with the proprietors. 

In Pennsylvania the most productive lead 
mines ^re those of Montgomery and Chester 
counties, found in a small district of 5 or 6 
miles in length by 2 or 3 in width, at the 
line of contact of the gneiss, and red shale 
and sandstone. About 12 parallel veins 
have been discovered, extending north 32° 



to 35° east, and dipping steeply south-east. 
In the gneiss they are productive in lead ores, 
and in the red shale in copper. The gneiss 
is decomposed, and the vein itself is in 
considerable part ochreous and earthy, ow- 
ing to decomposition of pyritous ores. In 
this material, called by the miners gossan, 
silver has been discovered amounting to 10 
ounces to the ton. The two principal mines 
of this group are the Wheatley and the Ches- 
ter County. The former was opened in 1851, 
and up to September, 1854, had produced 
1,800 tons of ore, principally phosphate, esti- 
mated to yield 60 per cent, of metal. In 
this vein the great number of varieties of 
lead and other ores enumerated above were 
met with. The Chester County Mining Com- 
pany commenced operations in 1850, and 
up to November, 1851, had raised and smelted 
190,400 lbs. of ore, almost exclusively phos- 
phate, which produced about 47 per cent, of 
lead. The silver in this ore amounted to 
about 1.6 ounce in 2,000 lbs. ; in the galena 
associated with it the silver was found in 
quantities varying from 11.9 to 16.2 ounces; 
the coarser grained galena giving the most, 
and the fine grained the least. In connec- 
tion with the furnaces for smelting the ores, 
was one for separating the silver by cupella- 
tion, and a considerable amount of silver was 
obtained before the mining operations were 
abandoned, in 1854. 

Lead ores are found along the Blue Ridge, 
in Virginia, and at one point, near the cen- 
tral portion of its range across the state, a 
mine has been worked for a number of years. 
They are also met with in several of the gold 
mines, but not in workable quantities. In 
south-west Virginia and east Tennessee the 
ores are found in the silurian limestones, and 
a considerable number of mines have been 
worked to moderate extent in both states. 
The most important one is the Wythe lead 
mine, 16 miles from Wytheville, which was 
worked in 1754. It is in a steep hill on the 
border of New River, a fall upon which, near 
the mine, affords power for raising the water 
required in dressing the ores, and also for 
producing the blast for the furnace. Several 
shafts have been sunk, one of which extend- 
ing down to the adit — a depth of 225 feet — 
is used as a shot tower. The ores are ga- 
lena, with more or less carbonates intermixed. 
The product for 1855 is stated to have been 
500 tons of lead. The transportation of 
lead, in pigs, bars, and shot, from the south- 
west part of Virginia toward the east, by the 



84 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Virginia and Tennessee railroad, for the years 
named, has been as follows : — 

1S56. 185T. 1858. 1859. 

lbs. lbs. lbs. lbs. 

Pig Lead 409,649 514,878 163,405 854,695 

Bar Lead 234.037 52,230 22,580 

Shot 364,660 120,U2 104,623 254,970 

Total 774,309 869,057 320,258 1, 132,245 

In the other direction the transportation 
of the same articles was comparatively unim- 
portant. 

South of Virginia the only lead mine 
of importance is the Washington mine, Da- 
vidson county, N. C. This was opened in 
1836, in the silicious and talcose slates of 
the gold region, and was worked for the 
carbonate of lead, which was found in a dull, 
heavy ore of earthy appearance, with which 
were intermixed glassy crystals of the same 
mineral. Some galena and phosphate of 
lead wel-e also met with. After a time native 
silver was detected, and the lead that had 
been obtained w^as found to be rich in silver. 
Till 1844 the mine continued to produce ores 
containing much silver, and afforded the first 
deposits of this metal in the mint from do- 
mestic mines. The character of the ores 
changed, however, below the depth of 125 
feet, the silver almost disappearing. The 
actual product of the mine is not known. 
That of 1844 is said to have been $24,209 
in value of silver, and $7,253 of gold, ob- 
tained from 160,000 lbs. of lead — an average 
of 240 oz. of auriferous silver to 2,000 lbs. 
of metal. In 1851 the production was 56,896 
lbs. of lead and 7,942,16 oz. of auriferous 
silver — equal to 279 oz. to the ton of metal. 
Zinc blende and galena became at last the 
prevailing ores, the silver varying from 2.5 
to 195 oz. to the ton; and the workings were 
extended upon two parallel veins which lay 
near each other in the slates. lu 1852 min- 
ing operations were abandoned as unprofita- 
ble, but were soon after renewed, and are 
still continued. 

The great lead mines of the United 
States are the upper mines, in a district 
near the Mississippi, in Iowa, the south-west 
part of Wisconsin, and the north-west part 
of Illinois ; and the lower mines, in Missouri. 
The existence of lead ores in the upper dis- 
trict was made known by Le Sneur, who dis- 
covered them in his voyage up the Missis- 
sippi in 1700 and l7ul. They attracted no 
further attention, however, till a French miner, 
Julien Dubuque, commenced to work them in 
1788 ; and in this employment he continued, 



on the spot wh^^re now stands the city in 
Iowa bearing his name, until his death in 
1809. When the United States acquired 
possession of the country in 1807, the min- 
eral lands were reserved from the sales, and 
leases of mining rights were authorized. 
These were not, however, issued until 1822, 
and little mining was done before 1826. 
From that time the production of lead rap- 
idly increased ; and the government for a 
time received the regular rates for the leases. 
But after 1834 the miners and smelters refused 
to pay them any longer, on account of so many 
sales having been made and patents granted 
of mineral lands in Wisconsin. In 1839 the 
United States government authorized a geo- 
logical survey of the lead region, in order to 
designate precisely the mineral tracts, and 
this was accomplished the same year by Dr. 
D. D. Owen, with the aid of 139 assistants. 
In 1844 it was decided to abandon the leas- 
ing system, and throw all the lands into the 
market. The lead region, according to the 
report of Dr. Owen, extends over about 62 
townships in Wisconsin, 10 in the north-west 
corner of Illinois, and 8 in Iowa — a territory 
altogether of about 2,880 square miles. Its 
western limit is about 12 miles from the 
Mississippi river ; to the north it extends 
nearly to Wisconsin river; south to Apple 
river, in Illinois ; and east to the east branch 
of the Pekatonica. From ea.st to west it is 
87 miles across, and from north to south 54 
miles. Much of the region is a rolling 
prairie, Avith a few isolated hills, called 
mounds, scattered upon its surface, the high- 
est of them rising scarcely more than 200 
feet above the general level. The prevailing 
limestone formations give fertility to the soil, 
and the country is well watered by numer- 
ous small streams, which flow in valleys ex- 
cavated from 100 to 150 feet below the 
higher levels. The limestone, of gray and 
yellowish gray colors, lies in nearly horizon- 
tal strata, and the portion which contains 
the lead veins hardly exceeds 50 feet in 
thickness. Beneath it is a sandstone of the 
age of the Potsdam sandstone, and above it 
are strata of limestone recognized as belong- 
ing to the Trenton limestone, so that it 
proves to be a formation interposed between 
these, quite western in character, as it is not 
met with east of AVisconsin. The veins oc- 
cupy straight vertical fissures, and several 
near together sometimes extend nearly a 
mile in an east and west direction. They 
never reach downward into the sandstone. 



LEAD. 



85 



but are lost in the lower strata of the lime- 
stone, and where the upper strata of the for- 
mation appear, these cover over the veins, 
*nd are consequently known as the cap-rock. 
In the fissures or crevices the galena is found, 
sometimes in loose sheets and lumps embed- 
ded in clay and earthy oxide of iron, and 
sometimes attached to one or both walls. 
It is rarely so much as a foot thick. No 
other ores are found with it, except some 
zinc blende and calamine, and occasionally 
pyritous iron and copper. The lead con- 
tains but a trace of silver. The fissures, as 
they are followed beneath the surface, some- 
times expand in width till they form what 
is called an " opening ;" and the hollow 
space may go on enlarging till it becomes a 
cave of several hundred feet in length and 
30 or 40 in width. Their dimensions are, 
however, usually within 40 or 50 feet in 
length, 4 to 8 in width, and as many in 
height. The walls of the openings often aftord 
a thick incrustation of galena, besides more 
or less loose mineral in the clay, among the 
fragments of rock, with all of which the 
caves are partially filled. Flat sheets of ore 
often extend from the vertical fissures be- 
tween the horizontal limestone strata; these 
are more"apt to contain blende, and pyrites, 
and calcareous spar than the ore of the verti- 
cal crevices. Besides these modes of occur- 
rence, galena is found in loose lumps in the 
clayey loam of the prairies. This is called 
float mineral, and is regarded as an evidence 
of productive fissures in the vicinity. 

The galena occurs under a variety of sin- 
gular forms in the crevices. It lines curious 
cavities which extend up in the cap-rock, ter- 
minating above in a point, and which are 
known as chimneys. Upon the roofs of the 
openings it is found in large bunches of cu- 
bical crystals, and the same are obtained lying 
in the clays of the same openings, A flat 
sheet of the ore was worked in Iowa that 
was more than 20 feet aci-oss and from 2 to 
3 feet thick, each side of which turned down 
in a vertical sheet, gradually diminishing in 
thickness. It yielded 1,200,000 lbs. of rich 
galena, and more still remained behind in 
sight. The crevices near Dubuque are the 
most regular and productive of any in the 
district. One called the Langworthy, on a 
length of about three-fourths of a mile, has 
produced 10,000.000 lbs. of ore. On the 
main fissure there were usually three ranges 
of crevices one above another, widening out 
to 16 or 20 feet. 



The smelters of this region form a distinct 
class from the miners, of whom the former 
buy the ores as these are raised, and convert 
them into metal in the little smelting estab- 
lishments scattered through the country. 
The lead has been principally sent down the 
Mississippi river to Saint Louis and New 
Orleans ; but a portion has always been con- 
sumed in the country, and some has been 
wagoned across to Milwaukee before the con- 
struction of railroads, which since 1853 have 
aff"orded increased facilities for distributing 
in diflerent directions the product of the 
mines. The only records of the amount of 
lead obtained are those of the shipments 
down the river. The following table presents 
the number of pigs shipped from the earlier 
workings to 1857 ; the figures for 1841 to 
1 850, inclusive, being furnished to Dr. Owen's 
Report of 1852 by Mr. James Carter, of Ga- 
lena. The pigs weigh about 70 lbs. each. 



SHIPMENTS OP LEAD FROM 

Tears. Pigs. 

1821 to 1823... 4,790 

1824 2,503 

1825 9,490 

1826 13,700 

1827 74,130 

1828 158,655 

1829 190,620 

1830 119,060 

1831 91,170 

1832 61,164 

1833 113,440 

1834 113,648 

1835 158,330 

1836 191,750 

1837 219,360 

1838 200,465 

1839 357,785 

1840 317,845 

1841 452,814 



THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI. 

Tears. Pigs. 

1842 447';859 

1843 561,321 

1844 624,601 

1845 778,460 

1846 730,714 

1847 771,679 

1848 680,245 

1849 628,934 

1850 569.521 

1851 474,115 

1852 408,628 

1853 425,814 

1854 423,617 

1855 430,365 

1856 435,654 

1857 485,475 

1858 

1859 



The lead region of Missouri was first 
brought into public notice by the explora- 
tions of the French adventurer, Renault, 
who was sent out from Paris in 1720, with 
a party of miners, to search for precious 
metals in the territory of Louisiana, under 
a patent granted by the French government 
to the famous company of John Law. 
Their investigations were carried on in the 
region lying near the Mississippi and south 
of the Missouri river; and here, though 
they failed to find the precious metals they 
were in search of, they discovered and 
opened many mines of lead ore. A large 
mining tract in the northern part of Madi- 
son county is still called by the name of 
their mineralogist. La Motte. Their opera- 



86 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



tions, however, were altogether superficial, 
and the lead they obtained was wholly by 
the rude and wasteful process of smelting 
the ores upon open log-heaps — a practice 
which even of late years is followed to some 
extent. Up to Renault's return to France, 
in 1742, little progress had been made in 
the development of this mining district. The 
next step was made by one Moses Austin, 
of Virginia, who obtained from the Spanish 
government a grant of land near Potosi, and 
commenced in 1798 regular mining opera- 
tions by sinking a shaft. He also started 
a reverberatory furnace and built a shot 
tower. Schoolcraft states in his "View of 
the Lead Mines of Missouri," that there 
were in 1819 forty-five mines in operation, 
giving employment to 1,100 persons. Mine 
k Burton and the Potosi diggings had pro- 
duced from 1798 to 1816 an annual average 
amount exceeding 500,000 pounds ; and in 
1811 the production of Mine Shibboleth 
was 3,125,000 pounds of lead from 5,000,- 
000 pounds of ore. At a later period, from 
1834 to 1837, the several mines of the La 
Motte tract produced, it is estimated, 1,035,- 
820 pounds of lead per annum. From 1840 
to 1854 the total yield of all the mines is 
stated by Dr. Litton in the state geological 
report to amount to over 3,833,121 pounds 
annually. At the close of this period it had, 
however, greatly fallen oflf, there being at 
that time scarcely 200 persons engaged in 
mining, besides those employed at the three 
mines known as Perry's, Valle's, and Skew- 
ers'. The principal mines have been in 
Washington, St. Francis, and other neigh- 
boring counties. The ores are found in 
strata of magnesian limestone of an older 
date than the galena limestone of Wiscon- 
sin, and supposed to lie, with the sandstones 
with which they alternate, on the same 
geological horizon as the calciferous sand 
rock, which is found in the eastern states 
overlying the Potsdam sandstone. Some 
of the mines are at the contact of the hori- 
zontal limestone with granite rocks, but the 
ores in this position are only in superficial 
deposits or in layers included in the lime- 
stone. Li their general features the veins 
do not difter greatly from those of the north- 
ern mines. Some of them, however, con- 
tain a larger proportion of other ores be- 
sides galena, as well as a greater variety of 
them. Carbonate of lead, called by the 
Miners dry bone and white mineral, is 
more abundant, and also blende, called by 



them black jack, and the silicate of zinc. 
Iron and copper pyrites are often seen, and 
at Mine la Motte are found the black oxides 
of cobalt and manganese associated with 
the carbonates of lead and copper. Nearly 
all the mining operations have been mere 
superficial excavations in the clay, which 
were soon exhausted of the loose ore and 
abandoned. But to this there are some re- 
markable exceptions of deeper and more 
permanent mines than are known in the 
northern lead regions. Such are Valle's 
and Perry's mines, both situated on the 
same group of veins, which form a network 
of fissures and openings running in every 
direction and spreading over an area of 
about 1,500 feet in length by 500 in 
breadth, the extension of which is from north- 
west to south-east. These mines have been 
steadily worked since 1824, and 22 shafts 
have been sunk upon the fissures, six of 
which are over 110 feet deep, one is 170 
feet deep, and only two are less than 50 
feet. For the first 10 to 30 feet they pass 
through gravel and clay, below this through a 
silicious magnesian limestone of light color, 
and then enter a very close-grained variety 
of the same, called by the miners the cast 
steel rock. A succession of openings are 
encountered, which are distributed with 
considerable regularity upon three different 
levels. Those of the middle series have 
been the most productive. Sometimes 
chimneys connect them with the caves of 
the tier above or below. The portion of 
these mines on the Valle tract produced, 
according to the state report, from 1824 to 
1834 about 10,000,000 pounds of lead, and 
in the succeeding 20 years about as much 
more; and Perry's mine from 1839 to 1854 
has produced about 18,000,000 pounds. 

No accurate estimates have been pre- 
served of the total production of the Mis- 
souri mines. This has always fallen far 
short of the yield of the northern mines. 
From 1832 to 1843 it is reported as running 
from 2,500 to 3,700 tons per annum, while 
that of the northern mines in the same time 
was from 5,500 to 14,000 tons, and in 
1845 it even exceeded 24,000 tons. In 1852 
Mr. J. D. Whitney estimated .that the pro- 
duction in Missouri had fallen to 1,500 tons, 
or less ; and from that period it has prob- 
ably not advanced. As this decrease in 
the supply has been going on while the 
price of lead has risen to nearly three times 
what it was in 1842, the cause is probably 



87 



owing to the mines themselves being in 
great part exhausted. The only sufficient 
sources known from which the increasing 
supplies required from year to year can be 
furnished, are the mines of Great Britain 
and Spain, though should the argentiferous 
lead mines of Mexico ever be worked for 
the lead as well as the silver they contain, 
they might furnish large quantities of the 



Pig lead from 

American mines 

received at St. 

Tears. Louis and New 

Orleans. 

lbs. 

1832 8,540,000 

1833 12,600,000 

1834 14,140,000 

1835 16,000,000 

1836 18,000,000 

1837 20,000,000 

1838 20,860,000 

1839 24.000,000 

1840 27,000,000 

1841 30,000,000 

1842 33,110,000 

1843 39,970,000 

1844 44,730,000 

1845 51,240,000 

1846 54,950,000 

1847 46,130,000 

1848 42,420,000 

1849 35,560,000 

1850 40,313,910 

1851 34.934,480 

1852 28,593,180 

1853 31,497,950 

1854 21,472,990 

1855 21,441,140 

1856 15,.-$47,880 

1857 14,028,140 

1858 21,210,420 

1859 23,442,870 

1860 22,683,125 

1861 21,5.54,743 

1862 20,370,188 

1863 22,798,142 

1864 18,141,878 

1865 18,266,.313 

1866 23,393,450 

1867 26,.301,357 

1868 30,014,759 

1869 33,717,830 

1870 37,136,742 



former metal. As the production of the 
United States fell off that of Great Britain 
increased from 64,000 tons in 1850 to 73,129 
tons in 1856, and 96,266 tons in 1857, thus 
considerably exceeding one-hnlf of the whole 
production of the globe in this metal, which 
in 1854 was rated at about 133,000 tons. 
At that time the production of Spain was 
rated at 30,000 tons, and of the United 
States at 15,000 tons. 



Pig, bar, and 
sheet lead 
imported. 

lbs. 

5,333,588 

2,282,068 

4,997,293 

1,006,472 

919,087 

335.772 

165,844 

528,922 

519,343 

62,246 

4,689 

290 

19*609 

214 

224,905 

2,684,700 

36,997,751 
43,470,210 
37,544,588 
43,174,447 
47,714,140 
56,745,247 
55,294,256 
47,947.698 
41,230,019 
64,000,000 
45,896,700 
45,654,100 
34,611,575 
39,437,566 
20,897,109 
7,969,080 
40,223,888 
41,066,175 
41,437,520 
56,062,128 
58,310,464 



Invoice value 

of yearly 
importations. 

$124,311 

60,660 

168,811 

35,663 

35,283 

13,871 

6,573 

18,631 

18,111 

2,605 

155 

3 

458 

6 

6,288 

85,387 



Average 
rate of 
duty per 
100 lbs. 

$3.00 
3.00 
2.77 
2.77 
2.55 
2.57 
2..34 
2.31 
2.08 
2.07 
3.00 
3.00 
3.00 
3.00 
3.00 
0.56 
0.64 



White and 

red lead 

imported 

lbs. 

557,781 

625,069 

1,024,663 
832,215 
908,105 
599,980 
522,681 
720,408 
643,418 
532,122 
479,738 
93,166 

231,171 
215,434 

298,387 
318,781 



Invoice 
value of 
yearly im- 
portations. 

$30,791 
36,049 
57,572 
50,225 
62,237 
47,316 
38,683 
50,905 
41,043 
31,617 
28,747 
5,600 

14,744 
15,685 
15,228 
19,703 



For the year ending June 30, 1859, the 
imports of lead are given at 64,000,000 
pounds, worth nearly $2,700,000. Of this 
about $57,000 worth were re-exported to 
foreign countries, besides American lead to 
the value of $30,000, and a small amount of 
manufactured lead. 

Lead Smelting. The lead mines of the 
United States being scattered over wide ter- 
ritories, and their products being nowhere 
brought together in large quantities, the proc- 
ess of reducing the ores has been conducted 
in small establishments and by the most sim- 



1,182,597 0.64 853,463 43,756 

1,517,603 0.70 1,105,852 52,631 

1,283,331 0.70 842,521 43,365 

1,618,058 0.70 1,224,008 69,058 

2,095,039 0.90 1,865,893 102,812 

2,556,523 0.90 2,319,099 134,855 

2,528,014 0.91 3,548,409 174,125 

2,305,768 0.72 1,793,377 113,075 

1,972,243 0.72 1,785,851 109,426 

2,617,770 0.72 61,936 3,871 

1,835,868 0.72 177,744 11,109 

1,826,164 0.72 200,843 12,5.53 

1,384,463 0.78 307,824 19,239 

2,816,969 1.11 1,004,624 71,766 

2,247,001 1.32 1,390,052 149,468 

1,195,362 1.75 1,662,516 249,.385 

2,513,993 2.25 2,035,395 135,693 

2,737,745 0.96 1,464,972 122,081 

2,762,520 1.00 1,399,512 116,626 

3,503,883 0.97 336,732 28,061 

3,644,404 0.96 367,008 30,584 

pie methods. The earlier operations were 
limited to smelting the ores in loLf furnaces. 
Upon a layer of logs placed in an inclosure 
of logs or stones piled up, split wood was 
set on end and covered with the ore, and 
over this small wood again. The pile was 
fired through an opening in front. The 
combustion of the small wood removed from 
the ore a portion of the sulphur, and the re- 
duction was completed by the greater heat 
arising from the burning of the logs. The 
lead run down to the bottom and out in 
front into a basin, whence it was ladled i"+n 



88 



MINING INDUSTRY OP THE UNITED STATES. 



the moulds. The loss of metal was of 
course very large ; but a portion was recov- 
ered by treating the residue in what Avas 
called an ash furnace. The process is still 
resorted to in places where no furnaces are 
within reach. But wherever mines are open- 
ed that promise sufficient supplies of ore, 
furnaces are soon constructed in their vicini- 
ty. Those in use are of two sorts : the 
Scotch hearth and the reverberatory. Besides 
these, another small furnace is often built 
for melting over the slags. This is little 
else than a crucible built in brick-work, and 
arranged for the blast to enter by an aper- 
ture in the back, and for the metal to flow 
out by another opening in front. 

The Scotch hearth is a small blast furnace, 
but resembles the open forge or bloomary 
fire for iron ores. It has long been in use in 
Europe, and is the most common furnace at 
our own mines. In this country it has been 
greatly improved by the introduction of hot 
blast ; and in its most perfect form is rep- 
resented in the accompanying figures; figure 
a being a vertical section from front to back, 
and figure b a horizontal section. 




SCOTCH HEARTH FURNACE. 



A is the reservoir of lead of the furnace, 
consisting of a box, open at top, about two 
feet square and one foot deep, formed of 
cast iron 2 inches thick. From its upper 
front edge a sloping hearth, H, is fixed so as 



to receive the melted lead that overflows, 
and conduct it by the groove into the basin, 
B, In this it is kept in a melted state by a 
little fire beneath, and, as convenient, the lead 
is ladled out and poured into moulds. D is 
a hollow shell of cast iron f of an inch thick, 
its inner and outer sides inclosing a space of 
4 inches width. Into this space the blast is 
introduced at E, and becoming heated, 
passes out at F, and thence through the 
curved pipe into a tuyere, T, cast in the air- 
chest 2 inches above the level of the lead 
reservoir. Before commencing operations 
this reservoir is to be filled with lead, and is 
thus kept so long as the furnace is in use ; 
the process being conducted upon the sur- 
ftice of the melted metal. The furnace may 
be kept in continual operation by adding 
new charges of galena every ten or fifteen 
minutes, and working them down after they 
have become roasted at the surface. The 
fuel employed is dry pine wood split into 
small pieces, and billets of these are thrown 
in against the tuyere just before each new 
charge of ore, that already in the furnace 
being raked forward upon the hearth to 
make room for the fuel, and the blast being 
temporarily turned oft". The old charge is 
then thrown, together with fresh ore, upon 
the wood, and the blast is let on, when the 
heat and flame immediately spread through 
the materials. The sulphur in the ore serves 
itself as fuel, accelerating the process by its 
combustion, and in a few minutes the 
whole charge is stiiTcd up, spread out on the 
hearth, and the hard, unreduced fragments 
are broken in pieces by blows of the shovel. 
Slaked lime is sometimes added in small 
quantity when the partially reduced ore be- 
comes too soft and pasty by excess of heat. 
Its effect is to lessen this tendency rather by 
mechanical than chemical action. If any 
flux is used, it is fluor spar, blacksmith's 
cinders, or bits of iron. The latter hasten 
the reduction by the affinity of the iron for 
the sulphur of tlie ore. The cast iron of the 
air-chest is protected from the action of the 
sulphur by the cooling influence of the air 
blown in ; and this is also advantageous by 
its keeping the furnace from beconiing so 
hot, that the galena would melt before losing 
its sulphur, and thus form combinations of 
exceedingly difficult reduction. A fan, run 
by steam or water power, is commonly em- 
ployed for raising the blast ; but as this gives 
little pressure, it is replaced to great advan- 
tage by blowing cylinders, with an air- 



89 



receiver for giving regularity to the current 
of air. With such an apparatus, the smelter 
can apply the blast with great advantage at 
times to help loosen up the charge and 
throw the flame through every part of it. 
The ores are prepared for smelting by sep- 
arating from them all the stony and clayey 
particles, and as much as possible of the 
blende and other impurities that may ac- 
company them. This may require a succes- 
sion of mechanical processes, in which the 
ores are crushed to tine fragments and dress- 
ed by jigging and screening under water. 
Not only is the labor and cost of smelting re- 
duced by the purity of the ore, and espe- 
cially its freedom from blende and pyrites, 
but the quality also of the metal is thereby 
improved. Lead that contains iron is not 
adapted for the manufacture of white-lead. 
The American metal being generally free 
from this brings a higher price than Spanish 
or English lead. With pure ore a cord of 
wood may be made to produce four tons of 
lead ; and each furnace 7,500 lbs. every 24 
hours ; a smelter and his assistant managing 
the operation for 12 hours. At Rossie 
large quantities of lead have thus been 
smelted at a daily cost for labor of $5, and 
for fuel of $1.50, making $1.75 per ton. In 
Wisconsin, before the use of the hot blast, 
each furnace-shift was continued from 8 to 10 
hours, until 30 pigs of lead were produced 
of 2,100 lbs. weight, at an expense of about 
14 for labor, and $1.50 for fueh 

The other form of furnace — the rever- 
beratory — resembles others of this class em- 
ployed in smelting copper ores. The sole, 
or hearth, upon which the ores are spread, is 
about 8 feet in length by 6 in breadth, and 
is made- to incline rapidly toward an aper- 
ture on one side, or at the end under the 
chimney, and out of which the lead is 
allowed at the end of each smelting to 
flow into a receiver outside. The charge is 
supplied either through a hopper in the 
arched roof, or through the holes in the 
sides, which also serve for admitting the 
pokers used by the workmen to stir up the 
charge. Unless the galena has been pre- 
viously calcined or roasted — a process neces- 
sary for poor ores only — this is the first 
thing to be attended to in all the smelting 
operations. In the large charge of 30 cwt. 
of ore this usually takes the first two hours 
of the process, and is effected in great part 
by the heat remaining in the furnace from 
the preceding operation, the doors at the 



sides being kept open at the same time to al- 
low free access of air. The oxidation of the 
sulphur is expedited by almost constant 
stirring of the charge, which brings fresh 
portions to the surface, causing an evolution 
of white fumes. As these begin to diminish, 
the fire is started on the grate, and the heat 
is raised till the charge softens and the pieces 
of ore adhere to the rake. The doors are 
then closed, and the fire is urged for a 
quarter of an hour, when the smelter opens 
the door to see if the metal separates and 
flows down the inclined hearth. If the sep- 
aration does not go on well, it is hastened 
by opening one of the doors, partially cool- 
ing the furnace, and stirring the charge. The 
fire is then again urged. If the slags which 
form seem to require it, he treats them with 
a few shovelfuls of lime and fine coal ; and 
when, after having flowed down into the 
lower portion of the hearth, they are 
brought into a doughy consistency, the 
smelter pushes the slag to the opposite upper 
edge of the hearth, from which it is taken 
out through a door on that side by his as- 
sistant, while he lets oft" the lead into the 
receiver. 

The separation by this method is not so 
perfect as by the Scotch hearth, and the 
expense of fuel is greater ; but the reverbe- 
ratory is worked without the necessity of 
steam or water power, which is required to 
raise the blast fur the other process. The 
slags of the reverberatory contain so much 
lead that they ai'e always remelted in the 
slag furnace. Those of the Scotch hearth, 
when pure ores are employed, are sufiiciently 
clear of metal without further reduction. In 
Europe other sorts of furnaces are in use, 
which are adapted particularly for ores of 
poorer quality tlian are ever smelted in the 
United States. 

In the Ilartz mountains, at Clausthal, 
argentiferous silver ores containing much 
silica are worked in close cupola furnaces, 
into which only enough air is admitted to 
consume the fuel. The object is not to 
roast out the sulphur, but to cause this to 
combine with the granulated cast iron or 
with the quick-lime, either of which is mixed 
with the ores to flux them and form a fusible 
compound with the sulphur, through which 
the metallic lead can easily find its way to 
the bottom. The production of a silicate of 
lead is thus avoided, which is a ditficult 
compound to reduce, and is always formed 
when much silica is present. This process 



90 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



will probably be applied to some of the si- 
licious ores of the United States, and may 
be particularly suited to the Washoe ores of 
California. 

By all the methods of reducing lead a 
great loss is incurred by tlie volatilization of 
a portion of the lead in white fumes, called 
lead ashes. These are carried up through 
the chimney of the furnace and fall upon 
the ground in the neighborhood, poisoning 
the vegetation and the water by the carbon- 
ate of lead, which results from the fumes. 
Trees even are killed, and the dogs die off, 
and also the cattle. In Scotland the lead 
has been detected in chemical examinations 
of the bodies of animals thus killed, and it 
was particularly noticeable in the spleen. 
For the injury thus occasioned at the fur- 
naces of the United States no remedy has 
been applied, but at many of the great es- 
tablishments in Europe, where the loss of 
lead and the damage to the neighborhood 
is much more serious, attempts have been 
made to arrest the fumes, by causing them 
to pass through long flues in the chimney 
stacks, in which the particles on cooling 
would settle down; and their cooling has 
been hastened by showers of water falling 
among the vapors. Flues have been extended 
great distances beyond the works, and have 
been found much more eflicient than any 
form of condensation by sudden cooling. 
Some of the works constructed for this pur- 
pose are very remarkable for their great 
extent and the saving they have effected, 
and similar ones may perhaps be found well 
worthy of construction at some of the smelt- 
ing establishments in the United States. At 
the works of Mr. Beaumont, in Northum- 
berland, England, horizontal or slightly in- 
clined galleries have been completed in stone- 
work, 8 feet high and 6 feet wide, for an 
extent of 8,Y89 yards (nearly five miles). 
This is from one mill alone. The same pro- 
prietor has connected with other mills in 
the same district and in Durham four miles 
of galleries for the same purpose. The 
wi'iter wlio gives the account of these in the 
recent edition of Ure's Dictionary, by Rob- 
ert Hunt, remarks: "The value of the 
lead thus saved from being totally dissipated 
and dispersed, and obtained from what in 
common parlance might be called chimney 
sweepings, considerably exceeds £10,000 
sterling annually, and forms a striking illus- 
tration of the importance of economizing 
our waste products." Not only is lead lost 



in the fumes, but in the working of argentif- 
erous lead ores, a portion of the silver too 
is carried otf and deposited with them. The 
fumes collected at the works of the Duke 
of Buccleuch yield one-third their weight of 
lead, and five ounces of silver to the ton. The 
loss of silver is of little importance in this 
country, where this metal is not obtained at 
the present time, unless it be at the Wash- 
ington mine, in North Carolina, and at the 
Washoe mines, in California ; and conse- 
quently methods of separating it from the 
lead possess little more tlian scientific interest. 
In the smelting of argentiferous lead ores, 
the silver goes with the lead, being com- 
pletely dissolved and dittused throughout its 
substance. The usual way of separating it is 
founded on the principle of the lead being a 
metal easily oxidized and converted into the 
substance called litharge, in which condi- 
tion it lets go the silver, which has no afiinity 
either for the new compound of oxygen and 
lead, or for the oxygen alone. The change 
is effected by melting the lead in the shallow 
basins called cupels, formed of a porous 
earthy material, as the pulverized ashes of 
burned bones, kneaded with water, and 
mixed in a framework of iron. When dried, 
these are set in a reverberatory furnace, and 
the pigs of lead are melted upon their sur- 
face. After being thoroughly heated, a cur- 
rent of air is made to draw through an open- 
ing in the side of the furnace directly upon 
the face of the melted metal. This oxidizes 
the lead, and the yellow litharge with more 
or less red oxide, called minium, collects in 
a thin film upon its surface, and floats oft" to 
the edge, sinking into and incrusting the 
cupel and falling over its side into a recep- 
tacle placed to receive it. This process goes 
on, the lead gradually disappearing as the 
oxygen combines with it, till with the re- 
moval of the last films of oxide the melted 
silver suddenly presents its brilliant, perfectly 
unsullied face. The oxide of lead rnay be 
collected and sold for the purposes of 
litharge, as for a pigment, for use in the 
manufacture of glass, etc. ; or it may be 
mixed with fine coal and converted back 
into lead, the carbon of the coal eftecting 
this change by the greater afiinity it has at 
a high heat for the oxygen, than the lead has 
to retain it. By this process, known as 
cupellation, lead is hiirdl}" worth treating for 
silver, unless it contain about 10 ounces to 
the ton of the precious metal ; and it was 
therefore an important object to devise a 



LEAD. 



91 



method of saving with economy the silver 
lost in the large quantities of the poorer 
argentiferous leads. Such a method was 
accidentally discovered in 1829 by Mr. 
Pattinson, of Newcastle, and is now exten- 
sivel}' in use in Europe for the poorer silver- 
leads, cupellation being preferred for the 
richer. He observed that when the lead 
containing silver forms crystals, as it is 
stirred while in a melted state, the crystals 
contain little or none of the silver, and may 
be removed, thus concentrating the silver 
in the portions left behind. This crj'stal- 
lizing process is applied in the large way as 
follows : Cast iron pots are set in brick- 
work side by side, capable of holding each 
one 4 or 5 tons of lead. The middle one 
is first charged, and when the lead is melted 
and stirred, the fire is removed under the 
next pot to the right ; and into this crystals 
of lead as they form are ladled by means of 
a sort of cullender, which lets the fluid lead 
fall back. This instrument is kept hotter 
than the lead by frequently dipping it in a 
pot of lead over a separate fire. When four- 
fifths of the lead have been transferred to 
the pot to the right, the remainder, which 
contains all the silver, is removed to the next 
pot to the left, and the middle pot is then 
charged with fresh lead, which is treated in 
the same manner. The process is repeated 
with each pot, as it becomes full, four-fifths 
of its contents going to the next pot to the 
right, and one-fifth to the next to the left, 
and thus the lead is finally discharged into 
moulds at one end, and the argentiferous 
alloy, concentrated to the richness of 300 
ounces of silver to the ton, is run into bars 
about 2 inches square. From these the 
silver is obtained by cupellation. At one 
establishment in England, that of Messrs. 
Walker, Parker & Co., the weekly product 
of silver is from 8,000 to 10,000 ounces. 
Whenever the lead mines of the eastern 
states are made to yield regular returns of 
lead, the separation of its silver is likely to 
be carried on in independent establishments, 
supplied like the copper-smelting works with 
material from various sources. W^orks hav- 
ing these objects in view were established 
in the fall of 1860, at Brooklyn, New York, 
by Messrs. Bloodgood & Ambler, and will 
commence operations with the smelting of 
the Washoe silver-lead ores from California, 
of which over sixty tons have been delivered 
at the works for reduction. Their success- 
ful treatment will no doubt be followed by 
6* 



the shipment of other ores of the different 
metals from various sources ; and it is to be 
hoped that it will hereafter be found more 
advantageous to send ores to New York to 
be reduced, than to the smelting establish- 
ments on the other side of the Atlantic. 

Useful Applications of Lead. — A con- 
siderable part of the lead product of the world 
is converted into the carbonate, known ai^ 
white lead, and used as a paint. The prin- 
cipal articles of metallic lead are sheet lead, 
lead pipe, and shot. Sheet lead is manu- 
factured in two ways. The melted lead is 
upset from a trough suspended over a per- 
fectly level table, covered with fine sand, and 
furnished with a raised margin ; and when 
the metal has spread over this, a couple of 
workmen, one on each side, carry along a 
bar supported upon the margin, pushing 
forward the excess of lead above that neces- 
sary for the required thickness, till it falls 
over the end of. the table. By the other 
method, called milling, the lead is cast in a 
plate, 6 or 7 feet square, and 6 inches thick, 
and this being taken up by a crane, is placed 
upon a line of wooden rollers, which form 
a flooring for the length it may be of 70 or 
80 feet and a width of 8 feet. Across the mid- 
dle of this line are set the two heavy iron 
rolls by which the lead plate is compressed, 
as it is passed between them. The top of 
the lower roll is on a level with the top of 
the wooden rollers, and the upper roll is so 
arranged that it can be set nearer to or further 
from the lower one, as the thickness of the 
plate requires. 

Lead pipe was formerly made by turning 
up sheet lead and soldering the edges ; and 
is still prepared in this way for the large 
sizes, as those over six inches diameter. Af- 
ter this a method was contrived of casting 
the lead in a hollow cylindrical plug, its 
inner diameter of the bore required, and then 
drawing this down through slightly conical 
dies of decreasing diameter, a mandril or 
steel rod being inserted to retain the uniform 
diameter of the bore. Pipes made in this 
way were limited to 15 to 18 feet in length, 
and the metal was full of flaws. Many at- 
tempts have been made to cast long lengths 
of lead pipe, all of which have proved unsuc- 
cessful. In 1820 Thomas Burr, of England, 
first applied the hydraulic press to forcing 
lead, when beginning to solidify in cooling, 
through an annular space between a hollow 
ring and a solid core secured in its centre. 
He thus produced pipes of considerable 



92 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



leno-th. The metliod of forcing the liquid 
metal through dies to form pipes was, how- 
ever, first patented in 17 'J 7 by Brainah, who 
used a pump for this purpose. The process 
was introduced into this country in 1840-41 
by Messrs, Tatham & Brothers, now of New 
York, who invented and patented an impor- 
tant improvement in the method of secur- 
ing the die and core. In this operation the 
melted lead is made to flow from the furnace 
into a cylindrical cavity in a block of cast 
iron, which may be of 1800 lbs. weight, and 
from this, when cooled to the proper tem- 
perature, it is forced out through the die by 
a closely-fitting piston. By one process the 
piston, starting from the bottom of the cylin- 
drical cavity, moves upward, carrying with it 
the slender core or rod which determines the 
diameter of the bore of the pipe, and pushes 
the melted lead before it through the die 
fixed in the top of the cast iron block. The 
pipe as it is formed passes out from the top 
of the machine, and is coiled around a re- 
ceiving drum. By the machine contrived by 
Mr. Cornell of New York, the great iron 
block containing the lead rises by the press- 
ure of the hydraulic machine, and the piston 
which is fixed above it enters the cavity. 
The piston in this case is hollow and the die 
is set in its lower end. The core is secured 
in the bottom of the block, and is carried 
upward as this rises. The pressure applied 
in this operation amounts to 200 to 300 tons. 
Dies are used of a great variety of sizes, accord- 
ing to the kind of pipe required. Lead wire 
is made in this Avay with a die of very small 
size without a core. It is used for securing 
vines and attaching tags to fruit trees and 
shrubs. The principal works in the United 
States engaged in the manufiicture of sheet 
lead and lead pipe are in New York, Boston, 
Philadelphia, Chicago, Cincinnati, and Saint 
Louis, 

Lead pipe is in general use as the most 
convenient conduit for water for domestic 
purposes. It is readily bent to any angle, 
and is made to adapt itself to any position. 
When water freezes within and bursts it, the 
damage is easily repaired ; joints are also 
made with little trouble. Tlie lead is not 
liable to become rusty like iron, and is 
cheaper than tin or copper. These qualities 
give to it a preference over other kinds of 
pipe, notwithstanding the very serious objec- 
tion that the lead is often acted upon by the 
water, and produces poisonous salts of a very 
danoferous character. Some waters more than 



others have, a tendency to prorhote the oxid- 
ation of the lead. This is particularly likely 
to occur with nearly all waters in pipes which 
are alternately exposed to the action of air 
and water, as when the water being drawn 
out, the air enters and takes its place. The 
oxide of lead is converted by carbonic acid 
gas, which is present in almost all water, into 
a carbonate of lead which is soluble to some 
extent in an excess of the gas, and is carried 
along, bearing no indication of its presence, 
while the lead pipe continues to be corroded 
until it may be in places eaten nearly through. 
The water used for drinking and for culinary 
purposes is thus continually introducing an 
insidious poison into the system, the effect 
of which is at last experienced in the disease 
known as the painters' colic, often followed 
by paralysis. As this occurs without a sus- 
picion being awakened of the real source of 
the disease, and is produced by quantities so 
small as from j\ to -^\ of a grain in the gal- 
lon, the use of lead pipe is properly regard- 
ed by scientific men as always unsafe ; and 
some substitute for this metal in pipes and 
in sheets used for lining water cisterns, is 
highly desirable. It has been proposed to 
coat the pipe with some insoluble lining; 
but such an application necessarily increases 
its cost, it may perhaps be removed by hot 
water flowing through the pipe, and the pur- 
chaser may have no confidence in the coating 
being faithfully applied, or as certain to be 
efficient during long-continued use. Block 
tin is perfectly safe, but it is expensive, and 
is moreover likely to be alloyed with the 
cheaper metal lead, which in this condition 
is thought to be equally dangerous as when 
used alone. As no popular substitute for 
lead is provided, it is a reasonable precaution 
for those employing it to be always watchful 
and on their guard against its evil effects — 
using as little of it as necessary, causing the 
w^ater to be occasionally tested, and, when- 
ever opportunity oft'ers, cutting open and ex- 
amining pieces of the pipe to see whether its 
internal surface is corroded, and every morn- 
incr before using: the water that has stood in 
the pipes, to cause this to flow away to- 
gether with enough more to thoroughly wash 
out the pipes and remove any salts of lead 
that may have formed in them during the 
night. 

Large quantities of lead are consumed in 
the United States in the manufacture of shot 
and bullets ; and one ingenious method of 
producing shot is an American invention. 



93 



The quality of the lead employed for this 
purpose is of little importance. The harder 
and inferior sorts, which would not answer 
for the white lead manufacture, are economi- 
cally diverted to this object. If too brittle, 
from the iron and antimony combined with 
the lead, the metal is made to assume the right 
quality by mixing with it a small proportion 
of arsenic, which, for most kinds of lead, 
may amount to one per cent. To introduce 
this into the lead a large pot of the metal is 
melted, and powdered charcoal or ashes is 
laid around its edge. The arsenical com- 
pound, either of. white arsenic or of orpi- 
ment (the sulphuret of arsenic), is then stir- 
red into the centre of the mass, and a cover 
is tightly luted over the pot. In the course 
of a few hours, the mixture being kept hot, 
the combination of the lead with the arsenic 
is completed, and a portion of litharge floats 
upon the surface. This is formed from the 
oxygen of the white arsenic uniting with 
some of the lead, and it retains a portion of 
the arsenic. The alloy is now tried by let- 
ting a small quantity of it fall from a mod- 
erate height through a strainer into water. 
From the appearance of the globules the 
quality of the mixture is judged of. If 
they are lens-shaped, too much arsenic has 
been used ; but if they are flattened on the 
side, or hollowed in the middle, or drag with 
a tail behind them, the proportion of arsenic 
is too small. When a proper mixture is ob- 
tained it is run into bars, and these are taken 
to the top of a tower, from luO to 200 feet 
high, where the lead is melted and poured 
through cullenders, which are kept hot by 
being placed in a sort of chafing-dish con- 
taining burning charcoal. The lead is thus 
divided into drops that fall to the bottom, 
and are received in a vessel of water. Each 
cullender has holes all of the same size, which 
is considerably less than that of the shot 
produced by them. This is owing to the 
drop of melted lead first assuming an elon- 
gated form, which is concentrated into the 
globular by the air impinging equally upon 
all sides in the course of its descent. When 
it reaches the water, it is important that it 
should have cooled throughout, so that no 
solid crust be suddenly formed over a fluid 
interior ; and hence, for large shot it is evi- 
dent the height of the fall must be greater 
than is required for small shot. The tem- 
perature of the lead also, when it is dropped, 
must vary according to the size of the shot; 
for the largest size being so low that a straw 



is hardly browned when thrust into it. A 
portion of the lead becomes oxidized and is 
caught in the cullender, the bottom of which 
it coats, and serves a useful purpose by 
checking the too rapid flow of the melted 
lead through the holes. The holes vary 
in size, from j\ of an inch for shot larger 
than No. 1, to ^~ of an inch for No. 9. 
The shot being taken out of the water and 
dried upon the surface of a long steam chest, 
are transferred to an iron cask suspended 
upon an axis passing through its ends, and 
a little plumbago being introduced with 
them, the cask is made to revolve until the 
shot are thoroughly cleaned and polished. 
The next operation is to separate the imper- 
fect ones from the good. This is done by 
rolling them all together down a succession 
of inclined platforms, separated by a narrow 
space between each. The good shot clear 
these spaces and are caught below, while the 
bad ones fall through upon the floor. The 
good are then introduced into the sifters for 
assorting them according to their sizes. 
Several sieves are arranged like drawers in a 
case ; the coarsest above, and finer ones suc- 
ceeding below. The upper tier of sieves be- 
ing charged, the case is set rocking, and the 
shot are soon assorted, and are then ready for 
packing in bags. Bullets and buck-shot are 
moulded by hand from a large pot of the 
metal into moulds with many receptacles. 

The American process of shot-making was 
invented in 1848 by David Smith, of the 
firm of T. 0. Leroy & Co., of New York, 
by whom it is exclusively used. Its object 
is to dispense with the use of the costly high 
towers, by substituting for them a lower fall 
against an ascending current of air. This 
current is produced by a fan-blower operat- 
ing at the base of an upright hollow shaft 
into which the shot are dropped from a 
moderate height. The power required to 
run the fan is not much more than that or- 
dinarily expended in raising the lead to the 
top of the high towers ; and it is found that 
the lead, in consequence of its being more 
rapidly and equally cooled in the short de- 
scent against the current of air, may be used 
at a higher temperature than is practicable 
with that dropped from high towers ; and 
thus it may not only be poured more rapidly, 
but it has not the tendency to burst in falling 
and form imperfect shot, as is the case with 
that dropped from high towers, to guard 
against which the lead is kept at a low tem- 
perature. 



94 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



There are in New York city, besides this 
operation, which is carried on by Messrs. 
Leroy, in Water street, three shot towers, 
and a fourth is nearly completed on Staten 
Island. The ordinary capacity of these is 
from 3000 to 4000 tons of shot per annum. 
The annual shot production of St. Louis is 
about tlie same as that of New York, though 
there is now only one shot tower in use. 
There were formerly seven more on the river 
bluffs below the city, but these have hardly 
been used since 1847. In Baltimore is a 
tower the height of which, including ten 
feet constructed below the surface of the 
ground, is 256 feet, which exceeds by one 
foot the height of the famous tower in Vi- 
enna, described by Dr. Ure as the highest 
structure of the kind in the world, being 
249 feet above the surface of the ground. 
Its production is stated to be about 400 
tons per annum. In Philadelphia there is 
one tower which makes about 300 tons an- 
nually ; in Wythe county, Virginia, is one 
formed in one of the shafts of the mine, 
making about 200 tons ; and on the Wis- 
consin river, at Helena, is a small tower 
probably making about as much more. The 
actual production of the country in shot and 
bullets is supposed to be about 7000 tons, 
and to have made but little advance for 
many years past. 

White Lead. — Before the introduction 
of the oxide of zinc as a paint, one of the 
most important uses of lead was its conver- 
sion into the carbonate or white lead. The 
manufacture was originally carried on almost 
exclusively in Holland ; and it was not until 
near the close of the last century that it was 
introduced into England. In the United 
States it was unknown until after the war of 
1812, and being hrst undertaken in Philadel- 
])liia, it was afterward extended to New York 
and Brooklyn, and in the latter city has pros- 
pered more than in any other part of the 
country. Various attempts have been made 
to introduce new methods of manufacture, but 
the old Dutch process has continued in gen- 
eral use ; the modifications of it which have 
raised the manufacture in this country to a 
higher state of perfection than in any other 
part of the world being merely improve- 
ments in the details, by which ingenious 
machinery has been made to diminish the 
labor expended in the process. 

White lead is a combination of oxide of 
lead with carbonic acid, and is obtained in 
the form of a soft, very white, and heavy 



powder. It mixes readily with oil, giving 
to it a drying property, spreads well under 
the brush, and perfectly covers the surfaces 
to which it is applied. It is not only em- 
ployed alone as the best sort of white paint, 
but is the general material or body of a great 
number of paints, the colors of which are 
produced by mixing suitable coloring mat- 
ters with the white lead. Besides its use as 
a paint it is also in demand to a considerable 
extent as an ingredient in the so-called vul- 
canized india-rubber. To prepare it, the 
purest pig lead, such as the refined foreign 
lead and the metal from the upper mines of 
the Mississippi, is almost exclusively used. 
This was by the old methods made in thin 
sheets, and these into small rolls, to be sub- 
jected to the chemical treatment. But ac- 
cording to the American method devised by 
Mr. Augustus Graham of Brooklyn, and now 
generally adopted, the lead is cast into cir- 
cular gratings or "buckles," which closely 
resemble in form the large old-fashioned 
shoe-buckles, from which they receive their 
name. They are six or eight inches in di- 
ameter, and the lead hardly exceeds one 
sixth of an inch in thickness. Ingenious 
methods of casting them are in use in the 
American factories, by which the lead is run 
upon moulds directly from the furnace, and 
the buckles are separated from each other 
and delivered without handling into the 
vessels for receiving them. They are then 
packed in earthen pots shaped like flower- 
pots, each of which is provided with a 
ledge or three projecting points in the in- 
side, intended to keep the pieces above the 
bottom, in which is placed some strong vine- 
gar or acetic acid. It is recommended that 
on one side the pot should be partially open 
above the ledge, and if made full all round, 
it is well to knock out a piece in order to 
admit a freer circulation of vapors through 
the lead. In large establishments an im- 
mense supply of these pots is kept on hand, 
the number at the single manufactory of 
Messrs. Battelle & Renwick, on the Hudson, 
being not less than 200,000. They con- 
tinue constantly in use till accidentally 
broken below the ledge. Being packed 
close together in rows upon a bed of spent 
tan, a foot to two feet thick, and thin sheets 
of lead are laid among and over the pots in 
several thicknesses, but always so as to leave 
open spaces among them. An area is thus 
covered, it may be twenty feet square or 
of less dimensions, and is enclosed by board 



95 



partitions, which, upon suitable framework, 
can be carried up twenty-five feet high if 
required. When the. pots and the inter- 
stices among them are well packed with 
lead, a flooring of boards is laid over them, 
and upon this is spread another layer of 
tan ; and in the same manner eight or ten 
courses are built up, containing in all, it may 
be, 12,000 pots and 50 or 60 tons of lead, 
all of which are buried beneath an upper 
layer of tan. As the process of conversion 
requires from eight to twelve weeks, the 
large factories have a succession of these 
stacks which are charged one after another, 
so that when the process is completed in 
one, and the pots and lead have been re- 
moved and the chamber is recharged, anoth- 
er is ready for the same operation. 

The conversion of metallic lead into car- 
bonate is induced by the fermenting action, 
which commences in the tan soon after the 
pile is completed. The heat thus generated 
evaporates the vinegar, and the vapors of 
water and acetic acid rising among the lead 
oxidize its surface and convert it externally 
into a subacetate of lead; at the same time 
carbonic acid evolved from the tan circulates 
among the lead and transforms the acetate 
into carbonate of the oxide, setting the 
acetic acid free to renew its office upon 
fresh surfaces of lead. When the tan ceases 
to ferment the process is at an end, and the 
stack may then be taken to pieces. The 
lead is found in its original forms, but of 
increased bulk and weight, and more or less 
completely converted into the white carbo- 
nate. The thoroughness of the operation 
depends upon a variety of circumstances; 
even the weather and season of the year 
having an influence upon it. The pieces 
not entirely converted have a core of me- 
tallic or " blue" lead beneath the white car- 
bonate crust. The separation is made by 
beating oft" the v/hite portion, and this being 
done upon perforated copper shelves set in 
large wooden tanks and covered with water, 
the escape of the fine metallic dust is entire- 
ly prevented and its noxious effect upon 
the health of the workmen is avoided. In 
Europe, rolling machines closely covered 
are applied to the same purpose, but less 
effectually. The white lead thus collected 
is next ground with water between mill- 
stones to a thin paste, and by repeated 
grindings and washings this is reduced to 
an impalpable consistency. The water is 
next to be removed, and, according to the 



European plan, the creamy mixture is next 
turned into earthen pots, and these are ex- 
posed upon shelves to a temperature not ex- 
ceeding 300° until perfectly dry. Instead 
of this laborious method, the plan is adopted 
in the American works of employing shal- 
low pans of sheet copper, provided with a 
false bottom, beneath which steam from the 
exhaust-pipe of the engine is admitted to 
promote evaporation. These pans or " dry- 
ing kilns" are sometimes 100 feet long and 
6 feet broad, and several are set in the build- 
ing one above another. The liquid lead 
paste is pumped up into large tanks, and th^ 
heavier portion settling down, is drawn off 
into the pans, while the thinner liquid from 
the surface is returned to be mixed with 
fresh portions of white lead. Beside pans, 
tile tables heated by flues in the masonrv of 
which they are built, are also employed. 
From four to six days are required for thor- 
oughly drying the white lead. This is the 
finishing process, after which the lead is 
ready for packing in small casks for the 
market. 

The manufacture of white lead, which 
was formerly an unhealthy and even dan- 
gerous occupation, has been so much im- 
proved by the expedients for keeping the 
material wet and thus preventing the rising 
of the fine dust, that the peculiar lead dis- 
ease now rarely attacks the workmen. The 
business is conducted altogether upon a large 
scale, and gives employment to numerous 
extensive factories in different parts of the 
country. Some of these have arrangements 
for converting-stacks that extend under cover 
200 feet in length, and their facilities for 
grinding and drying are proportionally ex- 
tensive. These, and the time required for 
fully completing the process and getting the 
white lead ready for market — which is from 
three to four months — involve the use of 
large capital and tend to keep the business 
in few hands. 

There is a vastly increasing demand for 
pure white lead, and the competition and 
watchfulness of the trade insure the gen- 
uineness of the article thus warranted by 
the manufacturers. A large class of cus- 
tomers are the grinders, w^ho form a distinct 
trade, and use and mix the pure article with 
other substances and with coloring matters 
to suit their purposes. The mineral, sul- 
phate of barytes or heavy spar, is the chief 
article used to adulterate white lead, and for 
this purpose it is obtained from mines in 



96 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Connecticut and other places, and is exten- 
sively ground in mills for this use alone. 
"When perfectly pure, the powder is abso- 
lutely white ; it has about the same weight 
as white lead, and is quite as indestructible ; 
it is, indeed, less acted upon or discolored 
by noxious vapors. It lacks, however, the 
body of white lead, and is not so brilliant • 
and whenever used in any proportion ma- 
terially injures the paint in those good 
qualities. Oxide of zinc is also largely mix- 
ed with white lead, as will be noticed more 
particularly in the succeeding chapter. 

The principal white lead works, together 
with the probable amount of their annual 
production, in the United States are as 
follows : — 

No. of Works. Tons. 

Brooklyn, N. Y 4 8000 

Staten Island, N. Y 1 1500 

Hudson River (Saugerties), N. Y.. 1 1500 

Buftalo, N. Y 1 600 

Philadelphia, Pa 3 3500 

Pittsburg, Pa 5 4000 

Baltimore, Md 1 600 

Boston, Mass 1 1000 

Salem, Mass 1 1.500 

Cincinnati, 2 1500 

Louisville, Ky 1 700 

Chicago, 111 2 1200 

St. Louis, Mo 3 4U0O 



CHAPTER V. 

ZINC. 

"While the production of the lead mines 
has been falling off in the United States, 
that of the zinc mines has been steadily in- 
creasing since they were first worked about 
twenty years since ; and the metal is applied 
to some purposes for which lead has heretofore 
been almost exclusively used. The growing 
importance of this product in the United 
States will justify a reference to the zinc 
manufacture of Europe. 

The metal, as mentioned in the chapter 
on Copper, very curiously escaped the no- 
tice of the ancients, though they obtained it 
from its ores in preparing brass, an alloy of 
copper and zinc. In the metallurgical proc- 
esses it is readily sublimed by heat, and 
when its fumes come in contact with the air 
they are immediately oxidized, burning with 
a greenish white flame, and are then con- 
verted into the white oxide of zinc — a com- 
pound of one equivalent of the metal = 34, 
and one of oxygen = 8 ; which correspond 



respectively to 81 and 9 per cent. These 
fumes when collected are found to be a 
white flocculent powder, now known as the 
Avhite oxide of zinc, or zinc paint. If the 
vapor of zinc be protected from contact 
of air and passed through pipes into water, 
it is condensed into metallic drops, and 
these may be melted in close vessels and 
poured into moulds. Cast zinc is a brittle 
metal of bluish white color and greater lus- 
tre than that of lead. By heating it to the 
temperature of 212° to 300'' F.'it entirely 
loses its brittleness, and is made malleable 
and ductile, so that it can be rolled out into 
sheets. Its melting point is 680°, while 
that of lead is 608°. 

A variety of ores are worked for this 
metal ; as the sulphuret, called blende ; the 
carbonate, called smithsonite ; and the sil- 
icate of zinc, or calamine. The last two 
usually occur associated together. The red 
oxide is an important ore, but found only in 
New Jersey. Blende almost universally ac- 
companies galena, and in some lead mines 
is the prevailing ore. The miners call it 
black jack. When pure, it consists of zinc 
67, sulphur 33. Being more diflScult to re- 
duce than the other ores, it has been com- 
paratively little used, though the Chinese 
are known to have been successful in their 
management of it. In the United States it 
lies valueless in immense quantities about 
many of the lead mines; but it is not improb- 
able the old refuse heaps will yet be turned to 
profit. At the zinc works near Swansea, in 
Wales, it has been worked for many years ; 
and in England it has for a few years past 
come into use. In 1855, it is reported that 
9620 tons of this ore from various mines 
were sold ; while of the calamine ores, the 
produce of the Alston Moor mines, sales of 
only 182 tons were reported. More ores 
of each sort were no doubt smelted, but the 
proportion of each was probably not very 
different from that stated. Dr. Ure, in his 
Dictionary, speaks of this ore selling at 
Holywell for £3 per ton. In France there 
are now five establishments working blende ; 
while in 1840 all the zinc consumed in the 
country was imported. Smithsonite resem- 
bles some yellowish or whitish limestones, 
and usually accompanies these rocks, being 
irregularly bedded among their strata. In 
its best condition it is obtained in large 
blocks of botryoidal and reniform shapes, 
sometimes crystallized. But usually it is in 
porous crumbly masses, much mixed and 



97 



stained with reddish oxide of iron. Th* 
pure ore contains 65 per cent, of oxide of 
zinc (which is equivalent to 52 of the 
metal) and 35 of carbonic acid. The sili- 
cate of zinc is found intermixed with the 
carbonate, which it resembles in appearance. 
It contains, when piire, silica 25.1, water 
7.5, and oxide of zinc 67.4, corresponding 
to 54 per cent, of the metal. The red ox- 
ide is found only at Mine Hill and Stirling 
Hill, near Franklin, in the extreme north- 
ern county of New Jersey. The pure oxide, 
of which it is almost exclusively composed, 
contains 80.26 per cent, of zinc and 19.74 
of oxygen. The bright red color is probably 
derived from the small quantity of oxide of 
manganese present. The ore is mixed with 
franklinite iron ore, each being in distinct 
grains, one red and the other black ; and 
with these is associated a white crystalline 
limestone, either in disseminated grains with 
the ores, or forming the ground through 
which they are dispersed. Two beds, con- 
sisting of the zinc and iron ores, lie in con- 
tact with each other along the south-eastern 
slope of the Stirling Hill, between the lime- 
stone of the valley and the gneiss of the 
ridge, dipping with the slope of these rocks 
about 40° toward the valley, and ranging 
north-east and south-west. The upper bed, 
varying from 3 to 8 feet in thickness, con- 
sists of more than 50 per cent, red oxide 
of zinc; and the lower bed, which is 12 feet 
thick and in some places more than this, is 
chiefly franklinite, changing to limestone be- 
low, interspersed with imperfect crystals of 
franklinite. At Mine Hill, 1^ miles north- 
east from Stirling Hill, two distinct beds are 
again found together, that containing the 
most zinc in this case being the under one 
of the two, lying next the gneiss. These 
localities have been well explored ; the beds 
have been traced considerable distances 
along their line of outcrop ; and at Stirling 
Hill the red oxide of zinc has been mined 
for more than ten years by the New Jersey 
Zinc Company. Their workings have reached 
to a depth of about 250 feet, and have af- 
forded the finest specimens of zinc ore ever 
seen. A single mass of the red oxide was 
sent in 1851 to the Great Exhibition in 
London, which weighed 16,400 lbs., and at- 
tracted no little attention, from the purity, 
rarity, and extraordinary size of the speci- 
men. The Passaic Mining and Manufactur- 
ing Company also have opened two beds of 
the same ore on their property at Stirling 



Hill, adjoining that of the New Jersey Zinc 
Company, an(l between 1854 and 18G0 took 
out about 30,000 tons of rich and lean ores. 
At the depth of 178 feet, the principal bed 
is 21 feet wide, of which about 2^ feet is 
rich ore, and the rest limestone sufficiently 
interspersed with oxide of zinc to render it 
worth dressing. This company completed, 
in the year 1859, at the mines, very extens- 
ive works for dressing the lean ores before 
they are shipped to their furnaces at Jersey 
City. Tlie principal supplies of their ores 
hitherto have been of the smitlisonite and 
calamine from the mines in the Saucon val- 
ley, Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, of which 
they mined about 5,000 tons in the first 
year. These ores are extensively worked 
to the north of Friedensville, both by this 
company and the Pennsylvania and Le- 
high Zinc Company, whose furnaces are at 
Bethlehem, in Lehigh countj^ The mines 
of the two companies, which are near to- 
gether, are known as the Saucon mine and 
the Lehigh Zinc Company's mine. They 
were first opened in 1853. The two kinds 
of ore are found together, as is common in 
the European mines, and more or less blende 
is interspersed among them. They form 
very large irregular beds in limestone of the 
lower Silurian period, and are penetrated by 
veins of quartz, which traverse both the ore 
and limestone. LIuge masses of limestone 
lie interspersed among the ores. The deep- 
est workings at the Saucon mine are about 
100 feet below the surface; and from this 
depth galleries have been run in every direc- 
tion, exposing to view more than 50,000 
tons of ore. The ores of best quality are 
found in the loAver workings. 

About the same time that these mines 
were opened in Lehigh county, another, pro- 
ducing similar kinds of zinc ore, was dis- 
covered near Lancaster, in Pennsylvania; 
but after being explored it was found to 
contain so much blende and galena, that it 
was abandoned as worthless. Large de- 
posits of the same varieties of zinc ore are 
known to exist in Tennessee ; one locality 
at Mossy Creek, a few miles north-east of 
Knoxville, and another at Powell's river, a 
branch of the Clinch river, in Campbell 
county, about 40 miles north of Knoxville. 
These beds, examined by the writer in 1858, 
unquestionably contain very large quantities 
of excellent ore. The former, being close to 
the East Tennessee and Virginia railroad, 
is very conveniently situated ; and the other 



98 



MININC. IXDCSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



is within half a mile of a river navigable at 
certain seasons by flat-boats. Below its 
junction with the Clinch river are beds of 
bituminous coal, and the river is thence nav- 
igable by steamboats. At Kingston it is 
crossed by a railroad. 

Very pure ores of similar character have 
been found in Arkansas. The localities are 
in a lead mining region in Lawrence, Marion, 
and Independence counties ; but chiefly in 
the first named. The ores occur in a forma- 
tion of magnesian limestone, imbedded in 
red ferruginous clay. They are al-most ex- 
clusively smithsonite, containing very small 
proportions of silicate of zinc. Crystals of 
smithsonite and of blende are found upon 
the lumps of pure, flush-colored ore. The 
district promises to become an important one 
for the supply of zinc to the western states. 

The folli)wing are analyses of ores from 
the Saucon valley mines ; the first three by 
Prof. John Torrey, of the New York Assay 
Office, being of specimens, and the last two 
of samples of large shipments. No. 4 was 
made at the Assay Office, Hatton Gardens, 
London ; and No. 5 in Paris. 

No. 1. 

Oxide of zinc 48.00 

Carbonic acid 26 40 

Peroxide of iron 3.15 

Carboiuile of magnesia .62 

Silica 18.50 

Water 30 

Loss 2.13 

100 00 

Metallic zinc 39.30 

No. 2. — Granular Sulphurci of Zinc. 

Sulplmret of zinc 73.27 

Suipliuret of iron 1.49 

Silica 25.50 

100.26 

Metallic zinc 49.09 

No. 3. — Waxy Sulphuret of Zinc. 

Sulplmret of zinc 97.63 

Sulphuret of iron 1.54 

Silica 1.40 

100.57 

Metallic zinc 65.41 

No. 4 — Mixture of Blende and Carbonate of Zinc. 

Zinc 61.70 

Sulpliur J 9.82 

Iron 4.76 

Silica 1.00 

Carbonic acid 9.90 

Phospliato of lime 88 

Oxygen, water, and loss 1.94 

100.00 
Contains of silver 4.15 ozs. to the ton of 20 cwt. 



No. 5. 

Zinc J f 42.0 

Oxygen .... V Carbonate of zinc, 75.1 -^ 10.5 

Carbonic acid ) ( 22.6 

Protoxide of iron ) ^ , e ■ i^ o < 7.3 

^ , . ., J- Carb. of inm, 10.2 < „„ 

Carbonic acid ... J ' (2.9 

Silica 11.8 

Moisture 2.9 

100.0 
METALLURGIC TREATMENT AND USES. 

Zinc ores are applied to practical pur- 
poses, not only to produce the metal, but also 
the white oxide of zinc, which is consider- 
ably used as a paint. The ancients used an 
ore they called lapis calaminaris, to make 
brass, by melting it with copper in cruci- 
bles, not knowing that another metal was 
thus formed which produced an alloy with 
the copper. Although the metal was dis- 
covered in the 16th century, the nature of 
its ores was little known before the middle 
of the last century. It is now prepared 
upon a large scale in Belgium ancl Silesia, 
and small quantities are produced in Eng- 
land, France, and diflerent parts of Ger- 
many. The simple method of obtaining 
zinc from its ores, called distillation per de- 
scensu)n, was introduced into England about 
the year 1740, and was derived from the 
Chinese, who appear to have been acquainted 
with the metal long before it was known to 
the Europeans. As now practised in Great 
Britain, the ores are first calcined, the effect 
of which is to expel a portion of the water, 
carbonic acid, and sulphur they contain. 
They are then ground to powder, and mixed 
with fine charcoal, or mineral coal, and in- 
troduced into stationary earthen pots, or 
crucibles. When set in the furnace, an iron 
pipe, passing up through the bottom of the 
hearth, enters the crucible, and connects 
with an open vessel directly beneath. About 
six pots are set together under a low dome 
of brick-work, through which apertures are 
left for filling them. Each one has a cover, 
which is luted down with fire clay ; and the 
iron tube in each is stopped with a wooden 
plug.which, as the operation goes on, becomes 
charred and poi'ous, so as to admit through it 
the passage of the zinc vapors. The tubes 
are prevented from being clogged with de- 
positions of the condensed zinc, by occa- 
sionally running a rod through them from 
the lower end. The zinc collects in the 
dishes under the tubes, in the form of drops 
and powder, a portion of which is oxidized. 
The whole is transferred to melting-pots, 



ZINC. 



99 



and the oxide which swims upon the sur- 
face of the melted metal is skimmed off and 
returned to the reducing crucibles, while 
the metal is run into moulds. The ingots 
are known in commerce as spelter. 

In the United States zinc was first made 
by Mr. John Hitz, under the direction of 
Mr. Hassler, who, by order of Congress, 
was engaged about the year 1838 to manu- 
facture standard weights and measures for 
the cuslwm-houses. The work was done at 
the U. S. arsenal at Washington, the ores 
used being the red oxide of New Jersey. The 
expense exceeded the value of the metal ob- 
tained, and it has generally been supposed 
that we could not produce spelter so cheaply 
as it can be imported from Europe. The 
next experiments were made at the works of 
the New Jersey Zinc Company, 1850, on the 
Belgian plan. In these great difticulties were 
experienced for want of retorts of suffi- 
ciently refractory character to withstand the 
high temperature and the chemical action of 
the constituents of the ore. The franklin- 
ite, which always accompanies the red ox- 
ide ores, was particularly injurious by rea- 
son of the oxide of iron forming a fusible 
silicate with the substance of the retorts 
These trials consequently failed after the 
expenditure of large sums of money. The 
next important trial was made in 1856, by a 
Mr. Hoofstettcr, who built a Silesian furnace 
of 20 muflies for the Pennsylvania and Le- 
high Zinc Company at their mine near 
Friedensville. This proved a total failure, 
and seemed almost to establish the impracti- 
cability of producing spelter with the Amer- 
ican ores, clays, and anthracite. About this 
time Mr. Joseph Wharton, the general man- 
ager of the Pennsylvania and Lehigh Zinc 
Company, and Mr. Samuel Wetherill, of 
Bethlehem, both hit upon the same plan of 
treating zinc ores in an open furnace, and 
leading the volatile products through incan- 
descent coal, in order to reduce the zinc ox- 
ide so formed, and draw only metallic and 
carbonaceous vapors into the condensing 
apparatus. Mr. Wharton constructed his 
furnace in Philadelphia, and Mr. Wetherill 
his in Bethlehem. The former having com- 
pleted his trials, filed a caveat for the proc- 
ess, but soon after abandoned it as econom- 
ically impracticable. The latter continued 
his operations, patented the method, and 
produced some zinc, eight or te» tons of 
■which were sold to the U. S. Assay Office 
in New York. The manufacture was not, 



however, long continued. In 1858, Mr. 
Wetherill recommenced the production of 
zinc, adopting a plan of upright retorts, 
somewhat like that in use in Carinthia, in 
Austria, and that of the English patent of 
James Graham. Mr. Wetherill had suc- 
ceeded in procuring good mixtures of fire 
clays, and his retorts made of these and 
holding each a charge of 400 lbs. of ore, 
proved sufficiently refractory for the opera- 
tion. The woi'ks now under his charge at 
Bethlehem, erected in 1858-9, and belong- 
ing to the owners of the Saucon mine, have 
a capacity of about two tons of metal daily. 

Mr. Wharton, after abandoning the 
method of reduction by incandescent coals, 
continued his experiments on different plans, 
and finally decided on the Belgian furnace 
as the best, after having actually made spel- 
ter from silicate of zinc, with anthracite, in 
muffles of American clay's, at a cost below 
its market value. These trials were made in 
the zinc oxide works of the Pennsylvania 
and Lehigh Zinc Company. Their success 
encouraged the company to construct a fac- 
tory at Bethlehem for reducing zinc ores, 
and this was done under the direction of 
Mr. Wharton in 1860. The capacity of 
the works is about 2000 tons per annum, 
and their actual daily product in the winter 
of 1860-1, is over three tons. Four stacks 
or blocks are constructed, each containing 
four furnaces. To each furnace there are 
56 retorts, making in all 896, working two 
charges in twenty-four hours. Their total 
capacity is about five tons of metal. Be- 
sides the ordinary spelter of this manufac- 
ture, which, as Avill be seen by the remarks 
that follow, is remarkable for its freedom from 
injurious mixtures, and is the best commer- 
cial zinc itt the world, Mr. Wharton also 
prepares from selected ores a pure zinc 
for the use of chemists, and for purposes in 
which a high degree of purity is essential. 
This is cast in ingots of about nine pounds 
each, and is sold at the price of ten cents 
per pound. For the supply of chemists, and 
for the batteries employed by the telegraph 
companies, the American zinc of this manu- 
facture is preferred to all others. The total 
annual consumption of crude spelter in the 
United States amounts to the value of about 
$600,000 ; and the value of sheet zinc, nails, 
etc., is about as much more. 

The commercial zincs, it has long been 
known, are contaminated by various foreign 
substances, the existence of some of whicli 



100 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



is indicated in the finely divided black sub- 
stance which remains floating or sinking in 
the liquid, when the metal is dissolved in 
dilute acids. The impurities have been 
stated by ditierent chemists to consist of a 
great variety of substances, such as lead, 
cadmium, arsenic, tin, iron, manganese, car- 
bon, etc. They injuriously affect the quality 
of the metal for many of its uses ; and the 
presence of one of them, arsenic, is fatal to 
the highly important use of zinc by chemists, 
as a reagent in the detection of arsenic in 
other substances. Arsenic in the form of a 
sulphuret often accompanies the native sul- 
phurets of zinc, and its oxide, being volatile, 
is readily carried over with the zinc fumes 
in the metallurgic treatment of blende, and 
may thus be introduced into the spelter. It is 
evidently, therefore, a matter of consequence 
to know the qualities of the different zincs 
of commerce, and the exact nature of the 
impurities they contain. Very thorough in- 
vestigations having these objects in view 
have recently been made in Cambridge, 
Massachusetts, by Messrs. Charles W. Eliot 
and Frank H. Storer of Boston, and the re- 
sults of these, with a full description of their 
methods of examination, were communicated. 
May 29, 1860, to the American Academy 
of Arts and Sciences, and published in the 
eighth volume of the new series of their 
Memoirs. Eleven varieties of zinc from dif- 
ferent parts of Europe, and made from the 
ores of New Jersey, and of the Saucon val- 
ley, Pennsylvania, were experimented upon, 
of all of which large samples were at hand. 
These varieties were the following : ] , Sile- 
sian zinc ; 2, Vieille Montague zinc ; 3, New 
Jersey zinc ; 4, Pennsylvanian zinc, Beth- 
lehem, Pennsylvania ; 5, Vieille Montague 
zinc, employed at the United ^ates mint, 
Philadelphia; 6, zinc of MM. Rousseau, 
Freres, Paris, labelled and sold as zinc pur ; 
7, sheet zinc obtained in Berlin, Prussia; 8, 
zinc made near Wrexham, North Wales; 9, 
zinc from the Mines Royal, Neath, South 
Wales ; 10, zinc from the works of Dillwyn 
& Co., Swansea, South Wales; 11, zinc 
from the works of Messrs. Vivian, Swansea. 
All of these, except the Pennsylvania zinc, 
furnished an insoluble residue, which was 
found to consist chiefly of metallic lead, and 
this proved to be the principal impurity of 
all the samples examined ; " the carbon, tin, 
copper, iron, arsenic, and other impurities 
found in the metal by previous observers, 
occur either in very minute quantities, or 



rarely, and doubtless accidentally." The 
proportions of lead present in 100 parts of 
each of the varieties examined were respect- 
ively as follows : in No. 1, 1.46 ; 2, 0.292 ; 
3,0.079; 4,0.000; 5,0.494; 6,0.106; 7, 
1.297; 8,1.192; 9,0.823; 10,1.661; 11, 
1.516. The New Jersey zinc was found to 
contain a sensible quantity of tin, copper 
amounting to 0.1298 per cent., iron 0,2088 
per cent., and an unusually large amount of 
arsenic. Traces of this were also detected 
in the white oxide prepared from the ores 
of the New Jersey mines, and in the red 
oxide ore itself; but the same ore afforded 
no clue as to the source whence the copper 
was derived, a metal of which not the slight- 
est traces were discoverable in the other 
zincs. None of the samples contained suf- 
ficient arsenic to admit of its proportion be- 
ing determined, and some were entirely free 
from it, as some of the Belgian and Pennsyl- 
vania spelter, but traces of it were met with 
in other samples from the same regions, in- 
dicating that the occasional use of inferior 
ores, such as blende, intermixed with the 
carbonates and silicates, might introduce 
this substance, or possibly it might come 
over only in the first part of the distillation, 
and the zinc collected in the latter part 
might be quite free from it. The Silesian 
zinc contained minute quantities of sulphur 
and arsenic ; and the English zinc more ar- 
senic than any other, except perhaps the 
New Jersey. The purest of all the samples 
was that from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 
some of it yielding no impurity, except a 
trace of cadmium. The source of a trace 
of arsenic in another sample is supposed to 
be in the use of the crust of oxide of zinc 
from the operations connected with the 
manufacture of white oxide of zinc, no par- 
ticular care being taken in that process to 
reject inferior ores, and this crust being 
taken to the other works where the metal is 
prepared and mixed with the selected ores 
employed for this use, it has thus introduced 
the arsenic. As the authors of the paper 
remark, there seems to be no reason why 
zinc of uniform purity should not be ob- 
tained from the excellent ores of the Saucon 
valley mines. 

EUROPEAN MANUFACTURE. 

A large portion of the zinc of commerce 
is furnished by the works of the Vieille 
Montague Company, established near the 
frontier of Belgium and Prussia, chiefly in 



101 



the province of Liege of the former country. 
A large number of mines are worked in this 
region, the most important of which is that 
of the Vieille Montague or Altenberg, sit- 
uated in the village of Moresnet, between 
Aix-la-Chapelle and the town of Liege. It 
is said that the great body of carbonate of 
zinc found here was worked as long ago as 
the year 1435, and that for four centuries it 
was not known that the ore was of metallic 
character, but it was used as a peculiar earth 
adapted for converting copper into brass. 
The ore lies in a basin-like depression in 
strata of magnesian limestone, and is much 
mixed with beds of clay intercalated among 
its layers. The ore is chiefly carbonate 
mixed with the silicate and oxide of zinc. 
Some of it is red, from the oxide of iron in- 
termixed, and this produces only about 33 
per cent, of metal. The purer white ore 
yields about 46 per cent., and is moreover 
much preferred on account of its v»orking 
better in the retorts. The furnaces em- 
ployed in the distillation of these ores are 
constructed upon a very large scale, and on 
a different plan from those in use in Great 
Britain. The general character of the oper- 
ations, however, is the same. The ores are 
first calcined, losing about one fifth of their 
weight. They are then ground in mills, and 
charges ai-e made up of 1100 lbs. of the 
powdered ore mixed with 550 lbs. of fine 
coal. The mixture being well moistened 
with water, is introduced into cylindrical re- 
torts, which are three feet 8 inches long 
and 6 inches diameter inside, set inclining 
outward, to the number of 42 in a single 
furnace, and 4 such furnaces are constructed 
in one stack. The open end of each retort 
connects, by means of an iron adapter 16 
inches long, with a wrought-iron cone, the 
little end of which, projecting out from the 
furnace, is only an inch in diameter. After 
the charges have been sufficiently heated, 
the sublimed zinc condenses in the neck of 
the retort and in the adapter and cone. The 
last two are then removed, and the zinc and 
oxide are collected from them, and the liq- 
uid metal in the neck of the retorts is 
drawn out and caught in a large ladle, from 
which it is poured into moulds. The zinc 
thus obtained is remelted before it is rolled. 
Two charges are run through in twenty-four 
hours, each furnace producing from 2200 lbs. 
of ore about 620 lbs. of metal, which is 
about 30 per cent. From a late report of 
these operations it appears that there are 



seven large smelting establishments belong- 
ing to the Vieille Montague Ziiic Mining 
Company, on the borders of Belgium and 
Prussia, comprising 230 furnaces. The an- 
nual product of these is 29,000 tons of spel- 
ter, of which 23,000 tons are converted into 
sheet zinc, and about "ZOOO tons are rolled at 
mills not the property of the company. They 
also manufacture oxide of zinc in three es- 
tablishments devoted to this operation, to 
the amount of about 6000 tons annually. The 
company also purchases spelter very largely. 
The metallurgy of zinc has, within a few 
years past, become an important branch of 
industry in Upper Silesia on the borders of 
Poland, and not far from Cracow. In 1857 
there were no less than 47 zinc works in this 
part of Prussia, one of which, named Lydog- 
niahiitte, at Konigshiitte, belonged to the 
government, and the remainder were owned 
by private companies and individuals. In 
that year their total production was 31,480 
tons of spelter, valued at about 17,660,000 
francs. Many of the establishments belong 
to the Silesian Company, which also owns 
several coal mines near their works, and a 
number of zinc mines. The government 
works are supplied with ores from their own 
mines, and also from all the others, being 
entitled to one twentieth of their product. 
From a description of the operations pub- 
lished in the sixteenth volume of the Armales 
des Mines, fifth series, 1859, it appears that 
the processes are the same which had been 
employed for full twenty years previously, 
and each establishment presents little else 
than a repetition of the works of the others. 
The furnace in use is a double stack, fur- 
nished along each side with horizontal ovens, 
into each of which three muflles or retorts 
are introduced. These are constructed of 
refractory fire clays, and are charged, like 
the retorts of gas furnaces, by conveying the 
material upon a long charger or spoon into 
the interior. Their dimensions are about 4 
feet long, 22 inches high, and 8^ inches wide, 
and the weight of the charge introduced is 
only about 55 pounds. The ovens on each 
side of the stacks contain as many as 2 and 
sometimes 30 retorts. The same stack con- 
tains besides, 1st, an oven in which the ores 
belonging to it are roasted for expelling the 
water and a portion of the carbonic acid they 
contain (a process iu which they lose about 
i their weight) ; 2d, an oven for baking the 
retorts, each establishment making its own ; 
and 3d, a furnace for remelting and purifying 



102 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



the zinc obtained from the retorts. Several 
stacks are arranged in a large building with 
close walls and open along the top of the 
roof to allow the smoke to escape. On one 
side, connected with it, are the workshops 
in which the muffles are made and various 
other operations are carried on. 

The principal zinc mines are in the vicin- 
ity of Beuthen, and are found in the magne- 
sian limestones of the new red sandstone 
formation. They are connected with the 
zinc works, which are principally near Kij- 
nigshiitte, by branch railroads connecting 
with the principal line of road betv/een 
Tarnowitz and Kattowitz. The ores are 
chiefly carbonates, always mixed with much 
oxide of iron, which is sometimes present to 
the extent of 20 per cent., and with them is 
also associated more or less silicate of zinc, 
blende, galena, and cadmium. Their per- 
centage of zinc is very variable, rarely reach- 
ing 35, and probably averaging 21 or 22 per 
cent. Much that is worked does not exceed 
12 per cent. They lie in irregular deposits, 
and it is found that their yield of zinc has 
been gradually falling off, so that it is now 
only about two fifths of what it was formerly. 
This low yield involves a large consumption 
of fuel, which is 20 tons for one of zinc ob- 
tained ; and if' this deterioration continues, 
the mines must some time hence be aban- 
doned. The coal employed in working the 
ores is of poor quality, burning without 
flame ; but it leaves no cinder, and is pro- 
cured from mines very near the works, and 
at the extraordinary low price of 6 to 7 
francs the luOO kilogrammes (about one ton). 
The retorts are charged every 24 hours with 
roasted ore reduced to the size of nuts, and 



mixed with oxide of zinc from previous op- 
erations, with the dross from the crucible 
employed in remelting, with the incrustations 
from the muffles and their connections out- 
side the furnaces, and in fine with cinders 
that have fallen through the grates, these last 
making about J the bulk of the charge. 
The workmen having discharged a muffle of 
the liquid zinc and oxide remaining from the 
previous operation by drawing them forward, 
so that they fall upon an iron shelf placed 
below to catch them, and having repaired 
any cracks and holes in the muffle, they in- 
troduce the new charge in small portions at a 
time, and immediately adjust the outer con- 
nection, which is also of earthenware bent 
down at a right angle, and close up the 
openings in front. The zinc soon begins to 
distil over, and drops down upon the iron 
shelf, forming pieces of all shapes ; and it is 
more or less mixed Avith oxide colored yel- 
low by the oxide of cadmium. When re- 
melted and run into moulds, the spelter is 
stated to have about the following composi- 
tion : zinc, 97.50, cadmium, 1.00, lead, 0.20, 
arsenic, 0.84, sulphur, 0.05, together with 
traces of tin, iron, and carbon ; but the char- 
acter and proportion of the impurities are 
probably very variable. The expenses of 
the maimfacture at the royal works amount- 
ed for the year 1856 to 48.60 francs the 
metrical quintal (220.47 lbs.), and in 1858 
to 54.84 francs ; consisting in the latter 
year of the following items : ore, 26.84 ; 
fuel, 14.30; labor, 7.00; materials employ- 
ed, 3.70 ; general expenses, 3.00. The oper- 
ations of the Silesian Company at their 
several works for the first half of the year 
1858 are thus presented : — 



COST OF THE SEVERAL ITEMS PER METRICAL QUINTAL OF, PRODUCT. 



Name of Works. Ores treated. 

Met. quint. 

Gabor Silesia 112,399 

Paulshutte 40,784 

Thurzoliiitte 37,458 

Friedenshutte 15,345 

Stanislashutte 40,534 

Carlshiitte 45,918 



Zinc 
obtained. 
Met. quint. 


Cost of 

labor. 

Francs. 


Fuel. 
Francs. 


Ores. 
Francs. 


Sundry 
expenses. 
Francs. 


Total coBt 
Francs. 


19,703 


4.98 


10.35 


11.40 


4.27 


31.00 


4,928 


7.10 


14.69 


14.24 


4.77 


40.80 


4,495 


7.57 


12.08 


12.92 


4.90 


37.47 


2,346 


5.96 


10.66 


13.98 


4.62 


35.22 


3,978 


8.83 


16.18 


15.66 


6.23 


46.90 


5,723 


6.06 


14.80 


13.23 


6.91 


41.00 



292,438 41,173 

The general consumption of spelter 
throughout the world is estimated in the 
report to which we have already referred, re- 
lating to the Vieille Montague Company, 
to be about 67,000 tons, of which about 
44,000 tons are sheet zinc applied as fol- 
lows : — 



Tons. 

For roofing and architectural purposes 23,000 

" sheathing of ships 3,500 

" hning packing cases 2,500 

" domestic utensils 12,000 

" stamped ornaments 1,500 

" miacellaneoua uses 1,500 

44,000 



103 



The estimate of 67,000 tons as the total 
annual production of zinc is probably too 
small for Europe alone. Taking the product 
above given of the works of the Yieille Mon- 
tague Company, viz., 'J 9,000 tons, and that 
of the Silesian furnaces, 31,480 tons, there 
remain only 6,520 tons to be divided among 
the other zinc-producing countries. These 
are Pohmd, on the borders of Silesia, the 
annual production of which is usually given 
as 4000 tons ; England, which has rapidly 
advanced from 1000 tons of spelter per an- 
num to 6900 tons in 1858; Austria, which 
produces 1500 tons; Sweden, 40 tons; and the 
Hartz 10 tons.' Zinc, it is believed, is also 
manufactured to some extent in Spain. The 
European production would, therefore, seem 
to exceed 73,000 tons, and for the total 
production of the world, that of the United 
States and of China should be added. Of 
the extent of the manufacture of the latter 
country we know nothing. The United 
States pi-oduces of oxide of zinc and spelter 
over 7.000 tons, and imnort« 1 2,000, annually. 

The value of the ores at different costs of 
the metal is given in the following recently 
prepared table from one of the European 
houses :-. — 

SCHEDULE OF THE COST OF ZINO ORE ON SHIPBOARD AT 

ANTWERP. 

CARBONATE OF ZINC. 



Metal worth 50 francs the 
100 kilograinnies. 


Metal worth 
55 f. ihe 100 


Metal worth 60 
f. the 100 




^ 


kilogrammes. 


kilogrammes. 


Percentage 


Vnlue of 100 


Value of 100 


Value of 100 


of zinc by 


kildgrrammes. 


kilogvammes. 


kilogrammes. 


analysis. 


Francs. 


Francs. 


Francs. 


40 


80.00 


94.50 


109.00 


45 


102.50 


119.50 


136.50 


50 


125.00 


144.50 


164.00 


55 


147.50 


169.50 


191.50 


60 


170.00 


194.50 


219.00 


65 


192.50 


219.50 


240.50 


70 


215.00 


244.50 


274.00 




SILICATE OF ZINC. 




40 


45.00 


57.00 


69.00 


45 


67.50 


82.00 


96.50 


50 


90.00 


107.00 


124.00 


55 


112.50 


132.00 


151.50 


60 


135.00 


157.00 


179.00 


65 


157.50 


182.00 


206:50 


10 


180.00 


207.00 


234.00 



A kilogramme is equivalent to 2205 lbs. 
avoirdupois. 

Twenty -five years ago the quantity of zinc 
used for i-oofing did not exceed 5,000 tons 
per annum, and no zinc was employed for 
sheathing ships, or lining packing cases. 
The stamped ornaments in this metal only 
came into use in 1852. In Germany zinc is 
now very generally used for roofing ; and in 
Paris it has been employed for nearly every 



roof constructed during the last twenty-five 
years. In laying the sheets great care is 
taken that the metal has sufficient room to 
expand and contract by change of tempera- 
ture ; and especially ibat it is fastened with 
zinc nails, and is allowed to come nowhere 
in contact with iron— even with nail heads. 
The purer the metal the longer it lasts. 

Besides the uses named for this metal, it 
is em;iloy(Ml for coating sheet iron, making 
what is called galvanized iron; for pipes for 
conveying liquids; for baths, water-tanks, 
milk-pans and pails, plates for engraving ; 
for galvanic batteries ; for nails, spikes, and 
wire ; for signs ; music printing ; and for the 
cornices of buildings. It has also been cast 
into statues, in imitation of bronze. The 
Vieille Montague Company sent to the Great 
Exhib tio:i in London a statueof Queen Vic- 
toria, which with its pedestal of zinc was 
twenty-one feet high. By a process some- 
what Hke lithography, called Zincography, 
drawings, old engravings, and autograph let- 
ters are transferred to it, and af er treatment 
with acids, printed from a raised surface. A 
modification of ihis process called Photozinc- 
ography, accom!)lishes the difficulty task of 
printing from a photograph. Zinc is also an 
important reagent in chemical operations, 
and is employed with sulphuric acid to de- 
compose water for obtaining hydrogen gas. 

ZINC PAINT. 

White oxide of zinc was first recom- 
mended as a substitute for white lead by 
the celebrated Guy ton de Morveau about 
the close of the last century, during his in- 
vestigations on the subject of lead poison- 
ing ; and to him it was suggested by Cour- 
tois, a manufacturer at Dijon. The high 
price of zinc at that time, and ignorance 
respecting the proper manner of using the 
oxide of zinc, prevented its introduction. 
It was many years after this that methods of 
producing it as cheaply as white lead were 
devised by M. Leclaire, a house-painter of 
Paris ; and he also first prepared to use with 
it a series of yellow and green unchangeable 
colors, to replace those before in use having 
noxious bases of .lead, copper, or arsenic ; 
and also a drying oil, prepared by boiling 
linseed oil with about five per cent, of oxide 
of manganese. His process, which is still 
the one in general use in Europe, is based 
on the treatment of the metal instead of the 
ore, as practised in this country, and scarcely 
any white oxide of zinc is there made by 



104 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



any other method. The furnaces employed 
are similar to those for producing the metal, 
or like those of the gas works. When the 
retorts set in these furnaces have become 
very hot, they are charged with the ingots 
of zinc. The metal soon melts, and its 
vapor passes off through the outlets of the 
retorts, where it meets a current of air, and 
both together are drawn on through the 
condensing apparatus either by the draught 
of a chimney, or by an exhausting fon at the 
further extremity of the apparatus. The 
metallic vapors become oxidized by mixing 
with the air, and are converted into a light, 
flaky, white powder, which is the oxide of 
zinc. The arrangements for condensing 
and collecting this are similar in principle 
to those employed for the same purposes in 
the American process. By making use of 
the metal in retorts, instead of subliming it 
from ores contaminated with their own im- 
purities, and mixed with the coal required 
for conducting the process, a much purer 
oxide of zinc is obtained ; and by selecting 
the purest sorts of spelter, the beautiful 
article, called by the French blanc de neige, 
or " snow-white," is produced, which is 
employed by painters in the place of the 
" silver-white." With the use of other zinc, 
the product is fit to be substituted for the 
best white lead. ]]ut if the metal has been 
made from ores containing cadmium or iron, 
or if old zinc has been introduced to -which 
any solder adheres, according to the French 
chemists oxides of other metals are pro- 
duced, and are taken up in small quantities 
with the zinc vapors, imparting to the oxide 
a slightly yellow or grecnisli tint, which if 
not very decided may however disappear 
when the paint is mixed ; but the expe- 
rience of American manufacturers does not 
accord with this explanation. 

The manufacture of white oxide of zinc 
direct from the ore is a purely American 
process, established by the experiments of 
Mr. Richard Jones of Philadelphia in the 
year 1850. The great bodies of the rich 
ores of northern New Jersey had at various 
times, for the past two centuries, attracted 
the attention of many persons interested in 
metallurgical operations ; and of late years 
numerous attempts had been made to devise 
some method of converting them to useful 
purposes. Zinc, however, was a metal not 
much in demand, an<l nothing was known 
of the useful qualities of the white oxide. 
When the value of this had been demon- 



strated in Europe, and the practicability of 
producing it economically from the red 
oxide was shown, a company was organized 
in New York under the name of the New 
Jersey Zinc Company, for the purpose of 
carrying on this manufacture upon a large 
scale. This association was incorporated by 
the Legislature of New Jersey, February 
15, 1849, and the report of their operations, 
made December 31, 1853, by their presi- 
dent, C. E. Detmold, Esq., showed a pro- 
duction, for 1852, of 2,425,506 lbs. of oxide; 
and for 1853, of 4,043,415 lbs.; and the 
total production for 10 years, ending with 
1860, has amounted to above 19,500 tons. 
Their works were established at Newark, N. 
J., to which place the ores are brought by 
the Morris and Essex canal ; and the an- 
thracite consumed in the manufacture is 
also delivered by water transportation. The 
company has forty furnaces, that may be 
kept in constant operation. The character 
of the process is like that which will be 
given below, as conducted by the Passaic 
Mining and Mainifaeturing Company. 

The success of the enterprise of the New 
Jersey Zinc Company, and the discovery in 
1853 of the great beds of silicate and car- 
bonate of zinc in 'the Saucon valley, Penn- 
sylvania, led to the organization in that year 
of the Pennsylvania and Lehigh Zinc Com- 
pany, and the erection of furnaces for mak- 
ing the oxide at Bethlehem, on tlie Lehigh 
river. The operations were conducted by 
Samuel Wetherill, Esq., by a patented proc- 
ess of his own invention, and at a contract 
price of $50 per ton ; the ore being deliv- 
cied by the company at the works for $1.50 
per ton. About four tons were consumed to 
(he ton of oxide. The company mined up 
to January, 18G0, about G0,000 tons of ore, 
and at that time were manufacturing about 
320,000 lbs. of oxide of zinc per month. 

A third company was established in 1855, 
called the Passaic Mining and IManufactur- 
ing Company, and their works, constructed 
at Communipaw, on the Morris canal near 
Jersey City, Avent into operation in June of 
that year. They obtained their ores both 
from the mines of red oxide in Sussex 
county, and from the Saucon valley mines in 
Pennsylvania. They employed 24 furnaces, 
built in 3 stacks, of 8 each, in which they 
were arranged like ovens, half of them open- 
ing on one side and half on the opjjosite 
side. Each one wvas about 6 feet in depth 
(from front to back), 4 feet in width, and 



ZINC. 



105 



about 3^ feet in height. The roof was arch- 
ed, with an opening through it for the pipe 
which conveyeJ away the vapor and products 
of combustion. The sole was formed of cast- 
iron plates, which were perforated full of small 
holes for admitting the bhist to penetrate 
every portion of the charge, as the wind was 
driven by two large fan-blowers into the re- 
ceptacle under the furnace corresponding to 
tbe ash-pit. The ores were prepared by lirst 
crushing them to powder, which was done by 
passing them through two pairs of Cornish 
rolls, and then mixing them thoroughly with 
about half their weight of the dust of anthra- 
cite. Afire was kindled upon the grate-bars 
of 250 lbs. of pea coal, and when ignited to 
full whiteness the charge of 600 lbs. of ore, 
mixed with 300 of coal dust, was added, and 
when exhausted the charge was withdrawn, 
leaving only sufficient coal to ignite the next 
charge, thus working off 4 charges in every 
24 hours. The proportion of oxide obtained 
from the ore was variable, as the charge was 
not of uniform quality ; but it was usually 
between 30 and 40 per cent. As the coal 
rapidly consumed from the effect of the blast, 
the ores were decomposed, and metallic zinc 
sublimed. The vapor rose with the gaseous 
products of combustion, and all were carried 
lip the pipe, which just above the roof of 
the stack terminate under an inverted fun- 
nel, the base of which covered the lower pijie 
like a hood, and the upper portion was a 
pipe like that below. A strong current of 
air was created by two exhausting fan- 
blowers, at the other extremity of the ap- 
paratus, and the vapors were drawn up to- 
gether with much air which flowed in around 
the open base of the funnel, and caused at 
this point a vivid combustion of the zinc 
vapors, which burned witii a pale blue flame, 
and were thus converted into oxide. The 
appearance presented by this combustion 
actively going on in full view under each 
hood was very striking, and Avas far from 
suggesting to an observer unacquainted with 
the process, the possibility that from the 
pale flames rushing up the pipes any valua- 
ble product could be recovered. The pipes 
connected above with a cylindrical sheet-iron 
receiver that extended over the three stacks, 
so as to secure the ])roducts of all the fur- 
naces. It was a huge i)ipe, 6| feet in diam- 
eter, and 130 feet long, and parsed along 
under the roof, against a line of windows on 
each side, through which air was admitted 
for hastening the cooling of the products. 



The pipe discharged into a square tower in 
masonry, and in this the particles were 
washed and cooled by a continual falling 
sheet of water. The light flocculent oxide 
of zinc was not carried down by this to any 
great extent, but was drawn on by the ex- 
haust through 3 large j^ipes to a second tower 
with three divisions, in which the fans were 
placed that created the draught. From this 
the current, still propelled by the fans, moved 
on through other pipes that connected with 
the system of flannel bags, which in great 
numbers, and of extraordinary sizes, were sus- 
pended throughout the portion of the build- 
ing devoted to the final cooling of the oxide, 
and filtering it from the gaseous matters inter- 
mixed. Some of the bags extended the whole 
length of the rooms, which were 120 feet 
long by 64 wide, and the diameter of the larg- 
est of them was over 4 feet. They were ar- 
ranged near together, and some were carried 
vertically from the horizontal ones up to the 
roof. Through the pores of the flannel the 
gases escaped, and the oxide of zinc remained 
thoroughly purified. Nearly 200,000 square 
feet of flannel were worked into these bags ; 
and one person was almost constantly em- 
ployed with a sewing machine, and two others 
Avorking by hand, in making and repairing 
them. Along the under side of the horizontal 
bags pipes of cotton cloth, ten or twelve inches 
in diameter, reached down nearly to the floor, 
and were kept tied around their lower ends. 
These were called the teats ; and the oxide of 
zinc was collected by lifting up the portions 
of the bags where it had settled, and shaking 
the.-e so as to make it fall into the teats. The 
ends of these were then opened, and the 
white zinc was received in strong bags, 
which being tied up were laid upon a truck, 
and this was run by steam power back and 
forth under a com|)ressing roller. The air 
dispersed through it, rendering it so light 
and bulky, was thus expelled, and the oxide 
was converted info a dense, heavy powder. 
The last process was to grind this with 
bleached linseed oil, which was done in the 
ordinary paint mills. The paint was then 
transferred into small kegs for the market. 

The residuum of the furnace charge, when 
of red oxide, consisted of some unsublimed 
zinc ore mixed with franklinite and more or 
less unconsumed coal. It was raked out in 
the form of slags, and accumulated in immense 
piles about the works. In 1853, Mr. Detmold 
succeeded in using this as an iron ore, and pro- 
duced excellent iron which proved to be also 



106 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



well adapted for the manufacture of steel. 
Tbe iron manufacture Las been continued, and 
has become a profitable branch of the opera- 
tions of the United States Zinc Company, pro- 
ducing about 20CiO tons of zinc per annum. 
The franklinite itself had been used a year ear- 
lier for the same purposes by Mr. Edwin Post, 
at Stanhope, and from this he obtained both 
iron and steel ; but when the manufacture 
was undertaken upon a large scale by the 
New Jersey Franklinite Company, at Frank- 
lin, New Jersey, it proved unsuccessful in 
practice. 

The product of the zinc works of the Pas- 
saic Company for the year 1856, was 2,327,- 
9 JO lbs. of oxide of zinc; and the monthly 
production for the year 18 GO was about 
400,000 lbs. from 1 6 furnaces. With the 24 
in blast their monthly capacity was from 280 
to 300 tons of 2 000 lbs. to the ton. The 
total annual product of the three establish- 
ments was from 6000 to 7000 tons of oxide. 
For a few years the zinc paints were popu- 
lar, and made considerable inroads upon the 
market for white lead ; but tbe general ver- 
dict of intelligent and skilful painters is that 
they are inferior to the lead both in body 
and permanency, and their sale has fallen off 
at least nine-tenths since 18G'). 

The rate of the importations of zinc, spelter 
and manufactures of zinc, wiih the re-exports 
of the same from 18o'J to 1870, both m- 
clusive, were : 

Imported. Re-exported. 

1859 $1,333,112 $14,912 

1860 804,358 26,383 

1861 590,280 19,100 

1862 254,033 563 

1863 518,149 4,681 

1864 675,931 3,973 

1865 351,876 47,790 

1866 1,149,^:95 38,108 

1867 562,902 3,174 

1868 561,638 18,028 

1869 1,197,682 4,022 

1870 1,003,432 833 

The importance of the application of white 
zinc to painting in the place of white lead 
appears to have been much more fully appre- 
ciated in France and the United States than in 
Great Britain. Soon after the discoveries of 
Lcclaire that white oxide of zinc could be 
thus used, and produce, with the colored 
bases he prepared of this and other innocu- 
ous oxides, all the tints required, the French 
government, recognizing the importance of 
his inventions, conferred upon him the cross 
of the Legion of Honor, and ad(jpted the 
paints for the public buildings. By the year 



1849, over 6000 public and private build- 
ings had been painted with his prepara- 
tions, and the testimony was very strong in 
their favor. Not one of his workmen had 
been attacked by the painter's colic, though 
previously a dozen or more sutiered every 
year from it. The colors were pronounced 
more solid and durable than the old, were 
made brighter by washing, and were not tar- 
nished by sulphuretted hydrogen, as occurs 
to white lead. The best white paint was 
moreover so pure and brilliant a white, that 
it made the best white lead paint by its side 
look disagreeably yellow and gray. No dif- 
ficulty was experienced in making the new 
colors, mixed with the prepared oil, dry 
rapidly without the use of the ordinary dryers 
of lead compound ; and used in equal weight 
with lead, the zinc was found to cover bet- 
ter, and was, consequently, more economical 
at equal prices per lb. The English, how- 
ever, found many objectionable qualities in 
the new paint. Its transparency, which is 
the cause of its brilliancy, by retiecting in- 
stead of absorbing the light, was regarded as 
a defect, and the painters complained that it 
had not the body or covering properties of 
the carbonate of lead. It would not dry 
rapidly for the second coat without the use 
of the patent dryers, which contain lead, and 
therefore it was no better than the lead. 
Messrs. Coates & Co., who now import into 
Great Britain about 1000 tons of oxide of 
zinc per annum, wrote to the. editor of the 
Lancet in March, 1 860, that the consumption 
of white lead is still nearly 100 to 1 of white 
zinc, and that in 1856 the importation of the 
latter amounted to only 235 tons. They as- 
cribe the real cause of the larger consumption 
of white lead, to the almost entire exclusion of 
zinc, to the fact, that white lead can be adul- 
terated with barytes and other cheap ingre- 
dients without the adulteration being detected 
by the eye, thus securing large profits to the 
manufacturer and contractor, which cannot 
be realized in the use of zinc paint, for the 
reason that it has little affinity for foreign sub- 
stances. The experience of the manufacturers 
of the United States does not substantiate 
this statement as to the difficulty of using the 
oxide of zinc in mixture with other substances. 
It is employed not only alone, but mixed 
with either barytes or white load, or with 
both of them ; and large quantities are thus 
sold and give satisfaction to consumers, who 
would reject the paint, if they supposed it to 
be any thing else than white lead. As to its 



PLATINUM. 



107 



covering quality, it is found that the oxide of 
zinc varies according to the manner in which 
it has been prepared. The light flocculent 
oxide mixes readily with oil without grinding; 
but though pressed, it covers much less sur- 
face than the same oxide moulded when mois- 
tened with water, and dried by artificial heat. 
This preparation also causes any yellowish or 
greenish tints to disappear, and the article 
may be supplied to the consumer in cakes, 
which when ground with oil will cover more 
surface than the same weight of white lead. 
The body of the white zinc may be still fur- 
ther improved by calcination before grinding. 

The inferior colored sorts of oxide of zinc, 
such as are collected in the iron receivers 
near the furnaces, and that made from the 
pulverized ores of zinc, have been largely 
employed for painting iron surfaces, espec- 
ially on board of ships, the paint being found 
to possess a peculiar quality of protecting 
the iron it covers from rusting. 

Besides its use as a paint, oxide of zinc is 
applied to the preparation of the mastic for 
rendering metallic joints tiglit ; and to that of 
glazed papers and cards, for which white lead 
and carbonate of barytes have heretofore 
been used. The French use it in preparing 
the paste for artificial crystals instead of 
oxide of lead or other metallic oxides ; and 
they have also made with it some of the 
finest sorts of cut glass and especially lenses. 
In the Great Exhibition of 1851, an award 
was made to specimens of zinc glass which 
presented a very pleasing and white appear- 
ance, and were regarded as especially suited 
to achromatic purposes. It was remarkable 
for its being purer and more pellucid than 
lead glass, and also of greater specific gravity. 

A patent has been granted in the United 
States for the manufacture of flint glass with 
oxide of zinc, and specimens of glass were 
produced with it in 1860, which were re- 
markable for their brilliancy and beautiful 
surface, or " skin," as it is called. The glass 
is more infusible than that made with oxide 
of lead, and thei'e seems to be no good rea- 
son to prevent it coming rapidly into use. 



CHAPTER VI. 

PLATINUM. 

ALTHOUGn this metal is not obtained in 
large quantity in the United States, it is 
found associated with the gold in many lo- 
7* 



calities in California and Oregon, and has 
been detected in Rutherford county. North 
Carolina, and in traces in the lead and cop- 
per ores of Lancaster county, I'ennsylvania. 
From the states on the I'acific it lias been 
supposed that it would yet be afforded as a 
commercial article. It is a metal of consid- 
erable interest from the extent to which it is 
used in the United States, and the success 
that has attended the attempts to work it in 
Philadelphia and New York. The metal is 
supplied to commerce from no certain source, 
and finds its way into the United States in 
a great variety of forms, as in native grains 
found in washing the gold deposits of Cauca 
on the western coast of South America, of 
Brazil, and Oregon, and in manufactured ar- 
ticles imported from Europe and chiefly 
from France. Russia produced between the 
years 1824 and 1845 many times as much 
platinum as all the rest of the world, and 
introduced the metal into her coinage ; but 
after 1845 it was no longer coined, and the 
yield of the deposits in the Ural has dwin- 
dled away to almost nothing. The supply 
from Borneo has been very large for some 
years, the whole product of the island some- 
times amounting to 600 lbs. a year. It is 
found in small grains and lumps in the 
sands that are washed for gold ; and pieces 
of several pounds have been met with in Si- 
beria, the largest weighing over 22 lbs. troy. 
The properties which give to the metal its 
great value, as its power of resisting the ef- 
fects of heat and many of the most powerful 
chemical agents, also render it exceedingly 
difficult to Avork and to convert into useful 
shapes. The crude grains are generally al- 
loyed to the amount of about 20 per cent, of 
their weight with the very refractory metal 
iridium, with osmium, rhodium, iron, and 
sometimes other metals also. It is separated 
from the chief part of these and purified by 
dissolving the grains in aqua rcgia^ a mixture 
of nitric and hydrochloric acid, and causing 
the metal to be precipitated by sal-ammoniac. 
It falls in a yellowish powder, which is a 
compound of platinum, ammonia, and clilo- 
rine. To decompose this the compound is 
separated from the liquid, and being well 
washed and dried, is heated red hot in a cast- 
iron crucible. This drives off the ammonia 
and chlorine, and the platinum remains in 
the crucible in a spongy condition. This is 
condensed into solid metal by repeated 
heatings and hammerings. It has always 
been a matter of great difiiculty to raise 



PLATINUM. 



l09 



sufficient heat to soften the platinum, even in 
quantities less than an ounce, so that it could 
be worked under the hammer. It used for- 
merly to be brought into a metallic cake by 
making a fusible alloy of it with arsenic, and 
then burning out the latter as much as pos- 
sible, and hammering or rolling the cake into 
sheets, but the arsenic remaining in the 
platinum always injures its quality. Dr. 
Robert Hare, of Philadelphia, was the first 
to fuse the metal for any practical purpose, 
and in May, 1838, he exhibited a cake of 
about 23 ounces, which was run together 
from grains and scraps by means of the in- 
tense heat produced by his oxy-hydrogen 
blowpipe. From a reservoir of oxygen, and 
from another of hydrogen, a gas-pipe con- 
veyed the gases into one tube, in which they 
were mixed just back of the igniting jets ; 
and in this the explosive mixture was kept 
cool by ice around the tube. Explosion was 
moreover guarded against by the extreme 
fineness of the apertures through which the 
gases were made to pass. 

This means of working platinum has been 
applied very successfully by Dr. E. A. L. 
Roberts, of Bond street, New York, in the 
preparation of platinum plate and various 
articles in this metal employed by dentists, 
such as the plates and fastenings for sets of 
artificial teeth, and the little pins which se- 
cure each tooth in its setting. The annual 
consumption of these last, it is estimated, 
amounts throughout the United States to 
about $60,000 in value, which is nearly h 
of the annual supply of the metal. The ap- 
paratus consists of two cylindrical copper 
gas-holders, one for hydrogen, holding 220 
gallons, and one for oxygen, holding 80 gal- 
lons. The Croton water, with a pressure of 
about 60 lbs. upon the square inch, is ad- 
mitted into the bottom of these gas-receivers, 
for propelling the gases as they are required. 
The discharge pipes have each at their ex- 
tremity a short brass tube, which is full of 
pieces of wire of nearly the same length as 
the tube, jammed in very tightly. These 
unite in another brass tube which is packed 
in a similar way, and connects by a metallic 
pipe of only i inch bore, with the burner. 
This is a little platinum box, one end of 
which terminates in a disk of platinum or 
copper ^ by i inch in size, perforated with 
21 very minute holes in 3 rows. This box 
is buried in plaster of Paris mixed up with 
fibres of asbestus, forming a lump sufficiently 
large to contain around the box a receptacle 



into which, by means of flexible pipes, a cur- 
rent of water is admitted and discharged on 
the same principle that the water-tuyeres 
of iron forges and furnaces are constructed 
and kept cool while in use. The burner 
points downward, so that the jet is directed 
immediately upon the face of the metal held 
up beneath it. The method of using the 
apparatus is as follows : the platinum scraps 
being first consolidated by pressure in 
moulds into compact cakes of 10 to 20 
ounces each, these are placed upon a plate 
of fire-brick, and brought to a full white 
heat in a powerful wind furnace. The plate 
with the platinum is then removed from the 
furnace and set in a large tin pan thickly 
lined with asbestus and plaster of I'aris, and 
is brought directly under the jet, which at 
the same time is ignited. The platinum im- 
mediately begins to melt upon the surface, 
and the pieces gradually run together into 
one mass as the difterent parts of the cakes 
are brought successively under the jet. 
Though the metal melts and flows upon 
itself, it cools too rapidly to be cast in a 
mould ; nor is this necessary or desirable 
for the uses to which it is applied. These 
require a soft and tough material, while the 
fused metal is hard and sonorous^ and of 
crystalline texture, breaking like spelter. 
It is made malleable and tough by repeated 
heatings and hammerings. It is introduced 
into the muffle of the assay furnace con- 
structed by Dr. Roberts especially for pro- 
ducing the high heat required in these and 
similar operations, and is heated so intensely 
that when the door of the furnace is opened 
the cake of metal is too dazzlingly hot to be 
visible. It is then taken out with tongs 
plated with platinum, and hammered with a 
perfectly clean hammer upon a clean anvil, 
both of which should be as hot as possible 
without drawing the temper of the steel. If 
the process is one of welding, when the pla- 
tinum has cooled so as to be distinctly visi- 
ble, it should be heated again, for in this 
condition every blow tends to shatter and 
shake it to pieces. The lump is forged by 
hammering it to a thickness of about i of an 
inch, and then being again heated very hot, 
is passed instantly through the rolls. It is 
thus obtained in sheets, which are easily con- 
verted into the various uses to which the 
metal is applied. 

Upon the opposite page, the apparatus 
employed and manner of conducting the 
operations are exhibited in the wood-cut; 



110 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



and the articles designated by the figures 
are thus explained : — 

1. Reservoir for oxygen. 

2. " " hydrogen. 

3. Hydrogen generator. 

4. Oxygen " 

5. Blowpipe. 

6. Tuyere. 

7. Rolls for converting the metal into sheets. 

8. Gasometer. 

9. Water pipes. 

10. Pan. 

11. Moulds in which the loose pieces of metal are 

compressed. 

Crucibles for chemical use are prepared by 
the ingenious method called spinning. A 
disk of the metal is securely fixed against the 
end of the mandrel of a lathe, and, as it re- 
volves rapidly, a blunt point is pressed upon 
its surface, causing the plate to gradually 
bend over and assume the desired form. 
The large platinum retorts used in the man- 
ufjicture of sulphuric acid are imported from 
Paris. The whole amount of platinum 
brought to the United States for the year 
1850 was 34,000 oz. troy, which, at the 
custom-house valuation of 16.10 per oz., 
amounts to $200,000. The importation 
since that time has been very irregular, but 
never equal to this. The amount of scraps 
remelted by Dr. Roberts is about 1000 oz. a 
year. 

IRIDIUM AND OSMIUM. 

An alloy of these metals in fine grains of 
excessive hardness is found very frequently 
with platinum and with the gold which is 
refined at the mints. It is of interest from 
the use to which it is applied in forming the 
nibs of gold pens ; and for this purpose the 
small grains are purchased by the pen-makers 
sometimes at the rate of $250 an ounce. 
From this quantity they may select from 
8000 to 12,000 points of suitable size and 
shape for use. The alloy is known as iridos- 
mium, and is also very generally called irid- 
ium. At some seasons it has been quite 
abundant in the gold presented at the New 
York assay office ; but recently it is more 
rare. As it does not fuse and alloy with the 
gold, it appears in specks upon the bars of 
this metal. The method of separating it is 
to melt the gold with a certain portion of 
silver, as in the usual refining process. The 
alloy thus obtained being less dense than the 
melted gold, the particles of iridium settle in 
the lower portions ; the upper is then ladled 
off, and the metals are parted. More of the 



impure gold is added, and the process thus 
goes on till a considerable amount of iridium 
is concentrated into the alloy of gold and 
silver, from which it is at last obtained by 
dissolving these metals. According to the 
statement of Dr. Thevenet published in the 
Annales des Mines (vol. xvi., 1859), irid- 
ium is collected at the gold-washings along 
the sea-coast of Oregon, and is sometimes 
quite equal in quantity to the gold. He 
describes it as white, glistening, very heavy, 
its specific gravity being 20 to 21, very hard, 
and resembling sand, its angles slightly flat- 
tened and rounded by friction. It is accom- 
panied by platinum and rhodium. After 
one of the storms that prevail along this 
coast, the miners at low tide collect the 
black sand and carry it to the washing and 
amalgamating apparatus, in which it is stirred 
with mercury and then treated upon the 
shaking tables. Though by their rude proc- 
esses they probably lose i of the precious 
metals, they sometimes collect several ounces 
a day of gold to the man. Near Fort Or- 
ford, to the north of Rogue River, about 
15 per cent, of iridium is found with the 
gold. Still further north, between Cape 
Blanco and Coquille, the metals collected 
consist of about 45 per cent, iridium and 5 
per cent, platinum. Between Randolph and 
Cape Arago the metallic grains are very 
light and in extremely thin scales ; they con- 
sist of 70 per cent, iridium and 6 per cent, 
platinum. Further north, the iridium con- 
tinues almost as abundantly, but mostly in 
very fine particles. One piece was shown to 
Dr. Thevenet as a great curiosity which was 
as large as a grain of rice. In sifting more 
than 50 lbs. of iridium, he states that he had 
not seen a single specimen of one quarter 
this size. 



CHAPTER YII. 

MERCURY. 

This metal, which is extensively employed 
in the arts, especially in the treatment of gold 
and silver ores by amalgamation, in the com- 
bination of amalgams for coating mirrors, etc., 
in the construction of barometers and ther- 
mometers, and other philosophical instru- 
ments, in the manufacture of the paint called 
vermilion, for several medicinal preparations, 
and for a variety of other purposes, was not 
classed among the productions of the United 
States until after the acquisition of Califor- 



MERCURY. 



Ill 



nia, when mines of its principal ore were 
opened, which have been extensively worked, 
as will be described below. Mercury, which 
is the only fluid metal, is found both in a 
native state, dispersed in drops among the 
slates that contain the veins of its ores, and 
also occurs in combination with sulphur in the 
ore called cinnabar, a compound of one atom 
of mercury and one of sulphur, or of 86.2 
per cent, of the former, and 13.8 per cent, 
of the latter. Some other natural compounds 
are known, which are not, however, of much 
importance. Cinnabar is almost the exclu- 
sive source of the metal. This is a very 
heavy, brilliant ore of different shades of red; 
is readily volatilized at a red heat, giving off 
fumes, when exposed to the air, both mer- 
curial and sulphurous ; but in tight vessels it 
sublimes without decomposition, and if lime 
or iron be introduced with the ore into re- 
torts, the sulphur is retained in combination 
with the new element, and the mercury es- 
capes in vapor, which may be condensed 
and recovered in the metallic state. On 
this principle the process for collecting mer- 
cury is based. The ores of mercury are 
found in almost all the geological formations, 
but the productive mines are only in the 
metamorphic or lowest stratified rocks, and in 
the bituminous slates of the coal measures. 

In order to appreciate the importance of 
the mines of California, it is necessary to un- 
derstand the extent of the demand for this 
metal, and the sources which have supplied it. 
From the time of the ancient Greeks and Ro- 
mans, mercury has been held in high estima- 
tion, and has been furnished from the same 
mines, which have ever since produced the 
chief part of the product of the world. Pliny 
states that the Greeks imported red cinnabar 
from Almaden in Spain, YOO years before 
the Christian era, and in his own time it was 
brought to Rome from the same mines to 
the amount of 700,000 lbs. annually. In 
modern times the production amounts to 
2,700,000 to 3,456,000 lbs. per annum, and 
is chiefly obtained from two veins, one 
about 2 feet, and the other 14 feet thick, 
which, meeting in a hill about 125 feet high, 
spread out to a thickness of nearly 100 feet. 
The ores are of small percentage, yielding 
about ,-„ only of mercury. The greatest 
depth of the workings was only about 330 
yards several years ago. After the metal has 
been extracted from the ores, it is packed in 
iron bottles or flasks holding 76i lbs. each, 
and is taken to Cadiz for shipment. For 



many years past, the lessees from the Span- 
ish government, in whom the title is vested, 
have been the Rothschilds and other bank- 
ers of Europe ; but their contracts with the 
government have varied from time to time, 
thus aft'ecting the price at which the product 
was held.* 

The mines next in importance have been 
those of Idria in Carniola, belonging to the 
Austrian government. These, for some 
years previous to 1847, had produced an 
annual average of 358,281 lbs. of mercury, 
and since that time, the production has va- 
ried, sometimes reaching 600,000, and even 
over 1,000,000 lbs. per annum. The other 
mines of Europe do not probably produce 
200,000 lbs. On the American continent 
many localities of the ores have been worked 
to some extent ; but although the consump- 
tion is very great at the silver mines of 
Mexico, amounting, as estimated by Hum- 
boldt, to 16,000 quintals of 200 lbs. each, 
three fourths of the supply was then derived 
from the European mines. In 1782, mer- 
cury was even brought to South America 
from China, where it was formerly largely 
extracted in the province of Yunnan. Yet 
in the early years of the Spanish conquest 
Peru was a large producer of the metal, its 
most important mines being in the province 
of Huancavelica, where no less than 41 dif- 
ferent localities of the ore have been known ; 
but at present the whole product of the 
country is supposed not to exceed 200,000 
lbs. A large portion of this product is from 
the Santa Barbara, or the " Great Mine," 
which has been worked since 1566. The 
mines of Chili and the numerous localities at 
which the ores have been found in Mexico 
supply no metal of consequence. Dumas 
estimated, not long since, the total annual 
production as follows : — 

lbs. avoirdupois. 

Almaden, Spain 2,700,000 to 3,456,000 

Idria 648,000 " 1,080,000 

Hungary and Transylvania.. 75,600" 97,200 

Deux Fonts 42,200 " 54,000 

Palatinate 19,400" 21,600 

Huancavelica . . 324,000 

California . . 2,000,000 

Total 7,032,800 



* In 1839 the royalty demanded by the govern- 
ment was $59 per quintal of 106 lbs., to which it 
had reached by successive advances from $51.25; 
and in 1843 it had advanced to $82.50 per quintal. 
The opening of the California mines soon caused this 
to be considerably reduced. 



112 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



In California the existence of large quan- 
tities of cinnabar was known long before the 
real character of the ore Avas understood. It 
was found along a range of hills on the 
southern side of the valley of San Jose, 
about 60 miles south-east from San Fran- 
cisco. For an unknown period tlie Indians 
had frequented the locality, coming to it 
from distant places, even from the Columbia 
river, to obtain the bright vermilion paint 
with which to ornament their persons. With 
rude implements, such as the stones they 
picked from the streams, they extracted 
the ore from the flinty slates and shales in 
which it was found, and in their search for 
it they excavated a passage into the moun- 
tain of about sixty feet in length. In 
1824 the attention of the whites began to 
be directed to this curious ore, and some of 
the Mexicans sought to extract from it gold 
or silver. Other trials made of it in 1845 
resulted in the discovery of its true charac- 
ter, and operations were thereupon com- 
menced to work it by one Andres Castil- 
lero. Owing, however, to the disturbed 
state of the country, little was done until 
1850, wlien a company of Mexicans and 
English engaged vigorously in the extraction 
and metallui-gical treatment of the ore, and 
established the mine which they called the 
New Almaden. In 1858 a stop was put 
upon their further proceedings by an injunc- 
tion issued by the United States court on 
the question of defective title. From the 
testimony presented in the trial, it appeared 
that the company in the coui-se of eight 
years had ftroduced full 20,000,000 lbs. of 
metal, and realized a profit of more than 
$1,000,000 annually. The Americans who 
claimed the mine directed their attention to 
the discovery of new localities of the ore, 
and succeeded in finding it upon the same 
range of hills within less than a mile of the 
old workings. Here they opened a new 
mine in December, 1858, which they named 
the Enrequita, and in June, 18G0, a com- 
pany Avas formed in New York for working 
it under the name of the " California Quick- 
silver Mininff Association." The following 
are the returns of their operations to the 
latest dates: in September, 1859, the prod- 
uct of mercury was 14,400 lbs. ; October, 
28,650; November, 27,525; December, 
28,425; January, 1860, 27,000; February, 
16,950; March, 25,500; April, 33,700; 
May, 46,275 ; June, 48,750 ; July, 50,000 ; 
August, 79,866 ; September, 66,096. The 



increase of production, hereafter, Avill be 
limited rather by the capacity of the re- 
ducing apparatus than by that of the mine. 
Twenty -four retorts for distilling the mer- 
cury are now in operation, 6 of which have 
been started since August, 1860, From the 
report of October 11, 1860, it appears that 
a new vein has also been opened, in which 
20 men are employed, working in solid cin- 
nabar without having encountered the 
boundary walls of the lode. The total ex- 
penditure for mining, for machinery, etc., 
up to October 15, 1860, had amounted to 
$275,000, all of which has been paid out of 
the proceeds of the mine, leaving a consid- 
erable balance on hand. The company 
owns another mine also, called the I'rovi- 
dencia, which has produced some cinna- 
bar. 

The operations at the Enrequita mine are 
carried on from the face of the hill, some 5 
or 6 levels one above another being carried 
into the mountain up and down its slope. 
The most extensive of these is the adit level 
at the base, which is about 600 feet long. 
Shafts are sunk from this to the depth of 
about 50 feet ; but the principal workings 
are in the upper levels for 300 feet over the 
adit. These are exceedingly irregular, ow- 
ing to the unequal distribution of the ore 
through the argillaceous slates. It lies in 
beds included between the strata of these 
lower Silurian rocks, dipping with them at 
a very steep angle, and winding with the 
contortions of the strata. The workings 
follow the bunches of ore as they lead up or 
down, and to the right or left. Shafts occa- 
sionally penetrate from one level to another, 
but no regular system of working appears to 
have been adopted. With the cinnabar is 
intermixed some arsenical iron and copper 
pyrites, and the ore and slates are both trav- 
ersed by veins of carbonate of lime, some 
of which are retained in hand specimens ot 
the cinnabar. 

On the same range of hills, at its western 
extremity, the Santa Clara Mining Company, 
of Baltimore, has opened a mine called the 
Guadalupe, the product of which for the 
year 1860 was about 200,000 lbs. 

The total production of tlie quicksilver 
mines, from the beginning of 1853 to the 
close of 1858, was about 177,578 flasks, or 
13,318,350 lbs. In 1866, the California 
mines produced 3,505,878 Ibs^ and in 1867, 
3,840,957 lbs. Litigation has prevented 
most of them from being fully worked. 



114 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



METALLURGIC TREATMENT. 

From cinnabar not contaminated with 
strange metals, the method of obtaining the 
fluid mercury is very simple. In the early 
workings of the New Almaden mine, the 
clean ores were placed in the common " try 
pots," such as are used by the whalers, and 
a cover being tightly luted on, a fire was 
started under them, and the mercurial vapors 
escaped through a tube inserted in the lid 
and were condensed in cold vessels. After- 
ward furnaces were constructed in brick-work 
upon a large scale, each one provided with a 
chamber or oven V feet long, 4 feet wide, and 
5 feet high, corresponding to the chamber 
of the reverberatory furnaces ; and into this 
was introduced a charge of 10,000 lbs. of 
clean ore separated from the poorer portions 
after the whole had been broken up. With 
the ore was mixed a portion of lime to com- 
bine with and retain the sulphur. A parti- 
tion of brick-work separated the oven from 
the fire-room, and the bricks in this partition 
were so laid as to leave open spaces for the 
flame from the burning wood to pass 
through. On the opposite side of the oven 
another partition separated this from a 
chamber of its own size, the only communi- 
cation between them being by a square hole 
in one of the corners close to the roof. 
This chamber connected with another by an 
opening in the opposite corner near the 
floor, and this arrangement was extended 
through eight chambers. Between the last 
one and the tall wooden flues through which 
the smoke and vapors finally passed out into 
the open air was placed a long wooden box 
provided with a showering apparatus. As 
the cinnabar Avas volatilized by the flame 
playing over the charge, the vapors were 
carried through the condensing chambers, 
depositing in each a portion of mercury, and 
in the showering box they underwent their 
final condensation. From the bottom of 
each chamber the metal flowed in gutters to 
the main conduit which led to the great iron 
reservoir sunk in the ground. From this it 
was poured into flasks through brushes 
which intercepted the scum of oxide of mer- 
cury. The method proved very wasteful, 
fi'om the leakage of the vapors through the 
brick- work ; and it has been abandoned for 
an improved process, in which the pulverized 
ores mixed with quicklime are charged into 
large cast-iron retorts very similar in their 
form and setting to those employed at the 



gas-works. Three are set together in a 
bench of brick-work, and each one is fur- 
nished with an eduction pipe inserted in 
the end and leading down into water con- 
tained in a large cylindrical condenser of 
iron. This is placed along the front line of 
the furnace, so as to receive the vapors from 
all the retorts. The mercury, as it is con- 
densed, falls down to the bottom, and is let 
out through a pipe by a contrivance that pre- 
vents the water flowing with it from the con- 
denser. At the Enrcquita mine each bench 
of three retorts requires a little over a cord 
of oak wood a day for heating. Four bench- 
es, in operation from September, 1859, em- 
ployed 6 men in charging and discharging, 
working in 2 shifts of 3 men, besides 3 fire- 
men, each working 8 hours. Two men be- 
sides these were employed in mixing the orcj 
for the retorts. In June, 1860, the produc 
tion of these furnaces, from loOO cargas of 
ore of 300 lbs. each, was about 50,000 lbs., 
or about 17 per cent. 

In conducting the furnaces, the workmen 
are seriously aftected by inhaling the mercu- 
rial vapors. They are sometimes even sali- 
vated, and are often obliged to abandon the 
business for a time. The horses and mules 
also suffer from the noxious fumes, and many 
are lost in consequence. But no injurious 
efl"ects are experienced among those em- 
ployed in the mines, the cinnabar being al- 
ways handled with impunity. 

The view of the woiks presents their ap- 
pearance in 1 852, as sketched by J. R. Bart- 
lett, Esq. It was first published in his " Per- 
sonal Narrative" (New York, 1854). 

USEFUL APPLICATIONS OF MERCURY. 

The pi'incipal uses to which mercury is 
applied have already been named. Tlie 
largest quantities are consumed in working 
gold and silver ores. The principle of the 
amalgamating process is explained in the 
account of the treatment of gold ores. In 
the arts amalgams are applied to many use- 
ful purposes, of which the most important is 
coating the backs of looking-glass plates with 
tin amalgam. Silver was originally em- 
ployed instead of tin, and the process is still 
called " silvering." It is conducted at sev- 
eral establishments in the United States on 
the old Venetian plan, which has been in 
use for 300 years. The largest mirrors are 
prepared by Messrs. Roosevelt & Sons, in 
New York, from the French plates which 
they import. The process is a simple one, 



SILVER — COBALT NICKEL — CHROME MANGANESE TIN. 



115 



but is attended with some difficulties arising 
from the imperfections which will sometimes 
appear upon the coating, notwithstanding 
the particular care taken to avoid them. 
The health of the workmen also suffers, so 
that they cannot pursue the business more 
than a few years. The only precaution 
taken to protect them from the effects of 
the mercury is thorough ventilation. Fre- 
quent use of sulphur baths also is very ben- 
eficial. The method of silvering is as fol- 
lows : tables are prepared of stone made 
perfectly smooth, with grooves sunk around 
the edges. These ai'e set horizontally, but 
can be raised a little at one end by a screw. 
Each table is covered with tinfoil carefully 
spread out over a larger surface than the 
plate will cover, and slips of glass being laid 
around three of the sides, the mei'cury is 
poured on till it covers the foil to the depth 
of about 4 of an inch. Its affinity for the 
tin, and the slips of glass, prevent its flowing 
off. The glass plate rendered perfectly 
clean is then slidden along the open side, 
the advancing edge being kept in the mer- 
cury, so that no air nor oxide of the metal 
can get between the plate and the amalgam. 
The plate, when in place, is secured and 
pressed down by weights laid upon it, and 
the table is raised a little to allow the excess 
of mercury to trickle off by the grooves and 
collect in a vessel placed on the floor to re- 
ceive it. After remaining thus for several 
hours, the plate is taken oft" and turned over 
upon a fi-ame. After several weeks the 
amalgam becomes hard, and the glass may 
then be set on edge. 

Amalgams of the precious metals are used 
for what are called the water-gilding and 
water-silvering methods of gilding and silver- 
ing applied to buttons and various other metal- 
lic articles. These, being made chemically 
clean, are washed over with the amalgam 
contained in a large excess of mercury, and 
are then placed in a furnace and heated till 
the mercury is driven oft' by the heat, leaving 
a thin film of the precious metal, which may 
then be burnished. 

Mercurial medicines, as calomel, (the chlo- 
ride,) and blue mass, which is the metal re- 
duced to fine particles by long-continued 
trituration, and incoi'porated with twice its 
weight of confection of roses and liquorice 
root, are very largely prepared, especially 
for the southern and western states and the 
West India islands. The labor of triturating 
the mercury for blue mass has led to the in- 



troduction of ingenious machinery for the 
purpose, invented by Mr. J. W. W. Gordon 
of Baltimore, and by Dr. E. R. Squibb of 
Brooklyn, and worked by the latter at his 
pharmaceutical laboratory by steam power. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SILVER — COBALT — NICKEL — CHROME — 
MANGANESE— TIN. 

But few other ores of much importance 
are found in the United States, besides those 
of which accounts have been given ; and it 
remains to describe the occurrence and ap- 
plications of the ores of those metals only 
which are comprised in the heading of this 
chapter. 



The occurrence of this metal in the United 
States is chiefiy limited to some of the lead 
ores ; and in very few of these, as noted in 
the chapter upon lead, has it been found 
in sufficient quantity to justify the working 
of the mines and separation of the silver. 
The Washington mine in Davidson co., 'N. 
C, is still worked with moderate success 
for both metals ; but the only promising 
silver mines are those of Arizona, near 
the Gila river in New Mexico, and the 
Washoe mines on the extreme western 
verge of the Utah territory. 

In the territory of Arizona, especially in 
that portion of it ceded to the United 
States under the Gadsden treaty, are numer- 
ous mines productive in silver, some of 
which were worked when the territory be- 
longed to old Spain. These are now at- 
tracting the attention of Americans, and in 
1859 and 1860, companies were organized 
in Cincinnati, New York, and St. Louis, for 
exploring and working them. The princi- 
pal mine is that of the Sonora Company, 
of Cincinnati. The locality is about 75 
miles south of Tucson, and about 270 
miles north of Guaymas, which is the chief 
port of the Gulf of California. Several 
mines in the vicinity were formerly worked 
by the Mexicans for silver, and abandoned 
in consequence of Indian depredations and 
political troubles. The Sonora Company 
commenced operations in 1858 upon a new 
discovery, and have produced a considerable 
amount of silver, reduced from the ores at 
their works, at Arivaca, 7 miles from the 



116 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



mines. Seventy miles north of Tucson, 
operations were commenced in 1860, in 
another locality, on the same mining range, 
by a company organized in New York, called 
the Maricopa Mining Company. Their mine 
affords rich argentiferous copper ores, sam- 
ples of which have been brought to New 
York, and assayed by Prof. John Torrey, 
and other chemists. They proved to be 
vitreous copper, associated with carbonates, 
and yielded an average of over 50 per cent. 
of copper. The metal contained variable 
amounts of silver, worth from $40 to $80 
per ton. Gold was also detected in it. The 
outlet for this is also by Guaymas, 420 miles 
distant, through a region easily traversed by 
wagons, and upon long-established routes. 
The cost of transportation, by contracts of 
Mexicans, is at the rate of 5^ cents per lb., 
for the whole distance. In the vicinity of 
the mines, on the Gila river, it is proposed 
to reduce the ores. The region is on the 
Pacific slope of the range of the silver min- 
ing districts of Sonora and Durango, and its 
rock formations are granitic and metamor- 
phic, traversed by dikes of trap, and con- 
taining beds of quartz. 

On the Rio Mimbres, 240 miles east of 
Tucson, are the Santa Rita del Cobre and 
Mimbres mines, from which 333,000 lbs. 
of copper are reported as having been de- 
livered in New York in 1860. The metal 
was smelted at the mines, transported through 
Texas to Port Lavacca, and thence to New 
York. Whether the ores contain silver or 
not, is not known. Besides the operations 
above named, others are in progress in Ari- 
zona, of which we have no details. The 
region is described in the " Personal Narra- 
tive" of J. R. Bartlett, Esq., and in the Con- 
gressional Pacific Railroad reports. 

The Washoe ores are argentiferous gale- 
nas of richness varying between great ex- 
tremes, some of the best sorts which have 
been shipped to New York, and thence to 
England, containing enough silver to give 
them a value of $2000 per ton. The mines 
are in the inferior range of hills along the 
eastern base of the Sierra Nevada, and are 
met with over an extensive territory in the 
valley of the upper portion of Carson's 
River and many miles beyond this to the 
north. Those of most importance are in 
- the vicinity of several new towns, called 
Virginia City, Silver City, Carson City, etc., 
about 160 miles north-east from Sacramento. 
From that point the crest of the Sierra Ne- 



vada is reached in 100 miles, nearly due 
east, and the remaining 60 miles is down 
the valley of Carson's River. The discov- 
eries of the silver ores were made the latter 
part of the year 1859, but it was known be- 
fore this that gold existed in the valley, 
and that the value of this metal was deteri- 
orated by the silver with which it was usu- 
ally alloyed. The opening of permanent veins 
of silver ores produced a great excitement 
throughout California, and led to an ex- 
traordinary emigration to the new mining 
district, and rapid development during the 
year 1860 of its resources. The consid- 
erable number of mines already in opera- 
tion, upon veins of unquestionable perma- 
nency, and the great richness of some of 
the ores, together with the variety of those 
already found, leave no room for doubting 
that this is a mining region of great impor- 
tance, and must largely add to the metallic 
productions of the extreme western states. 

The ores, on account of their complex 
character, are diflicult to reduce with econ- 
omy, and the ordinary methods of obtain- 
ing the lead fail, when applied to compounds 
like these, which contain a large proportion 
of silica, from which the galena cannot be 
mechanically separated. The German method 
of treating such ores, employed at Clausthal, 
is to reduce them in small blast furnaces, 
with a flux of granulated cast iron, or of iron 
turnings, admitting only air enough to keep 
up the combustion of the fuel. The lead 
and silver are set free by the sulphur of the 
ore combining with the iron, and the forma- 
tion of infusible silicates of oxide of lead is 
prevented by guarding against the oxidation 
of lead, through too great access of air. The 
separation is, however, very imperfect in a 
single operation, and the rich slags obtained 
are roasted in order to convert the sulphuret 
of iron into oxide of iron, which, combining 
with the silicates of the scori;e, forms very 
fusible compounds, which are then returned 
to the furnace mixed with fresh charges of 
ore. The silver goes with the lead, and is 
separated by cupellation. 



The ores of this metal are of rather rare 
occurrence, and are applied to practical pur- 
poses not to furnish the metal but its ox- 
ide, Avhich is of value for it's property of 
giving a beautiful blue color to glass with 
which it is melted, and of producing other 
fine colors when mixed with some other sub- 



SILVER COBALT NICKEL CHROME — MANGANESE TIN. 



IIY 



stances. The ores are sought for all over 
the world for the supply of the British man- 
ufactories of porcelain, stained glass, etc. 
They are chiefly combinations of cobalt 
with arsenic, sulphur, and sometimes with 
nickel and iron. The compound known as 
smaltine, or arsenical cobalt, was obtained 
at Chatham, Conn., as far back as 1787, and 
the mine has been worked for cobalt at dif- 
ferent times in the present century. The co- 
balt in the ore is associated with about an 
equal amount of nickel, and its proportion 
is said to have been less than two per cent. 
Cobaltine, which is a compound of sulphur 
19.3 per cent., arsenic 45.2, and cobalt 
35.5, is the most productive ore of this 
metal, but is not met with in this country. 
Varieties of pyritous cobalt have been found 
in Maryland in quantities too small for 
working ; and also at Mine la Motte in Mis- 
souri, associated with a black earthy oxide 
of cobalt and black oxide of manganese. 
In other places, also, oxide of cobalt, in 
small quantity, is a frequent accompaniment 
of manganese ores. Mine la Motte has fur- 
nished a considerable amount of the cobalt 
oxide, but the beds in which it is found are 
not of permanent character, and are so far 
exhausted as to be no longer worked with 
profit. A similar ore, accompanied with 
nickel, appears to be very abundantly dis- 
tributed among the talcose and quartzose 
slates in Gaston and Lincoln counties, North 
Carolina. It is thrown out with a variety 
of other ores, as galena, blende, titaniferous 
iron, etc.. in working the gold mines of this 
region ; and it is mixed among the great 
beds of hematite, found in the same district, 
which are the product of the decomposition 
of beds of pyritous iron. In some places it 
is so abundant that the strata containing it 
are conspicuous where the roads pass over 
them, by the blackness of the gossan (de- 
composed ore) or wad. Prof. H. Wurtz, 
who describes these localities (see "American 
Journal of Science," 2d series, vol. xxvii., p. 
24), is of opinion that the eai'thy oxide of 
cobalt is the gossan of the sulphuret of this 
metal, existing unaltered in the rocks below. 
Oxide of cobalt, obtained in a crude 
state from the washed arsenical ores, is 
known as zaffre or saflor, and in this condi- 
tion it is a commercial article. It is refined 
by separating the arsenic, iron, and other for- 
eign substances, by precipitating them from 
the solution in hydrochloric acid ; and the ox- 
ide is finally obtained by precipitating with 



chloride of lime, and heating the product to 
redness. Smalt is a preparation of cobalt 
largely used in the trts as a coloring material, 
and consists of silicate of potash and cobalt. 
It is in fact a potash glass colored by silicate 
of cobalt, and is prepared as follows : Zaf- 
fre is melted in pots, with suitable propor- 
tions of pure sand and potash and a little 
saltpetre. The other metals combine to- 
gether and sink in a metallic mass, which 
is called .speiss. The glass containing the 
oxide of cobalt is ladled out and pour- 
ed into water to granulate it, and is then 
ground to^^owder. This being introduced 
into vats of water, the colored glass sub- 
sides in deposits, which gradually diminish 
in their proportions of oxide of cobalt. 
The first are of the deepest blue, and are 
called azure ; but of this, and of the succeed- 
ing fainter shades, there are many varieties, 
distinguished by peculiar names. When 
finely powdered, smalt is applied to col- 
oring wall papers, and blueing linen, be- 
sides being incorporated with porcelain to 
impart to it permanent blue shades. The 
great value of oxide of cobalt, amounting to 
several dollars per lb., renders it an impor- 
tant object to fully develop the resources of 
the country in its ores, as well for export as 
for domestic use. In 1856 there were im- 
ported into Great Britain 428 tons of co- 
balt ore, and 34 tons of oxide of cobalt. 



Nickel is a metal of some commercial im- 
portance, and is employed chiefly for pro- 
ducing, with copper and zinc, the alloy 
known as German silver. The proportions 
of these metals are not constant, but the 
most common in use are eight parts of copper 
to three each of nickel and zinc. The larger 
the proportion of copper, the more easily the 
plates are rolled ; but if more is used than 
the relative amounts named, the copper soon 
becomes apparent in use. The new cent 
contains 12 parts of nickel to 88 of copper, 
and the manufacture of this adds somewhat 
to the demand. The metal has been mined 
at Chatham, Conn., and is met with at Mine 
la Motte and other localities where cobalt 
is found. It occurs in greatest abundance at 
an old mine in Lancaster county, Penn., 
where it is associated with copper ores. The 
mine was originally worked for copper, it is 
said, more than one hundred and thirty years 
ago, and was reopened for supplying nickel 
for the U. S. Mint, on the introduction of 



118 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



the new cent in 1857. The sulpliuret of 
nickel, containing, when pare, 64.9 per cent. 
of nickel, and 35.1 per cent, of sulphur, is in 
very large quantity, in two veins of great size, 
one of which has been traced over 600 feet, 
and the other over 900 feet in length. In 
1859 it was producing at the rate of 200 tons 
of nickel ore and ten tons of copper ore per 
month. A pyritous variety of nickel ore, 
called siegenite, is found at Mine la Motte, 
Missouri, and in Carroll county, Maryland. 
In Gaston and Lincoln counties. North Car- 
olina, similar ore was found by Prof. AVurtz, 
as noticed in the remarks on cobait, above. 

CHROME OR CHROMIUM. 

The ore of this metal, known as chromic 
iron or chromate of iron, has been mined 
for many years in the United States, both 
for exportation and domestic use. It is the 
source whence the chrome colors are ob- 
tained that are largely used in the arts, es- 
pecially in dyeing and calico printing. The 
name of the metal, from a Greek word 
meaning color, was given in consequence of 
the fine colors of its compounds. It usually 
consists of the sesquioxide of chromium in 
proportion varying from 36 to 60 per cent., 
protoxide of iron from 20 to 37 per cent., 
alumina sometimes exceeding 20 per cent., 
and more or less silica, and sometimes mag- 
nesia. Its value consists only in the first- 
named ingredient. The localities of the ore 
are in the serpentine rocks of different parts 
of the United States, as in the Bare Hills, 
near Baltimore, and near the ]\Iaryland state 
line on the southern edge of Chester and 
Lancaster counties, Pennsylvania. In small 
quantities the ore is met with at Hobo- 
ken, Staten Island, and other places near 
New York city. It is found in several 
towns in Vermont, but the largest veins of 
it are in Jaj^ in the northern part of the 
state. The composition of this ore was 
found by Mr. T. S. Hunt to be 49.9 of 
green oxide or sesquioxide of chromium, 
48.96 of protoxide of iron, and 4.14 per 
cent, of alumina, silica, and magnesia. 
Though the quantity of the ore in this re- 
gion is reported to be large, the principal 
supplies of the country have been obtained 
in Maryland, and from the mines just over 
the state line in Pennsylvania. The ore, 
as recently as 1854, was found in loose frag- 
ments among the disintegrated materials of 
the serpentine upon the tracts called the 
barrens, and was gathered up from the val- 



leys and ravines, and dug out in sinking 
shallow pits and trenches over the surface. 
The ore thus obtained was called " sand 
chrome," and for a time it had been worth 
$45 per ton, and thousands of tons had 
been collected and shipped, principally to 
Baltimore. At the period named these su- 
perficial deposits were mostly exhausted, 
and the value of the ore was only about 
$25 per ton. This, however, was sufficient 
to sustain regular mining operations, which 
were then carried on upon the veins found 
in the serpentine, a little west of the east 
branch of the Octorara Creek. Wood's 
chrome mine, near the Horse-shoe Ford, 
was at that time about 150 feet deep, and 
the workings had been extended north-east 
and south-west about 300 feet, upon an 
irregular vein of chrome ore, which lay at 
an inclination of about 45° with the hor- 
izon toward the north-west. The ore, in 
places, formed bunches, which attained a 
width of 20 feet, and then thinned away 
to nothing. Four men obtained from the 
mine 7 or 8 tons of excellent ore a day, 
the best of which was directly placed in 
barrels for the foreign market, and the 
poorer was dressed and washed for the Bal- 
timore, and other home markets. The state 
line mine, in the same vicinity, worked to 
about the same depth, had produced several 
thousand tons. The supplies of this ore are 
always of uncertain continuance. 

Useful Applications. — Chromate of 
iron is used chiefly in the production of 
chromate of potash, and from this the 
other useful chromatic salts are obtained. 
The object in view in the chemical treat- 
ment of the ore is to convert the sesqui- 
oxide of chromium into the peroxide or 
chromic acid, and cause this to combine 
with potash. This may be effected by vari- 
ous methods, as by exposing a mixture of 
the pulverized ore and of saltpetre (nitrate 
of potash) to a strong heat . for some hours. 
The chrome is peroxidized at the expense of 
the oxygen of the nitric acid of the salt- 
petre, and the chromic acid combines with 
the potash ; or if the ore is mixed with car- 
bonate of potash and calcined, the peroxida- 
tion of the chrome is effected by admission 
of air into the furnace, and the same prod- 
uct is obtained as in the employment of 
saltpetre. The introduction of lime hastens 
the operation. Other mixtures also are 
used for the same purpose. When the cal- 
cined matter, having been drawn out from 



SILVER COBALT NICKEL CHROME — MANGANESE TIN. 



119 



the furnace, is lixiviated with water, the 
chromate of potash is dissolved and washed 
out, and is afterward recovered in the form 
of yellow crystals on evaporating the water. 
From chromate of potash the other salts are 
readily produced. Chrome yellow, used as 
a paint, is prepared by mixing chromate of 
potash with a soluble salt of lead, and col- 
lecting the yellow precipitate of chromate of 
lead which falls. A bright red precipitate 
is obtained by thus employing a salt of mer- 
cury, and a deep red with salts of silver. 
Chrome green is produced by mixing Prus- 
sian blue with chrome yellow. Some new 
and very interesting compounds of the ses- 
quioxide of chromium with different bases 
have been recently obtained by Prof. A. K. 
Eaton of New York, and in consequence 
of their decided colors and the extraordi- 
nary permanency of these against powerful 
reagents applied to remove them, the salts 
were employed for printing bank-notes. 
Though they proved to be all that was re- 
quired as to the colors themselves, the steel 
plates were so rapidly cut by the excessively 
sharp and hard powders, however finely they 
were ground, that it was found necessary to 
abandon their use. The new salts were chro- 
mites — that of iron having a dark purple col- 
or ; of manganese, a lighter shade of the 
same ; of copper, a rich blueish black ; of 
zinc, a golden brown ; of alumina, a green, 
somewhat paler than that of the sesquiox- 
ide. 

MANGANESE. 

Though this is a metal of no value of it- 
self, one of its ores, called pyrolusite, is a 
mineral of some commercial importance, 
chiefly on account of the large proportion 
of oxygen it contains, part of which it 
can be easily made to give up when simply 
heated in an iron retort. The composition 
of pyrolusite, or black oxide of manganese, 
is 63.4 per cent, of manganese, and 36.6 
per cent, of oxygen. It is a hard, steel- 
gray ore, resembling some of the magnetic 
iron ores, and is often found accompanying 
iron ores, especially the hematites. In the 
United States it is met with in various lo- 
calities along the range of the liematites, 
from Canada to Alabama, and has been 
mined to considerable extent at Chittenden 
and Bennington, Vermont; WestStockbridge 
and Sheffield, Mass. ; on the Delaware river, 
and near Kutztown, Berks co., Penn. ; and 
abounds in different parts of the gold region, 



as on Hard-labor Creek, Edgefield District, 
S. C. Usually the ore is found in loose 
pieces among the clays which fill the irregu- 
lar cavities between the limestone strata; 
its quantity is of course very uncertain, 
and its mines are far from being of a perma- 
nent character. Oxide of iron is commonly 
mixed with the manganese ore, reducing its 
richness, and at the same time seriously in- 
juring it for some of the purposes to which 
it is applied. As obtained from the mines, 
the assorted ore is packed in barrels and 
sent to the chemical establishments, where 
it is employed principally in the manufac- 
ture of chloride of lime or bleaching pow- 
der. For this purpose the pulverized black 
oxide of manganese is introduced into hydro- 
chloric acid, and this being heated a double 
decomposition takes place, a portion of its 
chlorine is expelled, and the hydrogen that 
was combined with it unites with a part of 
the oxygen of the pyrolusite. The chlo- 
rine, which it was the object of the process 
to obtain, is then brought in contact with 
hydrate of lime, and uniting with the cal- 
cium base, forms the bleaching powder. A 
similar result is obtained by mixing the ox- 
ide of manganese with chloride of sodium 
(common salt), and adding sulphuric acid. 
By these operations a weight of oxygen 
equal to about one third that of the pure 
ore may be obtained, and this may be ap- 
plied to any of the purposes for which oxy- 
gen not absolutely pure is required. Black 
oxide of manganese is also used to decolor- 
ize glass stained green by the presence of 
the protoxide of iron. Its own amethystine 
tint is supposed to neutralize the optical ef- 
fect of the greenish hue of the iron. Pure 
pyrolusite, free from iron, might be shipped 
to profit to Liverpool, where it is worth 5>o5 
to ^40 per ton, but inferior ore would in- 
volve bills of cost. The chemically prepartnl 
pennanganate of potassa has come into ex- 
tensive use as an anti-septic, of late years. 



The very useful metal, tin, is not one of 
the products of this country, and there is 
no encouragement for hoping that its ores 
will ever be found in workable quantity. Its 
presence has been recognized in a few small 
crystals of oxide of tin, found in Chester- 
field and Goshen, Mass., and it has been de- 
tected as a mere trace in the iron ores of 
the Hudson, and iron and zinc ores of New 
Jersey ; it is also associated with some of 



120 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



the gold ores of Virginia. In the town of 
Jackson, N. 11., is a vein of arsenical iron, 
containing thin streaks of oxide of tin. There 
have been discovered, also, some of the tin 
ores thougli not as yet in large quantity in 
JMaine, in Missouri, in Texas, and in Califor- 
nia. The last named, it is thought, may yet 
furnish considerable supplies. Tin is impor- 
ted chiefly from the mines of Cornwall, Eng- 
land, and from Banca, and other islands of 
the Malay archipelago. The United States 
is one of the largest consumers of tin, sheet 
tin having been applitKl, through the inge- 
nuity of the workers of this article in Con- 
necticut, to the manufacture of a variety of 
useful utensils. What is called sheet tin is 
really sheet iron coated with a very thin 
layer of tin. The sheets are prepared in 
England by dipping the brightened iron 
sheets into a bath of melted tin. The pro- 
cess has been apnlied to coating articles 
made of iron, wliich are thus protected 
from rusting ; and zinc is also used for sim- 
ilar purposes. Such are stirrups, bridle-bits, 
etc. Cast-iron pots and saucepans are tin- 
ned on the inside b}?^ melted tin being poured 
in and made to flow over the surface, which 
has been made chemically clean to receive 
the metal. The surface is then rubbed with 
cloth or tow. Tin is imported in blocks or 
ingots, and the metal is applied to the prep- 
aration of various alloys, as bronze or bell- 
metal, composed of copper and tin in vari- 
able proportions, commonly of 78 parts of 
copper, and 22 of tin ; gun-metal, copper 90, 
and tin 10; pewter, of various proportions 
of tin and lead, or when designed for pewter 
plates, of tin 100, antimony 8, bismuth 2, 
and copper 2 ; and soft solder, consisting of 
tin and lead, usually of two parts of the 
former to one of the latter. Bismuth is 
sometimes added to increase the fusibility 
of the alloy. 



CHAPTER IX. 

COAL. 

To the early settlers of the American colo- 
nies the beds of mineral coal they met with 
were of no interest. In the abundance of the 
forests around them, and with no manufac- 
turing operations that involved large con- 
sumption of fuel, they attached no value to 
the black stony coal, the real importance of 
which was not in fact appreciated even in 



Europe until after the invention of the steam 
engine. The earliest use of mineral coal was 
probably of the anthracite of the Lehigh re- 
gion, though it may be that the James River 
bituminous coal mines, 12 miles above Rich- 
mond, were worked at an earlier period than 
the Pennsylvania anthracites. The region 
containing the latter belonged to the tribes 
of the Six Nations, until their title was ex- 
tinguished and the proprietary government 
obtained possession, in 1749, of a territory 
of 3750 square miles, including the southern 
and middle of the three anthracite coal-fields, 
In 1768 possession was acquired of the north-, 
ern coal-tield, and at the same time of the 
great bituminous region west of the Alle- 
ghany mountains. The existence of coal in 
the anthracite region could not have escaped 
the notice of the whites wdjo had explored 
the country, for its great beds were exposed 
in many of the natural sections of the river 
banks and precipitous hills, and down the 
mountain streams pieces of coal, washed out 
from the beds, were abundantly scattered. 
The oldest maps now known, dating as far 
back as 1770, and compiled from still older 
ones, designate in this region localities of 
"coal;" but these were probably not re- 
garded as giving any additional value to the 
territory. The first recorded notice of its 
use was in the northern basin by some black- 
smiths in 1770, only two years after the 
whites came in possession; and in 1775 a 
boat load of it was sent down from Wilkes- 
barre to the Continental armory at Car- 
lisle. This was two years after the laying 
out of the borough of AVilkesbarre by the 
Susquehanna Land Company of Connecti- 
cut. From this time the coal continued to 
be used for mechanical operations by smiths, 
distillers, etc.; and according to numerous 
certificates from these, published in 1815, 
in a pamphlet by Mr. Zachariah Cist of 
Wilkesbarre, they liad found it very much 
better for their purposes, and more econom- 
ical to use than Virginia bituminous coal, 
though at the enormous price of 90 cents 
a bushel. Gunsmiths found it very conven- 
ient for their small fires, and one of them, 
dating his certificate December 9, 1814, 
stated that he had used it for 20 years, con- 
suming about a peck a day to a fire, which 
was sufficient for manufacturing 8 musket- 
barrels, each barrel thus requiring a quart 
of coal. Oliver Evans, the inventor of the 
steam engine, certifies in the same pamphlet 
to his having used it for raising steam, for 



COAL. 



121 



which it possessed properties superior to those 
of any other fuel. Jud^o Fell of Wilkes- 
barre applied it to warmins; houses in 1808, 
and contrived suitable grates for this use of 
it ; but the cheapness of wood and the 
greater convenience of a fuel which every 
one understood how to use, long prevented 
its general adoption. In the tirst volume 
of the " Memoirs of the Historical Society 
of Pennsylvania," T. C. James, M.D., gives 
"a brief account of the discovery of anthra- 
cite coal on the Lehigh," in which he de- 
scribes a visit he made to the Mauch Chunk 
mountain in 1804, where he saw the immense 
body of anth)-acite, into which several small 
pits had then been- sunk, and which was 
afterward worked, as it is still, as an open 
quarry. He states that he commenced to 
burn the coal that year, and had continued 
to use it to the time of making this commu- 
nication in 1826. The discovery of this fa- 
mous mass of coal was made in 1791, and 
in 1793 the " Lehigh Coal Mine Company" 
was formed to work it. But as there were 
no facilities for transporting the coal down 
the valley of the Lehigh, nothing was done 
until 1814, when, at great labor and expense, 
20 tons were got down the river and were 
delivered in Philadelphia. Two years be- 
fore this a few wagon loads had been re- 
ceived there from the Schuylkill mines; but 
the regular trade can hardly be said to have 
commenced until 1820, when the receipts in 
Philadelphia amounted to 365 tons. Such 
was the commencement of the great anthra- 
cite trade of Pennsylvania, which in the 
course of 45 years has been steadily in- 
creasing, till it now reaches the enormous 
amount of 15,-868,437 tons for the year 1867, 
and sustains numerous branches of metallur- 
gical and mechanical industry, the possible 
dependence of which upon this fuel and 
source of power was hardly dreamed of 
when its mines were first opened. 

The existence of bituminous coal west of 
the AUeghanies was probably known as early 
as was that of anthracite in the eastern part 
of Pennsylvania; and on the western rivers 
it could not fail to have been noticed by the 
early missionaries, voyageurs, and hunters. 
In the old maps of 1770 and 1777 the oc- 
currence of coal is noted at several points 
on the Ohio. A tract of coal land was taken 
up in 1785 near the present town of Clear- 
field, on the head-waters of the west branch 
of the Susquehanna, by Mr. S. Boyd, and in 
1804 he sent an ark load of the coal down 



the Susquehanna to Columbia, Lancaster 
county, which, he states, caused much sur- 
prise to the inhabitants, that "an article with 
wliich they were wholly unacquainted should 
be thus brought to their own doors." This 
was the commencement of a trade which has 
since been prosecuted to some extent by 
running rafts of timber loaded with coal, and 
sometimes with pig iron also, from the head- 
waters to the lower portion of the Susque- 
hanna. The bituminous coal mines on the 
James River, 12 miles above Richmond, in 
Virginia, were also worked during the last 
century, but at how early a period we are 
ignorant. In an account of them in the first 
volume of the " American Journal of Sci- 
ence," published in 1818, they are spoken 
of as already having been worked 30 years. 

VARIETIES OF COAL. 

The mineral coals are found of various 
sorts, which are' distinguished by peculiari- 
ties of appeai'ance, composition, and proper- 
ties. Derived from vegetable matters, they 
exhibit in their varieties the successive chang- 
es which these have undergone from the 
condition of peaty beds or deposits of lig- 
neous materials — first into the variety known 
as brown coal or lignite, in which the bitu- 
minous propeity appears, while the fibre 
and structure of the original woody masses 
is fully retained ; next in beds of bituminous 
coal comprised between strata of shales, fire- 
clay, and sandstones ; and thence through 
several gradations of diminishing proportions 
of bitumen to the hard stony anthracite, the 
composition of which is nearly pure carbon; 
and last of all in this series of steps attend- 
ing the conversion of wood into rock, the 
vegetable carbon is locked up in the minei"- 
al graphite or plumbago. These steps are 
clearly traceable in nature, and in all of them 
the strata which include the carbonaceous 
beds have undergone corresponding changes. 
The clayey substratum that supports the 
peat appears under the beds of mineral coal 
in the stony material called fire-clay (used 
when ground to make fire-brick) ; the 
muddy sediments such as are found over 
some of the great modern peat deposits, ap- 
pear in the form of black shales or slates, 
which when pulverized return to their muddy 
consistency ; the beds of sand, such as are 
met with in some of the peat districts of 
Europe interstratified with different peat 
beds, are seen in the coal-measures in beds 
of sandstones ; and the limestones which also 



122 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



occur in the same group of strata, represent 
ancient beds of calcareous marls. The slow 
progression of these changes is indicated by 
the different ages of the geological formations 
in which the several varieties occur. Beds 
of peat are of recent formation, though 
some of them are still so old, that they are 
found at different depths, one below another, 
separated by intervening layers of sand, 
clay, and earth. Brown coal, or lignite, is 
commonly included among the strata of 
the tertiary period ; the bituminous coals 
are in the secondary formations; and the an- 
thracites, though contained in the same ge- 
ological group with the great bituminous 
coal formation, are in localities where the 
strata have all been subjected to the action 
of powerful agents which have more or less 
metamorphosed them and expelled the vola- 
tile bitumen from the coal. The graphite or 
plumbago is in still older groups, or in those 
■which have been still more metamorphosed 
by heat. 

All these varieties of fossil fuel are found 
in the United States. Peat beds of small 
extent are common in the northern portion 
of the country, and in some parts of New 
England are much used for fuel, and the 
muck, or decomposed peat, as a fertilizer to 
the soil. In the great swamps of southern 
Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia, vegeta- 
ble deposits of similar nature are found upon 
a scale more commensurate with the extent 
of the ancient coal-beds. Lignite is not 
found in workable beds, as in some parts of 
Germany and England, but in scattered de- 
posits of small extent among the tertiary 
clays, chiefly near the coast of New Jersey, 
Delaware, and Maryland, and in the west- 
ern territories. The distribution of the true 
coal formations will be pointed out after des- 
ignating more particularly the characters of 
the difierent coals. All of these consist of 
the elements carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and 
nitrogen; the carbon being in part free, 
and in part combined with the other ele- 
ments to form the volatile compounds that 
exist to some extent in all coals. Earthy 
matters which form the ash of coals are al- 
ways intermixed in some proportion with 
the combustible ingredients, and water, also, 
is present. When coals are analyzed for 
the purpose of indicating their heating qual- 
ity by their composition, it is enough to de- 
termine the proportions of fixed carbon, of 
volatile matter, and of ash which they con- 
tain. How the combined carbon, hydrogen, 



oxygen, and the little nitrogen in their com- 
position, may be distributed in the forms of 
carburetted hydrogen, ammonia, the bitu- 
minous oils, etc., cannot be ascertained by 
analysis, as the means employed to separate 
most of these compounds cause their ele-' 
ments to form other combinations among 
themselves: the determination of the ulti- 
mate proportions of all the elements would 
serve no practical purpose. So, if it be re- 
quired to prove the fitness of any coal for 
affording illuminating gas, or the coal oils, it 
must be submitted to experiments having 
such objects only in view ; and even their 
capacity for generating heat is better deter- 
mined by comparative experiments in evapo- 
rating water, than by any other mode. The 
bituminous coals are characterized by their 
large proportion of volatile matter, which, 
when they are heated, is expelled in various 
inflammable compounds, that take fire and 
burn, accompanied by a dense, black smoke 
and a peculiar odor known as bituminous. 
If the operation is conducted without access 
of air, as in a closed platinum crucible, the 
fixed carbon remains behind in the form of 
coke ; and by removing the cover to admit 
air, this may next be consumed, and the re- 
siduum of ash be obtained. By several 
weighings the proportions are indicated. 
Coals containing 18 per cent, or more of 
volatile matter are classed among the bi- 
tuminous varieties ; but as the proportion of 
this may amount to VO per cent, or more, 
there is necessarily a considerable difference 
in the characters of these coals, though their 
most marked peculiarities are not always 
owing to the ditferent amounts of volatile 
matter they contain. Thus, some sorts, called 
the "f;it bituminous," and "caking coals," 
that melt and run together in burning, and 
are especially suitable for making coke, con- 
tain about the same proportion of volatile 
matter with the " dry coals," as some of the 
cannel and other varieties, which burn with- 
out melting, and do not make good coke. 
Other varieties are especially distinguished 
for their large proportion of volatile ingre- 
dients ; such are the best cannels, and those 
light coals which have sometimes been mis- 
taken for asphaltum, as the Albert coal of 
the province of New Brunswick. These va- 
rieties are eminently qualified for producing 
gas or the coal oils; but have little fixed car- 
bon, and consequently can produce little 
coke. Coals that contain from 11 to 18 per 
cent, volatile matter, are known as semi-bi- 



123 



tuminous, and partake both of the qualities 
of the true bituminous coals, in igniting and 
burning freely, and of the anthracite in the 
condensed and long-continued heat they 
produce. The Maryland coals, and the Ly- 
kens valley coal of Pennsyh-ania, are of 
this character. The true anthracites con- 
tain from 2 to 6 per cent, of gaseous mat- 
ters, which by heat are evolved in carbu- 
retted hydrogen and water, even when the 
coal has been first freed from the water me- 
chanically held. Their greatest proportion 
of solid carbon is about 95 per cent. There 
remains a class which has been designated 
as semi-anthracite, containing from 6 to 11 
per cent, of combustible volatile matter. 
These coals burn with a yellowish flame, un- 
til the gas derived from the combination of 
its elements is consumed. 

The earthy ingredients in coals, forming 
their ash, are derived from the original wood 
and from foreign su'bstances introduced 
among the collections of ligneous matters 
that make up the coal-beds. The ash 
is unimportant, excepting as the material 
which produces it takes the place of so much 
combustible matter. In some coals, espec- 
ially those of the Schuylkill region, it is red, 
from the presence of oxide of iron, and in 



others it is gray, as in the Lehigh coals. 
This distinction is used to designate some 
of the varieties of anthracite ; but the qual- 
ity of these coals is more dependent on the 
quantity of the ash, than on its color. From 
numerous analyses of the Schuylkill red ash 
coals an average of 7.29 per cent, of ash 
was obtained, and of the white ash anthracite, 
4.62 per cent. Coals producing red ash are 
more likely to clinker in burning than those 
containing an equal amount of white ash. 
In some varieties of coal the proportion of 
earthy matter is so great that the substance 
approaches the character of the bituminous 
shales, and may be called indifferently ei- 
ther shale or coal. Though such materials 
make but poor fuel, some of them have 
proved very valuable from the large amount 
of gas and of oily matters they afford. The 
most remarkable of this class is that known 
as the Boghead cannel. This is largely 
mined near Glasgow, in Scotland, and is im- 
ported into New York to be used in the 
manufacture of coal oil. It is a dull black, 
stony-looking substance, having little resem- 
blance to the ordinary kinds of coal. Its 
composition is given for comparison with 
that of other coals, in the following ta- 
ble :— 



Localities. 

8henowith Vein, Penn 

Peach Mountain, Penn.; mean of 40 analyses. 



I a 



.H. D. Rogers 1.50 

.W. R. Johnson 1.46 



Lackawanna W. R. Johnson 1.42 

Beaver Meadow " 1.56 

Price's Mountain, Montgomery Co., Virginia A. H. Everett 1.37 

Portsmouth, llliode Island Dr. C. T. Jackson. . . 1.85 

Mansfield, Mass " 1.69 

Atkinson's and Templeman's, Maryland ; aver- 
age of 2 specimens 

George's Creek, Maryland 



[w. R. Johnson 1.813 

1.85 



'Pittsburg. Pennsylvania B. Silliman, jr 

('annelton, Indiana W^. R. Johnson 1.272 

Black Heath. Jaities River, Virginia " 

Monroe Co., S. Illinois J. G. Norwood......' 1.246 

La Salle Co., N Illinois " 1.237 

Albert Coal, New Brunswick B. Silliman, jr. ...'.".. 1.129 

Gniyson (Ky.) cannel " 1.371 

Breckenridge (Ky.) cannel " ...... 1.150 

Boghead, black cannel Dr. Penny 1.218 

^ Boghead, brown . , " 1.160 





Water and 




arbon. 


other 


Ashes. 




Vol. Mat. 




94.10 


1.40 


4.50 


86.09 


6.96 


6.95 


88.98 


6.36 


4.66 


91.64 


6. 89 


1.47 


89.25 


2.44 


8.30 


85.84 


10.50 


8.66 


87.40 


6.20 


6.40 


76.69 


15.58 


7.83 


70.75 


16.03 


13.22 


64.72 


32 95 


2.31 


69.47 


86.59 


3.94 


68.79 


32.57 


8.64 


58.70 


86.20 


4.50 


65.10 


89.90 


3.00 


86.04 


61.74 


2.22 


14.86 


62.03 


23.62 


27.16 


64.30 


8.48 


9.25 


62 70 


26.50 


7.10 


71.06 


26.20 



A complete description of the coals, such 
as may be found in the Report of Prof. 
Walter R. Johnson (Senate Document, 28th 
Congress, No. 386), and presented, in a 
condensed form, in Johnson's Edition of 
"Knapp's Chemical Technology," presents 
many other features affecting the qualities 
of the coals, and their adaptation to special 
uses. Such are — 1, their capacity for raising 



steam quickly ; 2, for raising it abundantly 
for the quantity used; 3, freedom from 
dense smoke in their combustion ; 4, freedom 
from tendency to crumble in handling ; 5, 
capacity, by reason of their density, and the 
shapes assumed by their fragments, of close 
stowage ; and 6, freedom from sulphur. The 
last is an important consideration, affecting 
the value of coals proposed for use in th* 



124 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



iron manufacture, sulpliur, wliicli is often 
present in coal in the form of sulplmret of 
iron, having a very injurious effect upon the 
iron with which it is brouglit in contact 
■when heated. It is again to be cautiously 
guarded against in selecting bituminous 
coals to be employed in steam navigation ; 
for by the heat generated by spontaneous 
decomposition of the iron pyrites, the eas- 
ily ignited bituminous coals may be readily 
set on lire. This phenomenon is of frequent 
occurrence in the waste heaps about coal 
mines, and large bodies of coal stored in 



yards and on board ships have been thus 
inflamed, involving the most disastrous con- 
sequences. In stowage capacity coals dif- 
fer greatly, and this should be attended to 
in selecting them for use in long voyages. 
Tendency to crumble involves waste. Dense 
smoke in consuming is objectionable in coals 
required for vessels-of-war in actual service, 
as it must expose their position when it may 
be important to conceal it. The following 
table was prepared by I'rof. Johnson to pre- 
sent some of the general results in these 
particulars of his experiments : — 



GENERAL SCALE OF RELATIVE VALDES FORMED FROM THE AVERAGES OF EACH CLASS OK COAL 

SUBJECTED TO TRIAL. 
1. 

Maryland free-burning coals , ,1000 

Pennsylvania anthracite 977 

Pennsylvania bituminous 951 

Virginia (James River) bituminous 850 

Foreign bituminous 801 



2. 


8. 


4. 


5. 


1000 


395 


880 


682 


&86 


1000 


893 


319 


938 


390 


1000 


914 


757 


242 


948 


730 


741 


331 


948 


lOOO 



Column 1 gives the relative evaporative 
powers of equal weights of the coals ; 2, 
the same of equal bulks ; 3, their relative 
freedom from tendency to clinker ; 4, rapid- 
ity of action in evaporating water ; 5, facil- 
ity of ignition, or readiness with which 
steam is gotten up. The general results of 
experience in use, as well as of special trials 
systematically conducted upon a large scale, 
agree in these particulars — that while the 
bituminous coals are valuable for the greater 
variety of uses to which they are applica- 
ble, and especially for all purposes requiring 
flame and a dift'usive heat, as under large 
boilers ; and while they are quickly brought 
into a state of combustion, rendering the 
heat they produce more readily available ; 
the anthracites alford a more condensed and 
lasting heat, and are to be preferred in many 
metallurgical operations, especially where 
great intensity of temperature is required. 
And for many purposes, the free-burning, 
semi-bituminous coals, which combine the 
useful properties of both varieties, are found 
most economical in use. 

GEOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBU- 
TION. 

The United States is supplied with coal 
from a number of coal-fields belonging to 
what are called the true coal-measures, or 
the carboniferous group, a series of strata 
sometimes amounting, in aggregate thick- 
ness, to 2000 and even 3000 feet, and 
whether found in this country or in Europe, 
readily recognized by the resemblance in 



the various members of its formation, its 
fossil organic remains, its mineral accompa- 
niments, and by its position relative to the 
other groups of rock which overlie and un- 
derlie it. The principal one of these fields 
or basins is that known as the Appalachian, 
which, commencing in the north-eastern 
part of Pennsylvania, stretches over nearly 
all the state west of the main Alleghany 
ridge, and takes in the eastern portion of 
Ohio, parts of Maryland, Virginia, Ken- 
tucky, Tennessee, the north-west corner of 
Georgia, and extends into Alabama as far as 
Tuscaloosa. Its total ai'ea, including a num- 
ber of neighboring basins, as those of the 
anthracite region to the east of the Alle- 
ghany ridge, which were originally a part of 
the same great field, is estimated at about 
70,000 square miles. A second great basin 
is that which includes the larger part of Il- 
linois, and the western portion of Indiana 
and of Kentucky. Its area is estimated at 
about 50,'I00 square miles ; the coal is bitu- 
minous, and largely charged with oil. 

Tl)e third coal field, now known as the 
Ro -ky M 'untain Coal Field, is the largest 
in the world, embracing an area in .North 
America of 1,250,000 square miles of w'liich 
5 13,' '00 f-quare miles is within the tJnited 
States. It covers large area-; in Texas, the 
Indian Territory, New IMexico^ Kansas, Ne- 
braska, Iowa. Dakota, Montana, W3'^oming. 
and Colorado. The coal is semi-bituminous 
and of good quality. Tin? coal of the Pa- 
cific States is mainly lignite, containing about 
50 per cent, of carbon, but on Vancouver's 




BALTIMORii COMPANY'S MINE, WILKESBARKE, PA, 




MAP OF THE ANTHRACITE REGION f 



Copied by permission from Aj^ 



S C O JL Z 




w American Cyclopedia. 




THE GREAT OPEN QUARRY OF THE LEHIGH. 



In working this great quarry of anthracite at the Summit mine, above Mauch Chunk, blocks of coal 
were occasionally left standing for a time, ono of which, surmounted by the soil of the original surface and 
the relics of the vegetation, is' represented in the above cut. In this bloclc arc discerned the lines of strati- 
fication of the coal ; and an idea of its extraordinary thickness and extent is conveyed by the appearance of 
the cliffs upon the further side of the excavated area. Upon the floor of the quarry are seen the mmmg 
wagons used for conveying away upon temporary tracks the coal and rubbish of tlie excavations. 



129 



whole area of this field has been computed 
at 57,000 square miles; but its limits have 
never been accurately defined. A fourth 
coal-field occupies the central portion of 
the southern peninsula of Michigan, its area 
being about 13,350 square miles. Several 
small beds of bituminous coal are worked in 
this district, but they have only local impor- 
tance. A fifth coal-field is that of Rhode Isl- 
and and south-eastern Massachusetts. The 
strata of this district are considered as be- 
longing to the true coal-measures, although, 
from the metamorphic action to which they 
have been subjected, their true character is 
very obscure. They contain a few beds of 
anthracite, very irregular in their dimen- 
sions, and much crushed. A number of 
mines have been opened, but the only one 
now worked is at Portsmouth, 8 miles 
north of Newport. In south-eastern Vir- 
ginia is a bituminous coal-field, lying on 
both sides of the James River, a few miles 
above Richmond. The strata which contain 
the coal-beds of this district are recognized 
as members of later formation than those of 
the true coal-measures, being classed with 
the geological group known as the oolite, 
or lias ; and the coal-beds of central North 
Carolina, on Deep River, probably belong to 
the same position in the geological column. 
Notwithstanding the limited area of this 
coal-field in Virginia, which is only about 25 
miles long and 8 to 10 miles wide, it has pro- 
duced for more than sixty years past large 
quantities of coal chiefly for the supply of iron 
manufacturing establishments, and the gas- 
works along the seaboard to the north. The 
strata of these coal-measures occupy a deep 
depression in the granitic rocks of this re- 
gion, attaining in the centre of the basin a 
thickness of nearly 2000 feet. They con- 
sist in great part of a micaceous sand- 
stone, and the two or three coal-beds are 
contained in the lower 150 feet. A great 
bed at the bottom, which in some places 
exceeds 40 feet in thickness, and in others 
dwindles away to 4 or 5 feet only, appears 
to have been deposited upon the uneven 
granitic floor, from which it is separated by 
only a few inches of slate. Shafts have been 
sunk near the east border of the coal-field to 
the depth of nearly 900 feet. The amount 
of coal obtained of late years does not prob- 
ably exceed 130,000 tons per annum. A 
singular phenomenon is observed at one 
point in this district, where a coal-bed is 
penetrated and overlaid by a body of trap- 



rock. The coal near this rock is converted 
into a mass of coke, resembling that artifi- 
cially produced, except that it is more com- 
pact and of a duller lustre. 

A large amount of bituminous coal has 
been brought to Boston and New York, for 
many years past, from a coal field belonging 
to the true coal-measures, in Nova Scotia 
and Cape Breton. The same formation ex- 
tends into New Brunswick, and ranges along 
the western part of Newfoundland, and has 
been estimated as comprising in all an area 
of 9000 square miles. The productive- por- 
tions, however, are limited to a few locali- 
ties upon the coast of Nova Scotia and 
Cape Breton, and at these, beds of great 
thickness have been opened, and worked to 
the depth of from 200 to 450 feet. At the 
Pictou mines, opposite the southern point 
of Prince Edward's Island, one bed is 29 
feet thick. Another bed, at the Albion 
mines, 8d miles from Pictou, aff"ords 24 feet 
of good coal, and 12 more of inferior quali- 
ty ; and in Sydney, Cape Breton, are beds of 
11 feet, 9 feet, and G feet, besides at least 
1 1 others of less thickness. At the South 
Joggins cliffs, in Nova Scotia, the total 
thickness of all the strata of the coal-meas- 
ures was found by Mr. Logan to amount to 
14,571 feet, very much exceeding the thick- 
ness of the formation as observed in other 
places on the American continent. 

The strata which make up the coal forma- 
tion, the principal varieties of which have 
already been named, are regularly laid one 
upon another in no particular order, and 
amount in aggregate thickness to several 
thousand feet, rarely exceeding in the 
United States 3000 feet. Their thickness 
is ascertained by sections measured at dif- 
ferent localities, some giving one part of the 
column, and others other portions. In west- 
ern Pennsylvania the nearly horizontal beds 
of rock are often exposed in the sides of the 
precipitous hills, so that sections of several 
hundred feet may be fully made up. Any 
peculiar member of the pile, as a bed of 
limestone, occurring near the top of the 
section, may be recognized in other locali- 
ties, where by the dip of the strata it is 
brought to the lower levels, and the hills 
above it then present the succession of the 
higher members of the column ; or if the 
layer taken as the starting point be in the 
one case at the base, it will be found in the 
direction of the rising of the strata, at higher 
and higher elevations, and the lower mem- 



110 Gray and buff 

micaceous slaty 
sac da tone. 





69 Variegated shale* 
and sandstone. 



0.4 Limestone, 

3 Limestone. 

15 Shale & sandstone. 

*2 Limestone. 

18 Dark gray shale. 
1 Coal. 

12 Shale & limestone. 
15 to 25 Thin bedded 
3 Limestone, [sandstu. 



4S Blue shale and 
sandstone. 



^'V;:~ -' 0.10 Coal. 
"sSt Blue and buff shale. 
" - ^^" 13 Flaggy sandstones. 



15 Yellow shale. 

14 Slaty sandstone. 

n to20 Buff shales. 

11 to 14 Gray mica- 
ceous sandstoue. 




/r^.:::-i 



—z-'r—'i^ 3.6 Limestone. 

~ ~ ^ 20 BufFshalea. 

^^^^ as Coal. 

y - _/ • ' I 20 Sandstone. 



■v^~ 35 Gray sandatone. 



56 Shales, sand- 
stones & lime- 
stones. 



6 Waynesburg coaU 
5 Soft shale. 



20 Flaggy sandston^t 

10 Shale. 

IB Limestone. 

6 Black slate. 

18 Slaty sandstone. 

8 Black calcareous 

slate. 
16 Limestone. 



35 Brown shale. 
14 PltUburg coal. 



60 Shales, calcareous 
and arenaceous. 



3 Limestone. 



60 to 70 Calcareous and 
sbalv beds, slaty 
sandstone, die 



Green and olive shale. 



150 to 200 Greeokk 
slate A. sandstone. 





1, purple, 1 
vn shale. 



1 to 5 Limestone. 

40 to 80 Sandstone k 
green shale. 




•^^zi:\ 





3.6 Up'r Freeport coaL 
4 to 7 Limestone. 



to 40 Slate and 
slaty Bftudstone. 






"^■-^ 



3 to 4 Kittanning coal 

30 Slate, shale, o\ 

sandstone. 
0.4 to 6 Iron ore. 
15 Ferriferous lime. 

stone. 
30 Slate and shale. 



3 to 4 Clarion coaL 
25 Slate and shale. 
1 to 2 Brookville coal. 
6 to 15 Shale. 




:=: ..=^-_^r 




•. • ." ■- ".•. 


■z-. ■/■ 








i.\ / -.,^44^v: 




^^r - 




F=^^-" -"-' 


w 



2 to 25 Brown i black 
shale. 
' 1 to4 

I ) 15 Sh.ile and sand- 
i 1 stone. 

I 16 Shale and sand- 

' stone. 

; 15 Shale and saud- 

I stone. 

I 15 Shale and sand- 

[ stone. 



100 Sandstone »n 
conglomerate. 



20 Slaty sandston.. 
1 to 4 Sharon coaL 

.'.'- Dark shale. 

: .) Shale. 

' 5 Brown ahsl& 

.sandstone. 



COAL. 



131 



bers of the column will then be brought 
into view at the base of the hills. Thus, at 
Pittsburg, the hills opposite the city afford 
a section of 300 or 400 feet, and the marked 
stratum is here the great coal-bed, which up 
the Alleghany river toward the north rises 
to higher and higher levels in the hills, and 
toward the south, up the Monongahela, sinks 
to lower levels, till it passes beneath the bed 
of the stream. By extending these obser- 
vations over the coal-field, it is found that 
the whole series of strata maintain their 
general arrangement, and the principal mem- 
bers of the group, such as an important coal- 
bed, a peculiar bed of limestone, etc., may be 
identified over areas of thousands of square 
miles. It is thus the sections have been pre- 
pared at many localities to complete the 
series, as presented on the opposite page, 
of the bituminous coal-measures of the ex- 
treme western part of Pennsylvania. The 
coal-beds introduced are those which are 
persistent over the greatest areas. Others 
occasionally appear in diff"erent parts of the 
column, and various other local differences 
may be detected, owing to the irregularities 
in the stratification; thus sandstones and 
slates often thin out, and even gradually 
pass from one into the other. By their 
thinning out beds of coal separated by them 
in one locality may come together in another, 
and form one large bed ; and again, large coal- 
beds may be split by hardly perceptible di- 
visional seams of slate or shale, which may 
gradually increase, till they become thick 
strata, separating what was one coal-bed 
into two or more. The limestones, though 
generally thin, maintain their peculiar char- 
acters much better than the great beds of 
sandstone or shale, and are consequently 
the best guides for designating in the col- 
umns the position of the strata which ac- 
company them, above and below. The fire 
clay is almost universally the underlying 
stratum of the coal-beds. In the sections 
it is not distinguished from the shale-beds. 
The total thickness of all the measures, is 
from 2000 to 2500 feet. 

Such is the general system of the coal- 
bearing formation west of the AUeghan- 
ies. Every farm and every hill in the coal- 
field is likely to contain one or more beds 
of coal, of limestone, of good sandstone for 
building purposes, of fire clay, and some 
iron ore ; and below the surface, the series is 
continued down to the group of conglom- 
erates and sandstones, which come up 



around the margins of the coal-fields and 
define their limits. At Pittsburg this 
group, it is found by boring, as well as by 
the measurements of the strata in the hills 
toward the north, is about 600 feet below 
the level of the river. The coal-measures 
in this portion of the country are the high- 
est rock formation ; but in the western terri- 
tories beyond the Mississippi they pass 
under later geological groups, as the creta- 
ceous and the tertiary. All the coals are 
bituminous, and the strata in which they are 
found are little moved from the horizontal 
position in which they were originally de- 
posited. They have been uplifted with the 
continent itself, and have not been subjected 
to any local disturbences, such as in other 
regions have disarranged and metamorphosed 
the strata. 

East of the Alleghanies, in the narrow, 
elongated coal-fields of the anthracite re- 
gion, a marked difference is perceived in the 
position assumed by the strata, and also in 
the character of the individual beds. They 
evidently belong to the same geological se- 
ries as the bituminous coal-measures, and 
the same succession of conglomerates, sand- 
stones, and red shales, is recognized below 
them ; but the strata have been tilted at va- 
rious angles from their original horizontal 
position, and the formation is broken up and 
distributed in a number of basins, or canal- 
shaped troughs, separated from each other 
by the lower rocks, which, rising to the 
surface, form long narrow ridges outside of 
and around each coal-field. Those on each 
side being composed of the same rocks, sim- 
ilarly arranged, and all having been sub- 
jected to similar denuding action, a striking 
resemblance is observed, even on the map, 
in their outlines ; and in the ridges them- 
selves this is so remarkable that their shapes 
alone correctly suggest at once to those fa 
miliar with the geology of the country, the 
rocks of which they are composed. Upon 
the accompanying map, from the first vol. of 
the "New American Cyclopaedia," these ba- 
sins are represented by the shaded portions, 
and the long, narrow ridges which surround 
the basins, and meet in a sharp curve at their 
ends, are indicated by the groups of four 
parallel lines. Within the marginal hills 
the strata of the coal-measures, and of the 
underlying formations, while retaining their 
arrangement in parallel sheets, are raised 
upon their edges and thrown into undulat- 
ing lines and sharp flexures ; and the extrac- 



132 



MINING INDUSTKY OF THK UNITED STATES. 



Sharp Mi. 



LocuslMb 



tion of the coal, instead of being con- 
ducted by levels driven into the side 
of the hills, is effected by means of 
inclined shafts following down the 
course of the beds from the surface, 
or by vertical slopes sunk so as to 
cut them at considerable depths. The 
arrangement of the strata in its gen- 
eral features is represented in the ac- 
companying wood cuts. Fig. 1 is a 
section from Sharp Mountain, on the 
south side of the Mauch Chunk sum- 
mit mine, across this great body of 
coal, and the higher coal-beds of the 
formation repeatedly brought to the 
surface by their changes of dip, to 
Locust Mountain, which bounds the 
basin on the north. Fig. 2 is a sec- 
tion across the same basin at Ta- 
maqua, six miles west from Mauch 
Chunk mine. In this section it is 
seen how the coal-measures are sepa- 
rated into basins by the lower rocks 
coming up to the surface and forming 
anticlinal axes. Fig. 3 represents the 
position of single beds, as they occur 
among the slates and sandstones, and 
the manner in which they are some- 
times I'eached by means of a tunnel 
driven in from the base of the hill. 
The curved portion of the coal at 
the top is formed by the coal-beds 
at their outcrop becoming disinte- 
grated, and their fragments and de- 
composed smut being spread down 
the slope of the hill. The Romau 
numerals, "IX," "X," "XI," "XII," 
in fig. 2, designate the lower forma- 
tions of rock, known respectively as 
the red sandstones (corresponding to 
the "Old Red Sandstone"); a series of 
gray sandstones ; one of red shales ; and 
lastly, the conglomerate. The dotted lines 
above and below the section mark the con- 
tinuity of the conglomerate beneath the base 
of the section and its original course above 
the present surface before this portion had 
been removed by diluvial action. The other 




formations obviously accompany the con- 
glomerate with similar flexures. 

The same cause, that threw the strata into 
their inclined and contorted positions, no 
doubt changed the character of the coal by 
dispelling its volatile portions, converting 
it in fact into coke, while the pressure 
of the superincumbent beds of rock pre- 



COAL. 



133 



vented the swelling up of the material, as 
occurs in the ordinary process of producing 
coke from bituminous coal, and caused it to 
assume the dense and compact structure of 
anthracite. As the anthracite basins are 
traced westward, it is observed that the 
coals in those districts which have been less 
disturbed, retain somewhat of the bitumin- 
ous character; and if the continuity were 
uninterrupted between the anthracite and 
the bituminous coal-fields, there is no doubt 
that a gradual passage would be observed 
from the one kind of coal to the other, and 
that this would be accompanied by an amount 
of disturbance in the strata corresponding 
to the degree in which the coal is deficient 
in bitumen. 

AMOUNT OF AVAILABLE COAL. 

In estimating the quantities of workable 
coal in any district, several points are to be 
taken into consideration besides the amount 
of surface covered by the coal-measures and 
the aggregate thickness of all the beds they 
contain. Out of the total number of coal- 
beds, there are more or less of them that 
must be excluded from the estimate, on ac- 
count of their being too thin to work. The 
great depth at which the lower beds in the 
central parts of the Appalachi.in coal-field 
lie must probably prevent their ever being 
worked ; but for this no allowance is ever 
made in the estimates of quantities of coal. 

The most careful and complete computa- 
tions of this nature which have been made 
are those of Professor H. D. Rogers, and of 
Mr. Bannan in the Coal Statistical Register 
for 1871. From these sources we obtain 
the following estimates : 

EXTENT OF COAL-FIELD IN THE SEVERAL STATES 
POSSESSING THE COAL FORMATION. 

Sq. miles. 

Massachusetts and Rhode Island 100 

Pennsylvania 12,656 

Ohio 7,100 

Maryland 550 



Virginia 15,900 

Kentucky 13,700 

Tennessee 3,700 

Alabama 6,130 

Georsia 170 

Indiana 6,700 

Illinois 40,000 

Michigan 13,350 

Iowa 24,000 

Missouri 21 ,329 

Nebraska 84,000 

Kansas 80,000 

Arkansas 12,597 

Indian Territory 40,000 

Texas 30,000 

New Mexico 20,000 

Wyoming 20,000 

Colorado 20,000 

Montana 74,000 

Dakota 100,000 



Total 650,862 

In the anthracite basins of Pennsylvania 
the number of workable beds varies from 2 
or 3 to 25, according to the depth of the 
basin ; the average number is supposed to be 
10 or 12. The maximum thickness of coal 
is in the Pottsville basin, and amounts to 
207 feet. Rejecting the thin seams, the 
average thickness in the south anthracite 
field is reckoned at 100 feet; in the middle 
or north field at about 60 feet ; and the gen- 
eral average of the whole, 70 feet. 

The maximum thickness of the 15 or 16 
coal-beds of the central part of the Appala- 
chian coal-field is about 40 feet, ' but the 
average of the whole basin is considered U, 
be 25 feet. 

The basin extending over Illinois an^ 
into Indiana and Kentucky, contains in the 
last-named state 16 or 17 workable beds, 
with a maximum thickness of about 50 feet. 
The average over the whole area is supposed 
to be 20 or 25 feet. 

The following estimates of the British 
coal-fields are introduced for comparison. 
Extending these computations to Belgium 
and France also, the result of calculations of 
available coal supply, in 1870, are as follows : 



RELATIVE AMOUNT OF COAL IN THE SEVERAL GREAT COAL-FIELDS OF EUROPE AND AMERICA. 



Tons. 



Ratio. 



Belgium (assuming an average thickness of about 60 feet of coal) contains 

about 36,000,000,000 1 

France (with same thickness) contains about 59,000,000,000 1.64 

The British Islands (averaging 35 feet thickness) contain nearly 190,000^000^000 5.28 

Pennsylvania (averaging 25 feet thickness) contains 316,400,000,000 8.8 

The great Appalachian coal-field (including Pennsylvania, averaging 25 feet) . 1 ,387,500,000,000 38.5 

Coal-field of Indiana, Illinois, and western Kentucky (average thickness 25 ft). 1,277,500,000,000 35.5 

The Rocky Mountain basin (averaging 30 feet) 3,739,000,000,000 10.29 

All the productive coal-fields of North America (with an assumed thickness 

of 20 feet of coal, and a productive area of 200,000 sq. miles) 6,720,400,000,000 186 

All the coal-fields of Europe 8. 75 

The following table contains the yearly I States, from the commencement of the trade 
returns of the coal product of the United | in 1820 : 



Total consumption of Anthracite and Bituminous Coal in the 
United States. 



mill I 



?gss 



Aggregate of Bituminous mined in other portions of the United gggggg 
States, not included in this table. «tox'3.>:o- 



20 .- -»• oc5 .. 












s4 

tea 
< — 


365 
23,195 
38,243 
37,381 
18,336 
60,538 
83,712 
103,691 
109,818 
157,476 


6:.0,903 

232,870 
213,329 
436,849 
580,180 
448,262 
610,727 
792,549 
1,032,894 
867,780 
999,953 


6,015,443 
1,027,251 
1,115,367 
1,251,645 
1,314,843 
1,732,813 
2,123,443 
2,520,663 
3,088,170 
3..-J64.977 
3,583,628 


21,109,575 
3,736,186 
4,856,183 
5,477,025 
5.931,638 
6.851,880 
7.552,998 
7,849,085 
7,81(1.810 
7,976,183 
9,026,682 


cc ^__o 1- rc_ci_s>^in 1- 3 n_ 

x" -^'" to sd" ?5" jT 0" • «" lO 0" 
(N M M i^x ^ ■* X in ?? 
i^OoToTf^c-jiho^i^'x" 


133,086.99' 

19,957,58., 

248,257,171 


li 




;a2-|i3'^3 S^g2||S553 2?"2|S-!gSSS §ss§s«§gss i|s"3'|i§iii J 





1 


ilAiHii'^ii 


S S .^ i^ S r: 5 2 ?i •»" 






iiiiiilsSli 


S"2 


s 




H 

M 


r ; j 


jJisS'^'aliai 


:k -^ s: Xj ^t -^ .t; t-j rT — 
tc ri 1- re -1 -J r3 . -. ->:< .0 
,-* .n n^",- -0 r; -p -»■ .n 




-* r-© in X "* t- ■£ X 
t- 00 ■-< CO M -b X 5ri x SI d 


S.plHJgill 


IS 


b 
0" 


^ 

b 


< 

a 

H 

J 
< 

J 

5 

3 


H 








CO -o" t-' iT r-f oi" f^' so" rl jT -a-" 







© 


• ••....... 


s 


H 

PI 








- — 




o_ c^ r^ i~_ X »- p^_ in c^ x_^ 
Vjj >n»~^'2 ?; "t '-C "X t; 


lO ^ XCCX « M X ^ T^ 


^'0 


§ 


00 


















tfj 










P 










OO^OrOilTO— 3i 

SS:3;3S-.!.i3 

. .r-Jo"-^ H^r-j rj j: rT 

' 1-1 ^ ss w «- '*' 


ooSS2^x§ — — 


3i in «_?» ""1^^® '^, 


5S 

ii 
«'^- 

is 


1 


'^ 


a. 

■0 




: : : : : :^'s'ii' 


iiip.liSqii 


1 






^ 






s 


H 




ec 






B 


a "-^ 






sis 

:::::: :5gi 


C: -*■ X <x c^ .n lO X «) V' 


ec 01 ! 


^S 


H 




rt 




X 




<! 




- 




FN 


o^^S^ 






H 

',3 

S 




2 = Sg 

^ »- cc r* 


g2!:SgS-r;5282 


P. 


«) 






M 


f( 




V 










M 










q||| 


rt5 

-f^ 


2 


B 












<X3 












1 


I 


2 






_r 



















H 








c 




ft 


I rs r~.* -*■' ^ gT t-^ i^ C-i r-* I - -X 




Si! 


^ 


< 

>• 




iHliiiliil 


isiillllll 


|S|||||5|| 


|pS3|'||£SS 


1 





11 


' ' ' '708 

3,231 
4,157 
23,785 
13,154 
15,:)87 
14,062 
34,507 


62,651 
2,086 
187,051 
123,877 
d 111,112 
184,122 
123,359 
195,327 
140,747 

79,806 


95,589 
148,445 
155,180 
867,252 
382,163 
330,992 
538,304 
206,929 
128,403 


103,495 

1,008,394 

570,445 

197,169 

;34,6!iO 

654,263 

265,445 

d 320,164 

93,460 

1,092,678 


lO^ob M i^^oj o o 5 00 3 


i 


< 


2 
1 


"2S-I:-|||§| 




siililiiiSS 




Illililll 


© cs 

©to 
© ^ 

S3 


"I 






WWWW^ 


.-^ o « © o :^ o m' -*" oT af 


<C3rV»ff.ra«(£ r-r.o".no" 




P. 


i 




<o 


- Ei 


'.'.'.'.'.'.'...'. 


:;;:;;;:;? 


rn' ,/f -T ©" ©' re' O C^' -o' oT OT 






SS 

M 


s 






is 

o 

o 
u 

O 

s 

p 


H 


g 

o 


|§§|f:g|g££§ 


oo -^ =^_ irt «s_ ri_ ao « o ^_ 3s_ 


*D r-T to -*r ,o m" ,-; cs" ri" eo .l^" 


^ssSSlsKmil 




i 


«1 

•iSi: 
►^1 










eg 










;•••••• -SS 


B 




* 


I. 73 

6^ 






. . . .SS8SSS 


■^t-onrtiOt--*oOp-.inoo 1 ait~ i o 




«R".«-.^.oSS_S5t 


4= 


s 








<N^,-,rHr-.rtr^,-.rtrtrH 


ii 


" 


O 

n 


•• . .-«• go C5 c5 ?>i^a3 


Kjisslilsi^ 


ec ifi •^'" oT c^T o' OD cT p-' oi" lo 

o_^ -^ « lO w y5 ecm ■* -* -* 


i 








assSissiii 


igiiiessiii 


©00 










3 






" 


|5 


8 

O^ 


t^ C~" -)^ •*'_," ro o" ri'ox" ^~ 


Co22w55(NM«C0^5 


isslslSllla 


eo CT> w CO s^ lO in o s-j f— «3 


II 

©"c-T 


i 


J3 . 

•II 


:::::::::: :::::::::: : : : : : :s^5is 


eOi-H©GOC^M:sr^OscCM 


gJ^JOM ■^-HXincDXf 


2g 


i 




•!8ia 

■aas 

2 i 
^5 


meoOcQ-^wo-Tf<MO 
eoO(NcoincowoM^ 


ec.otooo-fio^o— "In 
CD -- o o ^^^ to ^"ao m' rT-^' 


<0'-'g^a>o.rj.--ONm 


«eDj*<DCTi«>C0Or-.©-< 




11 






::::::: :i| 

oo't-^ 

::::::: ios 


S3 


^ 




s 








§ 


















: : : • -^iiii 




Ss 










cT 




s 






^ 


i 




Sl?iiil§3isi 




•t"* '^.'^. ^ '1. ® ^ ^. ^ ■-^. 


11 iiigiiiji 


"2 


g 
1 


CO 




gggsgsnsggi 


Kssillilisi 


ift 3q_ rt r^ © — 00 -i-^ ji .-H r- 


ssisiliiiss 


52 


1 


3 

O 




©X)r-Oi-0-*co 


is^iaiisiil 








i! 


1 

a" 


:::::::::: :::■::■:■; •liSsSSsll 




00 1— <D©3?Sg.-i-*'»-« 


in 


s 


O 


. .S?S58SS3J2 


in iO i,0 I- I- rri o -" i--^ r- Q 


iniiiis|iii 


S8,2S3S^;5SgS 


CC --D ■O»-Q0 in»-^© -M^^X 

cf -X rt" — ~ 1 rj" ©' =^ i-T o r-" QO" 
©.nxx)a)oc^auocoai 


ii 

o" 


"* 




>• 


mmmm 


n T^ ■■: }-i -z)^ TO n n <n 




isisilisil 




a 





136 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITKD STATUS. 



TRANSPORTATION OF COAL TO MARKET. 

The first anthracite from the Schuylkill 
mines was brought to Philadelphia in wag- 
ons. The navigation of the river and canal 
was hardly practicable for boats previous to 
the year 1822; and though from that year 
anthracite was conveyed to Philadelphia and 
the trade continued to increase, it was not 
until 1825 that a large amount of coal could 
be transported by this route. The effect of 
these improvements was experienced in the 
transportation of 6,500 tons in 1.S25 ; in 1826 
it increased to 16,763. As for successive 
years the trade steadily and rapidly increased 
in imjiortance, the capacity of the canal 
proved at last insufficient for it, and the 
Reading railroad was laid out for its accom- 
modation, and constructed with a uniform 
descending grade from the mining region at 
Pottsville to the Delaware river. It was 
opened in 1841, and proved a formidable 
competitor to the Schuylkill canal, but the 
increasing trade has surpassed the capacity 
of both these routes. Other lines have been 
constructed, till now there are six or seven 
railroads engaged almost exclusively in the 
transportation of the anthracite and semi- 
anthracite coals from the mines. 

As seen by the table, the first shipments 
of anthracite were from the Lehigh region, 
two years before any were sent from the 
Schuylkill. The transportation was effected 
by arks or large boxes built of plank, and 
run down the rapid and shoal river with no 
little risk. To return with them was im- 
practicable, nor was this desired, for the 
arks themselves were constructed of the 
product of the forests, which in this form 
was most conveniently got to market. As 
the coal trade increased in importance, the 
Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, to 
insure greater facility in running the arks, 
constructed dams across the shoaler places 
in the river, by which the water was held 
back, thus increasing the depth above. As 
the arks coming down the river reached one 
of these dams, the sluice gates were opened 
and the boats descended to the next dam be- 
low. At first two arks were connected to- 
gether by hinges at the ends ; subsequently 
more were thus joined together, till they 
reached nearly 200 feet in length. In 1831 
the slack-water navigation of the Lehigh 
was so far perfected, that it was used by 
canal boats ascending and descending through 
regular locks. 

Up to the year 1827 the transportation 



of anthracite to Mauch Chunk, nine miles 
from the mines, was by wagons. The Mauch 
Chunk road, completed in May, 1827, was 
made with a descending grade, averaging 
about 100 feet to the mile, so that the loaded 
cars ran down by gravity. Each train car- 
ried down with it in cars appropriated to 
this use the mules for drawing the empty 
cars back ; and it is stated that after the 
animals once became accustomed to the rou- 
tine of their duties they coiild never bo made 
to travel down the road if accidentally left 
behind. The trade before many years out- 
grew these increased facilities of transport- 
ing the coal, and it was found essential to 
return the empty cars by some more econom- 
ical method. On account of the heavy up- 
grade, locomotives, it was concluded, could 
not be advantageously employed, and hence 
a system of incHned planes and gravity 
roads was devised, by which the cars hoisted 
by stationary power to tlie summit of the 
planes and thence descending the gravity 
roads might be returned to the mines. In 
the accompanying sketches a part of this ar- 
rangement of roads is exhibited. 

The high hill called Mount Pisgah, above 
the village of JMauch Chunk, is the terminat- 
ing point at the Lehigh river of the long 
ridge called Sluirp INI oun tain. The lower 
road seen in the sketch is called the loaded 
track. The cars come by this from the 
mines, and being letdown the inclined plane 
at its terminus, their loads are discharged in- 
to the great bins over the edge of the river. 
They are then hauled a short distance to the 
foot of the long plane that reaches to the 
summit of Mount Pisgah, and by the sta- 
tionary steam engine are drawn up in about 
six minutes to an elevation ^50 feet above 
that at the foot. The length of this plane 
is 2250 feet. From its summit the empty 
cars run down the incUned road constructed 
along the south side of the ridge, and at the 
distance of six miles, having descended about 
300 feet, they reach the foot of another in- 
clined plane at Mount Jefferson. This plane 
is 2070 feet long, rising 4 62 feet. The as- 
cent is accomplished in three minutes, and 
from the top another gravity road extends 
about a mile, descending 44 feet to the Sum- 
mit Hill village. From this point branch 
roads lead to the different mines in' Panther 
Creek valley, and all meet again in the 
loaded track road by Avhich the cars return 
to Mauch Chunk, 

The transpoitation of coal from Mauch 
Chunk was conduct jd by the river and canal 




«r^ . V ^^,- 










MOUNT PISGAH PLANE, MAUCH CHUNK, PA. 




COLLIERY SLOPE AND B..EAKER AT TUSCARORA, PA. 



COAL. 



139 




MOUNT PISGAH PLANES AND THE GKATITY KAILKOAD, MAUCH CHUNK. 



exclusively until the partial construction of 
the Lehigh railroad iu 1846. But it was 
not until its completion in 1855, that this 
began to be an important outlet of the coal 
region and a powerful competitor for the 
trade with the canal. 

A considerable amount of anthracite finds 
a market on the borders of Chesapeake Bay, 
being transported from the mines near the 
Susquehanna river by the Susquehanna tide- 
water canal, and by the Northern Central 
railroad. Its consumption is extending in 
this region by its use in the blast furnaces 
in the place of charcoal, for smelting iron 
ores, and the receipts of this fuel in the city 
of Baltimore are about one-sixth of those of 
the semi-bituminous coals of the Cumber- 
land region, which are brought to the city 
by the Baltimore and Ohio railroad and the 
canal. The receipts during the years named 
below were as follows : 

1857. 1860. 

Tons. Tons. 

Bituminous 443,782 897,684 

Anthracite 257 ,334 326 ,129 

701,116 722,813 2,152,909 2,022,571 



1869. 


1870. 


Tons 


Tons. 


1,882,619 


1,717,075 


270,240 


305,494 



The principal outlet of the Northern coal- 
field had been from 1829 to 1850 by the 
Delaware and Hudson canal. Since 1847 
there have been taken every year to the 
Hudson river by this route from about 
440,000 to 499,650 tons, except in 1855, 
when the quantity was 565,460 tons. A 
number of railroads now connect this basin 
with the central railroad across northern 
New Jersey, and in other directions it is 
connected both by railroad and canals Avith 
the Erie railroad to the North and the Sus- 
quehanna river to the South-west. As large 
an amount of coal is now transported over 
each one of three of these lines as by the 
Delaware and Hudson canal. 

The various railroads and canals which 
have been constructed with especial refer- 
ence to the transportation of anthracite, are 
more than 48 in number, and have cost 
over $260,000,000. Most of them are pre- 
sented in the following table; of some of 
them only those portions which may fairly 
be counted as constructed for coal pur- 
poses : — 



140 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Canals. 
\o. miles. 

...87 



Names of railroads and canals. 

Lehigh Navigation , , 

Lehigh and Siis(|iiehanna raih'oad and branches 

Maiich Cliimk and Sinnniii railroads 

Delaware division of the rennsylvania canal 43 

Beavor Meadow railroad and branch 

Hazleton railroad 

Philailelphia and Erie railroad 

Summit railroad 

Lehigh Valley railroad and branches 

Delaware and Hudson canal 108 

Morris canal 102 

The Schuylkill Navigation 108 

Reading railroad and branches 

Shamokin and Pottsvillc Valley railroad and branch 

Little Schuylkill railroad 

Danville and l^ottsville railroad (44^ miles unfinished) 

Mine Hill and Schuylkill Haven railroad and branches 

Mount Carbon railroad and branches 

Port Carbon railroad and branches 

Schuylkill Valley railroad and branches 

Mill Creek railroad and branches 

Lykens Valley railroad 

Wiconiseo canal 12 

Swatara railroad 

North Branch canal 163 

Union canal and Pine Grove branch 90 

Schuylkill and Susquehanna railroad 

Northern Central railroad 

Pennsylvania railroad and branches 338 

Susquehanna tidewater canal 45 

York and Cumberland railroad 

Cumberland Vail cy railroad 

Franklin railroad 

Nesquehoning railroad 

Room Hun railway 

Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western railroad 

Lackawmna and Bloomsburg railroad 

North Pennsvlvania 

Catawissa. Williamsport, and Erie railroad 

Elmira and Williamsport 

Pennsylvania Coal Company's railroad 

New Jersey Central railroad 

Railroads by individuals 

Other coal railroads 



Railroads. 
No. miles. 

193 
36 

38 

20 

288 

2 

238 



153 
34 
32 
34 

143 
13 
14 
30 
32 

215 



55 
142 



44 

81 

45 

28 

6 

116 

82 

66 

68 

78 

63 

134 

120 

1117 



Total cost. 

$4,455,000 
13,570,595 
831,684 
1,734,958 
360,000 
253,000 
20,000,000 
60,000 
20,000,000 
3,2.50,000 
4,000,000 
5,785,000 
29,822,729 
1,569,450 
1,466,187 
1,895,000 
3,775,000 
203,260 
282,350 
576,050 
323,375 
975,868 
370,000 
41,780 
3,790,310 
1,000,000 
1,300,000 
12,400,000 
29,761,533 
1,000,000 
3,300,000 
1,692,111 
1,643,128 
500,000 
40,000 
13,988,876 
3,753,130 
6,669,991 
3,745,096 
2,692,000 
2,745,500 
18,034,675 
1,180,000 
37,500,000 



Total L096 3,746 $261,435,646 



COAL MINING. 

Coal-beds are discovered and worked by 
different methods, varying according to the 
circumstances under which they occur. In 
regions where they lie among the piles of 
strata horizontally arranged, and passing 
with the other members of the group upon 
a level or nearly so through the hills, their 
exact position is often detected by their ex- 
posure in the precipitous walls of rock along 
the rivers ; or it is indicated by peculiar in- 
dentations, known as " benches," around their 
line of outcrop, caused by their crumbling 
and wearing away more rapidly than the 
harder strata above and below them ; and 
again by the recurrence of springs of water 



and wet places at the foot of the benches, 
which point to an impervious stratum with- 
in the hill that prevents the water percolat- 
ing any further down ; and lastly, in the 
little gorges worn by the " runs," the beds 
are often uncovered, and loose pieces of coal 
washed down lead to their original source 
above. However discovered, the method of 
working them is simple. A convenient place 
is selected upon the side of a hill, and an ex- 
cavation called a drift, usually about four 
feet wide, is made into the coal-bed. The 
height of the drift is governed by the thick- 
ness of the coal-bed and the nature of the 
overlying slate. Miners sometimes work in 
drifts only 2^ feet high. Coal-beds three or 
four feet thick are very common, and are 



COAL. 



141 



worked without the necessity of removing the 
overhanging slate, unless it is too unsound 
to serve as a roof. Beds of ten feet thick- 
ness or more require much additional care 
over those of smaller size, both in removing 
the coal and supporting the roof; and in 
many cases it is found expedient to leave a 
portion of the bed, either at the top or bot- 
tom, untouched, especially if the upper lay- 
ers contain, as they often do, sound sheets of 
slate. At the entrance of the mines, and in 
general in all places where the cover is not 
sound, the materials overhead are prevented 
from falling by timbers across the top of the 
drifts, rudely framed into posts set up against 
the walls on each side ; and where the strata 
are very loose, slabs are driven in over the 
cross timbers and behind the posts. In such 
ground the coal cannot be excavated over 
large areas without leaving frequent pillars 
of coal and introducing great numbers of 
posts or props. But previous to abandon- 
ing the mine the pillars may be removed, 
commencing with those furthest in, and all 
the strata above are thus allowed to settle 
gradually down. When drifts or gangways 
have been extended into the coal-beds far 
enough to be under good cover, branches 
are commenced at right angles, and a system 
of chambers is laid out for excavation, leav- 
ing sufficient blocks or pillars of coal to pro- 
vide for the support of the overlying strata. 
Thus the work is carried on, ventilation be- 
ing secured by connections made within the 
hill with gangways passing out in different 
directions, and sometimes also by shafts 
sunk from the surface above, or, when these 
means are not practicable, by ventilating 
fans worked by hand, and thus forcing air 
through long wooden boxes which lead into 
the interior of the mine. Drainage is often 
a serious trouble, and unless the strata slope 
toward the outlet of the mine, it can be ef- 
fected only by a channel cut to the required 
depth for the water to flow out, or else by 
the use of pumping machinery. When the 
strata lie nearly upon a horizontal plane, it 
is very common for a slight descent to be 
found from the exterior of a hill toward its 
centre, as if the beds of rock had been com- 
pressed and settled by their greater weight 
in the middle of the hill. In such positions 
the coal is extracted with much expense for 
drainage, and it is therefore an important 
consideration in judging of the value of coal- 
beds to ascertain whether or no the water 
will flow freely out from the excavations. In 



the bituminous coal fields west of the AUe- 
ghanies, owing to the general distribution of 
the coal-beds above the level of the water- 
courses, it has not yet been found worth 
while to work any of the beds that are 
known to lie below this level. Coal must 
reach a much higher value before beds of 
the moderate size of those in that region can 
be profitably explored below water level. 

It is rare that bituminous coal is obtained 
by open quarrying. Where the beds lie 
near the surface, so that they might be un^ 
covered, the coal is almost invariably in a 
rotten condition and worthless. Conse^ 
quently one of the first points to be assured 
of in judging of the value of a coal-bed is 
that it has sufficient rock cover. After this 
may be considered the quality of the coal, 
its freedom from sulphur, etc., the sound- 
ness of its roof, and the facilities oflfered for 
drainage and ventilation. The quality of a 
coal-bed undergoes little or no change after 
it is once reached under good cover beyond 
atmospheric influences ; and hence no en- 
couragement can be given to continue to 
work a poor bed in hopes of its improving. 

Coal is excavated chiefly by light, slender 
picks. With one of these a miner makes a 
shallow, horizontal cut as far as he can reach 
under the wall of coal before him, stretching 
himself out upon the floor to do this work, 
and then he proceeds to make a vertical cut 
extending from each end of that along the 
floor up to the roof. By another horizontal 
cut along the roof, a cubical block of coal is 
thus entirely separated from the bed, except 
on the back side which cannot be reached. 
The separation is completed by wedges 
driven into the upper crevice, or sometimes 
by small charges of powder. By this means 
blocks of coal are thrown down amounting 
to 70 or 80 tons in weight, and with the 
least possible loss by the reduction of por- 
tions of it to dust and fine coal. 

The cost of mining and delivering coal at 
the mouth of the mines, varies with the size 
and character of the beds. Under the most 
favorable conditions the horizontal beds of 
bituminous coal, as those in the hills oppo- 
site Pittsburg, have been worked and the 
coal delivered outside for 1^ cents a bushel, 
or 45 cents a ton ; but in general the total 
expenses are nearly double this rate. In es- 
timating the capacity of production of coal- 
beds it is usual to allow a ton of coal to 
every cubic yard, and a bed of coal a yard 
thick should consequently contain a ton to 



142 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



every square yard, or 4840 tons to the acre : 
but the actual product that can be depended 
on, after the loss by fine coal, by pillars left 
standing, etc., may not safely be reckoned at 
more than 3000 tons, or for every foot thick- 
ness of the bed lOOo tons. 

In the anthracite region, and in other coal 
districts where the beds are of large size and 
lie at various degrees of inclination with the 
horizon, the methods of mining differ more 
or less from those described. The anthra- 
cite beds fre(}uently extend in parallel lay- 
ers longitudinally through the long ridges, 
dipping, it may be, nearly with the out- 
er slope, and descending to great depths 
below the surface. In such positions they 
are conveniently reached at the ends of the 
ridges and in the gaps across these, by a 
level driven on the course of the bed, and 
rising just enough for the water to drain 
freely. A level or gangway of this sort is 
the great road of the mine, by Avhich all the 
coal is to be brought out in case other sim- 
ilar gangways are not driven into the same 
bed at points further up or down its slope. 
Unless the dip is very gentle, one at the 
lowest point should be sufficient. At dif- 
ferent points along its extension passage- 
ways are cut in the coal, directed at right 
angles up the slope of the bed, and as soon 
as one of them can be brought through to 
the surface, a ventilating current of air is 
established, which may afterward be divert- 
ed through all the workings. The passage- 
way's together with other levels above divide 
the coal-bed into great blocks, and also serve 
as shutes by which the coal excavated above 
is sent down to the main gangway. At the 
bottom of each shute a bin is constructed 
for arresting the coal and discharging it, as 
required, into the wagons which are run in 
beneath on the tracks laid for this purpose. 
Coal-beds in this position are also worked 
from the gangwa}' by broad excavations car- 
ried up the " breast" or face of the bed, suf- 
ficient pillars of coal from 12 to 25 feet long 
being left in either case to support the roof. 
These pillars usually occupy the most room 
just above the gangways, and on passing up 
between them, the chambers are made to 
widen out till they attain a breadth of about 
40 feet, and thus the breast is extended up 
to the next level. Props are introduced 
wherever required to support the roof, and 
the rubbish, slates, etc., are stacked up for 
the same purpose, as well as to get them out 
of the way. 



It often occurs that coal beds within the 
ridges can be reached only by a tunnel 
driven in from the side of the mountain 
across their line of bearing. Tunnels of this 
kind are sometimes extended till they cut 
two or more parallel coal-beds. Each one 
may then be worked by gangways leaving 
the tunnel at right angles and following the 
coal beds, and the tunnel continues to be 
the main outlet of them all. 

When it is desirable to obtain the coal 
from the portion of the bed below the level 
of the gangway, preparations must first be 
made for raising the water, which may be 
done for a time by bucket and windlass, and 
as the slope is carried down and the flow of 
water increases, then by mining pumps 
worked by horse or steam power. The 
slope may commence from the exterior sur- 
face or from the lower gangway of a mine 
already in operation, and is made large 
enough to admit wagons, which ascend and 
descend upon two tracks extending down its 
floor. At the depth of 200 or 300 feet 
a gangway is driven at right angles with 
the slope in each direction on the course of 
the bed, and from this the workings are car- 
ried up the breast as already described. 
Other gangways are started at lower levels 
of lOu feet or more each, dividing the 
mine into so many stories or floors. The 
coal above each gangway is sent down to 
its level and is I'eccived into wagons. By 
these it is conveyed to the slope, and here 
running upon a turn-table, each wagon is 
set upon the track in the slope and is imme- 
diately taken by the steam engine to the sur- 
face, another car at the same time coming 
down on the other track. Reservoirs are 
constructed upon the diflerent levels to ar- 
rest the water, that it may not all have to 
be raised up from the bottom, and the 
pumps are constructed so as to lift the wa- 
ter from the lower into the higher reservoirs 
and thence to the surface. Many mines of 
this character are opened from the surface, 
one of which is represented in the cut of the 
" Colliery Slope and Breaker, at Tuscarora, 
Pennsylvania." An empty wagon is seen in 
this cut descending the track from the en- 
gine house down into the mouth of the pit, 
and through the end of the building pass- 
es the pump rod which by means of a vi- 
brating " bob" is turned down the pit and 
works by the side of the track. The men 
pass down into the mines of this character, 
sometimes by the wagons, and sometimes by 




UNDEHJiiNiNO COAL. — See page 141. 




BREAKING (IKF AND LOADING COAL. 




DRAWING OUT COAL WHERE THERE LS NOT SUFFICIENT DEPTH OF VEIN TO ADMIT 

MULE TEAMS. 



COAL. 



143 



ladders or steps arranged for the purpose I 
between the two tracks. Though the open- I 
ing, as represented, appears insignificant for 
an important mine, such a slope may extend 
several hundred feet in depth, and many- 
gangways may branch off from it to the 
ri2;ht and left, extending several miles un- 
der ground in nearly straight lines along the 
course of the bed. These, however, to se- 
cure ventilation, must have other slopes com- 
ing out to the suiface, and at tliese may be 
other arrano-ements for discharging; the coal 
and water. In extensive mines the gang- 
ways are made wide and capacious for the 
continual passing back and forth of the wag- 
ons drawn by mules. These animals once 
lowered into the mine are kept constantly 
under ground, where they are provided with 
convenient stables excavated from the coal 
and rock. The men continue at work from 
eight to ten hours, and in well-ventilated 
mines the employment is neither very labo- 
rious, hazardous, nor disagreeable. The pur- 
suit has, however, little attraction for Ameri- 
cans, and is mostly monopolized by Welsh, 
English, Irish, and German miners. 

In the anthracite region there have been 
some remarkable instances of open quarries 
of coal. That of the Summit mine of the 
Lehigh is unsurpassed in the history of coal 
mining, for the enormous body of coal ex- 
posed to view. The ofreat coal-bed, which 
appears to have been formed by a num- 
ber of beds coming together through the 
thinning out of the slates that separated 
them, arches over the ridge, forming the up- 
permost layers of rock, and dipping down 
the sides at a steeper angle than their in- 
clination. It thus passes beneath the higher 
strata. On the summit a thin soil, formed 
chiefly of the decomposed coal itself, covered 
the beds and supported a growth of forest 
trees. For several feet down the coal was 
loose and broken before the solid anthracite 
was reached. As the excavations were com- 
menced and carried on from this point, it 
appeared as if the whole mountain was coal. 
Shafts were sunk into it and penetrated re- 
peated layers of anthracite, separated by thin 
seams of slate, to the depth, in some places, 
of more than 55 feet. The work of strip- 
ping off and removing the covering of yellow 
and greenish sandstones and refuse coal was 
carried on, till the quarry had extended over 
about 50 acres, and on the north side the 
overlying sandstone, which had been steadily 
increasing in thickness, presented a wall of 



30 to 40 feet in height. Over this area rail 
tracks were laid for removing the waste 
northward to the slope of the hill toward 
the Panther Creek valley ; and when the 
piles thus formed had grown into large hills, 
the rubbish was deposited in the spaces left 
after the coal had been removed. During the 
progress of this work the scenes presented 
were of the most pictui'esque and novel char- 
acter. The area laid bare was irregularly 
excavated into steps, upon which temporary 
rail tracks were laid in every direction. Up- 
on these the wagons were kept busily run- 
ning, some carrying off the coal, some load- 
ed with slates and waste, and others return- 
ing empty for their loads. Here and there 
stood huge isolated masses of anthracite, 
with their covering of sandstone, soil, and 
the relics of the original forest growth, reach- 
ing to the height of 50 or 60 feet, monu- 
ments of the vast amount of excavation that 
had been carried on, and presenting in their 
naked, vertical walls, fine representations of 
the extraordinary thickness of the bed and 
of the alternating layers of slate and coal of 
which it was composed. In the accompa- 
nying cut of the great open quarry of the 
Lehigh is represented one of these blocks. 
Gradually these masses disappeared as the 
miners continued their operations ; but in 
the boundary walls of the quarry there are 
still to be seen black cliffs of solid coal more 
than 50 feet high, and overtopped by a wall 
of yellow sandstone of nearly equal addi- 
tional height. Under these walls opera- 
tions have been carried on by the regular 
system of underground mining. From ten 
acres of the quarry it has been estimated 
that 850,000 tons of coal have been sent 
away, the value of which in the ground at 
the usual rate of 30 cents per ton, would be 
$255,000, or $25,500 per acre. Estimating 
the average working thickness of the coal 
in this part of the coal-field, from the Lit- 
tle Schuylkill to Nesquehoning, at 40 feet, 
which according to the report of the state 
geologist is not exaggerated, every availa- 
ble acre contains not less than 65,000 tons. 
The expense of extracting and preparing 
the coal from the great bed for market, is 
stated by the same authority to be 37i 
cents per ton for luining and delivering 
ready for breaking and cleaning. For this 
operation 12^ cents; and for raising it to 
the summit and running it to Mauch Chunk 
25 cents. 

Another locality where coal has been 



144 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



■worked by open quarryiniij is at the mines 
of the Baltimore Company, near Wilkes- 
barre. Here, too, an immense bed of coal 
was found so close to the surface that it was 
easily uncovered over a considerable area. 
As the overlying slates and sandstone in- 
creased in thickness, it was found at last 
more economical to follow the coal under 
cover ; and it was then worked after the 
manner of mining the bituminous coal-beds 
west of the Alleghany Mountains. Horizon- 
tal drifts 25 feet high, which was the thick- 
ness of the bed, were carried in from the 
abrupt wall, several of them near together 
and separated by great pillars of coal left to 
support the roof. The gangways were so 
broad and spacious that a locomotive and 
train of cars might have been run into the 
mine. Within they were crossed by a suc- 
cession of other levels, and through the wide 
spaces thus left open, the light of day pene- 
trated far into the interior of the hill, grad- 
ually disappearing among the forest of black 
pillars by which it was obstructed and ab- 
sorbed. 

In the anthracite region, several coal-beds 
of workable dimensions are often found in 
close proximity, so that when dipping at a 
high angle they are penetrated in succession 
by a tunnel driven across their line of bear- 
ing. Larger quantities of coal are thus con- 
centrated in the same area than are ever met 
with in the bituminous coal-field. In the 
northern coal-fields, between Scranton and 
Carbondale, tracts have brought $800 or 
more per acre, and single tracts of 650 to 
700 acres are reported upon by competent 
mining engineers as containing five workable 
beds, estimated to yield as follows — each 
one over nearly the whole area : one bed 
working 7 feet, 11,200 tons per acre ; a sec- 
ond, working 8 feet, 12,800 tons per acre ; 
a third, 6 feet, 9600 tons per acre ; a fourth, 
the same ; and a fifth, 3 feet, 4800 tons — 
altogether equalling a production of 48,000 
tons per acre, from which 20 per cent, should 
be deducted for mine waste, pillars, etc. 

The anthracite as usually brought out from 
the mines is mostly in large lumps of incon- 
venient size to handle. In this shape it was 
originally sent to market, and when sold to 
consumers a man was sent with the coal to 
break it up in small pieces with a hammer. 
At present every mine is supplied with an 
apparatus called a coal-breaker, which is run 
by steam power, and which crushes the large 
yieces of coal in fragments. It consists of 



two rollers of cast iron, one solid, with its 
surface armed with powerful teeth, and the 
other of open basket-work structure. These 
revolve near together, and the coal, fed from 
a hopper above, is broken between them, and 
the pieces discharged below into another hop- 
per are delivered into the upper end of a re- 
volving cylindrical screen, made of stout iron 
wire, and set on a gentle incline. The meshes 
of this screen are of four or more degrees of 
coarseness. At the upper end the finer par- 
ticles only drop through ; passing this por- 
tion of the screen, the coarser meshes which 
succeed let through the stove coal sizes, next 
the " egg coal," and next the "broken coal," 
while the coarsest pieces of all, called " lump 
coal," are discharged through the lower end 
of the screen. Under the screen are bins or 
shutes, separated by partitions, so as to keep 
each size by itself. Their floor slopes down 
to the railway track, and each bin at its lower 
end is provided with a trap-door, through 
which the coal is delivered as required into 
the wagons. The general plan of this ar- 
rangement is seen in the preceding wood-cut 
of the Colliery Slope and Breaker at Tusca- 
rora. The coal wagons are here run from 
the mine up into the top of the engine house, 
and thence through the building to the 
breaker at the upper end of the slope over 
the shutes. As the coal falls from the screen 
into these, boys are employed, one in each 
bin, to pick out and throw away the pieces - 
of slate and stone that may be mixed with 
the coal. This they soon learn to do very 
thoroughly and with great activity ; and up- 
on the faithfulness with which their work is 
done depends in no small measure the repu- 
tation of the coal. 



USEFUL APPLICATIONS. 

While anthracite, by reason of its simple 
composition, is fitted only for those uses in 
which the combustion or oxidation of its 
carbon is required to generate heat, or else 
to extract oxygen from other substances, 
the bituminous coals, containing a greater 
variety of ingredients, serve to produce from 
their volatile ingredients illuminating gas 
and coal oils. These two subjects will be 
treated in distinct chapters, an . that upon 
the oils may properly include an account 
of the petroleum wells which liave come 
within the past ten years to furnish so large 
and important an item of our exports and 
home consumption. 



ILLUMINATING GAS. 



145 



CHAPTER X. 



ILLUMINATING GAS. 



The supply of artificial light in abun- 
dance and at little cost is one of the most 
important benefits which science and me- 
chanics can confer. It contributes not 
merely to physical comfort and luxurious 
living, but supplies the means to multitudes 
of obtaining instruction during those hours 
after the cessation of their daily labors, 
which are not required for sleep, and 
which among the poor have in great 
measure been spent in darkness, on ac- 
count of the expense of artificial light. At 
the present day it is not unusual, in the less 
cultivated portions of the country, to see a 
farmer's family at night gathered around a 
blazing fire, and some among them seeking 
by its fitful light to extract the news from 
a public journal, or perhaps conning their 
school tasks, and making some attempts at 
writing or ciphering ; and when the hour to 
retire has come, the younger members dis- 
appear in the dark, and the more honored 
are favored with a home-made tallow can- 
dle, just sufficient for this use, and endura- 
ble onl)^ to those who are unaccustomed to 
a more cleanly and eflicient method of il- 
lumination. With the advance of cultivation 
and learning, the demand for better light 
has increased the more rapidly it has been 
met. The sea has been almost exhaust- 
ed of whales for furnishing supplies of oil. 
The pork of the West has been largely con- 
verted by new chemical processes into lard 
oil and the hard stearine for candles ; and 
numerous preparations of spirits of turpen- 
tine, under the name of camphene and burn- 
ing fluid, have been devised and largely in- 
troduced with ingenious lamps contrived to 
secure the excellent light they furnish, with 
the least possible risk of the awful explo- 
sions to which these fluids are liable when 
their vapor comes in contact with fire. The 
bituminous coals have been made to give up 
their volatile portions — by one process to 
afford an illuminating gas, and by another 
to produce burning oils ; and the earth it- 
self is bored by deep wells to exhaust the 
newly-found supplies of oil gathered be- 
neath the surface at unknown periods by 
natural processes of distillation. The res- 
inous products of the pine tree are applied 
to the production of oil and gas for the 
same purposes; and peat, wood, and other 
9* 



combustible bodies — even water itself — are 
all resorted to as sources from which the cry 
for " more light" shall be satisfied. 

The distillation of carbonaceous and bi- 
tuminous substances to obtain an illuminat- 
ing gas is a process, the practical applica- 
tion of which hardly dates back of the pres- 
ent century. The escape of iiifianunable 
gases from the earth, in dift'erent parts of 
the world, had been observed, and the 
phenomenon had been applied to supersti- 
tious ceremonials, especially at Bakoo on 
the shores of the Caspian. The Chinese 
are said to have applied such natural jets 
of gas to purposes of both illumination and 
heating; but the first attempts to light build- 
ings by gas distilled from bituminous coal 
were made about the year 1798 by Mr. 
Murdock in the manufactory of Messrs. 
Boulton and Watt, at Soho, England, and 
about the same time in France by a French- 
man named Le Bow. The London and 
Westminster Chartered Gas Light and Coke 
Company was incorporated in 1810, and 
Westminster bridge was lighted Avith gas, 
Dec. 31, 1813. The process was introduced 
into this country about the year 1821. Some 
attempts had been made at an earlier date, 
as in Baltimore according to some state- 
ments in 1810, and in New York four years 
before this. In the New York Neios of 
August 15, 1859, is an account of the ef- 
forts made by Mr. David Melville of that 
city to establish the use of coal gas in 1812. 
He lighted his own house with it, and then 
a factory at Pawtucket. He also succeeded 
in having it applied to one of the light- 
houses on the coast of Rhode Island, and 
for one year its use was continued with suc- 
cess. But on account of the disturbed state 
of the times and the prejudices against the 
use of a new material, the enterprise fell 
through. In 1822 the manufacture of gas 
was undertaken in Boston ; and the next 
year the New York Gas Light Company 
was incorporated with a capital of $1,000,- 
OOO. The works, however, were not com- 
pleted and in operation until 1827. An- 
other company, called the Manhattan Gas 
Light Company, was incorporated in 1830 
with a capita] of $500,000, which has since 
been increased to $4,000,000. Such were 
the beginnings of this branch of manufac- 
ture, which has of late rapidly extended 
itsalf throughout all the cities and many of 
the towns of the United States, having 
works in operation representing a capital of 



146 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Within the last twenty ye:irs the use of gas 
has increased with great rnpicUty throughout 
the cities and towns of tlie United States. 
In 1860, the number of companies manufac- 
turing g IS was, according to the st-ttements 
of tlie American Gas Light Journal. 433, 
representing a capital of about $59,000,000. 
In 1870, the number of companies had in- 
creased to somewhat more than 800, and the 
capital represented to over 112,000,000, thus 
ranking with the most important branches 
of industry in the country. The capital 
of the gas companies of the State of New 
York, is stated by Mr. Wells in his Report 
on Local Taxation, to have been $20,000,000 
in 1870, and in this estimate many of the 
smaller companies are overlooked. The 
capital of the gas companies of New York 
and Brooklyn in 1871 was over $14,000,000. 
There are certainly five and probably six 
companies whose annual production exceeds 
1,000,00! ',000 cubic feet, and several others 
are approximating to that amount. The 
price per thousand feet has varied greatly 
in different sections, and has fluctuated in 
all cases with the price of th« coal and in its 



})roduction. In New York city and lirook- 
lyn, it has ranged from $2.'0U to $4.50, 
standing at present at $3.25, but with a 
promise of reduction soon to $2.75. In 
Philadelijliia, where the city manufactures 
ibr its citizens, it is now, we believe, $2 25, 
and in Pittsburg has been as low as $1.50. 
In the smaller cities it ranges from $4.( to 
$8 00 per thousand feet. On the Paciiic 
coast, owing to the high price of gas pro- 
ducing coals, it has been as high as from 
$8.00 to $14.00 per tliousand feet. If tlie 
Rocky Mountain coals prove to be of good 
(ju ility for the production of gas. the coi-t 
will be materially lessened. Notwitlistan<l- 
ing the consumption of petroleum oils, there 
has been an increase in the demand for illu- 
minating gas, and the plans projxK'red for its 
production from other hydrocarbons, or liy 
new processes, have generally failed, so that 
there seems to be a probability of t!ie contin- 
ued production of gas from coals What new 
methods of illumination the next twenty 
years may develop we cannot say ; but it is 
certain that a cheap, safe, and brilliant illu- 
minator is still a thine to be desired. 



SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL GAS LIGHT COMPANIES IN THE UNITED STATES. 



P^"- Localities. Chartered 

tered. ^•jv^L^^.i^a. capital. 

1830, Manhattan, N. Y $4,000,000 

1823, New York, N. Y 1,000,000 

1825, Brooklyn, N. Y 2,000,000 

1859, Citizens' Co., Brooklyn 1,000,000 

1841, Philadelphia 3,000,000 

Northern Liberties 400,000 

1822, Boston, Mass 1,000,000 

1851, Cincinnati, Ohio 1,600,000 

1849, ChicaKO, 111 1,300,000 

1846, Charleston, S. C 723,800 

1839, St. Loui.s, Mo 600,000 

1835, Pittsbnro:, Penn 300,000 

1848, Providence, R. 1 1,000,000 

1845, Albany, N. Y 250,000 

1838, Louisville, Ky 600,000 

1850, Williamsburg, N. Y 500,000 

1848, Trov, N. Y 200,000 

1851, Ricinnond, Va 341,975 

1852, Rochester, N. Y 200,000 

1849, Lowell, Mass 200,000 

1848, Cleveland, Ohio 200,000 

1 849, Detroit, Mich 500.000 

1853, Jersey City, N. J 300,000 

Milwaukee, Wi.s 400,009 

1849, Hartford, Conn 200,000 

1849, Portland, Maine 250,000 

1857, Columbia, California 50,000 

1852, San Francisco, " 1,000,000 

1858, Marysville, " 50,000 

Stockton, " 50,000 

1857, Sacramento, " 500,000 



Approximate 


Prices to 


private 






annual 


con-suuiers 


Averase cost of 


proihu'tion. 


per 1000 cubic 


coal used 


per ton. 


Cubic feet. 


feet. 






725,321,000 


$2 


50 


$6 50 to 


$11 00 


430,000,000 


2 


50 






163,000,000 


2 
2 


00 
00 


7 28 to 


8 15 


432,000,000 


2 


25 


6 50 




70,000,000 


2 


50 


6 29 




200,000.000 


2 


50 


5 00 to 


12 00 


96,708,900 


2 


50 


3 40 




86,250,810 


3 

4 


50 
00 


5 78 




74,500,000 


3 


50 


7 50 




54,720,000 


1 


50 


1 25 




41,437,883 


3 


00 


7 20 




40,250,000 


3 


00 


6 75 to 


8 00 


33,750.000 


2 


70 






33,493,082 


3 


50 


6 25 to 


9 50 


28,000,000 


3 


60 


7 20 




27,000,000 


3 


00 


4 15 




25,000,000 


2 


50 


5 38 




21,000,000 


3 


25 


6 50 




20,000,000 


3 


00 


4 25 




20,000,000 


3 


50 


5 00 




19,234,000 


3 


00 


7 89 




19,049,560 


3 


50 


6 00 




15,000,000 


3 
3 
10 
8 
12 
10 
10 


00 
50 
00 
00 
50 
00 
00 


8 68 





ILLUMINATING GAS. 



147 



TOTAL OF GAS COMPANIES IN THE UNITED STATES 

State. Companie; 

Alabama 3 

Arkansas None. 

California 9 

Connecticut 14 

Delaware 3 

District of Columbia 1 

Florida , 1 

Georgia 6 

Illinois 13 

Indiana 7 

Iowa 5 

Kansas 1 

Kentucky 5 

Louisiana 2 

Maine 10 

Maryland 6 

Massachusetts 49 

Michigan 8 

Minnesota 1 

Mississippi 4 

Missouri 4 

New Hampshire 9 

New Jersey 19 

New York 71 

North Carolina 8 

Ohio 30 

Oregon 1 

Pennsj'lvania 48 

Rhode Island 7 

South Carolina 2 

Tennessee 4 

Texas 3 

Vermont 8 

Virginia • 11 

Wisconsin 8 

Not enumerated above 50 

Grand total 431 

The preparation of illuminating gas from 
bituminous coal, wood, rosin, and other 
bodies of organic nature, is a chemical proc- 
ess, too complicated to be very fully treated 
in this place. When such bodies are intro- 
duced into a retort and subjected to strong 
heat, the elements of which they consist, as 
carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, re- 
solve themselves into a great variety of com- 
pounds, and escape (with the exception of 
a fixed carbonaceous residue of charcoal or 
of coke) through the neck of the retort in 
the form of gas or vapors, some of the 
latter of which condense on cooling into 
liquids and solids. These compounds are 
rendered more complicated by appropriating 
the elements of air and moisture that may 
be present in the retort or in the crude ma- 
terial, and also of the foreign substances or 
impurities contained in the latter. In proc- 
esses of this kind, the products vary great- 
ly in their character and relative proportions 
according to the degree of heat employed, 



ED STATES FROM RETURNS OF JULY, 


1860. 


1. Capital. 


Coal 


Average 


Rosin 


Average 


g.as. 


price. 


gas. 


price. 


$320,000 


3 


$5 16 






1,790.000 


9 


10 05 






953,000 


14 


3 83 






244,300 


3 


3 50 






500,000 


1 


3 25 






30,000 


1 


7 00 






559,160 


4 


4 68 


2 


$6 50 


2,595,000 


13 


3 91 






605.000 


7 


3 97 






355,000 


5 


4 40 






200,000 


1 


5 00 






905,000 


5 


4 04 






1,540.000 


2 


4 50 






905,300 


9 


3 90 


1 


7 00 


780,000 


3 


3 49 


3 


6 60 


4,759,000 


45 


3 43 


4 


6 37 


745,000 


8 


3 78 






200,000 


1 


6 00 






212,000 


4 


4 75 






775.000 


4 


4 50 






425,000 


9 


3 98 






1,849.610 


17 


3 72 


2 


6 50 


12,780,250 


61 


3 70 


10 


6 70 


187,000 






• 8 


5 93 


3,338,600 


29 


3 85 


1 


7 00 


50,000 


1 


8 00 






5,657,700 


48 


3 55 






1,344,000 


6 


3 58 


i 


7 00 


767,800 


2 


5 00 






663,000 


4 


4 00 






225,000 


3 


6 33 






216,000 


6 


4 25 


2 


6 50 


1,030,000 


10 


3 68 


1 


7 GO 


778,500 


8 


4 44 






6,200,000 


50 


. .. 


• . 


.. 


$59,111,215 


396 




35 





and the rapidity with which the operation is 
conducted. The object in this special dis- 
tillation is to obtain the largest proportion 
of the gases richest in carbon, particularly 
that known as olefiant gas, which consists 
of 86 parts by weight of carbon and 14 of 
hydrogen, represented by the formula C4 
H4. This and some other gaseous hydro- 
carbons of similar composition, or even con- 
taining a much larger amount of carbon in 
the same volume, and hence having a cor- 
respondingly greater illuminating capacity, 
it is found, are produced most freely from 
carbonaceous substances which contain a 
large proportion of hydrogen compared with 
that of oxygen. Many of the common bi- 
tuminous coals contain about 5*5 per cent, 
each of hydrogen and oxygen, the rest be- 
ing carbon. Boghead cannel of Scotland 
contains 11 per cent, of hydrogen and 6'1 
of oxygen; rosin 10 per cent, hydrogen and 
10'6 oxygen; wood 5*5 hydrogen and 44*5 
oxygen. Of such compounds the cannel 



148 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



yields the richest gas and in largest quan- 
tity. Still, as will be more fully explained 
hereafter, the process may be so conducted 
as to obtain chiefly liquid instead of gaseous 
products. AVith the olefiant gas and the 
others of similar composition, a number of 
other gases also appear, some of which seem 
to be essential for producing the effect re- 
quired in illuminating gas, though they do 
not themselves afford light by their combus- 
tion. Their part is rather like that of nitro- 
gen in the atmosphere, to moderate the in- 
tensity of the more active agent of the mix- 
ture. Such are the light carburetted hydro- 
gen, carbonic oxide, and hydrogen, all of 
which are inflammable, but possess little or 
no illuminating power. The first named 
contains in an equal volume only half as 
much carbon as olefiant gas, its composition 
being represented by the formula C^ II4, 
and if its proportion is too great for the 
purpose it serves as a diluent, the quality of 
the gas is impaired, and must be corrected 
by the use of richer material or increased 
care in the process. 

The light produced by the combustion 
of gas is variable, not only according to the 
quality of the gas, but also according to the 
manner in which it is burned. If its ele- 
ments undergo the chemical changes which 
constitute combustion simultaneously, the 
hydrogen combining with the oxygen of the 
air to form aqueous vapor, and the carbon 
with oxygen to produce carbonic acid, no 
yellow flame appears, but instead of this, a 
pale blue flame like that of hydrogen alone. 
Such an effect is produced when air is 
thoroughly intermixed with the gas as it 
pa-^ses through a tube to the jet where it is 
ignited. But if the conditions of the com- 
bustion are such that the hydrogen burns 
first and appropriates the oxygen in contact 
with the gas, the particles of carbon are 
brought to an incandescent state and pro- 
duce the yellow light before they reach the 
oxygen with which they combine. The 
particles may even be arrested while in trans- 
itu and be deposited upon a cold surface in 
the form of soot. The greatest heat is pro- 
duced with the most thorough mode of 
combustion and the appearance of the pale 
blue flame ; and lamps designed to give 
great heat are now in general use among 
chemists, in which gas is burned in this 
manner. When the air is impelled by a 
bellows they even produce an intensity of 
heat sufficient for many crucible operations. 



If too much carbon be present a part of 
it escapes unconsumed and produces a 
smoky flame, hence the necessity of the di- 
luents or gases deficient in carbon for neu- 
tralizing the too large proportion of those 
gases richest in carbon. The noxious com- 
pounds in illuminating gas, and which 
should be as far as possible extracted from 
it before it is delivered for consumption, are 
the sulphurous ingredients formed by the 
combination of the sulphur of the iron 
pyrites commonly present in bituminous 
coals with the carbon, and with the hydro- 
gen and the ammoniacal products. They 
are the highly offensive sulphurets of carbon, 
the sulphuretted hydrogen, etc. Carbonic 
acid, nitrogen, oxygen, carbonate of ammo- 
nia and aqueous vapors are to be regarded 
as foreign substances, though always present 
to some extent in the gas. 

The liquids generated by the distillation 
mostly condense in two layers on cooling, 
the upper an aqueous fluid, rendered strong- 
ly alkaline by the ammoniacal compounds in 
solution; and the lower a black tarry mix- 
ture commonly known as coal tar, which is 
composed of more than a dozen different 
oily hydrocarbons, as benzole, tuluole, etc., 
and contain in solution the solid oily com- 
pounds of carbon and hydrogen, as naph- 
thaline, pai'a-naphthaline, and several others. 
Many of these are likely to prove of con- 
siderable practical importance. Benzole is 
a highly volatile fluid, a powerful solvent of 
the resins, india-rubber, gutta percha, greasy 
matters, etc. A most beautiful light is pro- 
duced by the flame of benzole mixed with 
due proportions of common air, and the 
mixture is effected by passing a current of 
air through the fluid, the vapor of which it 
takes up and carries along with it. The 
difficulty attending this application is the 
condensation of the benzole and its separa- 
tion from the air at temperatures below 50°. 
Above 70° too much vapor is taken up, 
and the effect is a smoky flame. In Europe 
much attention has been directed to the 
separation of the more hidden products of 
coal tar ; and among these the following are 
enumerated in a statement exemplifying the 
rapid increase in the value of these prod- 
ucts as they are obtained by more extend- 
ed researches. Benzole worth about 25 
cents a pound ; nitro-benzole, a substance 
having the odor and taste of bitter almonds 
and used as a flavoring, worth, crude, 70 
cents, or refined, $1.50 per pound. The or- 



ILLUMINATING GAS. 



149 



dinary aniline dye for producing the mauve 
color, $4.50 to $8 per pound, and the pure 
aniline violet in powder |240 to $325 per 
pound, or about its weight in gold. 

Gas works established in cities and towns 
are commonly built in places where the 
property and buildings around are least like- 
ly to be injured by the escape of the prod- 
ucts, and rather upon a low than a high 
level, for the reason that the gas on account 
of its lightness compared with the atmos- 
pheric air ascends more freely than it de- 
scends to its points of communication with 
the external air. The works consist of the 
apparatus for distilling the coal and receiv- 
ing the products of the distillation, that for 
purifying the gas, and that for conveying it 
to the places where it is consumed, and 
there measuring the quantities supplied to 
each customer. The retorts in general use 
are either of cast iron or of fire clay. The 
latter are a late improvement highly recom- 
mended, and introduced at the present time 
into a few of the gas works. Various forms 
have been tried ; the most approved are of 
Q shape, 7 to 9 feet long, 1 or 2 feet wide, 
and 12 or 15 inches high. They are set in 
the furnace stacks, commonly two on the 
same horizontal plane, two more over these, 
and a fifth at the top. A single furnace fire 
below is sufficient for heating them, and the 
capacity of the works is increased by multi- 
plying these fires along the length of the 
stacks. Sometimes the stacks are made 
double, so as to take two retorts set end to 
end, each opening on opposite sides of the 
stack. In place of two retorts a single long 
one has been substituted, passing entirely 
through and having at each end an opening 
for charging and discharging. In large es- 
tablishments as many as 600 or more retorts 
may be set, all of which may be kept em- 
ployed in the winter season, when the con- 
sumption of gas is largest. The outer end 
of each retort projects a little way in front 
of the wall of the furnace, and is provided 
with a movable mouth-piece covering the 
entire end, which may be readily removed 
for admitting the charge of coal. Upon the 
top of this projecting end or neck stands 
the cast-iron pipe of about 4 inches in di- 
ameter, called the stand pipe, through which 
the volatile products pass from the retort. 
It rises a few feet, then curves over back, and 
passes down into a long horizontal pipe of 
large diameter, which is laid upon the out- 
er edge of the brick-work, and extends the 



whole length of the furnace stacks. This 
is called the hydraulic main, and into it all 
the volatile products from the retorts be- 
neath are discharged. It is kept about half 
filled with water or the liquid tarry matters, 
and the dip pipes terminate about three 
inches below this fluid surface. By this ar- 
rangement the retorts are kept entirely inde- 
pendent of each other, while their products 
all meet in one receptacle. 

In manufacturing gas it is found neces- 
sary to introduce the charge into the retorts 
already at a full red heat, and bring it as 
rapidly as possible to the high temperature 
required for producing the richest gaseous 
hydrocarbons. A low and slowly increas- 
ing heat causes the ingredients of the charge 
to form a large proportion of liquid and oily 
substances, and little gas. It is only while 
the coal is approaching a vivid red heat 
that the best gaseous mixtures are obtained ; 
and even these are deteriorated by change 
in the composition of the olefiant and other 
rich gases of which they are in part com- 
posed, if the mixture is exposed to too high 
temperature, or remains in contact with red 
hot surfaces of iron. The duration of the 
charge used formerly to be from 8 to 10 
hours ; but from the observations of the 
qualities of the gases evolved at different 
stages of the process, it has gradually been 
reduced to 4 to 6 hours, varying according 
to the character of the coal employed. The 
richest gases are obtained in the first hour, 
and after this the proportional quantity per 
hour steadily diminishes at the same time 
that the quality gradually deteriorates. The 
temptation, however, to obtain the largest 
amount of a commodity which is sold only 
by measure, and to consumers who have no 
means of assuring themselves of its real 
quality, no doubt often leads to extending 
the operation to the separation of gaseous 
mixtures having very little illuminating pow- 
er. The manufacturers knowing their ma- 
terials, and checking their operations by 
regular photometrical tests, can control the 
quality of the product as they see fit. 

In order that the least loss may be incur- 
red in bringing the charge up to the proper 
temperature, the retorts are kept at a full red 
heat ; and when ready for a new charge the 
mouth-piece is partially removed, and the 
gas that escapes is ignited. When the danger 
of explosion by sudden admission of air has 
passed the lid is removed, and the red hot 
coke is raked out and quenched with water. 



150 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



The new charge is then introduced by means 
of a long iron scoop bent up at the sides, 
which is pushed into the retort, and being 
turned over, discharges its contents. The 
mouth-piece is then replaced, and tightly 
secured with a luting of clay or lime. It is 
obvious that the more perfectly the coal is 
freed from moisture, the better must be the 
gas ; and if it were also first somewhat 
heated, the result would be still more satis- 
factory. The coals employed at the differ- 
ent gas works of the United States are gen- 
erally mixtures of the caking coals of the 
interior, or of those of Richmond, Virginia, 
and of Nova Scotia, with cannel coal, which 
for the cities near the coast is imported 
from Great Britain, and for those in the in- 
terior is obtained from the mines of this coal 
in western Virginia and in Kentucky. The 
larger the proportion of cannel, the better 
should be the gas, under the same method 
of manufacture. In the works in New 
York city, the proportion of cannel is gen- 
erally from one third to one fourth of the 
whole. Other establishments generally use 
a less proportion of it. The amount of gas 
it may produce varies with the kind of can- 
nel from 9500 cubic feet to the ton to 
15,000 cubic feet. The last is the yield of 
the Boghead cannel. In general, the greater 
the yield the better also is the quality of the 
gas, as is indicated by its increased specific 
gravity, that of the cannel last named being 
.752, while the gas from other cannels yield- 
ing about 10,000 cubic feet may not exceed 
.500. The best Newcastle coals are not infe- 
rior, either in the amount or quality of the gas 
they afford, to most of the cannels. They 
produce about 12,000 cubic feet of gas to 
the ton, and of specific gravity sometimes 
exceeding .550 or even .600. The specific 
gravity is not depended upon as a certain 
test of the quality of the gas, the density 
of which may be increased by presence of 
impure heavy gases, or even of atmospheric 
air ; but it is resorted to only as an indica- 
tion in the absence of more exact tests. 

The coke obtained from the retorts, 
amounting to about 40 bushels to the ton 
of coals, furnishes all the fuel required for 
the fires beneath, and three times as much 
more, which is sold for fuel. As the vola- 
tile products pass through the hydraulic 
main, the principal portions of the oily and 
ammoniacal compounds are deposited in it ; 
but some of these pass on in vapors, and 
would, if not separated, cause obstructions 



in the pipes in which they might condense 
in liquids and solids. They are consequent- 
ly passed through a succession of tall iron 
pipes standing in the open air, and some- 
times kept cool by water trickling down 
their outside. A pipe from the bottom of 
each pair conveys the condensed tar and 
ammonia into a cistern in the ground. To 
still further separate the condensable por- 
tions, the gas at some works is next passed 
into the bottom of a tower filled with bricks, 
stones, etc., among the interstices of which 
it finds its way up, at the same time that 
water constantly sprinkled on the top is 
working down and keeping the whole cool. 
The water washes away the remaining am- 
monia; but it is to be feared that it also re- 
moves some of the richest hydrocarbons, 
and the use of the wet scrubber, as it is 
called, is already abandoned at some of the 
gas works for similar methods of condens- 
ing, except that the water is dispensed 
with. The gas makes its exit from the top 
of the scrubber ; and its passage being al- 
ready somewhat impeded so as to throw 
considerable pressure back into the retorts, 
thus effecting chemical changes in the gas, 
which impair its quality, it is found neces- 
sary to introduce a revolving exhauster, 
which takes off this pressure, and at the 
same time propels the gas forward into the 
succeeding apparatus. This is first a puri- 
fier, the object of which is to arrest the car- 
bonic acid and sulphurous gases. Dry 
quicklime, and also the solution of this in 
water, known as milk of lime, have the prop- 
erty of absorbing these gases as they are 
made to pass among the particles of the one 
spread upon shelves, or interspersed among 
a porous substance such as dry moss ; or to 
bubble up through the aqueous solution. 
The lime as it becomes saturated with the 
impure gases is replaced with fresh portions. 
The cleansing process is now complete, 
and the gas is in proper condition to be de- 
livered to the consumer. It must first, how- 
ever, be measured, that a record may be kept 
of the quantity produced, and it is next con- 
ducted into the great gas-holders In which 
it is stored. The measurement is effected 
by means of a large station meter, construct- 
ed on the principle of the small service- 
meters, with one of which each consumer is 
supplied. A revolving drum with four com- 
partments of equal capacity is made to rotate 
in a tight box by the gas entering and filb 
ing one of these compartments after another. 



ILLUMINATING GAS. 



151 



Their capacity being known, and the number 
of revolutions being recorded by a train of 
wheel-work outside the box, the quantity of 
gas which passes through is exactly indica- 
ted. The largest meters pass about 650 
cubic feet by one revolution of the drum, or 
about 70,000 cubic feet in an hour. 

The gas-holders are the large cylindrical 
vessels of plate iron, the most conspicuous 
objects at the gas works. Each orfgTis set 
with its open end down, and immersed in a 
cistern of water of diameter a little exceed- 
ing its own. It is buoyed up by tlie water, 
and also counterbalanced by weights passing j 
over pulleys. The gas admitted under the ; 
inverted cylinder lifts this up, and fills all I 
the portion above the water. The weight 
of the cylinder when the influx is shut off", 
and the discharge pipes are opened presses 
the gas out and through the mains to the 
points where it is consumed. The gas-hold- 
ers of the largest works are of immense 
size. In Philadelphia, there is one 160 feet 
in diameter and 95 feet high, holding 1,81)0,- 
000 cubic feet of gas. Even this is exceeded 
by one at the Imperial Gas Company's works, 
London, which is 201 feet in diameter, 80 
feet high, and of the capacity of 2,500,000 
cubic feet. This cost upward of $200,000 ; 
and contains 1500 tons of iron, 5000 cubic 
feet of stone work, and 2,000,000 bricks. 
No advantage is gained in a single structure 
of this immense size over several smaller 
ones. On the contrary, this involves heavy 
expenditures to protect them against the 
force of the wind, and render them manage- 
able. Those of great height are made in 
sections, which shut one within another in 
descending, like the parts of a telescope. 
As each section is lifted in turn out of the 
water, its lower edge, which is turned up in 
an outward direction, forming an annular 
cup, includes a portion of water, into which 
the upper edge of the next lower section 
catches, being turned over inward for this 
purpose. A gas-tight joint between the two 
sections is thus formed. 

To insure uniformity of pressure, as the 
gas enters the mains it is first made to pass 
through the apparatus called a governor, in 
which, according to the force or slowness 
with which it moves, it causes a valve to rise 
and partially close an aperture within the 
machine through which the gas flows, or to 
descend and open this aperture. The in- 
crease of pressure as the gas is carried to 
higher levels, amounting to one fifth of an 



inch of water in every 30 feet, renders it 
important in hilly towns to have governors 
upon diff"erent levels. In high buildings a 
very sensible diflerence is perceived in the 
force with which the gas issues from the 
burners on the difterent stories. This in- 
volves a waste of gas where the pressure is 
great, for under such conditions a consider- 
able portion of that consumed adds little 
to the illuminating effect. Various govern- 
ors or regulatoi's have been devised for the 
use of consumers with a view of producing 
an increase of light with reduced consump- 
tion of gas ; and when judiciously applied, 
some of them, as Kidder's and Stirling's, have 
proved very successful. The latter has been 
introduced into some of the public buildings 
of New York city, controlled by the Street 
Department, and according to the report of 
the Street Commissioner, the saving has 
been in many instances very remarkable. 

Each consumer of gas is supplied with a 
meter, which is under the control of the 
gas company ; and from its indications the 
amount furnished is determined by inspec- 
tion every month. 

Though in the use of gas the consumer is 
in a great measure dependent on the manu- 
facturer as regards the economy of the light, 
there are several points, by giving personal 
attention to which, he may more fully real- 
ize the saving it affords. In the first place, 
he must be aware that every one employing 
this source of light uses it more freely than 
that derived from lamps and candles. It is 
enjoyed with so little trouble and apparent 
cost, that much more light is soon regarded 
essential, than was perfectly satisfactory un- 
der the old methods of producing it. He 
should next see that the area of the delivery 
pipe bears such proportion to the quantity 
usually required, that there is no undue pres- 
sure upon the burners, as is evident when 
the gas " blows" through them as it burns. 
This should be checked by shutting off" a 
part of the supply by means of the stop-cock 
at the meter ; and this should be looked to 
after every visit of the gas man to the meter. 
The regulator also is intended to remedy 
this over supply, but it may still be neces- 
sary to keep part of the gas turned off", and 
by so doing the regulator may be dispensed 
with. Attention should next be directed to 
the burners, that those of largest size, such as 
consume with the ordinary pressure six feet 
or more of gas an hour, should be placed 
only where the greatest quantity of light is 



152 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



required, and that burners of four feet, three 
feet, two feet, or even one foot an hour, be 
placed whei'e the liii'ht they give will be suf- 
ficient. The burners called Scotch tips, giv- 
ing what is called the fish-tail flame, are in 
common use, but a great variety of others 
have been contrived, and some of them are 
highly recommended for affording more light 
with the same amount of gas. All, however, 
are liable to become foul after a time, and 
should be occasionally cleaned or replaced. 
The iron of which they are made is corrod- 
ed by the ingredients of the gas, especially 
when not in use, and air entering its ele- 
ments form acid compounds with those of 
the gas which remain in the open portion 
of the pipe. The argand burner is recom- 
mended for the powerful and steady light it 
gives, but it is far from being economical, and 
moreover produces great heat. For a steady 
light Gleason's " American gas-burner" com- 
bines the advantages of brilliant light, steadi- 
ness of flame, and moderate consumption. 

The quality of gas is determined either by 
analysis, or more conveniently by testing 
with the photometer its comparative capac- 
ity of producing light. The standard adopt- 
ed for comparison is spermaceti candles, each 
one burning 120 grains in an hour. An ar- 
gand burner consuming five feet of gas an 
hour (the quantity carefully proved by the 
meter) is used in making the trial ; and the 
number of candles required to produce an 
equal amount of light indicates the quality 
of the gas. At the points of consumption 
this is sometimes inferior to that of the gas 
at the works before it enters the gas-holders 
and passes through the mains ; but in very 
cold weather, by the condensation of the 
richest hydrocarbon vapor in the pipes, the 
gas that reaches the burners is poorer than 
that which left the works. Consequently 
these facts should be taken into consider- 
ation in estimating the quality of gas fur- 
nished by any establishment. Again, after 
a period of excessive cold weather, when the 
gas luis burned dimly by the condensation 
of its best portions in the pipes — it may be 
to the extent at times of obstructing the flow 
throuiih them — and with the return of milder 
weather the vapors are released and mix with 
the new gas, they sometimes so overburden 
this with an undue proportion of the richest 
compounds, that with the ordinary burners 
the gas cannot be consumed, and the result 
is a smoky flame, of which the consumers 
make great complaint, believing it to be 



caused by inferior gas. Such are some of 
the causes, over which the manufacturers 
have no control, that involve more or less ir- 
regularity in the quality of the gas supplied. 

The gas produced at different works is of 
various qualities. That of the Manhattan 
Gas Light Company is rated at sixteen can- 
dles, and is probably as good as any furnish- 
ed in our cities. It is tested daily with the 
photometer at their office, at the corner of 
Irving Place and Fifteenth street. New York. 
In England, the gas of the London works va- 
ries from eleven to eighteen candles. That 
of Liverpool is much better, sometimes being 
equal to twenty-two candles. 

Other materials than coal have been ap- 
plied to some extent in the United States 
for producing gas, chiefly for small supplies 
for single buildings. The most successful of 
these processes is that with rosin oil. The 
apparatus is exceedingly simple, and is placed 
in an apartment in an out-building. It con- 
sists of a stove containing a chamber in the 
top, into which the rosin oil is allowed to 
drop .slowly. It is decomposed by the heat 
of the surface upon which it falls, and the 
gaseous products pass immediately through 
the pipes into the gas-holder, whence they are 
distributed as at the large gas works. The 
supply for a week may be made in less than 
an hour with very little attention from the 
person in charge. The gas is superior to 
that from coal, and the expense, not reckon- 
ing the cost of the gas-holder and the appa- 
ratus, is less than the price ordinarily paid 
for gas. 

In Philadelphia wood has been success- 
fully used at the Maiket street bridge works. 
Six retorts have been kept in operation with 
it for some time, and the yield and quality 
of the gas have proved xcrj satisfactory. As 
in the use of coal, it is found necessary to 
charge the material into retorts already at a 
high heat, otherwise the gaseous products 
have little illuminating power. Gas thus 
made from pine wood has been found to 
contain 10.57 per cent, of olefiant gas, and 
that from oak G.46 per cent. 

Hydrocarbon Gas. — What is known as 
the hydrocarbon or water gas manufacture 
was introduced into Philadelphia in 1858, 
and according to the published reports, its 
application to lighting a portion of the Girard 
liouse in that city, proved for several months 
perfectly satisfactory. It was introduced 
into the town of Aurora, Indiana, in January, 
1861, and according to the statements pub- 



ILLUMINATING GAS. 



153 



lislied in the Cincinnati Daily Commercial, 
the operation had been very successful. 
The light is described as very brilliant, and 
the gas almost free from odor. The process 
appears to be similar to that of Mr. White, 
of Manchester, England, which consists in 
the generation of the non-illuminating gases 
by the action of steam upon charcoal highly 
heated in a retort, the aqueous vapor being 
thereby decomposed, and various gaseous 
compounds produced by its hydrogen and 
oxygen combining with the carbon of the 
charcoal. If the operation is properly con- 
ducted these compounds should be almost 
entirely carbonic oxide and free hydrogen; 
if carbonic acid is produced, as it may well 
be, even to the extent of one per cent., it 
may involve the expense of purification by 
means of a lime purifier. These gases are 
immediately passed through another retort, 
in which the illuminating gases are genera- 
ted, and mixing with them the whole is im- 
mediately swept forward out of the reach of 
the high decomposing temperature. The 
material employed for furnishing the illumi- 
nating gas is either rosin or rosin oil gadual- 
ly dropped into the heated retort ; and it is 
stated that various other carbonaceous sub- 
stances, as the tar from the gas works and 
cheap greasy compounds, may be economi- 
cally applied. 

Although this method of producing gas 
has been highly recommended by eminent 
English authorities, especially by Dr. Frank- 
land, an account of whose experiments and 
conclusions is given in the recent edition of 
lire's Dictionary (London, 186 j), vol. i., p. 
778, it has not been adopted by gas compa- 
nies, whose first interest it would be to avail 
themselves of such improvements, and it is 
reasonable to suppose there are some insu- 
perable objections to it. Indeed, in the last 
edition of Clegg's " Treatise upon the Man- 
ufacture and Use of Gas," the subject is 
passed by with scarcely any notice, although 
it had been in the previous edition treated 
in detail and with commendation. In the 
English Gas Journal, it is decidedly con- 
demned. No analyses of the gas thus pro- 
duced in this country have ever been pub- 
lished, nor any reports of photometrical ex- 
periments that might establish its light-giv- 
ing capacity. As the subject for some time 
attracted much attention, and has given rise 
to extravagant expectations of cheap pro- 
duction of gas, it is very desirable that such 
trials and reports should be made by some 



competent chemist. In Philadelphia, the 
subject has given rise to a newspaper con- 
troversy, and the publications were embod- 
ied, in 1860, in a pamphlet entitled "The 
Water Gas Correspondence." They contain- 
ed nothing, however, to determine the real 
merits of the gas. 

Gas for Steamboats and Railroad 
Cars. — Several methods have recently been 
put in practice of furnishing gas for the con- 
venience of passengers in steam vessels, or 
upon railroads. One plan is to place in the 
boats or under the cars large cases of sheet 
iron, each one provided with a diaphragm 
or partition of india-rubber across its upper 
portion. A connection being made between 
the receptacle under the diaphragm and the 
street main, the gas fills this portion of the 
case and the connection is then shut off". 
When required for use, the gas is forced out 
by the pressure of air uniformly applied upon 
the upper surface of the india-rubber sheet 
by means of a meter running by clock work. 
This method has so far been successful ; but 
danger is apprehended by some that atmos- 
pheric air may find its way through the 
flexible sheets, all of which are more or less 
permeable when used to separate different 
gaseous compounds, and that an explosive 
mixture may thus be introduced. By an- 
other plan of a New York company, the gas 
by means of force pumps is compressed into 
strong cylindrical gas-holders made like the 
boilers of steam engines. The gas is thus 
made to occupy a diminished space in pro- 
portion to the pressure used, that of 20 at- 
mospheres placing 1000 cubic feet of gas in 
50 feet space. In Jersey City, Avhere this 
method has been applied to furnishing gas 
for railroad cars, the pressure employed is 
about 450 lbs. upon the square inch. Un- 
der this pressure the gas is conveyed through 
pipes to the points where the cars receive 
from them their supplies. The gas by its 
elasticity presses through the burners, and 
uniformity of discharge while this force is 
constantly diminishing is secured by a gov 
ernor or regulator constructed on the princi- 
ple already described. 

Gas for Fuel. — Besides its use for pro- 
ducing light, gas has lately been applied to 
other domestic purposes for the sake of the 
heat it can be made to afford in burning. It 
was thus first used by chemists, and mechan- 
ics, as bookbinders, then applied it in suit- 
able stoves to the heating of such tools as 
they required of a high temperature. After 



154 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



this stoves were contrived on different plans 
in which various culinary operations might 
be conducted, and some also for warming 
rooms. Though it would appear to be an 
expensive fuel, it has been found for many- 
purposes, in which only a certain amount of 
heat is required, and this for a short time, 
not merely exceedingly convenient, but even 
economical. No more need be consumed 
than is required to eiFect the desired pur- 
pose, and it is moreover applied directly to 
the object to be heated with little dispersion 
or waste of heat. But for warming rooms, it 
is objectionable, not only on account of its 
cost, but also from its vitiating the atmos- 
phere by the large amount of the noxious 
gases produced by its combustion. If these 
are conveyed away by ventilating flues, they 
carry with them a considerable portion of 
the caloric set free. No doubt when gas is 
aftbrded at lower rates, means will be devised 
of applying it more advantageously to this 
purpose. 



CHAPTER XI. 

HYDROCARBON OR COAL OILS. 

Notwithstanding the substitution in the 
cities and most of the towns of considerable 
size throughout the country of gas for oils, 
the demand for the latter has increased much 
faster than the supply, as is shown by the 
price for sperm oil being now more than 
three times what it was in 1843, when it 
brought about fifty-five cents per gallon. 
Besides its use for illuminating purposes, 
the consumption of oil is enormous for 
lubricating machinery. The railroads and 
steamboats, and the increasing numbers of 
large factories, demand such quantities of it 
that all the ordinary sources of supply were 
overtasked, and the whaling business former- 
ly so prosperous in New England, has fallen 
off in the face of advancing prices, or been 
forced to gather itself in fewer centres, where 
by concentration of its operations the busi- 
ness could be conducted with the greatest 
economy. From many seaports of New Eng- 
land this business has quite disappeared, and 
the following changes in others are reported 
to have taken place between the years 1843 
and 1859. In the former period New Bed- 
ford had 214 whale ships, and in 1859 the 
number had increased to 316. In New Lon- 
don, Conn., the number had increased from 
45 to 56, and in Mattapoiset from 11 to 19. 



In other towns the number of ships had fallen 
off" as follows: Nantucket, to 33 from 85; Sag 
Harbor, to 20 from 43 ; Warren, R. I., to 15 
from 21, etc. At Fairhaven, 46 ships were 
owned at both periods. The manufacture of 
lard oil, which of late years has been exten- 
sively carried on in the Western states, failed 
to meet the increasing demands, when at last 
attention began to be directed to the extrac- 
tion of oils from the bituminous coals and 
shales, by processes of recent introduction in 
France and England. The success attained 
by Mr. James Young, of Glasgow^, in his treat- 
ment of the " Torbane Hill mineral," or Bog- 
head canncl of Scotland, served more than 
any thing else to give encouragement to this 
enterprise. In 1854, according to the testi- 
mony of this practical chemist, in a lawsuit 
in London, he was producing about 8000 
gallons a week of an oil he called paraflane 
oil, which sold for 5s. a gallon, the sales 
amounting in all to about $500,000 per an- 
num, of which the greater portion was profit. 
Operations of a similar character had for 
some time previously been conducted upon 
a large scale at Autun, Department of the 
Saone and Loire, in France ; the materials 
employed being highly bituminous shales, 
probably not essentially different from the 
Torbane Hill mineral, except in producing 
much less oil to the ton. 

The first factory for making coal oil in the 
United States was established on Newtown 
Creek, Long Island, opposite New^ York city, 
and commenced operations in June, 1854. 
This was known as the Kerosene Oil Works, 
and was designed to work the Boghead can- 
nel, or coal of similar character from the 
province of New Brunswick, or from the 
West, by the patented process of Mr. Young. 
In Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia, and Pennsyl- 
vania cannel coals were found of suitable 
qualities for this manufacture; and in 1856 
the Breckenridge Coal Oil AVorks were in suc- 
cessful operation at Cloverport, on the Ohio 
river, in Breckenridge county, Ky. The same 
year a factory was built in Perry county, 
Ohio, by Messrs. Dillie and Robinson, and 
others rapidly sprung up in the vicinity of 
Newark, which soon became an important 
centre of this new" business. In 1858, sev- 
eral large fsictories were built in New Eng- 
land, one in Boston, and one in Portland, 
Maine. It is doubtful whether Young was 
the first inventor or discoverer of this, for 
as we shall see, the late Baron von Reeclien- 
bach had many years before distilled some 



HYDROCARBON OR COAL OILS. 



155 



State. 



TABLE OF THE COAL OIL WORKS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
Town or county. Name of works. No. of factories. 



Maine, Portland . . .Portland Company 

Massachusetts, Boston Downer Kerosene Co. . . . 

" " Page & Co 

" " Suffolk Company 

" " Pinkham 

" " Peasley 

" East Cambridge E. Cambridge Company. . 

" New Bedford New Bedford Company. . 

Connecticut, Hartford Hartford Company 

" Stamford Stamford Company 

New York, Newtown Creek, L. I Kerosene Oil Company. . 

'' Hunter's Point, L. I Luther Atwood 

" " Carbon Company 

" South Brooklyn Empire State Company. . 

" " Franklin Company 

" "Williamsburgh Long Island Company. . . 

" " Knickerbocker Company. 

" " Fountain Oil Co 

" Harlem ' Beloni & Co 

" " Excelsior Company 

Pennsylvania, Darlington, Beaver Co Anderson & Co 



Ohio, 



Virginia, 



Kiskiminitas Aladdin Company 

" Lucesco Company 

Freeport, Armstrong Co .North American Company. 

New Galilee New Galilee 

Enon Valley. Enon Valley Company. . . , 

E. Palestine, Columbiana Co. . . .Palestine Company 

Canfield, Mahoning Co Cornell & Company 

" " Sherwood 

" " Phoenix 

" " Mystic 

" Canfield 

Cleveland Dean 

Zanesville Brooks 

Cox 

Newark, Licking Co Great "Western 

" " Three others 

Steubenville, Jefferson Co 

Coshocton Co 

Columbus, Franklin Co 

Cincinnati Grasseli 

" Western Company 

" PhcBnix Company 

Perry Co Robinson & Co 

Kanawha region Falling Rock Company. . . . 

" " Forest Hill Company 



Kentucky, 
Kentucky, 

Missouri, 



" Greers. 

" " Great Kanawha Company 

" " Staunton Company 

" " Atlantic Company 

" " Union Company 

" " K.C. CM. and O.M. Company... 

Preston Co Preston Company 

Monongalia Co White Bay Company 

Ritchie Co Ritchie Company 

Wheeling New York and Wheeling Company. 

Taylor Co Marion Company 

Maysville, Mason Co Union Company 

" " Ashland 

Cloverport, Breckenridge Co. 

Covington and Newport, opposite Cincinnati 

Owsley Co 

St, Louis 



Daily- 
capacity 
in 18G0. 
Gallons. 
4000 
4000 
600 
300 



800 
300 
200 

4000 

2000 

300 

300 

500 



400 
50 



2000 



500 



74 



156 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



ounces of a naphtha from pit coal, which was 
substantially identical with Young's; and 
several other chemists claim to have arrived 
at similar results ; but Young was certainly 
the first to produce the oil on a commercial 
scale. 

So rapid was the increase in the demand 
for this oil, that in 1860 there were nearly 
80 manufactories in the United States, em- 
ploying over $3,000,000 capital, and produc 
ing oil uaphthalinand paraffin to the amount 
of five millions of dollars annually. The 
coal oil manufacture had assumed at a bound, 
an importance, which gave it the leading 
place among the new manufactures of the 
previous decade. The production of illu- 
minating oils exceeded in that year ten mil- 
lion gallons, and al)out five millions of gallons 
of the heavy lubricating oils and paraffine. 
The man who had predicted that witliin the 
next three years all this activity of produc- 
tion would cease, and another article then 
just coming into notice would supersede it, 
and attain to ten times its extent, would have 
been deemed little less than a mad-man. Yet 
this was precisely what happened. 

HISTORY AND METHOD OF THE MANUFACTURE. 

The possibility of extracting oil from bitu- 
minous minerals appears to have been known 
since the year 1694, a patent having been 
granted in January of that year to Martin 
Eele, Thomas Hancock, and William Port- 
lock, for " a way to extract and make great 
quantities of pitch, tarr, and oyle out of a 
sort of stone, of which there is a sufficient 
found within our dominions of England and 
Wales." This stone proved to be a bitumi- 
nous shale ; and in 1716 it was again ap|)lied 
to similar use under another patent, granted 
to M. & T. Belton, of Shrewsbury. In the 
course of the eighteenth century the oily 
product obtained was employed to some ex- 
tent as a medicine, under the name of Brit- 
ish or petroleum oil. Though from time to 
time other patents were granted in England 
for the same process, the business never be- 
came of importance there until the success- 
ful trials were made by Mr. James Young, 
of Glasgow, upon the Boghead cannel al- 
ready referred to. On the continent the 
subject was brought before the public by the 
researches of Baron Von Reichenbach in 



1829, '30, and '31, when he discovered and 
separated numerous new compounds from 
the products of the slow distillation ot bitu- 
minous substances. The compound he named 
eupion is the same thing as the rectified oil 
now known as coal oil, paraffine oil, kerosene, 
photogenic, pyrogenic oil, and by other local 
or commercial names. He appreciated its 
useful properties, and recommended the pros- 
ecution of further trials with the object of 
establishing the best mode of separating it. 
In France its character was understood in 
1824, when a patent was granted for its man- 
ufacture ; and in 1833 factories were in op- 
eration for producing it. In 1834 the meth- 
od adopted by Selligue was first published, 
and in the specification of the patent granted 
to him, March 19, 1845, is a full account of 
the process as conducted in the works at 
Autun. This is still the best treatise pub- 
lished upon the manufacture, and notwith- 
standing the numerous patents Avhich have 
since been issued, the improvements are lim- 
ited to comparatively unimportant modifica- 
tions of the apparatus. In the United States 
the first patent granted in this manufacture 
was in March, 1852, to James Young for his 
process, which in this country was first intro- 
duced at the kerosene oil works on Newtown 
Creek. The next year two patents were grant- 
ed, in 1854 and 1855 one each, in 1856 six, 
in 1858 seven, and in 1859 twenty-two. 

As mentioned in the preceding chapter, 
the products obtained by the distillation of 
bituminous substances vary accoixling to the 
amount of heat employed and the manner 
ov its application, whether sudden or grad- 
ual. Coals thrown into red hot retorts are 
resolved into large quantities of gas, with 
the production of inconsiderable quantities 
of oily compounds heavier in the aggregate 
than water, and called coal tar. They con- 
sist of a variety of hydrocarbons, as the 
fluids designated by the name of naphtha, 
the white crystalline substance called naph- 
thaline, the very volatile fluid benzole, be 
sides carbolic acid and a great number of 
other curious and interesting compounds of 
hydrogen and carbon. In general they con- 
tain a loss proportional amount of hydrogen 
than the products obtained by slow distilla 
tion, the fluids are denser, and their boiling 
points higher. 



HYDROCARBON OR COAL OILS. 



157 



When the bituminous substances are grad- 
ually and moderately heated in retorts, the 
production of gas is small, the carbon and 
hydrogen separating chiefly in the form of 
oily compounds of a greenish color, the spe- 
cific gravity of which is less than water. 
These compounds form what is called crude 
coal oil, and are similar in appearance and 
composition to the natural petroleum, or rock 
oil, obtained in some places from the earth, 
as will be described in the next chapter. 
Benzole and naphthaline, products of the 
other method of distillation, are found, if at 
all, as a result of the employment of too 
high heat, and instead of the latter the Avaxy 
or spermaceti-like substance called paraffine 
is generated and is held in solution in the 
oils, from which it may be separated by re- 
peated distillations, and draining off through 
filters and pressing out the fluid portions of 
the concentrated residues, at the lowest avail- 
able temperatures. The oily products are 
divisible into a great number of distinct 
compounds by means of repeated distilla- 
tions, each one being carefully conducted at 
a certain degree of temperature, and the 
product which comes over at this degree be- 
ing kept by itself. But in the large way 
they are separated into only three classes, 
which are distinguished as the light oils for 
lamps, the heavy oils which are suitable for 
lubricating purposes, and paraffine. Some- 
times a mixture of the heaviest oils and par- 
affine is made use of and sold for wagon 
grease and such purposes; and the first prod- 
ucts which come over in the distillation are 
kept by themselves, and sold under the name 
of naphtha (or incorrectly as benzole) to be 
used as a solvent for the resins, caoutchouc, 
etc., and for removing grease spots from fab- 
rics. 

The proportions obtained from a ton of 
coal or shale are very variable. The Bog- 
head cannel yields, in well-conducted opera- 
tions, about 117 gallons of crude oil, from 
which the product of refined oil is about 60 
gallons. It can be made to produce even 
130 gallons of crude oil, containing a larger 
proportion of refined oil than the 117 gal- 
lons ordinarily obtained. The Breckenridge 
coal yields from 90 to 100 gallons of crude 
oil, and this 50 to 60 of refined oil. The 
Cannelton coal of Virginia is of similar 
quality to the Breckenridge cannel. The 
coals of Ohio run from 55 to 87 gallons of 
crude oils to the ton, and those of Darling- 
ton, Penn., from 45 to 55 gallons. Besides 



the oils there also come over from the re- 
torts, as in the gas manufacture, a quantity 
of water rendered alkaline by the ammonia 
it holds. This collects at the bottom of the 
reservoirs into which the products are re- 
ceived, and the oil that fioats upon the sur- 
face being removed the ammoniacal liquors 
are allowed to escape. 

While the general plan of the operations 
is the same in all the factories, the apparatus 
is variously modified. By Mr. Young's proc- 
ess the coal is distilled in cast-iron ft -shaped 
retorts, like those employed in making gas, 
and the volatile products are passed by a 
worm through a refrigerator kept at a tem- 
perature of about 55° F. The oils as they 
condense drop from the end of the worm 
into a receiver. Many patents have been 
granted in Europe and in this country for 
difterent kinds of retorts. Some are made 
of cylindrical form and set u])right in the 
furnace ; the charge is introduced at the top 
and drawn out, when exhausted, at the bot- 
tom; the volatile products making their exit 
either through pipes at the top or at differ- 
ent heights. Some have been constructed 
of fire clay instead of cast iron. In order 
that the charge may be uniformly heated, 
revolving cylindrical retorts have been con- 
trived and patented, first in France many 
years ago, and recently in the United States. 
They are sometimes eight feet long and six 
feet diameter, suspended upon an axle at each 
end. They are charged through a manhole 
in the front end like the common horizontal 
retorts, and the vapors pass out through the 
axle at the opposite end, which is made hol- 
low for this purpose. Retorts of the size 
named are charged with about a ton of can- 
nel coal, and four such charges may be 
worked oft' in twenty -four hours. They re- 
volve slowly, about twice in a minute, thus 
turning the charge over and causing it to be 
uniformly exposed to the fire beneath. At 
the Lucesco works, thirty miles above Pitts- 
burg, on the Alleghany, ten lai'ge revolving 
retoi'ts are stated to be in opei-ation, each 
one of the capacity of two and a half tons. 
They are recommended for the rapidity with 
which the process is conducted, and the large 
amount of oil obtained to the ton of coal 
while they continue in good order ; and on 
the other hand it is objected to them that 
the coal is apt to be grcnmd to powder, and 
the dust is carried ali)ng with the vapors, ob- 
structing the couden-ing worm and adding 
to the cost of purification. They are, more- 



158 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



over, expensive to construct and liable to get 
out of order. 

By all these arrangements the fire which 
causes the expulsion of the volatile matters 
is outside of the retorts. But the same ob- 
ject is also attained by the use of ovens and 
pits similar to those used for producing 
charcoal and coke, in which .the material 
operated upon is itself partially consumed, 
to generate the heat required to drive off so 
much of its volatile constituents as may es- 
cape combustion. Kilns thus designed for 
extracting coal oils have been in use in this 
country and in Europe ; and in Virginia, 
near Wheeling, the plan has been adopted 
of distilling the coal or shale in large pits 
dug in the ground of capacity sufficient to 
contain 100 tons of the raw material. These 
are covered with earth, and the fire being 
started at one end, the heat spreads the vol- 
atile products forward, and they are drawn 
out at the opposite end by the exhausting 
action caused by a jet of steam, and received 
into suitable condensing apparatus. Some 
of the kilns are constructed to be fired at 
the bottom, and the vapors then pass up- 
ward through the charge, and are conveyed 
in pipes from the top to the condensers. 
The kilns of the Kerosene Oil Company, 
patented by Mr. Luther Atwood, are made 
open at the top, and a downward draught 
through the charge, which is fired on the 
upper surface, is produced by a steam jet 
thrown into the eduction pipe that passes 
out from the bottom of the kiln. A partial 
vacuum is thus produced, causing a current 
of air to flow in from the kiln. At the 
works of this company there are 18 of these 
kilns in shape like a circular lime kiln, built 
of ordinary brick and lined with fire brick. 
They are 20 feet high and 12 feet diameter 
inside, each one having a capacity of over 
25 tons of coal. When this amount of 
Boghead cannel is introduced it is covered 
with about four tons of Cumberland coal and 
a quantity of pine wood. This is set on 
fire, and at the same time the steam jet is 
^et on. The heated gases from the com- 
bustibles above pass through the bituminous 
materials below ; but little air reaches these 
that is not already deprived of its power of 
sustaining further c<^mbustion. The volatile 
products are gradually expelled before the 
slowly increasing heat, and the operation is 
not completed till the expiration of four 
days. It is hastened or checked, as may be 
necessary, by means of the steam jet by 



which the draught is controlled. What is 
left in the kiln is unconsumed coal and ashes 
— no good coke is produced. The condens- 
ers at these works are tall cylinders of boil- 
er-plate iron. Passing through a succession 
of these the vapors collect and trickle down 
their sides, and the mixed oily and aqueous 
products are received into iron vats placed 
in the ground. The uncondensable gases 
escape into the open air from the top of the 
last of the cylinders. From the vats the oil 
rising to the suiface flows over into a con- 
duit that leads to a large cistern in the 
ground of the capacity of 40,000 gallons. 
The water at the same time is discharged by 
a pipe, one end of which is at the bottom 
of the vat, and the other is bent over its up- 
per edge, the flow being caused by the dif- 
ference of an inch in the elevation of the 
surface of the two vats. Some oil is car- 
ried over into the second vat, and this is 
separated by a repetition of the same ar- 
rangement, and so on through several vats, 
till the ammoniacal waters are finally allowed 
to escape after being first received into a 
large cistern, where some oil still collects 
upon the surface, and is removed by occa- 
sional skimming. 

Still another method of conducting the dry 
distillation is by the introduction of highly 
heated steam into the retorts, as patented 
by Mr. William Brown, in 1853, in England 
and in this country, though this seems also 
to have been used in the original operations 
of Selligue in France. The eft'ect of the 
steam is to aid in heating the charge, while 
at the same time the vapors are taken up 
and carried along by it, and protected from 
being burned or decomposed by remaining 
in contact with the hot surfaces of the re- 
tort. In the subsequent distillation of the 
crude oil, high steam is similarly applied in 
the stills. 

Nearly the same process of refining is 
practised at all the factories. The crude oil 
is pumped up into large stills of cast or 
boiler-plate iron, with cast-iron bottoms two 
inches thick. The capacity of these at the 
works above referred to is 1500 gallons 
each, and the time required for distilling off" 
this amount of oil is 24 hours. 'I'hey are 
heated by fires of anthracite and coke, the 
latter being itself a product of the distilla- 
tion and obtained from the inside of the stills 
after each heat. It is deposited from the crude 
oil and forms a solid and extremely hard in- 
crustation which is sometimes nearly a foot 



HYDROCARBON OR COAL OILS. 



159 



thick upon the bottom of the stills. It 
is a much superior coke to that obtained 
from the gas retorts, and in its structure is 
coarsely honey-combed in the upper or last 
formed portions, gradually growing closer 
and more compact toward the bottom 
upon which it adheres. The distillation 
should be conducted at a temperature not 
exceeding 800° F., and the process may be 
rendered continuous by admitting a small 
stream of oil into the stills. The vapors 
passing through the goose-neck are con- 
densed in a long worm kept in the water con- 
denser, which should be, in the latter part of 
the distillation, at a temperature of SO'' or 
more. It is necessary to guard against so low 
temperature as might cause the paraffine to 
solidify in the w'orm, which by stopping the 
flow of the products might result in blowing 
up the still. The heat is carefully regulated 
so that the oil comes over uniformly, flowing 
from the end of the worm in a steady stream. 
It is still of a greenish color, with more or less 
of its peculiar, disagreeable odor. Yet it is 
evidently purified to a considerable extent 
by its separation from the free carbon and 
other impurities, usually amounting to 10 
or 12 per cent., which are left behind in 
the stills. The oils are next pumped into 
large cylindrical cisterns called agitators, to 
undergo the chemical treatment, which is 
in general the same as that practised by 
Selligue. An addition is made to them of a 
quantity of sulphuric acid, it may be to the 
amount of 5 per cent. The mixture is 
then violently agitated or made to sweep 
rapidly round by stirrers in the cisterns, 
moved by machinery. The pure oil and 
parafline are unaffected by the chemical 
agents, but the carbonaceous particles and 
coloring matters are more or less charred and 
oxidized, and their condition is so changed 
that when the mixture is left for some hours 
to repose, they subside in great part togeth- 
er with the acid, and these can then be 
drawn off" leaving the partially purified oil in 
the upper portion of the cisterns. This is 
next washed with about one fifth its quantity 
of water, which removes the soluble impu- 
rities and a portion of the remaining acid. 
These, after subsiding, being drawn off, a 
strong lye of potash or soda is introduced 
into the oil, which neutralizes and fixes what 
acid i-eniains, and causes the precipitation of 
further portions of the coloi'ing and tarry 
matters. ^ The mixture is again agitated and 
is then left six hours to repose, after which 



the sediment being drawn off", it is again 
washed with water, and this too, with the 
matters it has taken up, are drawn off". In 
some places chalk or lime has been employ- 
ed instead of the alkaline lye to neutralize 
and fix the acid, and the chemical treatment, 
as it is called, is in other respects variously 
modified. Though this has been designated 
the "cold" ti'eatment, the temperature should 
not be allowed to fall below 90° during these 
processes. 

At last the oils freed from most of their 
impurities are introduced into stills like 
those of the first set. The product which 
first comes over is a very light oil somewhat 
discolored, which is soon followed by a clear 
oil having little odor. This gradually in- 
creases in density from 0.733 to 0.820, up 
to which point the mixture of oils is class- 
ed as illuminating, and is without further 
preparation sufficiently pure to be at once 
barrelled for the market. After this the in- 
creasing depth of the color and the greater 
density of the product indicate that the 
light oils have been neaily exhausted, and 
the remaining portions are hence kept by 
themselves to afford the heavy lubricating 
oils, and also it may be, by means of frac- 
tional distillation, the additional quantities 
of light oils they still contain, and finally 
the paraffine which is chiefly concentrated 
with the last portions. This substance when 
separated from the oils by filtration and 
pressure at low temperatures, is of a dark 
color and somewhat offensive odor ; and to 
bleach and deodoi'ize it have proved to be 
somewhat troublesome and expensive opera- 
tions. Exposure to the sunlight has a bleach- 
ing eff'ect; but the processes for this purpose 
have not yet been made public. When ob- 
tained perfectly pure and white, difficulties 
have been encountered in running it into 
candles, which are not common to other ma- 
terials used for this purpose. When cooled 
in ordinary moulds the parafifine would crack 
in lines radiating from the wick, and the ex- 
terior would present a clouded, mottled sur- 
face. The method of obviating this difficul- 
ty, as described in the French work, " Le 
Technologiste," of 1859, is to use a mould 
in two parts, that part for the point of the 
candle working in the other like a piston. 
These moulds being brought to the temper- 
ature of melted pai'affine are filled and then 
immediately })lunged into water at nearly the 
freezing point. Having remained 3 or 4 
minutes, they are taken out and exposed to 



160 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



a current of cool air for 15 or 20 minutes. 
The candles then come out, as the movable 
part of the mould is pushed in, free from 
defects. This method is successfully intro- 
duced into the United States. Paraffine 
candles have been made at some of the coal 
oil works, as at those of New York, New 
Bedford, and Portland. They are of beauti- 
ful appearance, resembling the best sperm 
candles, and at the same time are more eco- 
nomical for the amount of light they aftbrd. 
The oil that is pressed out from the paraffine 
is useful chiefly as a lubricator, and from the 
low temperature at which it is obtained, if 
for no other reason, it is insured against 
chilling in cold weather. The residue in 
the stills, is a mixture of the tarry matters 
with the ]3ortion of the chemical ingredients 
that was introduced with the oils. For this 
no use is found. The heavy oils find their 
principal application in lubricating machin- 
ery, and large quantities are consumed for 
this purpose upon the Western railroads. 
The heavier natural oils of Ohio, when wash- 
ed clean from the sand that comes up with 
them, are also very well adapted for this 
use; but it is found advantageous to mix 
either the crude or manufactured article 
with an equal quantity of lard oil. The 
petroleum corrects the tendency of this to 
gum and chill, while it receives additional 
body from the lard oil. Another use for 
the heavy oils is for cleansing wool in the 
woollen factories, and wheie they have been 
tried for this purpose, they ha\'e been pre- 
ferred to other oils. Tn currying leather, 
also, they are said to have proved a good 
substitute for fish oil. Experiments have 
been made with them in Ohio, for mixing 
paints, and the crude lieavier kinds, as those 
of Mecca, treated in the same manner as 
linseed oil, boiling them with dryers, etc., 
formed a good body, covered the wood well, 
drie<l i-apidly and perfectly, and formed a 
smooth, hard surface, retaining no odor. 
The great abundance of the supply of petro- 
leum at the West induced some speculation 
as to the probability of the hydrocarbon 
oils being used for fuel for steamboats, loco- 
motives, and wherever a highly concenti'ated, 
portable, and manageable fuel is required. 
For domestic uses, also, such as require a 
fire only a little while at a time, the coal 
oils were conveniently used in suitable stoves 
in the same manner that gas is applied to 
the same purpose. But experiments arc 
wanting to estabUsh the rate per gallon at 



which it might enter into competition with 
other fuels u[)Ou a larger scale. Besides the 
heavy and light oils, no other valuable pro- 
ducts result from the distillation of the coal 
oils. Benzole is said not to be a product of 
this process. It belongs, together with a 
special class of hydrocarbons designated as 
the benzole series, to the tar of the gas 
works ; and if ever oI)tained in the coal oil 
distillation, it was. declared that it must be 
by bad management and the use of excess 
of heat. It was found, after the discovery 
and practical adojition of tlie petroleum as 
an illuminating fluid, that from this, by the 
refining and distilling processes, not only 
benzine but naptha and other still more vol- 
atile hydrocarbons were produced, and the 
principal difficulty in reducing the petroleum 
to a safe and non-explosive illuminator was 
to rid it of these very volatile oils. It is 
probable that they did exist in nearly the 
same form in the co:d oils but had not been 
skilfully eliminaied at first. 

The lighter coal oils were superior in 
many respects to most of the articles ])re- 
viously used for purposes of illumination. 
Their o lor, though not very agreeable, was 
better than that of most of the sperm or lard 
oils, and the spots made by spilling them on 
articles of dress or furniture were removed 
with less difficulty than those of the fatty 
oils. They were also far less liable to ex- 
plosion than the so-called " burning fluids," 
which were previously in very general use, 
but w^ere constantly proilucing terrible acci- 
dents and loss of lite. They were, if burned 
in projierly-coiistructed lamps, much less dis- 
agreeable and liable to smoke than camphene. 

But the reign of the coal oils for purposes 
of illumination was destined to be of short 
duration ; for petroleum, or as it came to be 
called when refined for illuminating purposes, 
" kerosene oil," became so abundant in 1861 
and 1862, and received such an extensive 
development, that the distillation of oil from 
coals, both for illuminating and lubricating 
purposes almost ceased after 1863. An effort 
was, indeed, made in 1863 and 1864 to dis- 
til these oils on a large scale from the bitu- 
minous shales of Kentucky ; but though the 
material could be had at the cost of breaking 
it up, and the process of distillation wa^^ very 
simple, the flowing wells of Western Penn- 
sylvania, and West Virginia, furnished crude 
petroleum so cheaply that this undertaking 
proved unprofitable. 



PETROLEUM, OR ROCK OIL. 



161 



CHAPTER XII. 

PETROLEUM, OR ROCK OIL. 

The occurrence of an oily fluid oozing in 
some regions from the surface of the earth, 
coming out with the springs of water, and 
forming a layer upon its surface, has been 
noticed from ancient times, and the oil has 
been collected by excavating pits and canals, 
and also by sinking deep wells. Bakoo, a 
town on the west side of the Caspian Sea in 
Georgia, has long been celebrated for its 
springs of a very pure variety of petroleum 
or naphtha, and the annual value of this 
product, according to M. Abich, is about 
3,000,000 francs, and might easily be made 
as large again. Over a tract about 25 miles 
long and half a mile wide, the strata, which 
are chiefly argillaceous sandstones of loose 
texture, belonging to the medial tertiary 
formation, are saturated with the oil, and 
hold it like a sponge. To collect it large 
open wells are sunk to the depth of 16 to 
20 feet, and in these the oil gathers and is 
occasionally taken out. That obtained near 
the centre of the tract is clear, slightly yel- 
low, like Sauterne wine, and as pure as dis- 
tilled oil. Toward the margins of the tract 
the oil is more colored, first a yellowish 
green, then reddish brown. In the environs 
of Bakoo ai'C hills of volcanic rocks through 
which bituminous springs flow out. Jets 
of carburetted hydrogen are common in the 
district, and salt, which is almost always 
found, with petroleum springs, abounds in 
the neighborhood. 

Another famous locality of natural oils is 
in Burmah, on the banks of the Irrawaddy, 



near Prome. Fifty years ago it was reported 
there were about 520 wells in this region, 
and the oil from them was used for the sup- 
ply of the whole empire and many parts of 
India. The town of Rainanghong is the 
centre of the oil district, and its inhabitants 
are chiefly employed in manufacturing earth- 
en jars for the oil, immense numbers of 
which are stacked in pyramids outside thd 
town, like shot in an arsenal. The forma- 
tion containing the oil consists of sandy 
clays resting on sandstones and slates. The 
lowest bed reached by the open wells, which 
are sometimes 60 feet deep, is a pale blue 
argillaceous slate. Under this is said to be 
coal (tertiary ?) The oil drips from the 
slates into the wells, and is collected as at 
Bakoo. The annual product is variously 
stated at 412,000 hogsheads, and at 8,000^- 
000 pounds. 

The Burmese petroleum has recently been 
imported into Great Britain, and is employ- 
ed at the great candle manufactory of 
Messrs. Price & Co., at Belmont and Sher- 
wood. It is described as a semi-fluid naph- 
tha, about the consistence of goose grease, 
of a greenish brown color, and a peculiar, 
but not disagreeable odor. It is used by the 
natives, in the condition in which they ob- 
tain it, as a lamp-fuel, as a preservative of 
timber against insects, and as a medicine. 
It is imported in hermetically closed metal- 
lic tanks, to prevent the loss of any of its 
constituents by evaporation. At the works 
it is distilled first with steam under ordinary 
pressure, and then by steam at successively 
increasing temperatures, with the following 
results : — 



Temperature. 


Proportional 


Fahr. 


product. 


Below 212° 


11 


230" to 293° 


10 


293" to 320" 




320" to 612" 


20 


About 612" 


31 






Above 612° 





Character of product. 
Mixture of fluid hydrocarbons free from paraflSne. 

'' " " containing a little paraffine. 

Distillate very small in quantity. 
Containing paraffine, but still fluid at 32°. 

Product which solidifies on cooling, and may be submitted to pressure. 
Fluids with much paraffine. 
Pitchy matters. 
Residue of coke, and a little earthy matter in the still. 



Nearly all the paraffine may be separated 
from the distillates by exposing these to 
freezing mixtures ; and the total product of 
this solid hydrocarbon is estimated at 10 or 
1 1 per cent. 

Many other localities might be named 
which furnish the natural oils upon a less 
extensive scale, as in Italy, France, and Switz- 
erland. In Cuba impure varieties of bitu- 
10* 



men are met with flowing up through fissures 
in the rocks and spreading over the surface 
in a tarry incrustation, which sometimes so- 
lidifies on cooling. In the island of Trin- 
idad, three fourths of a mile back from the 
coast, is a lake called the Tar Lake, a mile 
and a half in circumference, apparently filled 
with impure petroleum and asphaltum. The 
latter, more or less charged in its numerous 



Xol: 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



cavities with liquid bitumen, forms a solid 
crust around the margin of the lake, and in 
the centre the materials appear to be in a 
liquid boiling condition. The varieties 
contain more or less oil, and methods have 
been devised of extracting this ; but the 
chief useful application of the material seems 
to be for coating the timbers of ships to 
protect them from decay. By the patent- 
ed process of Messrs, x\twood of New York, 
the crude tar of this locality having been 
twice subjected to distillation, and treated 
with sulphuric acid and afterward with an 
alkali, as in the method of purifying the 
coal oils, is then further purified by the use 
of permanganite of soda or of potash. Be- 
ing again distilled it yields an oil of specific 
gravity 0.900, which is fluid at 32° F., and 
boils at 600° F. 

In the United States the existence of pe- 
troleum has long been known, and the arti- 
cle has been collected and sold for medicinal 
purposes ; chiefly for an extei'nal application, 
though sometimes administered internally. 
It was formerly procured by the Seneca In- 
dians in western New York and Pennsyl- 
vania, and was hence known as Seneca or 
Genesee oil. At various places it was rec- 
ognized along a belt of country passing 
from this portion of New York across the 
north-west part of Pennsylvania into Ohio. 
In the last-named state it was obtained in 
such quantity in the year 1819, by means 
of wells sunk for salt water, that it is a little 
remarkable the value of the material was not 
then appreciated, and the means perceived 
of obtaining it to any amount. The follow- 
ing description of the operations connected 
with the salt borings then in progress on 
the Little Muskingum, in the south-western 
part of the state, written in 1819, was first 
published in the American Journal of Sci- 
ence in 1826: " They have sunk two wells 
which are now more than 400 feet in depth; 
one of them affords a very strong and pure 
water, but not in great quantity. The other 
dischai'ges such vast quantities of petroleum, 
or as it is vulgarly called, ' Seneka oil,' and 
besides is subject to such tremendous explo- 
sions of gas, as to force out all the water 
and afford nothing but gas for several days, 
that they make but little or no salt. Never- 
theless, the petroleum affords considerable 
profit, and is beginning to be in demand for 
lamps in workshops and manufactories. It 
affords a clear bi'ight light, when burnt in 
this way, and will be a valuable article for 



lighting the street lamps in the future cities 
of Ohio." Several coal-beds were penetrated 
in sinking these wells. 

In north-western Pennsylvania the exist- 
ence of oil in the soil along the valleys of 
some of the streams was known to the early 
settlers. One stream, in consequence of its 
appearance in the banks, was called Oil 
Creek. In other localities also it was no- 
ticed, and similar occurrences of oil were 
observed at some places in western Virginia 
and eastern Kentucky. At Tarentum above 
Pittsburg, oil was obtained by boring about 
the year 1845. Two springs were opened 
in boring for salt, and they have continued 
to yield small quantities of oil, sometimes a 
barrel a day. This has been used only for 
medicinal purposes. On Oil Creek two lo- 
calities were especially noted, one close to 
the noilhern line of Yenango county, half a 
mile below the village of Titusville, and one 
14 miles further down the stream, a mile 
above its entrance into the Alleghany riVer. 
x\ll the way below the upper locality through 
the narrow valley of the creek are ancient 
pits covering acres of ground, once dug and 
used for collecting oil after the method now 
practised in Asia. Cleared from the mud 
and rubbish with which they are mostly fill- 
ed, some of them ai"e found to be supported 
at the sides with logs notched at the ends as 
if done by whites, and it has been supposed 
by some that this is the work of the French 
who occupied that region the first half of the 
last century. Others think the Indians dug 
the pits, and in proof of this they cite the 
account given by Day, in his "History of 
Pennsylvania," of the use of the oil by the 
Seneca Indians as an unguent and in their 
religious worship. They mixed with it their 
|)aint with which they anointed themselves 
for war ; and on occasions of their most im- 
portant assemblages, as was graphically de- 
scribed by the commandant of Fort Du- 
quesne in a letter to General Montcalm, they 
set fire to the scum of oil which had collect- 
ed on the surface of the water, and at sight 
of the flames gave forth triunq)hant shouts 
which made the hills re-echo again. In this 
ceremony the commandant thought he saw 
revived the ancient fire worship, such as was 
once practised in Bakoo, the sacred city of 
the Guebi'es or Fire Worshfppers. 

The old maps of this p(Mlion of Pennsyl- 
vania indicate several j)laces in Yenango and 
Ci'awfoi'd counties where oil springs had been 
noted by the early settlers. They made gome 



PETROLEUM, OR ROCK OIL. 



103 



use of the oil, collecting it by spreading a 
woollen cloth upon the pools of water below 
the springs, and when the cloth was satu- 
rated with the oil wringing it out into vessels. 
The two springs referred to on Oil Creek 
furnished small quantities of oil as it was re- 
quired, and from a third, twelve miles below 
Titusville in the middle of the creek, the own- 
er has procured 20 barrels or more of oil in 
a year.* In 1854 Messrs Eveleth and Bissell 
of New York purchased the upper spring, 
and leased mineral rights over a portion of 
the valley. They then obtained from Prof. 
B. Silliman, jr., of New Haven a report upon 
the qualities of the oil, and in 1855 organ- 
ized a company in New York called the 
" Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company," to en- 
gage in its exploration. The same year a 
new company under the same name, formed 
in New Haven and organized under the laws 
of Connecticut, succeeded to the rights of 
the old company ; but for two years they 
made no progress in developing the re- 
sources of the property they had acquired. 
In December, 1857, they concluded an agree- 
ment with Messrs. Bowditch and Drake of 
New Haven to undertake the search for oil. 
To the enterprise of Col. E. L. Drake, who 
removed to Titusville and prosecuted the 
business in the face of serious obstacles, the 
region is indebted for the impoi-tant results 
which followed. After a well had been 
sunk and curbed near the spring, ten feet 
square and sixteen feet deep, boring was 
commenced in the spring of 1859, and on 
the 26th of August, at the depth of seventy- 
one feet, the drill suddenly sank four inches, 
and when taken out the oil rose within five 
inches of the surface. At first a small pump 
threw up about 400 gallons daily. By in- 
troducing a larger one the flow was increased 
to 1000 gallons in the same time. Though 
the pumping was continued by steam power 
for months no diminution was experienced 
in the flow. The success of this enterprise 
produced gre«,t excitement, and the lands up- 
on the creek were soon leased to parties, who 
undertook to bore for oil for a certain share 
of the product, sometimes advancing besides 
a moderate sum to the owner. 

The country was overrun by explorers for 
favorable sites for new wells, and borings 
were undertaken along the valley of the Al- 



* See a pamphlet by Thomas A. Gale, published 
In Erie, Penn, 1860, entitled "Rock Oil in Pennsyl- 
vania and elsewhere." 



leghany river, and up the French Creek 
above Franklin. The summer of 1860 wit- 
nessed unwonted activity and enterprise in 
this hitherto quiet portion of the state, where 
the population had before known no other 
pursuits than far?ning and lumbering. Every 
farm along the deep, narrow valleys, sudden- 
ly acquired an extraordinary value, and in 
the vicinity of the most successful wells vil- 
lages sprung up as in Califoi'nia during the 
gold excitement, and new branches of manu- 
facture were all at once introduced for sup- 
plying to the oil men the barrels required 
for the oil and the tools employed in boring 
the wells. From Titusville to the mouth of 
Oil Creek, about 1 5 miles, the derricks of the 
well borers were everywhere seen. On the 
Alleghany river the number below Tidioute 
in Warren county, south into Venango coun- 
ty, showed that this portion of the district 
was especially productive, and the same 
might be said of the vicinity of the town 
of Franklin, both up the Alleghany river and 
French Creek. The wells had amounted to 
several hundred, or according to one pub- 
lished statement, to full 2000 in number be- 
fore the close of the year, and from an esti- 
mate published in the Venango Spectator, 
(Franklin) 74 of these on the 21st of No- 
vember were producing the following daily 
yield : — 

No. of wells. Prod. bbls. 

On Oil Creek, 33 485 

" Upper Alleghany river, 20 442 

Franklin, 15 139 

Two Mile Run, 3 64 

French Creek, 3 35 

Total, 74 1165 

The capacity of the barrel is 40 gallons, and 
at the low estimate of only 20 cents the gal- 
lon the total value of the daily product is 
not far from $10,000. The depth of the 
wells is in a few instances less than 100 feet. 
The shallowest one reported, belonging to 
the Tidioute Island Oil Company, was 67 
feet deep, and its product was 30 barrels a 
day. In general the depth is from 180 to 
280 feet; one well in Franklin is 502 feet in 
depth, and one on Oil Creek 425 feet. ITie 
deepest wells are not the most productive, 
and the fact of their being extended beyond 
the ordinary depths may generally be con- 
sidered an evidence of their failure to pro- 
duce much oil. There are exceptions, how- 
ever, to this, one of the deepest wells, that 
of Hoover and Stewart, three miles below 
Franklin, producing largely of excellent oil. 



164 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



The selection of localities for boring is 
very much a matter of chance. Proximity 
to productive wells is the first desideratum ; 
but this, when attainable, is not always at- 
tended with success. The oil does not ap- 
pear to be spread out, as the rocks lie in 
horizontal sheets, or if so there arc many 
places Avhere it does not find its way between 
the strata, and wells near together from 
which oil is pumped do not always draw 
upon each other. No doubt the system of 
crevices and pervious sti'ata through which 
the oil flows in its subterranean currents, is 
very irregular and interrupted. The \alleys 
to which the operations are limited are nnr- 
row, and are bounded on each side by hills, 
the summits of which, from 250 to 400 feet 
above the bottoms, are on the general level 
of the country. The increased expense that 
would be incurred in sinking from the upper 
surface and in afterward raising the oil to 
this height, as also the uncertainty of find- 
ing oil elsewhere than in the valleys, have so 
far prevented the explorations being extend- 
ed beyond the creek and river bottoms ; but 
ft cannot be long before the capacity of the 
broad districts between the streams to pro- 
duce oil is thoroughly tested. At present 
the most favorable sites are supposed to be 
near a break in the hills that form the mar- 
gin of the valley, as where a branch comes 
into the main stream. An experiment is al- 
ready undertaken to test the high grounds 
west of Tidioute branch. 

As the bituminous coals are known as a 
source of hydrocarbon oils, it is natural to 
suppose that the springs of oil found near 
the coal region are fed from the coal beds or 
bituminous shales of the coal formation. 
But it happens that only a few oil springs 
of western Pennsylvania have been struck 
in the coal-measures themselves, and that 
some of these are sunk into the underlying 
groups of rock to reach the supplies of oil. 
The oil distiicts are in general outside of the 
coal-field and upon the outcrop of lower 
formations which pass beneath the coal-meas- 
ures, the whole having a general conformity 
of dip. Hence the slope of the strata is 
toward the coal, and an obstacle is thus pre- 
sented to the fiow of the oil from the coal- 
field toward its margin ; and though under 
some circumstances the elastic pressure of 
the carbu retted hydrogen gas might force 
the oil considerable distances from its source, 
it is hardly to be supposed that this should 
first find its way down into lower formations 



and then be carried many miles (.30 to 50) 
and find its outlet in another district, rather 
than to the surface at some nearer point. 
The strata of north-western Pennsylvania 
lie nearly horizontally, their general inclina- 
tion being toward the south. The highest 
rock upon the summits of the hills of the 
oil region is the conglomerate or pebbly 
rock (the floor of the coal-measures). Be- 
neath this are series of thin bedded sand- 
stones, slates, and shales, altei'nating with 
each other with frequent repetitions. The 
shales, often of an olive green color, are read- 
ily recognized as belonging to the Chemung 
and Portage groups of the New York geol- 
ogists — a formation which overspreads this 
portion of the country, extending in New 
York two thirds of the way toward Lake 
Ontario and as far east as Binghamton. It 
is also continued through Ohio, crossing the 
Ohio river at Portsmouth, and in this state 
is known as the Waverley series. Under this 
is a heavy bed of bituminous shale, 200 or 
300 feet thick, called in Ohio the black slate 
and in New York the Hamilton shales. This 
group contains an immense amount of car- 
bonaceous matter, and oil is often dissem- 
inated through it. Sometimes it runs out 
in springs and finds an outlet by the occa- 
sional fissures in the beds. Dr. J. S. New- 
berry, who has given much attention to this 
subject, is of opinion that this formation 
contains sufficient carbonaceous material to 
be the source of the oil, and that the more 
porous and open shales and sandstones of 
higher formations are its reservoirs. Such 
is the geological formation of the Seneca oil 
region and of the oil springs of Canada 
West, which are the districts affording this 
product most remote from the coal-field. 
But from whatever source the oil may be 
derived, its origin is at the best very ob- 
scure, and little light can be thrown upon 
the probability of the supply long enduring 
the heavy drain made upon it by hundreds 
of wells worked by powerful steam pumps. 
But though actual experience alone must 
determine the extent of the quantities of oil 
stored up and the period they will last, there 
is certainly encouragement to be drawn from 
the never-failing yield of the oil districts of 
Asia, which for centuries have poured forth 
without stint their rivers of oil. 

The sinking of wells is conducted after 
the usual method of boring artesian wells. 
After much uncertain consideration of the 
chances, a particular spot is selected, more, 



PETROLEUM, OR ROCK OIL. 



165 



perhaps, from the hope of its being the right 
one than from any very practical grounds 
for the choice ; but as the oil flows only in 
crevices among the strata, the location is 
frequently determined — other things being 
equal — by the prospect of reaching the rock 
at a few feet from the surface, and thereby 
avoiding th^ necessity of sinking an open well 
or driving pipes through unknown obstacles 
down to the rock. If the bed rock is found 
within ten or fifteen feet, the boring is be- 
gun at once. The derrick being raised, an 
elm, hickory, hemlock, or other elastic tim- 
ber is cut down, some 25 or 30 feet in length. 
The larger end is fixed in a notch of a tree, or 
heavy post planted in the ground, and another 
post is set under it at a distance from the 
but determined by the elasticity of the tim- 
ber. The spring of the pole should be suf- 
ficient to raise the drill quickly, with its 
iron connecting rods, weighing often 300 
pounds. The rods are suspended from the 
free end of the pole by a swivel or simple 
bolt-head, turning freely around. At the 
commencement of the boring, the rods being 
very short do not weigh more, including the 
drill, than VO or 80 pounds. Two men, 
therefore, jerk them forcibly down, to in- 
crease the momentum of the drill ; the spring 
of the pole immediately raises the drill for 
the next stroke, while at each blow a man 
gives it a slight turn so that it may cut a 
round hole. Several other methods are em- 
ployed for making the pole spring ; by one, 
which is conveniently worked without em- 
ploying steam or horse power, a sort of 
double stirrup is suspended from the pole 
into which two men place each a foot, and 
pressing the stirrup suddenly down it imme- 
diately springs up again with the drill. This 
is much used, though some wells are sunk by 
horse-power machinery, and some by steam 
engines of four or five horse power. 

As the well is constantly deepening, while 
the stroke of the spring-pole (about 30 inch- 
es) remains constant, a vertical adjusting 
screw about 18 inches in length is attached 
to the end of the spring-pole ; the rope is 
clamped to the lower end or nut of this 
screw, and then extended to the pulley above. 
As the well deepens, a slight turn of the 
screw lowers the rope with the rods attached 
to it, and thus keeps the drill always free to 
fall to the bottom with an equal stroke. The 
work is continued, by a constant succession 
of strokes, to a depth of about fifty feet, 
successive lengths of iron rods being screw- 



ed on as the hole deepens — increasing the 
weight of the tools to about 300 pounds. 
The use of any additional rods is then dis- 
pensed with, and the upper rod is suspelided 
by a rope attached to the spring-pole, and 
continued above the pole around a pulley 
and windlass, used to raise the boring tools 
when it is necessary to draw them out. 
They are drawn up in this manner at inter- 
vals of an hour or two, in order to sharpen 
and temper the drill, and to make room for 
the sand pump. This is a thin iron tube, a 
little more than half the diameter of the hole, 
with a simple valve at the bottom opening up- 
ward. It is lowered by a cord to the bottom 
of the well, then raised up with a jerk, and suf- 
fered to drop again by its own weight. This is 
I'epeated quickly eight or ten times ; a whirl 
is thus produced in the water below which 
stirs up the mud and small pieces of broken 
stone ; as the tube drops, the mud and small 
stones enter the open valve and are retained 
when the tube is drawn out. 

The jarrers are employed to increase the 
force of the spring-pole when the drill hap- 
pens to be wedged in the hole by broken 
pieces of stone or by other obstructions. 
They are two rectangular links about 18 
inches in length, formed of stout bars of 
iron, and connecting the upper rods with the 
lower. When the drill descends to the bot- 
tom, the upper link, as it descends, slips 
down eight or ten inches in the lower link, 
and when the pole springs up the upper link 
has the advantage of moving through this 
space, and thereby giving a sudden upward 
jerk to the drill rod. The force of this up- 
ward jerk is greatly increased by a heavy rod 
introduced above the upper link, and which, 
as it moves up, lends its momentum to the 
stroke. 

The hole is carried down by three men 
at difli'erent rates according to the nature 
of the strata encountered, varying from a 
foot or less to six feet in a day. In the 
hard sandstones of quartz pebbles firmly uni- 
ted together, two or three inches sinking in 
1 2 hours may be all the progress practicable. 
The material brought up is carefully scanned 
for any oily appearance indicating the prox- 
imity of oil, and the well is watched to ob- 
serve if any carburetted hydrogen gas escapes 
from it, which is considered a favorable sign. 

The process of drilling in the rock is con- 
sidered by all concerned in boring for petro- 
leum, a very simple and even welcome oper- 
ation, especially when contrasted with the 



166 



MINING INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



uncertainties and apprehensions that sur- 
round the driving of pipes. At the outset, 
the cost of four iron pipes and bands long 
enough to reach a depth of forty feet, is 
equal to that of a complete' set of boring 
tools with the rods and ropes sufficient to 
bore half a dozen wells of 300 feet each in 
depth. There is often great uncertainty of 
knowing how deep the pipes will have to be 
driven, and it is impossible to foresee the 
various obstacles through which they have 
to go. When the work has gone down suc- 
cessfully 70 or even 100 feet, the lowest pipe 
is often suddenly broken or takes an oblique 
direction. The pipes in the ground are then 
abandoned, and a new set driven in another 
place, although in several instances pipes 
reaching 60 feet in depth have been pulled 
up by a lever and axle, with chains or rods 
attached to a lewis wedge driven into the 
bottom pipe. 

The pipes are of cast iron, generally ten 
or twelve feet long, about five inches bore, 
and the shell full an inch thick. The lower 
end of the first pipe is not sharpened, but 
is driven down blunt as it comes from the 
mould. The pipes are fastened together in 
the simplest manner possible, by wrought- 
iron bands, the ends being turned ofi', leav- 
ing a neck somewhat lai'ger than the interior 
diameter of the bauds, to receive them when 
expanded by heat. 

Through common earth or gravel the 
pipes are forced down by the ordinary proc- 
ess of pile-driving ; but when large stones 
are encountered, or round boulders as lai'ge 
as a man's head, there is great risk of break- 
ing or turning the pipes. As soon, there- 
fore, as the pipes meet with any great resist- 
ance the diiving is suspended and the drill 
is applied to break up the stone or to bore 
a circular hole in it, which is afterward 
reamed out as large as the interior diameter 
of the pipes. The driving is then resumed, 
and in soft shales the pipes are often forced 
on, crushing down the sides of the hole, and 
making their way through to the depth of 
12 or 15 inches in the rocky stratum. 

The cost of boring a well 200 feet deep 
is generally estimated at from $1000 to 
$1500. The latter sum includes the cost 
of all the tools and materials, and also of a 
small steam engine, a large tank of pine 
plank, in which the product is collected for 
the oil and water to separate, and it also al- 
lows for such accidents and delays as are 
common to these operations. 



When the oil is struck it often rises up in 
the well, sometimes flowing over the top, and 
in several instances it has burst forth in a jet 
and played like a fountain, throwing the oil 
mixed with water high up into the air. Such 
jets have rarely lasted long, and are usually 
interrupted by discharges of gas, the elasticity 
of which drives out with violence the fluids 
mixed with it, as champagne wine is pro- 
jected from a bottle on removing the cork. 
Hundreds of barrels of oil have, however, 
been wasted at some of the wells for want 
of means to collect it or stop its flow in its 
sudden first appearance. At Williams' well, 
half a mile below Titusville, about 100 bar- 
rels of oil were collected the first night the 
oil was reached, and a large quantity besides 
was lost. A similar event occurred near 
Tidioute, the oil rushing up so violently as 
to knock over the laborer who held the drill 
and to pass through the derrick and over 
the trees around. After a time the spouting 
wells become quiet and the oil settles down, 
so that it has to be raised by pumping. The 
pumps are contrived to work at any depth, 
and by men, or by horse power, or the steam 
engine. For a time at some of the wells 
the product has been water alone or water 
mixed with a little oil ; and after pumping 
several days this has given place to oil with 
a moderate proportion of water. If the 
pumping be suspended for a day water accu- 
mulates, and it may be several days before 
this is drawn out and the former yield of oil 
recovered. The water is generally salt. The 
flow of oil has rarely if ever been known to 
fail entirely except by reason of some ob- 
struction in the wells, and in such cases it 
has usually returned after the hole has been 
bored out larger or made deeper. The sup- 
ply is not, however, altogether regular in ,; 
any of the wells, even after the flow has set- 
tled down to a moderate production of 10 
or 15 barrels a day. The maximum yield 
of a well for a considerable time is about 50 
barrels a day, and from this the production 
ranges down to 4 barrels, below which it is 
considered insufficient to pay expenses. 

The oil and water are conducted from the 
pumps into the large receiving vats, and 
after the water has subsided the oil is bar- 
relled for the market. From the upper Oil 
Creek it is mostly wagoned to the Union 
Mills station in Erie county, on the Erie and 
Sunbury railroad ; and from Tidioute to Ir- 
vine, at the mouth of the Broken Straw, on 
the same road. But most of the oil along 



PETROLEUM, OR ROCK OIL. 



167 



the Alleghany river and Fi'ench Creek is 
taken b}' steamboats down the river to Pitts- 
burg. New York city is at present the prin- 
cipal market, but the country refineries are al- 
ready taking a considerable share of the oil. 

The product of the difterent wells varies 
somewhat in quality and value. At Frank- 
lin the oil for the most part is lieavy, mark- 
ing as low as 33° Baume, which corresponds 
to specific gravity 0.864. Some of the wells 
furnish oils' of 35° or 36° — on Oil Creek the 
range is from 38° to 46°, at Tidioute 43°. 
The French Creek oils are heavy. It is not 
unlikely that the depth of the wells may 
have some effect upon the quality of the oil, 
as from very shallow wells those of the light- 
er varieties must be likely to escape by evap- 
oration, leaving the heavier portions behind. 
The oils obtained at Mecca, Trumbull coun- 
ty, Ohio, are heavy oils, being thick like 
goose grease and marking 26° or 27°, which 
is equivalent to specific gravity 0.900. At 
Grafton, Lorain county, Ohio, the oil is even 
darker and thicker than this, marking about 
25° B. 

With the exception of some light, clear 
oils of reddish color, the petroleum is usu- 
ally of a greenish hue, more or less deep and 
opaque. It has an offensive smell which is 
not entirely removed by the ordinary meth- 
ods of deodorizing practised in the refineries. 
The process of puiification is similar to that 
of the coal oil manufacture, as already de- 
scribed. The proportion of light oils sepa- 
rated by distillation varies with the crude 
petroleum employed. The largest product 
is about 90 per cent., and from this less 
amounts are obtained down to about 50 per 
cent. The properties and uses of these prod- 
ucts have already been considered in treat- 
ing of coal oil. 

To complete this account of the petroleum 
of the United States more particular men- 
tion should be made of the extension of the 
district from north-western Pennsylvania in- 
to New York on one side, and Ohio on the 
other. In Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, and Al- 
legany counties, N. Y., are many places 
where the appearace of small quantities of 
oil upon the surface, and the escape of jets 
of carburetted hydrogen, indicate the exist- 
ence of petroleum below ; and the names of 
Glean and another Oil creek, a branch of the 
Genesee river, suggest the probability of this 
proving another oil district. About a mile 
north-west from Cuba in Allegany county, 
is a pool about 20 feet across and 10 feet 



deep that has always been called an oil 
spring, its surface being covered with a coat- 
ing of oil from which supplies have been ob- 
tained for medicinal pui'poses. A pipe was 
sunk into this, and on the 3d of January, 1 861, 
when it had been driven down 20 or 30 feet, 
oil mixed with water suddenly gushed up 
with great force. Oil also appeared on the 
water drawn up from an artesian well sunk 
to the depth of 130 feet in the same vicini- 
ty. Arrangements are now in progress for 
thoroughly testing the capacity of this dis- 
trict. 

In Ohio the oil-producing counties are 
Noble, Adams, Franklin, Medina, Lorain, 
Cuyahoga, Trumbull, Mahoning, and some 
others. Near Cleveland and in the valley 
of the Cuyahoga oil appears in many places, 
but it has not yet proved of much impor- 
tance. The vicinity of Mecca, Trumbull 
county, is the most productive locality. Op- 
erations were commenced there in February, 
1860, and in November it was stated that 
between '600 and 700 wells had been sunk, 
and 75 steam engines were in operation 
pum])ing oil. Two of the wells were yield- 
ing from 50 to 100 barrels a day each. This 
statement is probably much exaggerated, and 
while others report that several hundred wells 
have been sunk, a dozen or more are said to be 
working profitably. These wells pass through 
the same formation as those near Titusville, 
but for the most part they are shallow, rang- 
ing in depth from 30 to 100 feet, and the most 
of them not much exceeding 50 feet. About 
30 miles south-east from Mecca, at Lowell- 
ville, Mahoning county, a well was sunk 157 
feet which proved very successful, yielding 
20 barrels of oil a day. This well was com- 
menced in the conglomerate and ended in 
the Chemung strata. Duck Creek, Noble 
county, Avas formerly noted for the oil which 
appeared with the brine of the salt wells. 

In Ritchie and Wirt counties, Virginia, near 
the Ohio river, some wells are producing oil, 
and this promises to be an important oil dis- 
trict. Canada West also contains an oil re- 
gion, extending from London toward the St. 
Clair river, from which petroleum has been 
obtained the last twelve years. On the south- 
ern coast of California petroleum is said to 
be found in considerable quantities ; and 
springs of it are described by Captain Stans- 
buryin the report of his expedition, in 1849, 
as occurring about 83 miles east from Salt 
Lake City, Utah, in the vicinity of sulphur 
springs and beds of bituminous coal. 



1G8 



PETROLEUM, OR ROCK OIL. 



The fortunes made from these oil wells in 
Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, and Can- 
ada, in 18G0, 1861, and 1862, gave rise to 
,the wildest speculation, and the petroleum 
fever which set the whole country mad, for 
three or four years, deserves to be classed 
with the Moras Miilticaulis speculation of 
183G-7, the Washoe Mining Mania of 1857, 
or the Tulip-mania, and the South Sea Bub- 
ble of John Law, in the last century. There 
was, indeed, a more solid substratum of fact 
on which to ba-^e the petroleum speculation, 
the oil was found in great quantities and over 
a wide extent of territory, and there was a 
large demand for it, both at home and abroad ; 
but only a small proportion of the eleven 
hundred companie>, Avhich were formed be- 
tw<^en 18(11 and 1865, with their six hundred 
millions of dollars of nominal capital and 
actual paid-up capital of, perhaps, 105 mil- 
lions, either owned or leased Ltnds or oil 
wells. The crafty schemers who had raised 
t!ie commotion and excitement, preferred to 
m ike their money by the sale of stock, and 
if the proposed wells were to be bored, to let 
their succt'ssors undertake their development. 
The whole community, meantime, had be- 
c ):ne infatuated ; it was dltficult to find a man 
or woman in the city or country who had 
not taken at lea-t a small venture in what 
f-eeniL'da royal road to fortune, while in real- 
ity the chance of ever getting their money 
back was not one in a hundred. Grave 
clergymen, eminent lawyers, learned doctors, 
shrewd bankers, literary and scientific men 
of the higliest character, and with them mer- 
chants, tradesmen, mechanics, farmers, and 
day-laborers, all purchased shares, and, in 
many instance^, invested the little savings 
reserved for old ag% or disaster in these very 
attractive certificates of stock. Counting up 
their prospective wealth, as prophesied in 
the glowing circulars of each new company, 
men who had ne~ver been worth a thousand 
dollars fancied themselves millionaires, and 
looked forward to the time when they should 
set up their carriage, and live in princely 
style. It was much that the bursting of this 
bubble did not involve the whole country in 
financial disaster ; but it was really on so 
sound a basis that the great losses which fol- 
lowed, in 18GG and 1867, were borne with- 
out any serious panic. 

It was worthy of notice, that during the 
height of this speculaiive fever, the produc- 
tion of the oil io fir from increasing as would 
naturally have been expected actually dimin- 



ished, and it was only after the oil had touch- 
ed its lowest price that the increased and pro- 
duction has continued to do so from that 
time to the present. For several years the 
heavy internal revenue tax greatly discour- 
aged production, and the markets wei-e glut- 
ted with the commodity so that prices ruled 
low ; but the export demand has, for several 
years past, steadily increased, while the home 
markets have each year absorbed a larger 
quantity. 

The following table shows the rapid growth 
of the export trade in petroleum; and reck- 
oning on the assumption, which the most 
extensive dealers assure is the true one, that 
not more than forty-seven per cent, of the 
annual production is exported, exhibits also 
an ap2n'oximate estimate of the annual pro- 
duct: 

Exports and estimated production of pe- 
troleum from 1862 to 1871. 



Year. 

1862 
1863 

1864 
1865 
1866 
1867 
1868 
1869 
1870 



c S a 



petn.k-um 
exported. 

10,387,701 
28,250,721 
31,872,972 
29,072,018 



99,844,816 

97,924,545 

108,325,819 



Value of 
export. 

$1,539,027 

5,227,839 
10,782,6-9 
16,563,413 
24,830,887 
24,407,642 
21,810,6,6 
31,625,416 
32,101,485 



Estimated 

gallons 
produced. 

21,387,fa3 
60,026,532 
67,730,065 
61,778,038 



212,169,171 

208,ii89,653 
230,192,305 



Estimated 

value of 
product. 

$3,270,432 
11,109,15,' 
22,913,214 
3j,197,25i 
52,705 ,C3f. 
51,866,i;3t- 
46,347,6Sf 
65,079,07; 
68,215,655 



J- 96,942,343 23,811,812 206,002,478 50,600,100 



Here, then, is an item of jiroduction, now 
exported to the extent of nearly 35 millions 
of dollars a year, and sold to the annual 
amount of 70 million.s, which was not ten 
years ago, produced to the extent of SlOO,- 
000; yet this extraordinary development has 
only, to a very slight extent, supplanted the 
trade in other means of illumination and 
lubrication. The consumption of Olefiant 
gas has, as we have seen, greatly increased 
in the same decade ; whale oil, sperm oil, and 
lard oil, have somewhat declined. 

It could not, of course, have been other- 
wise than that a new business of such extent 
should have prompted a great amount of 
speculation. The aggregate losses by the 
formation of petroleum companies probably 
exceeded 125 millions of dollars. For sev- 
eral years the fluctuations in the price of crude 
and refined petroleum were very great and 
very rapid ; but sj)eculation having ceased 
it has now settled down to a scale of prices 
which pay a fair but not exorbitant profit on 



LAND SETTLEMENT-INTERNAL TRADE. 



CHAPTER I. 

WESTERN SETTLEMENT AND TRADE. 

PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA POPULATION AND 

LAND SALES AVENUES TO THE VALLEY 

CANAL AND RAILROAD EXPENDITURES 

LAKE CITIES AND TRADE RECIPROCITY. 

The original colonies, settled as they were 
under different grants, circumstances, and 
powers, had many and conflicting claims to 
the then comparatively unknown land run- 
ning back to the Mississippi river, bounded 
on the north by the chain of lakes, and on 
the south by the Spanish territories of Flori- 
da and Louisiana, when there was a question 
of union into a confederacy. These various 
claims were a matter of dispute, which, from 
being serious, was settled by a mutual ces- 
sion of the lands to the federal government, 
in trust, for the common benefit of all the 
states then existing, or thereafter to be- 
come members of the Union. The federal 
government having thus become owner of 
the lands, the constitution conferred upon 
Congress the power "to dispose of and 
make all needful rules and regulations re- 
specting the territory and other property 
belonging to the United States," The ob- 
vious policy of the government, like that of 
every other thrifty owner, was at once to 
attract settlers to these lands, thereby mak- 
ing them serviceable to the whole people as 
fast as possible. To do so, the lands were 
to be sold cheap, and as few formalities as 
possible placed in the way of the settlers. 
The domain was organized under the control 
of the Secretary of the Treasury, being ad- 
ministered under him by a commissioner of 
the land office. The whole domain is 
divided into districts, for each of which 
there is a surveyor general, under whom the 
territory is subdivided for survey into dis- 
tricts. For each district there is a land 
office, occupied by a register and a receiver. 
A plan is prepared of each district by the 
surveyors, with the utmost care, showing 



ranges, sections, and townships, with topo- 
graphic characteristics. Of this plan there 
are three copies; one is retained at the 
land office, one by the surveyor, and the 
third is sent to the general office at Wash- 
ington, where it serves to regulate all tran- 
sactions. The land being all surveyed into 
sections of 640 acres each, is offered for 
sale by the government at auction, at a 
minimum price of $1.25 per acre. After 
the land has been on sale two weeks, it may 
be sold in 40 acre lots, at a less price. The 
actual occupant of any land offered has the 
pre-emption to it. The buyer of the land 
pays the money to the receiver, and gets for 
it a receipt, of which the register sends a 
duplicate, with a certificate of the sale, to 
Washington. On the verification of the 
sale there, the deed of the land, called a 
" patent," is made out, and sent to the local 
land office register, who gives it to the pur- 
chaser in exchange for the receipt he holds, 
and his title is then complete. In addition 
to the attractions of low prices and pre- 
emption rights, long credits were originally 
given, to enable the settler to pay for the 
land out of its proceeds. But these speed- 
ily led to abuses, and the cash plan was 
finally adopted. There have been, however, 
large grants of land for military purposes, 
to schools and universities, to states for in- 
ternal improvements, for seats of govern- 
ment, public buildings, benefit of Indians, 
salines, swamp lands, and lastly, in aid of 
canals and railroads — the construction of 
which aided the settlement of those lands at a 
distance from large water courses, and there- 
fore from markets. Some time elapsed be- 
fore the organization of the department was 
effected, and the first land office was opened 
in 1800, at ChilHcothe, Ohio. The first sales 
of land, however, took place in New York 
three years before, and in that year a tri- 
angle on the lake was sold to Pennsylvania, 
in order to give her a port on the lake. That 
port is Erie, and is famous for the building 



170 



LAND SETTLEMENT INTERNAL TRADE. 



of Perry's fleet there in 1812, in seventy 
days from the time the wood stood in the 
forest until the stars and stripes floated to 
the breeze of the hike from the mast-head. 
That fleet was fatal to British supremacy on 
the lakes. Almost all the land sales took 
place in Ohio, until 1807, when offices were 
opened in Indiana and Mississippi. In 1809 
an office was opened in Alabama, and in 
1814 one in Illinois; in 1818 in Missouri, 
Louisiana, and Michigan. The sales of the 
lands proceeded with great activity in most 
of these states up to 1821, particularly 
after the embargo and war had turned 
attention from commerce and navigation to 
agriculture and manufacture. Nearly all 
the lands of the government were then in 
the great valley of the Mississippi. This is 
a vast basin, the sides of which are the 
eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains on 
the west, and the western slopes of the Al- 
leghany Mountains on the east. The chain 
of great lakes stretches across the northern 
end of the basin, and the Mississippi river 
flows through its centre to the Gulf of Mexi- 
co, receiving on its eastern side the Illinois, 
the Ohio with its afiiuents, and other 
large rivers which flow generally west from 
the water-shed of the Alleghanies ; and on 
its western side the Missouri and other large 
rivers whose waters descend from the east- 
ern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. The 
only outlets to this vast basin were by the 
St. Lawrence River (not then navigable, how- 
ever) north to the ocean, and the Mississippi 
river south to the gulf Hardy pioneers 
did penetrate across the mountains, by a 
perilous seven weeks' journey, to the Ohio ; 
but once there, intercourse was but limited 
with the east. The fertile soil was, how- 
ever, atti'active, and the Indian trade profit- 
able. In 1790 the whole population west 
of the mountains was 108,868 souls, or 
about 3 per cent of the whole population of 
the Union. In 1800 that population had 
increased to nearly 400,000, but the only 
outlet for their produce was down the Mis- 
sissippi through the French territory of 
Louisiana. That circumstance led to great 
dissatisfaction, and being adroitly handled 
by the political adventurers of that day, 
threatened disunion, by dissolving the states 
east and west — the latter to form a new 
confederacy with the south-west and Mexico. 
The remedy was to purchase Louisiana. 
Fortunately, at the moment Napoleon had 
relinquished his projects of forming French 



colonies ; also being determined on war with 
England, he feared the seizure of Louisiana 
by that power, and determined to sell it to 
the United States for $14,984,872. This 
money, in 1803, gave him the sinews of war, 
and also the hope that the transaction would 
embroil the United States with his enemy. 
England did at a later period attempt to 
take the territories. But the troops who 
had driven the French out of Spain, em- 
barked from France for the enterprise only 
to encounter the bloodiest defeat before 
cotton bags and western rifles. Louisiana 
was then possessed of a certain amount of 
population and wealth, which, from being 
French, by annexation became American. A 
considerable commerce had grown up. The 
amount of ti-ade then existing between the 
eastern and western states may be gathered 
from the ofticial returns of exports to New 
Orleans, in the four years before it was an- 
nexed, as follows : — 



1799. 



1800. 



1801. 



1802. 



States. 

Atlantic, 3,504,092 2,035,789 1,907,998 1,224,710 
Western, 1,124,842 1,596,640 



Total, $3,504,092 2,035,789 3,032,840 2,821,350 

The exports from the Atlantic States were 
mostly foreign merchandise destined for ex- 
port up the western rivers. The exports of 
the western states were the produce sent 
down for sale. Those exports were the 
productions of hardy adventurers, whom 
circumstances had induced to seek their for- 
tunes in the west. As long as the commerce 
of the country was active, and the sales of 
the farm products of the Atlantic states 
profitable, there was less inducement to mi- 
grate west than there was after the embargo 
had wrought a change in that respect, and 
the means of communication via New Or- 
leans had improved. When that port be- 
came an American city, and the mighty 
river to its mouth an American stream, a 
new attraction was added to the fair lands 
of the valley, and in 1810 its population 
had risen to 878,315. The impulse thus 
given to western settlement was strength- 
ened by the eftects of war upon the Atlantic 
states. The interruption of commerce and 
stagnation of exports threw out of employ- 
ment large numbers, w'ho now turned an 
inquiring gaze beyond the mountains. The * 
capital of the east thrown out of commercial 
employment by the same circumstances, 
flowed eagerly into banking, in the hope of 







JbilK 



fr ',,ii 



WESTERN SETTLEMENT AND TRADE. 



171 



deriving large profits from the growing re- 
sources of the west ; although inevitable 
disaster followed the erroneous principles 
on which that banking was conducted, the 
capital, so lost to stockholders, really pro- 
moted agriculture. Instead of confining 
tliemselves to advances on produce shipped, 
the institutions loaned money to make im- 
provements and build houses that the farm 
profits could not pay for. The result was 
ruin to those accepting such advances, and 
insolvency to the banks making them. 
From 1810 to 1820 six states grew into the 
Union, while in the fifteen years that fol- 
lowed 1821 none were admitted. 

This is an instructive fact, and it indicates 
that western land speculation, so much over- 
done at those periods, was a long time 
in recovering itself. The process of forming 
new states is mostly a speculative one. The 
shrewdest operators get possession of the 
leading " sites " of future cities, and by 
stimulating and guiding the tide of migra- 
tion, become wealthy in the rise of prices that 
the tide creates around them. As the wealth- 
iest names of the eastern cities wera men 
eminent in commercial enterprise, so were 
those of the western cities the earliest and 
most extensive land-holders. The political 
influence which brings the government pat- 
ronage upon the theatre of such locations, 
is a part of the machinery to guide the pop- 
ular movement. When in seasons of specu- 
lation, these operators become possessed of 
considerable tracts, a period of steady and 
healthy migration is required to distribute 
possession among settlers and clear the way 
for a new excitement. Yearly the trade grows 
by reason of the increasing surplus that the 
settlers throw ofi" for market, and which 
being sold increases their ability to buy 
merchandise in return. 

There are no data by which to measure the 
growth of trade in those western states after 
the admission of Louisiana, up to within 
twenty years, since the accounts were kept 
only for the foreign trade, and when Louisi- 
ana became a state, reports were no longer 
made. The sales of lands, and population 
of the new states, progressed as follows, how- 
ever : — 

1790 to 1800 1800 to 1810 
Population, increase, 276,769 492,678 

Sales of land, acres, 1,536,152 3,008,982 

1810 to 1820 Total, 1820 

Population, increase, 1,201,248 2,079,563 

Sales of land, acres, 8,499,673 13,044,807 



So rapid had been the settlement from 
1810 to 1820. The agricultural productions 
of that region, as a matter of course, fol- 
lowed this rapid settlement of lands, and the 
exchange of those productions created a 
large trade of which there is little record. 
The mines and manufactures sprung up in 
the several towns, following the wants of the 
people. ' 

The cession of Louisiana to the United 
States had produced a dispute in relation to 
its boundaries between this country and 
Spain, which then owned Florida. This dis- 
pute became very warm in 1819, when it was 
settled through the mediation of the French 
minister, by a cession of east and west Flor- 
ida by Spain to the United States, in con- 
sideration of being released from claims for 
spoliation of American property to the extent 
of $4,985,599, which the United States gov- 
ernment undertook to pay its own citizens. 
The coast line of the United States thus 
became complete. There were now large 
interests west of the mountains, a population 
of over 2,000,000 souls, occupying fertile 
land, capable of any development, and great 
numbers were interested in the rapid appre- 
ciation of those lands by settlement. The 
want of communication was a great obstacle. 
It required seven weeks to reach the newly 
settled cities of the west: and when durinjx 
the war it was necessary to send a gun from 
New York city to Buffalo for defense, it cost 
six weeks of time and $1,000 in money to 
do it. There could be little trade under 
such circumstances, and the question was 
to open communication. A canal from the 
lakes to tide water on the Hudson was 
commenced in 1817, and completed in 1825. 
This Erie canal cost $7,143,789, and soon 
paid for itself, being the most profitable, as it 
was the greatest of modern improvements. 
It opened the door for the great western val- 
ley to tide water, and by doing so wrought an 
immense change in the condition and pros- 
pects of all that region. In October, 1823, 
New York had also completed the Cham- 
plain canal, running 03 miles, from Albany 
to Lake Champlain, at a cost of $1,179,871. 
Pennsylvania, in 1825, passed an act for the 
connection of Pittsburg, on the Ohio, with 
Philadelphia, a distance of 394 miles. This 
line was not completed until 1834. In 1828, 
a company was chartered to connect the 
Ohio with Georgetown, on the Potomac, by 
the Chesapeake and Ohio canal. These 
works gave three outlets from the great basin 



1'72 



LAND SETTLEMENT INTERNAL TRADE. 



to tide water. While yet they were in pro- 
cess of construction, however, a new power 
was being developed to supersede them for 
trade and light freights. In 1828, Massa- 
chusetts had three miles of railroad; from 
that nest-egg, capital has since hatched 28,270 
miles, which coxer the country like a net- 
work. The opening of the Erie canal was 
attended with great results, since it placed 
the produce of western lands cheaply in com- 
petition with that of the valley of the Hud- 
son, and of the less productive states of the 
Atlantic coast. Commerce and manufactures 
increased, for the reason that agriculture paid 
less. The supply of labor changed direction, 
and the increasing numbers in manufacturing 
employments drew their subsistence from the 
west. The natural water courses that dis- 
charged themselves into the lakes were lined 
with settlers, and soon Ohio connected the 
lakes with the Ohio river, by a canal from 
Cleveland to Cincinnati, and also to Ports- 
mouth. Indiana projected a canal from 
Toledo, on the lakes, to the Ohio river, cut- 
ting the state nearly longitudinally; and 
Illinois projected one from Chicago to the 
navigable waters of the Illinois river, thus 
connecting the lakes with the Mississippi 
river, nearly opposite the old French town 
of St. Louis — across the state. These works 
were not completed, some of tbem, until ten 
or fifteen years after they were undertaken. 
That of Ohio, however, gave a new impulse 
to trade, not only by Cleveland, on the lakes, 
but by way of Cincinnati, down the river to 
Kevv Orl(!ans. These circumstances gave a 
new impulse to the sales of land and the 
settlement of the west. The expenditure of 
money for the construction of canals, and by 
the federal govi»rnineiit for the construction 
of the great national road running west from 
the seat of government to the Mississippi, 
inaugurated the speculative movement in 
that direction. The bank fever then raged 
once more in support of the land move- 
ment, as it had done in the six years end- 
ing with 1820, and with the same results. 
$200,000,000 of money went from east to 
west, feeding the flame, until all real capital 
was nearly consumed, and the speculation 
ran wild until it burst in 1837. At that 
time a large quantity of land had passed, 
under the credit sales of the federal govern- 
ment, into the hands of private speculators, 
and the western fever lay dormant up to the 
revival that it experienced in 1846-7, by 
reason of the famine abroad, and the growing 



strength of the migration. Attention was 
then again turned to the lands, and the rail- 
road expenditure began to exert the same 
influence that canal and bank expenditure 
had exercised in 1836, and the movement 
was progressive until the revulsion of 1857. 

The natural water courses of the country 
had been followed by early migrations, and 
the settlement of the land bordering them 
had been stimulated by the bank paper 
speculation of 1810 to 1820. Following the 
excitement came the construction of the 
artificial means of navigation, involving an 
expenditure of some $50,000,000 for canals 
through new lands opened up by their opera- 
tion ; and these enterprises were again at- 
tended with a great bank expansion, that, 
although ending disastrously, nevertheless 
had the efl'ect of drawing capital from Eng- 
land and the wealthier Atlantic states to 
spread it upon the fertile lands of the west. 
The subsidence of that speculation left the 
west in comparative quiet, although of gene- 
ral progress, for some years, during which a 
new and more powerful element of internal 
development was coming into action. This 
was the railroad system. 

The first railroad of the country was three 
miles, built in Quincy, Massachusetts, and in 
operation in 1828, about the time the suc- 
cess of the Manchester railroad in England 
astonished the world with the new phenom- 
ena of locomotion. The example was not 
slow of imitation in this country; and the 
Boston and Providence railroad, uniting those 
cities by forty miles of rail, to connect with 
the steamboats to New York, was soon in 
operation. Its success caused other works to 
be undertaken in New England, and when 
the Western road was projected, to con- 
nect Albany with Boston, it gave the city a 
direct connection with the Hudson river and 
the Erie canal. New York projected the Har- 
lem railroad ; and from Albany several roads 
extended west, connecting city after city, 
until the united lengths of 380 miles made a 
continuous route to Buffalo — afterward, in 
1850, consolidated in the New York Central 
railroad. Another road — the Erie — to con- 
nect New York with Lake Erie at Dunkirk 
(459 miles), through the lower tier of coun- 
ties, was commenced in 1842 and completed 
in 1 853. Baltimore projected the connection 
with Wheeling, on the Ohio, 380 miles, by 
rail, and Philadelphia connected Pittsburg, on 
the Ohio, 329 miles, by a line of works which 
became subsequently a continuous railway. 




SAW MILLS. 



WESTERN SETTLEMENT AND TRADE. 



ITS 



The New York railroads were not allowed 
by law to carry freight until 1850, except on 
payinont of the canal tolls. These four routes 
opened the western valley by rail to tide 
water. The Canada roads, connecting De- 
troit and Buffalo, and Detroit and Portland, 
make live routes, with distances as follows : — 

N. York to Chicago, via Erie, Lake Shore, and 

Mich. Southern, 957 

N. York to Chicago, via Central, Canada, and 

Mich. Central, 957 

Philadelphia to Chicago, via Pittsburg and 

Fort Wayne, 823 

Balliniore to Chicago, via Ohio Central, - 942 
Portland to " " Canada and Michigan 

Central, 1,133 

There had been, meanwhile, many western 
roads built in important localities, which had 
much favored the export of food in answer 
to the foreign demand growing out of the 
famine of 1846-7. In the year 1850, the 
federal government made a grant of land of 
about 2,500,000 acres to the state of Illinois, 
in aid of the construction of the Central 
railroad, which was to connect Galena, on 
the Mississippi, and Chicago, on the lake, 
with Cairo, at the junction of the Ohio and 
Mississippi rivers. The two roads leaving 
respectively Galena and Chicago, run south, 
converging until they meet at a point 50 
miles from Cairo, and thence proceed to- 
gether. The state not being able to do this 
herself, made over the lands to a company, 
on condition that they should construct the 
road. This was commenced in 1852, and 
finished in 1857, at a cost of $35,000,000. 
The tract given by the government was in 
size equal to the whole state of Connecticut, 
and was a part of 11,000,000 acres that had 
been over fifteen years in the market without 
finding buyers. The fact that the railroad was 
to run through them, and spend $25,000,000, 
and employ 10,000 men in the building of 
the road, made the lands attractive, and ex- 
cited speculation. At about the same time 
the state of Michigan sold the Michigan Cen- 
tral road and the Southern Michigan road to 
two companies, on the condition of their 
finishmg them, which was done in 1852, 
establishing a connection between Detroit 
and Chicago. About the same time the Gale- 
na and Chicago railroad was commenced and 
finished in 1850, making a direct communi- 
cation from the river at Galena to Chicago, 
prolonged by the Michigan roads to Detroit, 
and thence b}"^ the Lake Shore to New York, 
by the Erie or the Central railroads, or via 



the Canada route to Portland or to Boston. 
Subsequent connections have been made with 
the Pennsylvania and the Baltimore roads ; 
and the western connections of Chicago and 
Milwaukee have been pushed under a vast ex- 
penditure of money. Tlie inauguration of 
land grants by government, in the case of 
the Illinois Central, has been followed by 
grants to other states for the same object, 
until all the grants amount to 25,403,993 
acres. These grants have rapidly developed 
southern connections, until the route is now 
complete between Chicago and New Orleans, 
shortening the river route by over 400 miles. 
While these " trunk lines" were in process 
of construction, cross roads were multiplied 
to an immense extent, and the connections 
of them form a continuous route from Bangor, 
Maine, to New Orleans, 1,996 miles. This 
vast chain of railways is composed of eigh- 
teen independent roads, costing in the aggre- 
gate, for 2,394 miles of road, $92,784,084, 
or nearly onp-twenty-fourth of the whole 
railway system of the United States. 

The progress of the construction by miles 
in each locality has been as follows, in 
periods of ten years : — 

East'rn. Middle. South'rn. West'ra. Total Miles. Coat. 

1828.... 3 3 221,101 

1830... 3 88 6 6 43 3,M)1,100 

1840.... 444 1,436 461 28 2,369 98.170,001 

1850.... 2,396 2,923 1.415 1,041 T,7T7 291,482,101 

I860.... 3,824 8,176 6,552 10,7l8 28,270 $1,009,172,000 

.870.... 4,274 10,791 11,132 22,664 48 861 2,212,412,719 

A vast sum of money, amounting in all to 
$1,203,240,719, has beenexpended in the last 
ten years in the construction of 20,59 1 miles of 
road, of which rather more than one-half has 
been built at the we.^t. There are, in addi- 
tion to these roads, some 28,000 miles of 
road incomplete. A considerable amount 
of this money was di'awn from abroad. The 
iron was got in exchange for bonds, which 
have not in all cases been paid ; but if the 
bonds were poor, the iron has not been of 
good quality. The quantity of railroad iron 
imported in ten years, to 1850, was 242,449 
tons, at a cost of $9,603,587. In the twenty 
years ending Avith 1!*69, the quantity im- 
ported was 3,519.896 tons, at a cost of 
$281,591,680. This number of tons suffices 
for about 30,000 miles of road, at 70 lbs. to the 
yard. The money expended upon the roads 
in the employment of men and in the manu- 
facture of superstructure, rolling stock, etc., 
of itself caused an immense activity and de- 
mand for produce, which, as a matter of 
course, became scarce and high upon the 
theatre of such expenditure. The manufac- 



174 



LAND SETTLEMENT INTERNAL TRADE. 



ture of superstructure, cars, locomotives, sta- 
tions, etc., were the means of employing 
great numbers of men. The railroad iron, 
of which the manufacture requires the in- 
vestment of much capital, was alone import- 
ed to any great extent. The remaining por- 
tions of the railroads were manufactured at 
home. The first locomotives in the United 
States were imported from England in the 
fall of 1829 or spring of 1830. The first 
Stephenson locomotive ever imported was 
the "Robert Fulton," in 1831, for the Mo- 
hawk and Hudson railroad. The first loco- 
motive built in this country \fas constructed 
at the West I'oint foundry in 1830, for the 
South Carolina railroad. Since then the im- 
provement and manufacture of railroads has 
been so successful as to admit of the export 
of many, American machines. As the roads 
were completed, and the hands, numbering 
at least 200,000 men so employed, were dis- 
charged, they naturally turned their atten- 
tion to the agriculture of the neighborhood 
where they had been employed, and produc- 
tion thus succeeded to consumption. The 
effect of the railroad expenditure upon the 
grain crops is to some extent indicated in 
the following table of miles of roads in oper- 
ation in the western states at the periods 
named, and the population and corn product 
of those states : — 

1850. Miles T>„„„i„ti-,„ Bushels 

of K.mrt. Population. „f ^^^^j, 

Ohio 299 1,980,329 59,078,695 

Indiana 86 982,405 52,964,363 

Illinois 22 851,470 57,046,984 

Iowa 192,214 8.656,799 

Micliigan 344 397,654 5,641,420 

Wisconsin 305,391 1,988,379 

Missouri 682,044 36,214,537 

751 5,391,507 222,191,177 

1870. 

Ohio 3,724 2,fi75,468 65,250,005 

Indiana 2,977 1,668,169 73,000,000 

Illinois 4,708 2,567,036 121,500,000 

Iowa 2,141 1,181,359 78,500,000 

Mieiiigan ... 1,200 1184,653 14,100000 

Wisconsin 1,491 1,055,501 9,500,000 

Missouri 1,827 1,725,658 80,500,000 

Total 18,068 12,051,844 445,350,005 

Increase 17,317 6,660,337 223,158,828 

The corn crops had more than doubled, and 
the wheat crop in the same states had risen 
from 43,840,637 to 1 43,500,000 bushels in 
] 870 — an increase of 100,000,000 per annum, 
worth as many dollars ; and estimating the 
corn at the same aggregate, there had been 
a sum of $320,000,000 per aimum, or a third 



the cost of the railroads built, extracted each 
year from the soil through their influence. 
We may now observe what had been the 
actual sales of the public lands by the govern- 
ment in the forty years ending with 1860, 
to June 30th, when the fiscal year ends, 
divided into periods of ten years each ; the 
first, being that of recovery from the specu- 
lation that attended the close of the war ; 
the second, embracing the period of bank 
and canal building excitement; the third, 
that of recovery from that excitement; and 
the fourth, that of the last great railroad 
building excitement. The quantity sold 
during the fifty years was, it appears, 1 60,- 
588,005 acres, besides al)out L'.s6,000,000 
acres granted to agricultural colleges, rail- 
roads, homesteads, military service, &c. 

ANNUAL SALES OP LAND BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. 





Aere.'f. 




Acre.s. 




Acres. 


1821, 


822,185 


1831, 


2,804,745 


1841, 


1,164,796 


l>i22, 


763,811 


1832, 


2,411,9f.2 


1S42, 


1,129,217 


1823, 


63^,749 


1838, 


3,8.-;6,227 


1><48, 


1,605,264 


1824, 


723,038 


1834, 


4,658,218 


1844, 


1,754,763 


1825, 


871,»il9 


1835, 


12,564,478 


lS4.i, 


l,S43.o27 


182t;, 


839,263 


1836, 


20,074,870 


1846, 


2,2t--3,730 


1827, 


905,937 


1837, 


6,601,103 


184f, 


2,521, 3' 15 


1S28, 


94i3,tJ50 


1S38, 


8,414,907 


1K48, 


1,887,653 


1829, 


1 ,236,445 


1889, 


4,976,382 


1849, 


1,329,902 


1830, 


1,880,019 
9,627,716 


1840, 


2,236,889 


18^0, 


769,364 


Total, 


62,599,771 


16,269,421 


Pop. . 


.2,233,880 




3,707,299 




10,454,245 


1851, 


1,846,847 




1861,1 

1862, 






1852, 


1,5.33,071 








1853, 


1,083,495 




18('3, 




9,109,075 


1854, 


7,035,735 




1864, 






1855, 


15,729,524 




18-;5, 






1856, 


9,227,878 




1766, 




4,629,313 


1857, 


4,142,744 




1867, 




7,041,114 


1K58, 


8,804,908 




1868, 




6,655,743 


18ol>, 


3,931,580 




1869, 




7,666,152 


18GJ, 


4, 000,000 




1870, 




8,095,413 


Totnl 


52,''85,782 








43,196,8)0 


l'op"n 


15,081,891 








17,217,610 



The total sales of land, from the opening 
of the land offices to 1870, including grants 
under tlie homestead laws, were 176, 488, 736 
acres. Tiiere have been issued land warrants 
to soldiers, which have taken up large por- 
tions of the land. These warrants are for 1 60 
acres, 120 acres, 80 acres, and 40 acres, and 
have been sold in the markets at $ 1 per acre 
for the smaller lots, and about 80 cts. the 
larger warrants, by which means the lands 
come less to the buyer. In addition to the 
lands sold, the government has donated 69,- 
066,802 acres to schools ; 6,851,989 acres to 
agricultural colleges; 44.971 to deaf and 
dumb asylums ; 12,403,054 to internal im- 
provements; 2,240,184 to individuals ; 146,- 
860 to seats of government; 61,076,922 to 
military services; 514,585 salines to states; 



1-^ 



t-i 



c 



t^ 
L- 










I 



WESTERN SETTLEMENT AND TRADE. 



1Y5 



18,980,700 Inrlian reserves; 17,645,244 pri- 
vate claims; 47,875.241) swamp lands, granted 
to states ; 27,453,522 to I'ailroads, etc. ; re- 
served for individuals, companies, and corpor- 
ations, 8,955,o'J4 acres; and there remain 
unsold lauds on hand, tlie trifle of 1,396,- 
2^6,164 acres. 

The population of the land states had in- 
creased, it a})pears, from 2.233,880 in 1830, 
to 17,217,610 in 1870, during which period 
of forty years, 174,451,784 acres of land 
were sold by the Government. These 
land sales and population are the ground 
work of the national trade, which grows with 
the surplus produced by the land settlers. 
Those people at first make few purchases of 
goods, but increase them as their surplus 
produce sells and enables them to do so. 

The people who seek new lands on which 
to rear their future homes and fortunes, are, 
for the most part, not possessed of much 
capital, and under ordinary circumstances 
much is required for a family to perform a 
distant journey, locate and prepare land and 
wait until the crops are grown. Xeverthe- 
less, pioneers have ceaselessly pushed for- 
ward into the wilderness and battled with 
nature in the shape of forests, animals and 
savages, until tv/enty new states and millions 
of wealth have been added to the Union. 
The great instrument of this progress, has, 
under Providence, and in the hands of skil- 
ful and determined men, been Indian corn. 
That grain has been the poor man's capital, 
enabling him to conquer the wilderness. It 
needed on his locating his future home but 
to drop the seed in the fertile soil, and 
while he busied himself with his new dwel- 
ling, a sure crop grew up, which in a few 
months became food for his family and his 
animals. The husks furnish his bed and 
the cobs his fuel. He is thus by the gift of 
nature furnished with capital for the coming 
year, until his other crops and young ani- 
mals have grown. Indian corn has thus 
given the pioneer a hold upon the land and 
made his footing firm where otherwise he 
might have been compelled to succumb to 
hardships. With every such remove on to new 
laud the circle of trade has increased. A 
few months only suflfice for the settler to 
furnish a surplus of production in return for 
comforts that he desires. For this reason 
chietly corn figures so largely in the agricul- 
ture of the west. The prolific soil throws 
out quantities far beyond tlie wants of the 
planter, and in a region Avhere all are plant- 



ers, the supply becomes superabundant and 
must find distant markets only at rates so 
low as to leave little to the grower. Two 
local demands are created for it. The most 
important of them is to feed hogs, and pork 
becomes a leading staple export ; the other 
is for distillation, and whiskey is largely 
exported. The quantity of corn required 
to make a certain quantity of pork becomes 
accurately known, and the price of meat 
rises and falls with that of the grain, as does 
whiskey also. Thus out of the great staple 
grain Indian-corn come dii'ectly the three 
great articles of export, corn, pork and its 
manufacture, and whiskey. Lumber in most 
new countries is also an important export, 
As the settlements progress, beef, wool, 
wheat and other grains, soon follow, and 
trade increases. While Indian corn has been 
largely the instrument of settlement at the 
West, the nature of the country and the 
fertility of machine inventions have been no 
less necessary in securing a surplus for sale. 
If the corn grows readily it could not under 
the old system be so readily harvested in a 
region where land belonged to every man, 
and every man's labor could be applied only to 
his own service. At the same time no 
man's labor more than suffices for the wants 
of his own family. Here machinery steps 
in, and favored by the level nature of the 
soil operates to a charm. A man who could 
with the scythe cut from one to one and a half 
acres of grass per day, may ride round a 
field and cut ten acres in a day without 
fatigue. Instead of a gang to rake and turn 
and cock, his liorse and himself may with a 
patent rake perform all that labor and more 
eflfectually when driven by a shower of rain, 
than any gang. His grain is cut by the 
same means and light labor as his grass. It 
is threshed out by a similar process ; his 
corn is husked and shelled by machines ; 
and when drawn to the railroad depots it is 
elevated into vast receptacles to be trans- 
ported rapidly and at small cost to the best 
market. All these machine aids enable 
the man whose own labor would scarcely 
supply the demands of his family to turn 
out a vast surplus. This surplus seeks the 
river and lake cities by rail, canal, and steam, 
to be transported to the Atlantic markets 
for consumption or export, or may now leave 
Chicago and Milwaukee on the lakes, or St. 
Louis and Cincinnati on the rivers for Liver- 
pool direct without breaking bulk. The 
table of land sales above gives a very good 



iVo 



LAND SETTLEMENT INTERNAL TRADE. 



indication of the accunuilatintj force behind 
the forwarding cities to push forward the 
trade. As every bushel of grain they receive 
requires an equivalent from them in goods, 
each grows under the double demand. 
Their combined growth is the basis of lake 
and river trade, distributing the produce for 
consumption, and bearing back goods in 
return, while the foreign commerce of the 
country grows with the aggregate surplus 
to be exported and the consequent increase 
of the merchandise received in exchange. 
Having glanced at the settlement of the 
western lands, it becomes no matter of sur- 
prise that the cities which were the focus at 
which such large quantities of surplus pro- 
ducts concentrated grew rapidly, and grew 
in proportion to the rapidity of settlement 
and the perfection of the means of internal 
communication. It may be worth while to 
sketch the leading ones, first those of the 
lakes. 

Buffalo, on Lake Erie, was laid out 
originally in 1801, but was of small import- 
ance until in 1825 by the opening of the 
Erie canal, it became the gateway from the 
great valley to the Atlantic states. Its 
population was then 3,000. As the " great 
valley " at that time had, however, but little 
to spare, the importance of Buftalo was to 
swell with the growth of the west which 
was rapid indeed. In 1832, thirty-one years 
from its settlement, Buftalo became a city 
with 8,653 inhabitants. In the twenty-eight 
years that have since elapsed the population 
has risen to 117,715. In 1825, the tonnage 
belonging to the j^ort was 200 tons. It has 
grown to 87,243, valued at $5,588,175, be- 
sides 474 canal boats. The steam tonnage 
running to Buffalo is 53,147 tons. The 
exports of Buffalo by canal are §54,000,000 
and by railroad considerably more. The open- 
ing of Dunkirk to New York over the Erie 
road created a rival to Buffalo, and the 
Welland canal round the falls permitted 
vessels to go to Oswego, where they take 
either canal or railroad on a shorter route to 
New York, also rivaling Buftalo. It is obvious 
that a few miles longer trip adds little to 
the cost of a loaded ship, and by reducing 
the canal and railroad transportation the 
cost is diminished. Hence Oswego has an 
advantage over Buffalo. 

The imports into Buffalo by lake and rail- 
road, showing the relative and aggregate val- 
ues, indicate the gain of "rails" over "sails." 
They were, for a number of years, as follows : 



Lake. 

1850, $22,525,781 

1851, 31,889,951 

1852, 34,94:i,855 

1853, 36,881,230 

1854, 42,030,931 

1855, 50,346,819 

1856, 42,684.079 

1857, 36.913,166 
1870, 87,419.3S1 



Railroad. 



2,234,273 
6,397.923 
10,968,384 
16,422,505 
15,020,580 
95,183,721 



Total. 

$22,525,781 
31.889,951 
34,943,855 
39,115,503 
48,428,854 
61,313,203 
59,106,584 
51,933,746 

18:^,602,102 



Oswego, settled in 1820 on Lake Ontario 
has been mostly the creation of the Oswego 
canal and of the railroad communication since 
established, which makes its position on the 
lake with reference to the Canada and lake 
trade very desirable. The canal was com- 
pleted in 1828, and the Oswego and Syra- 
cuse railroad in 1848, when Oswego, having 
10,305 inhabitants, was incorporated as a 
city. The modification of the English colo- 
nial trade system, and the admission by the 
United States of goods in bond under the ware- 
house system, laid the foundation for a great 
development of the business of Oswego on the 
occasion of the famine of 1847, when the 
trade of the place took a sudden start, which 
it has since sustained. The Welland canal, 
connecting Lakes Erie and Ontario, gave 
Oswego a line of communication with the 
west, by which freight coming thence to the 
east, would have, via Oswego, less canal navi- 
gation than by other routes. In May, 1857, 
the Welland railway, running along the banks 
of the canal, was ])rojecte(l, and completed 
in I860, thus giving a communication all the 
year round. By these means Oswego draws 
its supplies from every western state. The 
impoits from Canada in 1870 were $7,399,- 
035, and the exports $1,043,200; the ton- 
nage of the port amounts to 17,833 tons ex- 
clusive of 772 canal-boats, measuring 84,411 
tons. Pop. in 180'), 20.910. 

Cleveland. — The place was settled by 
one family in 1709, but its population did 
not increase beyond 500 in 1825, when the 
Erie canal was opened. Its greatest impulse 
was derived from the construction of the 
Ohio canal, connecting it with Cincinnati, 
the Pennsylvania and Ohio canal, connecting 
it with l*ittsburg, and the Welland canal 
in Canada, connecting Lake Erie with Lake 
Ontario. Since that event a considerable 
Canadian trade has sprung up in Cleveland. 
The canals of Ohio brought down the in- 
creasing quantities of produce that were then 
exported in exchange for the merchandise 
that was delivered by lake for the consump- 
tion of the interior. In 1832 there were 26 
sail vessels and one steamer belonging to 



WESTERN SETTLEMENT AND TRADE. 



Ill 



ClevL'laiul ; thure are now 49 steamers and 
ij56 sail vessels, with an aggrefiate tonnage of 
54,474 tons owned there. The multiplica- 
tion of railroads has, however, added of late 
more to the city business than either canals 
or tonnage. There are twelve roads running 
into Cleveland, of an aggregate length of 
1,623 miles, and their annual receipts are 
more than 25 million dollars. These cross- 
ing Ohio in every direction, connect the city 
with Toledo, Columbus, Pittsburg, and New 
York. AYith these advantages, and an active 
commerce with Canada, a large foreign trade 
sprung up. In 1870 tlie imports and exports 
were as follows : 

Vessels. Tons. Coastwise. Foreign. Total. 

Exports. . .1,060 302,170 $76,187,890 $395,203 $576,782,593 
Imports... 940 288,110 108,249,861 569,984 108,819,845 

The trade between Cleveland and Lake 
Superior has also become important within 
fifteen years, in which time it has risen to 
more than $20,()00,()()0, mostly in iron and 
copper ore. In 1856-1S61, Cleveland had, in 
common with several of the other lake ports, 
a growing and flourishing direct trade with 
Europe through the Welland canal. Ten 
vessels, of 300 or 400 tons, ran regularly for 
some time between Cleveland and Liverpool. 
Owing to the war and the unprofital)leness 
of this trade, it has now very much declined, 
but the city has become largely interested 
manufactures, having over $16,000,000 cap- 
ital invested in them, with an annual product 
of nearly $50,000,000. The coal trade of 
Cleveland has become large for the suj^ply 
■of the steamers and factories on and around 
the lakes ; the supply is about 700,000 tons 
per annum. Population in 1870, 93,918. 

Detroit. — This is the oldest of the west- 
ern cities, having been early occupied by 
the French, but its jirogress, like the others, 
was slow until the opening of the Erie canal. 
In 137 years, up to 1820, the population 
had risen only to 1,442 souls. The greatest 
impulse has been given to Detroit by 
the formation, in the last ten years, of 
the railroad system, which connects it with 
the interior country. The Gieat Western 
Railway of Canada, coming 299 miles, has 
its terminus virtually in Detroit. From De- 
troit west run the Michigan Central road, 
228 miles, to Chicago, and connecting with 
the whole western net-work of rails ; the 
Detroit and Milwaukee railroad, crossing the 
Peninsula, 185 miles, to Grand Haven; 
the Michigan Southern road running also to 
11* 



Chicago, a road to Lansing, and other smaller 
roads, in all extending about 1,120 miles. 
Population in 1870, 79,588. 

Chicago is the most remarkable of the 
western cities for its growth. Its location 
was good, at the southern extremity of the 
lake, but though it had a fine harbor sufficient 
for any lake trade, it could not thrive uiitil 
the back country supplied it with produce to 
sell, and required of it merchandise in ex- 
change. Though occupied as a garrison in 
1812, and a trading port in 1823, it had lei-s 
than fifty inhabitants till 1832. The Illinois 
and Michigan canal, connecting the lake with 
the navigable waters of the Illinois, was com- 
menced in 1836, 100 miles in length. In aid 
of this work the federal government donated 
alternate six mile sections of the public lands. 
The state had also projected a large system 
of railroad improvements on a scale far be- 
yond its means, and it fliiled in 1840. Sub- 
sequently the means was raised to complete 
the canal, wliich was effected in 1850. The 
yearly arrivals and clearances of vessels in 
the port are little more than six million tons. 
In 1870, there were 15 trunk and about 50 
other railroads with an aggregate mileage of 
over 9,000 miles radiating from Chicago as 
their common centre. The expenditure of 
about $450,000,000 in the construction c f 
these roads, and the great development t f 
the country through which they pass has 
made the growth of Chicago rapid beyond 
all precedent. The vast grain, live, stock, lum- 
ber and mining products poured into it have 
made it a great commercial city, even beyond 
what its population would indicate. Ovr 
the 9,000 miles of railroad, most of it trav- 
ei-sing the finest grain country in the world, 
the cereals have come in such quantities as 
to make Chicago the first primary grain port 
in the world, shipping as it does about 60 
million bushels of grain per annum, import- 
ing and exporting to the amount of $250,- 
000,000. Chicago is only six or eight feet 
above the level of the lake, but the harbor 
has a depth of thirteen feet of water, and wi.l 
always be ample for the commerce of the 
lakes. The number of vessels arriving heie 
in 1870 was 12,739. The new Canadian 
rules in relation to navigation enable Chicago 
vessels to clear direct for Europe, and there 
are a number in the trade by which produ( e 
and goods are shipped direct to Europe. 
The total value of pro:luce exported in 
1870 was $5,034,336. Inasmuch as bread- 
stuffs are the principal product of the 



LAND SETTLEMENT INTERNAL TRADE. 





Bushels. 


183S, 


78 


1839, 


3,078 


1840, 


10,000 


1841, 


40,000 


1842, 


58i3,9'j7 


1843, 


688,907 


1844, 


923,494 


1845, 


1,024,620 


1846, 


1,599,819 


1847, 


2,243,201 


1848, 


3,001,740 





Bushels. 




1849, 


2,769,111 


1860, 


1850, 


1,8.30,939 


1861, 


1851, 


4,646,291 


1S62, 


1852, 


5,873,141 


1863, 


1853, 


6,41:i,181 


18(54, 


1854, 


12,932,320 


1865, 


185S, 


16,633,700 


1866, 


1856, 


21,583,221 


1867, 


1857, 


18,032,678 


1808, 


1858, 


20,035,166 


1869, 


1859, 


16,753,795 


1870, 



PorV. 


FroviBions and 


Urd. 


Beef. 


Wool. 




Barrels. 


Poiiniis 


Pounds. 


Barrels. 


Pounds. 


Ftet 


65,106 


B9,7483fi8 


16,400,822 


50,154 


1,360,617 


]89,.379,445 




71.!I44,(II0 


54,.5(l.i.l23 


151,631 


2,101,521 


189,277,079 


44SI,la:i 


95,3U(),.S15 


58,a«),7i!8 


137,.302 


3,4-35,956 


221,709,.3;i0 


2;i8,250 


SO,().5o,3>2 


42,342,970 


140.(>.'7 


7.-)54,:!79 


269,496.579 


284,7.34 


55,0i't),609 


28,487.407 


lU:l.(iii4 


9,',i '.■;.(ii;9 


385,:i53,678 


2.'i7,470 


73,011,584 


26.758,3(W 


67,76 J 


i-_',;'.'.ii.'.i';3 


422,313,266 


176.H51 


82,325.522 


27,211.225 


84,622 


I1.:;:K,717 


518.973,354 


14I..U1 


!)5, 1116,101 


23,527,821 


75,424 


13.101,162 


551,989,806 




86,70r.4fi6 


17,278,5-.K) 


48,ii24 


8,273,924 


481,53.3,480 
5)3,490,6:34 


Vi5,>b5 


112,4.33,168 


43,292,249 


65,369 


15,820,536 



tlie commerce of the place, the following ta- 
ble will best illustrate as well the development 
of agriculture as the chief element of trade : 

SHIP.M£N'TS OP FLOUR (REDUCED TO WREAT) A\D GRAIN FROM 
CHIO.iGG FOR THIRTV-THREE YEARS. 

Bushels. 

31,108,759 
50,481,862 
56,477,110 
5'1,287,345 
46,718,543 
52,268,181 
65,486,323 
55,187,909 
63,688,358 
50,759,515 
54,745,903 

The following are the shipments of pork, 
provision, and cut meats, lard, beef, wool, 
and lumber, for ten years — IbG 1-1870 : 

Tear. 

1861, 
1862, 
1863, 
1864, 
1865, 
IWK, 
1867, 
1868, 
I8(i9, 
1870, 

Milwaukee is one of the chief cities of 
the western shore of Lake Michigan. It 
was settled in 1834, and up to 1840 could 
boast of but 1,700 inhabitants. The jwpu- 
lation had grown to nearly 20,000 in 1850, 
to 30,000 in 1853, and to 71,499 in 1870. 
The growth has been most rapid under the 
settlement of the country west of it, by 
means of the large expenditures there made 
in the last fourteen years for railroads. These 
in the state of Wisconsin, have an aggregate 
length of 2,779 miles, and have been con- 
structed mostly in the last fifteen years at an 
expen.se of $60,358,723. The expenditure 
of this large sum of money, in addition to 
that laid out by speculators and emigrants, 
imparted an impulse to the prosperity of the 
city whicltis reflected in its population and 
valuation. The circle of fertile countiy 
poured into the city products which were 
exported from it to the value of $35,890,288 
in 1870, and in return $59,180,000 worth 
of goods was imported. The manufactures 
of the city were also valued at $23,100,000. 
The quantity of grain shipped from INIihvau- 
kee in 1870 was 28,645,000 bushels, and 
from other lake ports of Wisconsin 1,501,881 
bushels. The grain movement, which is the 
basis of the city's commerce, indicates the 
ratio of its growth, and is as follows : — 

Bushels. Bushels. Bushels. Bushels. 

1851, 576,580 1R54, '2.514,617 1857, 3,727,468 1862, 18,7:fO,0(iO 

1852, l,02fl.379 ISfio, 3 75f,:i65 1858, 6,155,507 1896, 16.700.000 
1833, l,476,a98 1856, 3,720,103 1853, 6,438,038 1870, 23,100,000 



We may recapitulate these lake cities in 
the following table, showing the date of set- 
tlement, of incorporation, and population at 
that date, with the population and valuation 
in 1850 and 1800 :— 



Settled. Incorporated. Population. 


Buffalo 


.1801 


1832 8.653 


Oswego 


.1820 


1848 10,805 


ileveland . . 


.1799 


1836 4,000 


Detroit 


.1683 


1802 700 


Ohiciijo. . . . 


1823 


1885 800 


Milwaukee . 


ISGO 


1840 9,655 


Totul 




34,113 


Population 


Total 


Population Total 


in 1850. 


Valuation. 


in 1860. Valuation. 


Buffalo... 49,764 


$18,427,000 


117.n5 .$112,920,150 


Oswego ... 12,205 


9,107,203 


20,910 19,425,80(1 


(leveland.. 17,ii?4 


12.102,101 


93,918 ' 92,325,000 


Detroit.... 21,057 


10,741,057 


79,.588 79,809,951 


Chicago . . . 29.90.3 


31, 205,000 


298,9.83 358,783,515 


Milwaukee 81,077 


18,421,000 
$100,003,960 


71,499 57,805,772 


Total... 16 1,100 


«82,613 712,370,138 



Thus these prominent cities have grown 
up, so to speak, in 35 years, as points where 
farm produce is received from the country 
for sale and where goods are furnished in 
exchange. The whole value of the lake 
trade has been estimated at $1200,000,000 
per annum, and the transaction of tliis busi- 
ness has, it appears, created six cities, with 
a population of 682,610 and a taxable valu- 
ation of $712,330,198. The manufactures 
have gradually increased in those cities in 
order to produce a local supply instead of 
importing, and new inventions in sewing 
and other machines have promoted that 
change, as machinery aided the development 
of surplus produce. The aggregate trade 
poured upon the lakes from all tliese sources 
has been increasingly large. The aggregate 
quantities of grain sh.ipped from the grain 
regions are seen in the following table, which 
shows the routes taken to market : — 

1857. 1868. 1859. 

Fia Lake Ontario . 18,044,854 11,872,995 14,874,901 

F/rt Suspension Bridge ... . 1,0-19,108 1,900,000 337 778 

Fia Lake Erie 22,081,164 29,4"2,121 24,780,o82 

From Ohio liiver eastward 4,352,036 6,242,441 4,446,261 

Grand total 45,476,662 49,447,557 44,389,602 

The totals were composed of these follow- 
ing grains : — 

Corn. 0th. Grain. Total in 

bushels, bushels. bushels. 

14,282.632 4.0.'!4,9G9 58.269,.571 

8,779,832 2,270,149 45,476,603 

10,558,527, 5,080,615 49,447,557 

4,428,096 4,310,269 44.889,002 

1,423.260 1,097,949 45,346 930 



Flour, 
barrels. 

1856, 3,879,189 

1857, 3,412,904 
18.58, 4,602,780 
1859, 3,700,285 16,864,812 
1870, 3,315,909 36,240,176 



Wheat. 

bushels. 
19,956,025 
17,362,161 
20.794,515 



These fluctuations follow the course of 
western busines.?. In 1857 there was a 
heavy decline under the influence of the 
panic of that year. In 1858 the speculative 
consumption of the interior having ceased, 
the quantities that sought market were less 



WESTERN SETTLEMENT AND TRADE. 



179 



than in 1856. The railroads also delivered 
considerable quantities. 

The rapid settlement of the west attracted 
the attention of the Canadians, and they be- 
gan early with some energy to take measures 
that should give them their share of it. 
The St. Lawrence river was for them the 
only outlet, and to make that serviceable, ex- 
tensive works were necessary to pass around 
the rapids, and make navigation practicable 
from the lakes to the sea. The Welland 
canal, passing around the Falls and connect- 
ing Lakes Erie and Ontario, was constructed, 
with other necessary works, completing, in 
1846, a system, at a cost of $20,000,000. 
The tolls on these works were considerable, 
and duties on goods imported into Canada 
from the United States were so high as to 
check trade — the more so that similar duties 
were imposed in the United States on Cana- 
dian goods. In 1850 the navigation laws 
were repealed, opening the canals and rivers 
to foreign vessels. The difficulties in the 
way of navigating the St. Lawrence have 
since that date been, to a great extent, re- 
moved. Many light-houses have been con- 
structed, the system of pilotage has been 
revised, a service of tug-boats, of great power, 
and working at moderate rates, has been 
organized, and the depth of water between 
Quebec and Montreal has been increased by 
dredging, so as to permit the passage of 
vessels drawing eighteen feet six inches. 
With these changes and improvements a 
new element has been introduced. The 
construction of railways had begun to occupy 
the attention of the public mi*nd in Canada. 
In 1849 an act of the Colonial Legislature 
was passed guaranteeing 6 per cent, on half 
the cost of all the railways seventy-five miles 
in extent. Three years later the Grand 
Trunk line, from ]\Iontreal to Toronto, and 
from Quebec to Riviere-du-Loup, was incor- 
porated as a part of the Main Trunk line, 
and the line from Quebec to Richmond had 
been commenced. In 1853 the amalgama- 
tion of all the companies forming the Main 
Trunk line was completed, under a Parlia- 
mentary sanction with powers to construct 
the A-^ictoria Bridge across the St. Lawrence, 
and thereby connect the lines west of Mon- 
treal with those leading to Quebec and Port- 
land. 

By the aid of all these enterprises com- 
bined, there is now in operation in Canada 
2,093 miles of railway, including 1,112 miles 
of the Grand Trunk, the whole connected 



with the great winter liarbor of Portland, in 
the state of Maine. 

To give effect to this great system of 
communication, the whole system of tolls 
upon inland navigation lias been abandoned. 
The whole line of navigation from Chicago 
to the Atlantic is now free from tolls and 
lake dues, the ports of Sault Stc. MarivP 
and Gaspe have been made free ports, and it 
is probable many more will be thrown 
open. A reciprocity treaty between Canada 
and the United States was adopted in 1854, 
which continued in force till March 1866, 
when, as the two contracting parties could 
not agree on terms for its renewal, it expired. 
This treaty designated a number of articles 
which were to be free from duty, and also 
granted some concessions in regard to the 
fisheries in return for some privileges which 
Canadians received here. The treaty went 
into operation in the latter part of 1854, and 
the trade was affected by it as follows : 



I860, 


18,667,429 


22,706,328 


23,851,381 


1861, 


18,883,715 


22,745,613 


23,062,933 


1862, 


18,652,012 


21,079,115 


19,299,995 


1863, 


28,629,110 


31,281,030 


24,021,264 


1864, 


26,567,221 


28,987,147 


38,922,015 


1865, 


30,455,989 


32,553,841 


38,820,969 


1866, 


26,874,888 


29,356,572 


54,714,383 


1867, 


20,548,704 


24,323,169 


33,604,178 


1868, 


23,600,717 


26,262,272 


30,362,221 


1869, 


20,891,786 


24,197,212 


32,090,314 




$362,900,937 


$444,512,595 


$435,443,751 


1870, 




25,118,604 


37,367,076 



The exports of United States produce to 
Canada have been in this period of eighteen 
years nearly $73,000,000 less than the im- 
ports from Canada. But there have been 
exported to Canada, in the same time, about 
$82,000,000 of foreign goods first received 
at our own ports, so that the balance of the 
trade was about $9,000,000 in our favor. 
The domestic exports are composed of the 
produce shipped from the American lake 
ports, and entered at the Canadian ports. 

It will .be noticed that on the expiration of 
the treaty in March, 1866, there was a very 
manifest effort to crowd Canadian goods into 
our markets, the imports from Canada being 
nearly $1 6,000,000 more than in any former 
year, while the Canadians were not disposed 
to take so many of our goods as usual. This 
matter, however, speedily regulated itself, 
and the trade is now very nearly what it 
was before the treaty was annulled. 

The efforts of Canada to obtain the trade, 
and cause it to pass down the St. Lawrence, 



180 



LAND SETTLEMENT INTERNAL TRADE. 



had to overcome, however, tlie climate, to be 
successful ; for four months in the year that 
outlet is ice-bound, while the ports of Lake 
Ontario are never closed by the ice, and ofter 
railroad connection with New York, Boston, 
and Philadelphia, the former for export and 
the latter for supplies of manufacture. 



CHAPTER II. 

EITER CITIES— ATLANTIC CITIES. 

The development given to the lake cities 
by the canal and railroad construction, was 
participated in to as great an extent by the 
river cities, the course of whose trade flowed 
downward toward New Orleans as an out- 
let. 

Pittsburg is situated at the point where 
the junction of the ]Monongahela and Alle- 
ghany forms the Ohio river, which thence 
flows to the Gulf of Mexico. The origin of 
the place dates from its occupation by tlie 
French as a post, and its growth is due to 
its commanding position. It is 301 miles 
east by north from Philadelphia, and is 130 
miles from Lake Erie. The traveller de- 
scends the river 450 miles to Cincinnati; 
583 to Louisville, Kentucky; 977 to Cairo, 
where the Ohio pours into the Mississippi ; 
1,157 to St. Louis, and 2,004 miles to New 
Orleans. That vast valley collects in its 
course the produce coming right and left 
by streams, canals, and railroads, to deliver 
it at New Orleans, whence ascend the mer- 
chandise, tropical products, and materials of 
manufacture, to be distributed at the com- 
mercial and manufacturing ports. ^ The 
position of Pittsburg was the most impor- 
tant, commercially, until the opening of the 
Erie canal. Its resources were highly 
favorable to ship-building, and it supplied 
the first boats that descended the Ohio. The 
commerce and ship-building prospered 
largely during the war of 1812, but after the 
peace it declined. Since that period manu- 
factures have taken the place of commerce, 
and it ranks next to Philadelphia as a man- 
ufacturing town. The population in 1800 
was 1,565, and in 1816 it was incorporated 
as a city with about 6,150 inhabitants. 
The population of Pittsburg in 1870 was 
86,235, while Alleghany City, across the 
river, had 53,181, and other suburbs really 
forming part of the city, about 75,000 
more, making a total of about 210,000. 



The progress of the city has been as fol- 
lows : — 

Population. Value of manufactures. 
1816, 6,182 $1,896,366 

1836, 15,481 15,575,440 

1850, 46,601 55,287,000 

1860. 49,220 70,000,000 

1870, 86,235 111,881,000 

Cincinnati was located at the mouth of 
the Licking river in 1788, in the centre of 
an area which commanded the commerce of 
the Miami, the Wabash, the Scioto, the 
Muskingum, and the Kanawlia rivers. These 
streams delivered large quantities of produce 
to foster the trade of Cincinnati, which grew 
with great rapidity, corresponding mostly 
with New Orleans, to which its merchants 
sent the produce, and made purchases of 
goods in the eastern states, which came up 
the river from New Orleans by a long voy- 
age, charged with heavy expenses for freight, 
insurance, etc. The exchanges ran on New 
Orleans against the produce sent down, and 
these credits were the means of payments 
for goods. The opening of the Ohio canal 
to the lakes, to correspond with the Erie 
canal to tide-water, gave a new outlet for 
produce of the northern part of Ohio by way 
of Cleveland, and also a better channel for 
the receipt of goods. The net-work of rail- 
roads has still further multiplied the means 
of communication. Portland, Boston, New 
York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, are almost 
equidistant from Cincinnati, which by the 
same means has its markets extended in a 
broader circle west. The progress of the 
city has been as follows : — 

Population. Imports. Manufactures. Exports. 

ISOO, 750 

1810. 2,540 

1820, 9,ftl4 $1,619,030 $1,059,459 $1,834,080 

1880, 24,831 2,528.590 1.850,000 !,0(i3,660 

1836, 31,207 8,270,000 12,:iSS.2i^0 8,101,000 

1840, 46,8.S8 16,972,000 17,780,033 15.480,000 

IS.'iO, ■I1.'),486 41,256,199 54.550,134 33,-J34,896 

ISfiO, 111 044 96,913.274 112,?,54000 6f>,007,707 

18-0, 218,900 312,978,665 127,459,021 193,517,690 

These figures give the rapid growth of the 
city since the railroads have opened a, broader 
field from which to draw the materials of 
trade in exchange for merchandise demanded 
by the growers. 

Louisville, Kentucky, was a port early 
in 1781, and it made little progress as a 
city. Its population grew but to 600 in 
1800, and was only 4,012 in 1820. The 
difticulties of navigation were a drawback 
upon its commerce, until the Portland canal, 
two miles long, which liad been authorized 
in 1804, around the falls of the Ohio, was 
opened in 1830. The cost of the work, 
$600,000, was paid, one-third by the United 



RIVER CITIES ATLANTIC CITIES. 



181 



States, and the balance mostly in eastern 
cities interested in getting goods up the 
river. A bridge over the Ohio was built in 
1836, at a cost of $250,000. The city was 
incorporated in 1828, and its population 
was then 10,3.36. In 1836 the population 
was 19,967, and the annual amount of busi- 
ness transacted was $29,004,202. In 1840 
the population was 21,210, and in 1850 it 
had again doubled, reaching 43,194. 

St. Louis was occupied as a French trad- 
ing post in 1763, and the town was laid out 
in the following year, with the name of St. 
Louis, in honor of that Louis XV. who had 
so little claim to saintship. The first im- 
pulse to its growth was, however, the annex- 
ation of Louisiana to the United States, 
when emigrants poured into the new coun- 
try, bringing with them a spirit of enterprise 
which soon made visible effects upon St. 
Louis, the commerce of which struggled 



against the difficulties inherent in barge 
and keel boat navigation. In 1817 the 
General Pike, the first steamboat, arrived at 
St. Louis.' That event marked a new era, 
and in 1822, the population being 4,598, the 
city was incorporated. It was not until the 
settlement of the north-western states, under 
the influence of the canals and railroads, that 
the prosperity of St. Louis became marked. 
In 1836 the sales of merchandise in St. 
Louis were given at $6,335,000 ; in 1858 the 
local insurance was $31,800,232. The popu- 
lation of the city, which had been 63,491 in 
1848, rose to 151,780 in 1860, and the city 
valuation was $78,463,375. The settlements 
of the upper Mississippi, east and west, pour 
naturally an increasing trade into the city, 
and its railroad connections are now push- 
ing out toward the Pacific. We may re- 
capitulate the leading river cities as fol- 
lows : — 



Settled. 
Date. 

Pittsburg 1784, 

Cincinnati 1T8S, 

Louisville 1773, 

St. Louis 1764, 



Incorporated. 1840. 1850. 

Date. Populat'n. Populat'n. Population. Valuation. 



1860. 
Population. Valuation. 



1816, 
1802, 
18-28, 
1822, 



6,150 



10,336 
4,598 



21,115 
40,338 
21,210 
16,469 



46.(01 
115,436 
43,194 

77,860 



$27,!l60,600 
5.^670.631 
17.277,600 
38,921,201 



40.220 
161,044 

69,740 
151,780 



$46,866,600 
91.861,978 
30,0^2,800 
78,463,375 



Total 21,974 105,221 283,091 $139,830,032 431,784 $247,234,753 



The numbers and wealth of the river cities 
have increased in a ratio, perhaps, larger than 
the lake cities. They divide with the latter 
the trade of country lying between the lakes 
and the Ohio river, drawing produce and 
shipping merchandise, while they have also a 
strong hold upon southern trade. The busi- 
ness of all those cities, as well lake as river, is 
but a reflection of the growth of the great sea- 
ports. The canals, streams, and railroads that 
pour forth their products in a southerly di- 
rection, and feed the river cities, combine 
with the other business points of the region to 
swell the trade of New Orleans, the common 
correspondent of all ; the roads, rivers, and 
streams that deliver their trade in a northerly 
and easterly direction, glut the great trunk 
lines with the merchandise which they pour 
into Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and 
Baltimore. 

The city of New Orleans, at the Delta 
of the Mississippi, is commercially the second 
city of the Union, and in respect to the ex- 
ports of domestic produce, it ranks first. Its 
position is very advantageous, and its growth 
has been proportional to the development 
of the country, the resources of which sup- 
ply it with produce and depend upon it for 
merchandise in return. The city itself was 



founded by the French in I7l7, and passed 
into the hands of the Spanish in 1762. By 
them it was reconveyed to the French in 
1 800, and was sold by Napoleon to the United 
States in 1804. At that time its population, 
mostly French, was 8,056, and it was rapidly 
increased by the fact of annexation, which 
not only carried enterprising men thither, but 
settled the upper country, which was the 
source of trade. The city was chartered in 
1 805. In 1 820 the population had increased 
to 27,176 persons, but the exports of the 
city still consisted mostly of the produce of 
the upper country, which a population, in- 
creased rapidly by the influence of war and 
speculation, had greatly developed, although 
the valley of the Mississippi had not yet 
attracted cotton planters. In 1830 the trade 
of the city marked a larger production of 
farm produce. In the succeeding ten years 
the migration from the Atlantic cotton states 
to the new lands of the valley produced a 
great change in the trade of New Orleans. 
The cotton receipts rose from 300,000 bales 
in 1830, to 954,000 in 1840, and tobacco 
from twenty-four to forty-three thousand 
hogsheads, and the sugar crop also had risen 
to 85,000 hhds. The exports were now 
swollen by the sales of cotton and tobacco, 



182 



LAND SETTLEMENT INTERNAL TRADE. 



but, with the operation of the canals and i been as follows. The figures for 1860 are 
railroads in the upper country, the supplies! notpublished, but thecotton is 30 per cent. 



of home produce had again become impor- 
tant. The progress of New Orleans has 



liig-her, and the amount will be about 8200,- 
000,000 received from the interior. 





Population. 


Imports. 


Exports. 


Eeceipts from 
Interior. 


Eeceipts of 
Specie. 


Valuation of 
Keal Estate. 


1804, 


8,056 


, , 


$1,392,093 










1810, 


17,242 


, . 


• 1,753,974 










1820, 


27,176 


$3,379,717 


7,242,415 










1830, 


46,310 


7,599,083 


13,042,740 










1840, 


102,193 


10,673,190 


34,236,936 


$45,761,045 








1850. 


116,375 


10,760,499 


38,105,350 


96,897,873 


$3,792,062 






1851, 




12.528,460 


54,413,963 


106,924,083 


7,938,119 






1852, 






12,057,724 


49,058,885 


108,051,708 


6,278,523 


$66 


350,260 


1853, 






13,654,113 


67,768,724 


134,233,731 


7,865,226 






1854, 






14,402,150 


60,172,628 


115,336,798 


6,967,056 




, . 


1855, 






12,923,608 


55,688,552 


117,106,823 


3,746,037 






1856, 






17,183,327 


80,547,963 


144,256,081 


4,913,540 






1857, 






24,981,150 


91,514,286 


158,061,369 


6,500,015 






1858, 






19,586,013 


88,382,438 


167,155,546 


13,268,013 


108,651,135 


1859, 


168,472 


18,349,516 


101,7.34,952 


172,952,664 


15,627,016 


111,193,802 


1870, 


IS 


1,322 


14,993,754 


107,651,042 


205,000,000 




127 


,942,781 



This table embraces the oflRcial figures for 
population, trade, and valuation. The most 
marked feature is the small amount of im- 
ports as compared with exports. This we 
shall find to be the reverse with the trade of 
New York ; the trade of the two cities for 
the past year having been as follows : — 

New York. New Orleans. 

Imports $315,200,022 $14,993,744 

Exports 254,137,208 107,657,042 

The exports from New York, exclusive 
of specie and foreign goods re-exported, were 
$I8o,740,061, the imports exceeding this by 
$129,459,961, while at New Orleans the ex- 
cess of exports was $82,564,902. These 
ligures represent the course of trade. The 
receipts from the interior at New Orleans 
rose from $96,897,873 in 1850, to $172,952,- 
664 in 1859. The vicissitudes of the war 
made great changes in the commerce of New 
Orleans, yet these receipts in 1870 were about 
$33,000,000 greater than in 1859. Sugar 
and molasses were $9,945,245 ; cotton was 
$120,000,000; rice, $869,340, while farm 
produce, minerals, &c., made up, together, a 
little more than $75,000,000. The lighter 
merchandise which forms the sum of imports 
into N ew York, instead of going round by way 
of New Orleans, goes across the country on 
railroads. It follows, that when the west 
sends forty millions of produce to New Or- 
leans for sale, and has purchased an equal 
amount of goods in the east, that its money 
is in New Orleans and its debts in New York. 
It draws upon New Orleans then to pay 
New York. New Orleans being so large an 



exporter, has large sums due it, for which it 
draws to meet what it owes to the west for 
produce. This state of atfairs is the basis of 
bill operations. Firms being connected, one 
at Liverpool, one at New Orleans, and one at 
New York, the New Orleans house buys 
cotton for shipment to England, and draws 
for it at sixty days on the New York firm ; 
the bill being discounted, places him in funds 
to pay for the cotton, which will arrive in 
Liverpool in thirty days. The New York 
firm draws a sterling bill against it at sixty 
days, and, with the proceeds, meets the bill 
drawn on it from New Orleans. The 
sterling bill is then met by the sales of cotton 
four months after it was bought. In the 
mean time, the bill on New York passes into 
the hands of the western debtors of New 
York, who send it thither in payment of 
goods purchased. The sterling bill is sold 
to the New York importer, who remits it 
abroad in payment of goods imported. The 
receipts of cotton and sugar have been very 
large of late years, but the quantities of west- 
ern produce resulting from the more rapid set- 
tlement of the land under the influence of 
the railroads, have also greatly increased. In 
1840, the value of cotton, sugar, and to- 
bacco received was $36,124,275, leaving but 
$9,591,770 for western produce. In the 
year of fjimine the aggregate receipts at 
New Orleans rose to $90,033,251, of which 
$42,599,361 was western produce. In 1857, 
those articles were valued at $49,009,976 ; 
flour and grain counting in that year for 
nearly $1 5,000,000. By means of time bills, 
New Orleans thus furnishes a large capital to 
dealers ; and in years of economy and re- 




ACADEMY OF PESIGN, N. Y. 




COOPER INSTITUTE CONTAINING SCHOOI OF DEbIGN, 
(In which Young Ladies are taught Drawing and Engraving.) 




NEW CITY HALL, N. Y- 




lUL ^E^\ YOKK biocK Eic^^^GE 



RIVER CITIES ATLANTIC CITIES. 



183 



trencliment, when the purchases of goods are 
diminished, it shows a large inward current 
of specie. In 1851, California supplied a 
good deal of gold at that point, but changed 
direction after the establishment of a mint 
at San Francisco, and the receipts of specie 
were small at New Orleans in 1855 — a specu- 
lative year. They became large with the 
panic year, and continued so till 1861, when 
the city, joining in the Rebellion, the branch 
mint was discontinued, and has not since 
been re-estabhshed. 

While New Orleans thus expanded its 
trade, and grew in wealth under the influ- 
ence of western production, the proportion 
that it enjoyed was by no means the largest. 
Each Atlantic city had made etTorts to ob- 
tain a share, and, with more or less success, 
Canada sought to attract it down the St. 
Lawrence. New York built two railroads to 
aid the canals in connecting the lakes with 
tide water. Boston formed a connection 
with the Hudson river, and another with the 
lakes at Ogdensburgh. Philadelphia im- 
proved its hold on Pittsburg. Baltimore 
thrust out its iron arm to Wheeling, and all 
these offered inducements to trade. The 
number of tons moved one mile during given 
years in each shows the progress of trade : 



Tons. Tons. 

Eriecanal, 1840 312,016,346 

New York canals, 1869 919,153,611 

New York Central railroad, 1869. .2,179,419.726 

New York and Erie, 1869 817,829,190 2,211,402,527 

Increase in tonnage, 1,899,386,181 



The valuation of this tonnage is nearly 
$350,000,000 per annum, and this aff"ords an 
indication only of the wealth which has 
passed eastward. Thus, in 1840, the value of 
western produce, that found market by New 
Orleans and the Erie canal, was $51,000,000 ; 
in 1858, it was nearly $400,000,000, or an 
increase ten-fold, and on this mainly has 
the prosperity of the eastern cities depended. 
The exports of the southern ports have 
grown mostly with the direct export of cot- 
ton, and those at the north have added grad- 
ually food and manufactures thereto. The 
general course of trade has been to cen- 
tralize imports in New York. 

Charleston owes its origin to a stock 
similar to that of New England, since a 
colony of French Huguenots, flying from 
persecution, settled there in 1690. It was 
not chartered as a city, however, until nearly 



a century later, viz. : in 1783, when its popu- 
lation was nearly 16,000. The commerce of 
Charleston is not extensive, but its facilities 
for internal communications are large, and 
enjoys the trade of the whole state, together 
with much of that of North Carolina and 
Georgia. A canal, twenty-two miles long, 
connects the Cooper with the Santee river. 
It has a fleet of steamboats that are running 
to the neighboring cities, and several lines 
of packets running to New York regularly. 
Its most important connection is, however, 
the South Carolina railroad, running 136 
miles to Hamburg, on the Savannah river, 
opposite Augusta, Georgia. The population 
and business have been as follows : — 





Population. 


Imports. 


Exports. 


1790, 


16,359 


$4,516,205 


$2,693,268 


1820, 


24,480 


3,007,113 


8,882,940 


1830, 


30,289 


1,054,619 


7,627,031 


1840, 


29,261 


2,318,791 


11,042,070 


1850, 


42,985 


1,933,785 


11,447,800 


1860, 


51,210 


2,070 249 


16,888,262 


1870, 


48,956 


617,094 


11,184,208 



The importations have decreased and the 
export also, in consequence of the business 
depression which followed the wa.r, and from 
which the city is now slowly recovering. 

Baltimore was laid out as a town, by 
Roman Catholics, in 1*729, and up to 1765 
it contained but fifty houses. The persua- 
sion of the founders still predominates. It 
is situated on the Patapsco river, fourteen 
miles from Chesapeake bay, and two hundred 
miles from the ocean. The harbor is a very 
fine one. The city enjoys great facilities for 
commerce, and possesses the trade of Mary- 
land and part of Pennsylvania, while it has 
of late obtained a good share of that of the 
western states. It was the great tobacco 
market of the country, but Richmond now 
rivals it in that respect. As a flour market, 
it has few equals. The building of railroads 
to connect with the interior has greatly pro- 
moted the city trade, which has progressed 
as follows : — 





Population. 


Imports. 


Exports. 


1790, 


13,503 


$6,018,500 


$2,239,691 


1800, 


20,514 




12,264,331 


1810, 


46,555 




6,489,018 


1820, 


62,738 


4,070,842 


6,609,364 


1830, 


80,625 


4,523,866 


3,791,482 


1840, 


102,313 


5,701,869 


4,524,575 


1850, 


169,054 


6,124,201 


6,967,353 


1860, 


212,419 


8,930,157 


10,442,616 


1870, 


267,3.54 


20,000,000 


12,765,052 



The importations have been usually fol- 
lowed with increase in exports, but 1870 



184 



LAND SETTLEMENT INTERNAL TRADE. 



was an exception in consequence of the 
Franco-German war, which cut off the Eu- 
ropean demand for tobacco. 

Philadelphia, at the close of the last cen- 
tury ,was the first city of America, and though 
it has not ceased to expand since that time, 
yet New York, by force of natural advanta- 
ges, has come to exceed it as a commercial 
city. Its resources for manufacturing are 
such, however, as to have given it a high 
rank in the interior trade of the country. 
The water-power of the neighborhood is very 
important, and rails and canals give it com- 
mand of limitless supplies of raw materials, 
coal and iron in particular. The position of 
the city was early improved by the construc- 
tion of canals to the extent of 336 miles, at 
a cost of $24,000,000; and seven lines, com- 
posed of 12 railroads, of 567 miles in length, 
radiated to every point of the compass, hav- 
ing cost $53,716,201. The canals and roads 
have swollen the coal receipts of Philadelphia 
from 365 tons in 1820, to more than 10,000,- 
000 tons in 1870, valued at $35,000,000 
per annum. The population and external 
trade of Philadelphia have been as follows : — 





Population. 


Imports. 


Exports. Total valuatio 


1684, 


2,.'ii>() 






irst.), 


4'2,5'20 




$3,436,8fl.S 


IdOO, 


108,116 


$S 158,922 


5,743,.'J49 $40,487,239 


1^0. 


'2.->s.(«7 


ll,(is(i,||l 


3.84I,.W9 99,821,881 


1 <•% 


4il>i,Tii-i 


]2,mii;,15-t 


4,501,000 




.V-iO.dOi) 


12,s<t-2,'il5 


6,036,411 155,697,069 



1870, 674,022 17,355,825 16,649,828 507,987,900 

The city of Philadelphia was first settled 
in 1627 by the Swedes, but was regulated 
and laid out in 1682 according to the views of 
William Penn, and its population in 1684 was 
2,500. The city is one hundred miles from 
the ocean, eighty-seven miles from New York, 
and 130 miles from Washington. It is five 
miles from the junction of the Schuylkill and 
Delaware rivers, extending from one to the 
other, and its harbor is on thcDelawarc,or east- 
ern side. Vessels drawing more than twenty 
feet water cannot reach Philadelphia, and the 
navigation for large ships below is a little 
difficult. Pilots take inward bound ships at 
sea. These circumstances have aided to give 
Philadelphia, a moderate foreign commerce 
as compared with the commanding harbor 
of New York. 

But if the foreign commerce of Philadel- 
phia is moderate, owing to physical diffi- 
culties, the internal commerce, from sales of 
manufactures and goods imported at New 
York, is very large — and the real growth 
of the city is indicated by her external trade 
less than that of, perhaps, any other city of 



the Union. The census of 1870 showed a 
population of 674,022. The manufacturing 
industry of Philadelphia has increased in a 
remarkable ratio. In 1845 the capital em- 
ployed in the city proper was $18,000,000, 
the production $21,000,000, and of the 
neighborhood $83,000,000. 

In 1870 the capital invested in the various 
industries was given at $205,564,238,employ- 
ing 119,532 hands, and producing $251,663,- 
921 of annual value. In the vicinity the amount 
is $47,500,000 additional. These figures de- 
note that Philadelphia is probably the great- 
est manufacturing city of the Union, and 
will continue to grow in that direction by 
the force of the same influences which tend 
to give New York the commercial prepon- 
derance. The trade of the city is on a grand 
scale, and second to none in the world for 
magnitude of operations, or successful method 
in conducting them. A leading store of that 
city is a model of mercantile method. Each 
department in the store is alphabetically 
designated. The shelves and rows of goods 
in each department are numbered, and upon 
the tag attached to the goods is marked the 
letter of the department, the number of the 
shelf, and row on that shelf to which such 
piece of goods belongs. The cashier receives 
a certain sum extra per week, and he is res- 
ponsible for all worthless money received. 
Books arc kept, in which the sales of each 
clerk are entered for the day, and the salary 
of the clerk cast, as a per-centage on each 
day, week, and year, and, at the foot of the 
page, the aggregate of the sales appears, and 
the per-centage that it has cost to effect 
these sales is easily calculated for each day, 
month, or year. The counters are desig- 
nated by an imaginary color, as the blue, 
green, brown, etc., counter. The yard-sticks 
and counter-brush belonging to it are painted 
to correspond with the imaginary color of 
the counter ; so by a very simple arrange- 
ment, each of these necessaries is kept where 
it belongs; and should any be missing, the 
faulty clerks are easily known. 

All wrapping paper coming into the store 
is immediately taken to a counter in the 
basement, where a lad attends with a pair 
of shears, whose duty it is to cut the paper 
into pieces to correspond with the size of the 
parcels sold at the difierent departments, to 
which he sees that it is transferred. All 
pieces too small for this, even to the smallest 
scraps, are by him put into a sack, and what 
is usually thrown away by our merchants, 




&0\ S^L\■VESA^TS MANSION N Y., 
(lu olden time.) 



FIRST CLASS DWELLINGS IN EXCHANGE PLACE, 1690 




jonfj rit MCft 



A. T. STEWART'S RESIDENCE, FIFTH AVENUE, N. Y., FIRST CLASS DWELLING, 1870. 



NEW YORK TELEGRAPH EXPRESS- 



185 



yields to the systematic man some $20 per 
year. In one part of the estahlishment is a 
tool closet, with a work-bench attached ; the 
closet occupies but little space, yet in it is 
seen almost every useful tool, and this is 
arranged with the hand-saw to form the cen- 
ti-e, and the smaller tools radiating from it 
in sun form ; beliind each article is painted, 
with black paint, the shape of the tool be- 
longing in that place. 

It is, consequently, impossible that any 
thing should be out of place except through 
design, and if any tool is missing, the wall 
will show the shadow without the substance. 
The proprietor's desk stands at the further 
end of the store, raised on a platform facing 
the front, from Avhich he can see all the 
operations in each section of the retail de- 
partment. From this desk run tubes, con- 
necting with each department of the store, 
from the garret to the cellar, so that if a 
person in any department, either porter, re- 
tail, or wholesale clerk, wishes to communi- 
cate with the employer, he can do so Avith- 
out leaving his station. Pages are kept in 
each department to take the bill of parcels, 
together with the money paid, and return 
the bill receipted, and change, if any, to the 
customer. So that the salesman is never 
obliged to leave the counter ; he is at all 
times ready either to introduce a new article 
or watch that no goods are taken from his 
counter, excepting those accounted for. 

By a peculiar method of casting the per- 
centage of a clerk's salary on his sales, coup- 
ling it with the clerk's general conduct, and 
the style of goods he is selling, a just esti- 
mate may be formed of the relative value of 
the services of each, in proportion to his 
salary. By the alphabetic arrangement of 
departments, numbering of shelves, and form 
of the tools, any clerk, no matter if he has 
not been in the store more than an hour, can 
arrange every article in its proper place ; and 
at any time, if inquired of respecting, or re- 
ferred to by any clerk, the proprietor is able 
to speak understandingly of the capabilities 
and business qualities of any of his employees. 
Population in 1800, 673,022. 

Boston was settled early in the seven- 
teenth century, and in 1684- was the most 
populous of the Atlantic cities, having 6,300 
inhabitants. It is 216 miles from New 
York, and although possessed of one of the 
finest harbors on the coast, it had no facilities 
for reaching the back country, which was for 
the most part rocky and mountainous, until 



Population. Imports. 
:684, 6,300 

1T90, 18,038 $5,519,500 

1820, 43,298 )4,.s26,732 

1830, 61,392 10,453,544 

1840, 93,3^3 13,300,925 

1850, 136,881 30,374,664 

1855, 162,629 45,113,774 

1858, nO.OOO 40,432,710 

1870, 250,526 47,524,845 



railroads were constructed. Its early trade 
was in navigation and the fisheries. Its first 
adventure was in 1627, when a sloop, loaded 
with corn, was sent to Narraganset to trade, 
and made an encouraging voyage. Its in- 
habitants soon became rich by doing the 
trade of others in their celebrated ships, un- 
til manufacturing became possible. The 
energy and intelligence of the race, when 
turned in that direction, soon drew large 
profits from their industry, and more freight 
fur their coasting tonnage, which increased 
as the numbers engaged in manufacture re- 
quired more food and raw materials. The 
greatest start was given to the trade of the 
city when railroads had laid open even the 
remotest regions of the interior to its enter- 
prise. The general course of its population, 
trade, and valuation has been as follows: — 

Exports. Valuation. 

$2,517,651 $6,990,890 

11,008,922 38,288,200 

7,218,194 61,780,210 

9,104,862 102,101,201 

10,681,763 180,000,500 

28,190,925 249,262,500 

20,979,853 262,014,500 

14,108,821 584,089,4CiO 

The exports of Boston have taken a great 
start since 1830, and since then there have 
been constructed nine lines of railroad, which 
radiate from Boston in every direction ; 
placing every town in New England in con- 
nection with it, and by continuous lines, every 
city of the Union, from Bangor to New 
Orleans, St. Louis, Chicago, and St. Paul. 
The running of the line of Cunard steamers 
gives it a European connection more prompt 
and regular than any other. Its extensive 
trade shows the effect of these connections, 
and its taxable valuation the wealth that 
accumulates from its manufacturing industry. 
That valuation was, for 1870, $584,089,400, 
and the population 250,526. 

CHAPTER III. 

NEW YORK— TELEGRAPH— EXPRESS- 
GOLD. 

The city of New York, at the close of the 
revolution, was the second city of the new 
world, taking rank after Philadelphia. Its in- 
ternal trade was limited to the capacity of the 
Hudson river, but its traders pushed across to 
Lake Champlain, and even to Lake Ontario, 
whence they drew skins and furs from the 
Indians, and brought down some of the prod- 
uce of Vermont and New Hampshire. At 
this date there was little trade west of 
Albany. The trade was mostly with the 



186 



LAND SETTLEMENT INTERNAL TRADE. 



towns on the east side of the river, and witli 
Rutland, Burlington, and other Vermont 
towns, as well as the western towns of Massa- 
chusetts. Remittances were made from 
these towns in ashes, wheat, etc., and during 
the embargo and war, smuggling was very ex- 
tensively carried on, taking pay in specie. 
The goods went up the river in sloops. The 
New England cities had equal commercial 
advantages, and Philadelphia enjoyed many 
others in addition. The valley of the Hud- 
son furnished, however, large supplies of 
farm produce during the wars of Europe, 
which gave a preponderance to the New 
York trade, and it began to gain strength. 
In 1807 the passage of Fulton's steamer to 
Albany gave a great impulse to the river 
trade. Her statesmen, however, soon saw 
the necessity of a more extended inland com- 
munication, and the canal, which had been 
projected before the peace, became a legal 
reality in 1817, and a physical fact in 1825. 
The capital of the New York merchants be- 
gan to be invested in enterprises which re- 
sulted in centring trade in the city. The 
canal connection opened the vast circle of 
the lake trade to New York city, and poured 
into its basin the western farm produce at 
rates far below what the same articles could 
be raised for at the east. As a necessity, 
therefore, New York became the point of 
supply, not only for the foreign trade, but 
for the neighboring states. The growing 
manufactures of Philadelphia and Boston 
found cheaper food in New York than in 
their own neighborhood, and North river 
sloops and schooners continued the Erie 
canal to the Delaware and the Charles river. 
As new routes to the west, and more ex- 
tended settlements in that region opened 
new sources for the supply of produce, and 
new markets for goods, the tendency was to 
New York. The capital engaged in com- 
merce at that point being the largest, prod- 
uce found readier advances and more 
prompt realization, while the large imports 
and consignments of foreign goods made the 
assortment larger and the avei'age cost less 
there than elsewhere. The same circum- 
stance that drew produce into New York 
bay, also drew eastern manufactures to the 
same point, and this increased the assort- 
ment which was to be found at the common 
centre. The fact that produce tended gen- 
erally to New York, as a matter of course 
made it the centre of finance. The United 
States government, and bank, and mint had 



been established at Philadelphia. Those 
circumstances could not, however, control 
the currents of trade. The pork, and corn, 
and wheat of the west, the manufactures of 
the east, the tobacco, cotton, and rice of the 
south, being sent to New York to obtain 
advances, it followed that from all quarters 
bills drawn against produce ran on New 
York. Those bills found buyers among 
the country dealers, who, in all directions, 
wanted to remit to New York to pay for 
goods there purchased. Capital could not 
keep aloof from the focus of transactions, and 
all loans to be made or financial operations 
to be conducted, sought New York. For 
the same reason all funds seeking investments 
went there to find them. Produce, goods, 
raw material, capital, all operated in refer- 
ence to New York, and the foreign trade 
was the motor which kept up the circulation. 
This tendency to a centre once commenced, 
cannot be turned, but it strengthens with 
the general increase of the country. The 
other cities strive to turn a portion of the 
current each in its own direction, but the 
result of those efforts is only to increase the 
aggregate trade of the whole. 

If the amount of specie exported, and for 
the most part that is but a transit trade from 
California, is deducted from the New York 
account, New Orleans will be found to come 
within $88,000,000 of it. The lines of 
communication with the interior, and the 
facilities for advancing on produce, drew to 
New York a considerable portion of the 
western produce, and operations are now 
there carried on which partake of a specula- 
tive character. Pork, flour, etc., are often sold 
largely for future delivery on the New York 
exchange ; and much of the cotton shipped 
from southern ports direct to Europe, is 
resold in New York many times before it 
arrives out. When the cotton is put on 
board ship for Liverpool, samples and bills 
of lading are sent to New York, and the 
cotton sold *' in transitu " — that is, during 
its passage to Europe. Should the ocean 
telegraph come into operation, this system 
could be carried to a much greater extent, 
since news from the Liverpool market could 
be received at least thirty days after a cargo 
is shipped before its arrival out; and in 
speculative times, other articles will be sub- 
ject to the same operations. The export of 
corn first became a large business in the 
famine years of 1847-8, and the sub- 
divisions of qualities, round and flat, yellow, 



NEW TOKK — TELEGRAPH — EXPRESS — GOLD. 



187 



white, etc., then manifested themselves. In 
1859 the crops were greatly beyond any 
former experience, and every available 
means of transportation was taken up to 
convey them to market. The realization of 
them depends upon the quantities that Eu- 
rope may require, and this depends upon the 
events of a few weeks. The steamers now 
give intelligence in eight or ten days, when 
formerly thirty were required. Since the 



ocean telegraphs have worked, the price of 
corn in Liverpool is known simultaneously 
in New York and Chicago, and water trans- 
portation pressed to the utmost before the 
frosts close it. 

The proportion which each of the cities 
named enjoys of the aggregate export trade 
of the whole country, is seen in the following 
table : — 



EXPORTS OF THE LEADING ARTICLES OF DOMESTIC PRODnCE PROM THE CHIEF ATLANTIC CITIES IN 1870. 



Bef 

Pork 

Lumber 

Furniture 

Petroleum and coal oils. 

Butter 

Cheese 

Hams, &c 

Lard 

Tallow 

Cotton 

Tobacco, manufactured. 

leaf 

Rice 

Naval stores 

Brass manufactures 

Iron " .... 

Cotton " .... 

Wood 

Gold and silver coin .... 
" bullion.. 

Corn 

Wheat 

Flour 

Spirits 

Sewing machines 



Boston. 

$92,631 

441,698 

223,755 

448,720 

586,1.30 

37,875 

7,623 

255,511 

139,694 

346,547 

148,179 

151,345 

478,226 

7,922 

58,321 

2,764 

1,615,554 

50,980 

767,770 

10,073 

80,519 

1,160,653 
652,952 
117,934 



Philadelphia. 

$34,957 

116,147 

92,556 

3,181 

11,662,120 

13,128 

5,018 

39,272 

234,626 

119,746 



6,218 

26,757 

85 

10,687 

1,095 

384,107 

5,403 

894,773 

7,317 

190,164 

1,504,377 

923,955 

280 

2,460 



Baltimore. New Orleans. 
$9,237 
25,914 
30,691 
2,122 
6,920 
7,785 
2,397 
57,341 
227,196 
231,969 
100,686,701 
4,657 
3,047,593 
500 
27,484 
143 
16,297 
12,519 
334,125 
270,366 



$28,521 

110,710 

108,029 

2,060 

452,120 

30,694 

11,644 

52,859 

288,657 

65,518 

3,393,510 

35,247 

3,553,418 

18 

607,787 

2,372 

11,832 

112,203 

771,105 

19,740 

224,180 

1,293,645 

2,320,651 

366 

285 



144,624 

444,180 

1,611,270 

1,753 

2,155 



New York. 

$1,754,953 

2,098,345 

729,692 

600,520 

19,815,159 

415,136 

8,824,987 

5,589,822 

4,980,906 

3,013,415 

44,076,531 

1,246,669 

12,373,804 

55,157 

1,446,218 

150,438 

8,015,.365 

2,354,747 

3,083,275 

11,227,516 

11,674,570 

976,208 

28,154,215 

11,614,663 

40,846 

2,066,224 



Total. 

$1,920,299 
2.792,814 
1,194,723 
1,056,603 

32,522,449 
504,618 
8,851,669 
5,994,505 
5,870,979 
3,777,195 
148,304,921 
1,434,176 

19,479,798 

63,682 

2,150,497 

156,792 

10,043,155 
3,135,910 
5,851,048 

11,556,012 

11,674,570 
1,71.5,695 

31,396,417 

17,631,198 

696,097 

2,187,058 



Total $7,784,376 $16,278,329 $13,507,177 $107,237,091 $186,983,288 $331,963,180 



The opening of the Erie canal in 1825, 
gave the first decided impulse to the city 
business, and produced a powerful effect 
upon its prosperity. The impulse was pro- 
longed under the bank excitement that ex- 
ploded in 1837. The effect of railroad ex- 
tension at the West has, in the last twenty- 
five years, had a still more powerful influence 
upon its growth. The following table gives 
the population, imports, expoi'ts, and taxable 
valuation, for a long period : — 



1634, 
1750, 
1790, 
1800, 
1820, 
1830, 
1840, 
1850, 
1855, 
1860, 
1870, 



Population. 

2,600 

10,381 

33,131 

60,489 

123.706 

203,007 

312,710 

515,.547 

629,904 

813,668 

942,310 



Imports. 

$4,579 

267,130 

10,739,250 

26,201,000 

23,629,246 

36,624,070 

60,440,750 

111,123,624 

164,776,511 

233,718,718 

315,200,022 



Exports. 


Valuation. 


$10,093 




35,632 




2,505,415 




14,045,079 


$25,645,867 


13,160,918 


69,,530,753 


19,697,983 


125,288,518 


34,264,080 


252,233,615 


52,712,789 


286,061,816 


113,731,238 


486,998,278 


138,0.36,550 


577,230,1356 


254,131,205 


965,283,464 



Up to the year 1840, the busmess of the 
West depended mostly on the canal, and by 



way of New Orleans. The city held then a 
kind of monopoly, but, like all monopolies, 
it cramped the producers. The large ex- 
penditure at the West for bank capital, in 
the years 1836-37, caused a great credit 
demand for goods upon New York, which 
was generally met. The facilities granted 
in those years by the American bankers in 
London, for the purchase of goods on credit, 
placed these within the reach of any dealer 
who could make a fair show ; and the goods 
obtained on credit required to be sold on 
the same terms. The rivalry thus produced 
among those who could command goods, was 
very great, and the utmost efforts were made 
to obtain paper in exchange for goods. The 
banks showed the same eagerness to discount 
the paper that the merchants did to obtain 
it, and the mass grew in a rapid ratio, from 
the small country dealers to city jobbers and 
importers, and London bankers, until the 



188 



LAND SETTLEMEKT INTERNAL TRADE. 



Bank of England, in August, 1836, issued a 
warning to those houses to curtail their 
credits. This was the " hand writing on the 
wall " — settling day had come. The business 
south and west had then been eagerly sought 
after by the jobbing-houses, who employed 
drummers to haunt the New York hotels 
and beset every new-comer with tempta- 
tions to buy. The drummers of the day had 
usually no limit placed upon their expenses, 
which were intended to cover the " atten- 
tions " shown to the country dealer. These 
revelled in the dissipations of the town at the 
apparent expense of their entertainer, and 
they could do no less than buy of such atten- 
tive friends, when the bill, whether they dis- 
covered it or not, would often cover their 
own and other people's expenses. The 
mode of business then in vogue, when banks 
were multiplying so rapidly all over the 
country, was to take the paper of the dealers, 
payable at their own local bank. It Avas 
supposed that the dealer would be sure to 
keep his credit good at home. The result 
showed that the dealer, in order to pay the 
New York bill, got an accommodation note 
done at his bank, which thus became the 
debtor of the New York collecting bank. 
By this means, although the New York 
merchant got his money, the west was still 
in debt to the east ; and this continued as 
long as capital was sent from the east to the 
west to start banks. The whole system ex- 
ploded in 1837, and the bank capitals were 
sunk in these credits. From that date there 
was to be " no more credit," a threat which 
has often been repeated without being put 
in practice. The only permanent change 
seemed to be to require notes payable in New 
York. Those are given at dates longer or 
shorter, but the system is an improvement 
on the old mode. With 1840 also began 
the railroad building, which brought stocks 
and bonds to New York for negotiation, and 
the money being expended west promoted 
consumption of goods, which caused a greater 
demand in New York. The exports of prod- 
uce increased at higher prices, and the 
sales of these gave the producers the means 
of buying more goods. In 1838, thirty-one 
years after the first successful steamboat, ar- 
rived the first ocean steamer, the Sirius, at 
New York, marking a new era in foreign 
trade, since communication with Europe 
was now reduced to half the time, a circum- 
stance which was equivalent to an increase of 
capital engaged in commerce, because it 



could be turned oftener. From that date 
ocean steam navigation rapidly increased. 
The electric telegraph of Morse began a few 
years later to exert its influence in facili- 
tating intercourse, and the express sys- 
tem was also introduced. It is somewhat 
singular, that with the breakdown of the old 
credit system and the adoption of the plan 
of making notes payable in New York, four 
important elements, having the highest cen- 
tralizing tendencies, began to operate. These 
were, first, ocean navigation ; second, the 
more extended construction of railroads ; 
third, the invention and construction of tele- 
graphs — there are now 25,000 miles of wires, 
that have cost over $2,000,000, consolidated 
in one company, and New York is the centre 
for the whole : and, fourth, the express system 
of intercourse. All these, centring in New 
York, came into active operation at the mo- 
ment when gold was discovered in California, 
to give them an extraordinary impetus. The 
express business is peculiarly American, and 
has grown with a vigor which places it among 
the most important trading facilities of the 
country. In the spring of 1839, a year after 
the arrival of the Sirius at New York, W. 
F. Harnden, then out of employ in Boston, 
was advised by his friends to get a valise and 
take small packages and parcels from his 
acquaintances in Boston to their correspond- 
ents in New York, and return with what 
they had to send, making a small charge for 
his services. lie did so, and discovered that 
a great public want was to be supplied. lie 
soon contracted with the railroad to send a 
car through with his goods, and with busi- 
ness tact he opened offices, employed mes- 
sengers, pushing the business with American 
energy. In 1840 an opposition was started 
by Adams. In 1 841 new fields were explored 
by Ilarndcn, who ran an express between 
Albany and Boston, and one between Albany 
and New York. Route after route was then 
opened to express agents, penetrating further 
and further, and multiplying their lines in 
the densely settled portions of the country; 
not only between cities, but between different 
portions of the same city. In 1845, Buffalo 
was reached by Wells & Co. In 1849, the 
gold fever brought California within the 
scope of express operations, and from San 
Francisco as a centre, " pony " expresses ran 
to the diggings with great success, placing 
the solitary miners of the Sierra Nevada in 
direct connection with the mint and with Wall 
street. As these busy agents continued to 



NEW YORK TELEGRAPH EXPRESS GOLD. 



189 



increase, and lessen the difficulty of commu- 
nication, trade multiplied as a consequence. 
The telegraph had also penetrated most 
direct routes between cities, and that instru- 
ment came in aid of the express, which 
executed an order transmitted by telegraph. 
Instead of waiting the slow course of the 
post for a reply, the telegraph gave an in- 
stantaneous order for goods that the express 
conveyed. Thus, the three months that 
would once have been consumed in coming 
from Cincinnati for goods and returning, was 
reduced to three days. All the cities of the 
union were brought within similar speaking 
distance. In 1850 it was estimated that the 
expresses travelled twenty thousand miles 
daily, in discharge of orders, and the service 
has since doubled. Steam, the telegraph, 
and the express, had thus greatly facilitated 
trade, by making the long semi-annual ex- 
peditions to the large cities, for the pur- 
chase of goods, unnecessary. The small 
dealers could now buy frequently in small 
parcels the goods they found most in demand, 
instead of buying a six months' stock, and 
taking the risk of the goods being well se- 
lected for the market. This also brought 
with it another change. It had been the 
case, that most of the goods sent to America 
formerly were the surplus stock of the British 
manufacturers. That is, where patterns had 
been got up for the home consumption and 
the regular trade supplied, there would remain 
a stock that had become comparatively dead 
by age. This dead stock was " good enough 
for the American market," and was sent out 
almost for what it would bring, and being 
transported into the interior for six months' 
sales, became a sort of Hobson's choice for 
the consumers. When, however, frequent 
arrivals of new goods came to be laid before 
the customers, they immediately displayed 
a taste and exercised a choice. Ill-assorted 
goods would now not sell at all. English 
refuse became of no value, because American 
taste was developing itself with considerable 
strength. The customer was no longer to 
take what was laid before him ; but in order 
to sell, the dealer was now to exercise his 
sagacity as to what would please his taste 
in selecting it, and his judgment in buying it. 
The manufacturer of dry goods was obliged 
to follow in tlie same direction, and the em- 
ployment of designers became important. It 
was now that the sagacity and taste of the 
factory agents were felt to be an indispensa- 
ble element in the success of a concern. The 



production of a design was promptly followed 
by the judgment of the public, and manu- 
facturing became, as it were, one of the fine 
arts. 

The joint operation of these new agencies 
manifested itself in 1850, when the west had 
become enriched with the large sales it had 
made of its produce during the famine years, 
and the railroads and canals, then in opera- 
tion, had profited largely by the high freights 
and tolls paid by produce on its way to 
market. The gold of California was now in 
its turn adding a new stimulus to the busi- 
ness of the city. In 1852 the Michigan 
roads had opened through to Chicago, and 
New York was now, by rail, within thirty- 
six hours of that city. The projection and 
construction of railroads went on rapidly, 
constantly adding to the business of New 
York — the common centre, whence the 
means to build were drawn, and to which 
these means returned in the purchase of 
goods. The Crystal Palace, in 1853, drew 
great numbers of persons to the city, and 
gave a start to retail trade, which had an 
important effect upon the value of real 
estate and the location of business. In the 
above table we find that the imports into 
the city from abroad rose fifty per cent. 
in the five years to 1855, and the total 
valuation two hundred millions. This valu- 
ation followed the changed location of busi- 
ness. In the speculative - times of 1836-7, 
the old Pearl street house, in Hanover square, 
was the headquarters of country dealers, and 
that square the centre of the dry goods trade, 
around which all others agglomerated. The 
great fire of December, 1835, by which the 
lower part of the city and a value of |18,000,- 
000 was destroyed, broke up the location, 
which, however, was speedily rebuilt, and,with 
the rebuilding, the Merchants' Exchange was 
enlarged and reconstructed at an expense of 
$1,800,000. The usual fate overtook occu- 
piers in the inordinate demands of landlords, 
and the leading firms pushed across Wall 
street and made Pine and Cedar streets the 
great centre. Gradually firm after firm ven- 
tured upon Broadway, which, in 1845, was 
visited by a fire that caused the rebuilding of 
the lower portion, no longer for dwellings, 
but for substantial stores. One firm went 
up to the corner of Rector street, one-quarter 
of a mile from the Battery, and took the site, 
long vacant, of the old Grace church, at a 
lease. "Too high up," said conservatism, 
as the crowd rushed by, and the great retail 



190 



LAND SETTLEMENT — INTERNAL TRADE. 



firm of Stewart & Co. took the old Wash- 
ington hotel at the corner of Chambers, and 
occui)ied the block with a marble store which 
then ha'l no equal in any city. Here import- 
ing and jobljing are carried on to the extent 
of $jO,OOI).000 by one who, by his enei-gy 
and enterprise, has increased a capital of a 
few hundreds to millions, and now employs 
twelve hundred and iifty clerks and others. 
There were handsome stores before tliis was 
built, but this commenced the era of expen- 
sive structures. The demands of luxury 
have led to the erection, up town, of elegant 
trade palaces of iron, marble, and freestone, 
for the leading firms in the dry goods, jew- 
elry, clothing, porcelahi, and other branches 
of trade ; while the wholesale dealers, invad- 
ing the old college ground, have covered it 
with stores of great size and beauty. The 
centre of business which, thirty years since, 
was within a fourtli of a mile of the Battery, 
is now two and a half miles distant, and the 
value of real estate has followed like a 
" ground swell," reaching incredible rates. 
A marble store on Broadway was rented in 
1860 for $50,000 per annum, and in 1867 
for $75,000. A lot on Broadway, near 
Broome, sold in 1859 at private sale for 
$llO,Oi)0 ; it ha J been bought at auction in 
1852 for $35,000. An elderly gentleman 
present remarked, " This lot was part of 
the old Colonel Bayard farm, and was given 
by the colonel to his barber for a hair-dress- 
ing bilk I have seen it sold four times, and 
each time people decidf-d tlie buyer crazy to 
give such a price." The Society Library 
lot, corner of Leonard and Broadway, sold 
with the budding in 1849 for $60,000; after 
the costly stores erected on it were burned in 
1867, it was sold for $650,000, and a build- 
ing costing about $1,100,000 erected on it. 
The " Central Park," to cover 843 acres, 
was projected, and has since been prosecuted, 
at a cost of over $12,000,000, having em- 
ployed in the fourteen years, over 50,000 
men. 

The city has spread toward the upper 
wards through the agency of railroads, which 
have enabled workmen and merchants to live 
further from their places of occupation. The 
importance of consuming as little time as 
possible in coining from and going to occu- 
pation, made it requisite formerly, that per- 
sons should live near their business. The 
old cities of Europe are thus built wdth nar- 
row streets and very high houses, to accom- 



modate many in a little space. Modem 
cities are built on a broader scale. Omni- 
busses first came into play to give a greater 
breadth to the dwellings of the people, and 
horse-railroads have still further expanded 
the area. Manhattan island forming a point 
at the Battery, runs northerly between the 
North and East rivers. From the park the 
city spreads in a fan-like form east and west, 
and from that point radiate twelve railroads, 
including the Harlem, which runs by the 
Fourth avenue to Albany. The eleven other 
roads run on as many routes, and carry their 
passengers from three to eight miles, return- 
ing with them to a common centre every 
morning to business. These eleven railroads 
cost about $12,500,000. In 1869 they 
transported about 131,000,000 passengers. 
There are in New York city thirteen other 
railroads not having their terminus at the 
Park, which cost somewhat more than the 
eleven, and carry altogether nearly as many 
passengers. In Brooklyn there are thirty 
horse-railroads which have cost nearly $25,- 
000,000, and carry about 150.000,000 pas- 
sengers. The telegraph also comes to play 
an important part in the city business. Many 
large firms whose offices are in the lower 
part of the city, and warehouses and manu- 
factories in the upper part, connect the two 
by telegraph, to transmit orders and for in- 
formation. All the police stations connect 
by telegraph to give alarms of robbery, and 
fire alarms are also conveyed by the same 
means. The " time ball " also operates by 
telegraph. On the top of the Custom House, 
sixty feet high, is a mast on which slides a 
black ball some twenty feet in diameter. 
This can be seen from any part of the 
bay. It is hoisted to the top of the pole, 
and is so arranged that the moment the 
sun reaches the zenith, by observation, at 
Albany, it is released by electricity and falls, 
marking twelve o'clock, by which every 
shipmaster in the port may set his chrono- 
meter. 

All the railroads, continually running 
night and day, aided by six stage routes, 
bring the business and working population 
to their occupations, and back at night ; yet 
all these routes are insufficient to transport 
the hundreds of thousands who need convey^ 
ance, within a reasonable time, and new 
routes, elevated and viaduct, have been pra« 
jected, with cars drawn by steam power, to 
facilitate rapid transit. 




IXTERIOR OF A CARPET HOUSE. 




IXTEHIOU OF A JjllV OOODS KOUSE. 



NEW YORK — TELKGRAPH — EXPRESS — GOLD. 



191 



The aggregate of passengers conveyed 
each year by the railroads and stages in New 
York and Brooklyn, is about ten times the 
population of the United States ; the greater 
number going to and coming fi'om their busi- 
ness by these conveyances every working 
day. This facility of transit allows business 
men to concentrate tlieir stores and ware- 
houses around certain points, thus affording 
better opportunities for purchasers from dis- 
tant cities and villages to purchase their 
stocks without spending much time in going 
from one wart^house to another to select the 
great variety of goods which go to make up 
a general assortment. The importers, job- 
bers, and large dealers reside, of course, at a 
distance from their warehouses, but they are 
brought promptly and readily to them by 
cars, stages, or steamers. Yet these centres 
of trade change materially every four or 
five years. Tlie jobbing and importing trade 
in all articles pertaining to a dry goods stock, 
are none of them below the Park, and are 
rapidly concentrating above Canal street, 
while the retailers of the first class are erect- 
ing their magnificent stores in the neighbor- 
hood of Union Park. Ten or twelve years 
ago Lord & Taylor's fine store on the corner 
of Grand street and Broadway, was regarded 
as very far up-town for a retail establish- 
ment. That, as well as Arnold & Consta- 
ble's on Canal street, and Stewait's on the 
corner of Broadway and Chambers street, 
have now been for some time wholesale 
stores exclusively. The change is a very 
great one from the time when even large 
dealers lived in the dwelling houses over 
their stores and boarded their clerks. 

Perhaps the greatest difference which 
purchasers who come to tlie New York mar- 
ket are called to observe, is in the division 
of the goods. Formerly a dry goods jobber 
kept a full assortment of every thing in his 
line, and it required no little tact and exer- 
cise of memory to keep each line full. Now, 
one house confines it-elf to woolens, another 
to cottons, another to silk>:, and yet another 
to fancy articles ; and even these are sub- 
divided, as in woolens one will keep tailors' 
goods, another dress goods and women's 
wear; in cottons, one confines himself to 
prints, another to the plain goods ; in silks, 
we have establishments for piece goods, and 
others for ribbons and smaller articles. The 
tendency is to a still more minute division, 
and thus we have a dealer in hosiery, a 



dealer in lace, a dealer in perfumery, a dealer 
in pocket handkerchiefs, a dealer in shawls, 
and one house keeps nothing but suspenders ! 
Thirty years since the manufacture of cloth- 
ing became a separate business, and it has 
since subdivided into many branches. There 
are now establishments exclusively for the 
sale of spool cotton, and others for braids 
and bindings, and others still for buttons, for 
fringes, and for Berlin wool. We are not 
prepared to say that the division of goods 
hei'e noticed may not be a positive conveni- 
ence, although it cei'tainly increases the la- 
bor of the purchaser. It has led to greater 
method in the purchase of goods, and buyers 
are now provided with catalogues of goods in 
each department, so arranged as to make 
purchasing much easier. Buyers now make 
a corresponding division also of their time, 
and one day is set apart for woolens, another 
for silks, and so on through the whole cata- 
logue. Could some staid customer of the 
last century, awaking from a Rip Van Win- 
kle sleep, be set down at this day in some of 
our thronged thoroughfares, he would get 
sorely jostled and foot-weary before he tad 
made a black cross against all the articles 
upon his memorandum. 

The supplies of goods for the country 
dealers are derived from various sources ; 
small wares from city manufacturers ; do- 
mestics from the mills or agents ; foreign 
goods from importers or agents of foreign 
manufacturers. The local manufactui'es are 
generally purchased by the jobbers to make 
good their assortments, as is also the case 
with hardware, and most articles of domestic 
manufacture, except the productions of the 
large mills, which have agents in the city for 
their special sale. 

It was formerly the custom for all parties, 
manufacturers, importers, jobbers, and houses 
jobbing in the small way, as well as retailers, 
to give long credits, six, eight, and twelve 
months, and the jobbers often sold for open 
notes, which were frequently renewed wholly 
or in part when they came due. The panic 
of 1857, and the hard times of 1861, put an 
end to most of this. Four months is now 
generally the longest limit, and many of the 
best houses sell only on thirty or sixty days 
time, or for cash only. Custom is now 
sought in the country by means of agents, 
instead of by the old system of drummers. 
Sellers depend largely upon the mercantile 
agencies for information in relation to the 



192 



LAND SETTLEMENT INTERNAL TRADE. 



liability of the buyer. These agencies have 
rr.mifications in every town of the country, 
but their usefulness is not what was at one 
time expected from them. The grocers 
who sell sugar, etc., do so generally at from 
ten to sixty days, and get their money before 
the dry goods people, who also come after 
the hardware and earthenware dealers. The 
supply of capital in the city, under these 
circumstances, brings to it the largest assort- 
ment of goods, and of course it is the best 
point at which to buy, the more so that at 
times there is an over-su})ply of goods, which 
being worked oiF at auctinu, realizes a loss 
sometimes of 25 to 30 per cent, to the im- 
porter and foreign owner, and of course to 
the advantage of the country buyer. The 



general attractions offered to buyers make it 
to the advantage of sellers elsewhere to send 
their merchandise to New York to meet the 
purchasers. Boston made, recently, an at- 
tempt to break up this, by establishing sales 
of her manufactures tliei'e, instead of sending 
them to New York. The force of centrali- 
zation is, however, difficult to overcome, and 
the imports at New York show an increas- 
ing share of the arrivals into the whole 
country. Thus, in 1870, New York im- 
ported $315,200,022 out of an aggregate of 
$462,377,587 ; in 1840, $60,0u0,000 out of 
an aggregate of $121,000,000. The propor- 
tionate imports at the Atlantic ports are as 
follows : — 



IMPORTS OF CERTAIN GOODS INTO THE LEADING ATLANTIC PORTS, AND ALSO THE TOTAL IMPORTS INTO 



Gold Bullion . 

" coin,... 

Silver bullion. 



THE UNION IN 1870. 
Boston. Philadelphia. Baltimore. New Orleaas. 



com 

Coflfee 

Tea 

Linseed 

Guano 

Wool, raw and fleece. . 

Wool, shoddy, 

Watches 

Coal, bituminous 

Woolens 

Cotton hose, 

" goods 

Steel, bar and ingot. . . 

Silks 

Linen 

Gloves 

Window glass 

Gunny bags and cloth. 
Iron, bar 

" pig • 

" railroad 

Cutlery and files. . . . , . 

Jute 

Leather 

Hides 

Molasses 

Sugar 

Other articles 



$13,026 

20,876 

1,302 

5,581 

1,210,044 

848,369 

1,140,091 

2,303,687 

117,651 

222,848 

4,113,117 

31,547 

775,651 

572,338 

882,661 

1,704,048 

229,580 

£32,938 

133,288 

1,555,501 

326,835 

316,742 

114,208 

157,635 

19,173 

3,131,711 

1,912,447 

7,731,049 

1,867,308 



17,586 



193,761 
106 

35,342 
33,669 



332 

40,839 

21,648 

232,241 

330 

8,413 

* 15,434 

214,439 

221,709 

113,788 

15,671 

273 

8,534 

2,981,538 

5,556,549 

523,154 



6,409,818 

882 

618,422 
25,763 

12,311 

271,123 

100,411 
73,297 
41,967 

108,045 
61,868 
19,938 
14,038 
2,064 
7,155 
74,083 

292,623 
26,169 

17,083 

306,877 

782,566 

7,795,164 

301,221 



84,446 

500 

531,337 

2,283,647 

6,168 



5,003 



13,156 

1,164 

290,846 

61,690 

1,354,439 

15233 

129,306 

340,097 

22,881 

34,002 

2,.538 

73,777 

214,868 

2,099,567 

144,579 

4,078 

132,251 

1,721 

263,090 

1787,030 

499,929 



New York. Tot' 

92,159 

9,514,749 

40,636 

3,293,649 

12,578,223 

12,206,109 

2,886,860 

734,726 

3,497,254 

.53,412 

2,830,692 

276,230 

28,569,889 

4,388,551 

15,849,392 

1,322,492 

22,168,766 

14,316,599 

3,059,987 

1,575,949 

133,961 

855,099 

874,267 

4,858.971 

1,824,016 

1,537,422 

5,458,624 

9,999,971 

4,635,966 

30,301,742 

9,041,854 



1 into Union. 

680,760 

11,376,190 

162,432 

14,199,797 

24,234,879 

13,863,273 

4,141,304 

1,415,519 

6,743,350 

55,609 

3,021,875 

1,110316 

34,435,059 

4,734,475 

18,645,578 

2,342,408 

23,904,043 

16,859,124 

3,405,966 

2,322,504 

291,218 

3,156,236 

2,509,280 

9,669,571 

2,248,819 

1,799,928 

5,728,028 

14,402,339 

12,888,250 

56,939,034 

15,583,831 



Total $31,731,152 $10,235,356 $17,195,890 $10,367,943 $208,778,188 $311,871,006 

The aggregate imports at these five ports 1 imports of all the other ports. The im- 
of these items, are $278,308,529, which ports of coffee at New Orleans from Bra- 
leaves $33,562,477 of these goods as the | zil, to go up the river, are large; and at 



NEW YORK TELEGRAPH EXPRESS GOLD. 



193 



Boston, coffee and hides, from the same 
source, figure high. But both Baltimore 
and Philadelphia receive much coffee direct ; 
in fact, that is the largest item of import at 
those two cities. Boston imports many ma- 
terials for her manufacture— linseed, wool, 
jute, hides, etc. Philadelphia also imports 
some of these. The great mass of the 
goods, for the con-umption of the interior, 
passes into the port of New York. It is to he 
borne in mind, however, that many of the 
importations at New York are really for 
Philadelphia, Albany, and other cities, even 
western ones. Tliey are entered at the 
custom-house by a broker, who pays the duty 
and forwards them by express to their desti- 
nation, for a small commission. The express, 
the rails, and the telegraph, facilitate such 
operations. 

The gold and silver imported at New York 
are from various sources, but in the last few 
yearshave consisted mostly of doubloons and 
Spanish gold from Europe, to re-export to 
Havana for the purchase of the sugar crop. 
In 1857, that movement was very large, early 
in the year, to the island, and subsequently, 
when the stock of sugar accumulated very 
largely in New York, the gold came back from 
Havana to prevent it from being sacrificed. 
The bulk of the gold that forms the amount 
exported, is direct from California, and has 
been annually since the discovery, in sums 
of nearly fifty millions. 

The gold extracted from the earth by the 
miners of California has a considerable degree 
of purity, and before refining establishments 
were set up in the state, sold at from $16 to 
$20 per ounce. Much was used as a currency. 
It was carried in little leather pouches, and 
weighed out to shopmen in exchange for 
goods. A large portion of it was carried to 
New York, in the pockets of home-bound 
adventurers, and sold in New York at such 
rates as were possible. The buyers mostly 
had it sent to Philadelphia, by express, at an 
expense of 3-8 per cent. It was then assayed 
and coined at the public mint, and the pro- 
ceeds returned to the owner. This expensive 
and round-about process led to the establish- 
ment of a mint in San Francisco and an assay 
office in New York, where the miners them- 
selves could deposit the dust and get the full 
value in return. When the dust is deposited, 
a certificate of weight is given and the gold 
in bars returned. There are a number of 
private assaying houses in San Francisco, 
where the dust is cast into bars of large size. 
12 * 



Most of these are connected with banking 
houses, and the bars are the basis of ex- 
change. The express companies deal in this 
gold. The miner now having a lot of dust, 
sells it to an express agent, or sends it down 
to a banker in San Fi-ancisco, who has it 
assayed and cast into bars. The value is 
credited to the depositor, less the commis- 
sions. The bars are mostly shipped to New- 
York, and the bankers draw bills against 
them in favor of those who have remittances 
to make to the bank. The competition 
among the bankers reduces the rate at which 
these bills can be sold to a point that leaves 
apparently no profit, and it is charged in 
some cases that they draw at a loss, in the 
view of monopolizing the business. The re- 
fining leaves a small profit. The cost of 
shipping the gold to New York may be thus 
stated : freight, etc., $157; state stamp on 
bill, 20 cents ; insurance, |1 50 — making 
$3 27 on $100. But the insurer gets from 
the Mutual companies scrip, worth on an 
average 35 cts., which reduces the cost to 
$2 92. The bars sometimes command a 
higher price in New York than in San Fran- 
cisco. Thus, a bar of 100 ounces, 880 fine, 
is at this moment worth jpar in San Fran- 
cisco, and 900 fine it is worth 87 j cts. pre- 
mium in New York. This price has reference 
to the gold only of the bar. There is some 
silver in each. Thus, in the bar 880 fine 
there is 88 ounces of gold, IH of silver, and 
1-2 oz. copper. In the other, 90 oz. gold, 9 
1-2 silver, and a half copper. This makes 
the gold worth 1 per cent, more in New York 
than in San Francisco, and reduces the cost 
of tha bill to $1 92 per cent. It is evident 
that he who sells his bills at 2 per cent, 
makes but 8-10 of 1 per cent, or, including 
other items, a small loss. If the house feels 
strong enough to insure itself, it saves 
the insurance ; but this must be more or less 
a risk to those who take the bills. Thus 
the operation is one of mere cost of ship- 
ment of the gold ; but the control of so 
much gold on paper issued is an object with 
large firms. The higher value of gold at 
New York arises from the fact that it is the 
financial centre of the Union. The ex- 
changes of the country with Europe and 
with the interior of the states turn there. 
The south ships its cotton, and tobacco, and 
rice ; the west its produce ; and the At- 
lantic states their manufactures. These, as 
we have seen, give an aggregate value of over 
$300,000,000 sent abroad "in a year. The 



194 



LAND SETTLEMEXT IXTERXAL TRADE. 



shippers of these goods draw hills against 
them, and ofler them for sale. Tlie market 
of sale must he -where the greatest demand 
for them for remittance exists. New York 
imports two-thirds of all the goods received 
into the country, consequently the demand 
is there the greatest for the bills, and they are 
sent there for sale. It happens tliat the great 
majority of bill-drawers are unknown to the 
buyers, hence there is hesitation in taking 
their bills. To obviate this, a number of large 
banking-houses connected abroad, and having 
great capital, buy the bills tliat have " bills 
lading" attached, and the goods are sent to 
their correspondents abroad. In the seasons 
of the year when shipments are most active, 
these bills arc plenty and low. They arc 
then purchased and endorsed, and sold Avith 
the endorsement at a higher rate when the 
season advances and the cotton-bills I'un 
short. If the demand is active, and the rate 
of money higher here than abroad, the bank- 
ers draw on their own resources, and lend 
them the proceeds of the bills they sell on 
stocks or other securities. They are also the 
buyers of the gold bars as they arrive from 
California, and pay such rates as the demand 
for exchange, or the rate of money, or the 
price of gold on the continent, present or 
prospective, will warrant. A demand for 
silver to go to Asia, causes a demand for gold 
with which to buy it on the continent, and 
this demand draws upon New York, and in- 
directly upon the whole country. It is ob- 
vious that the bill business is thus mostly in 
the hands of large bankers. This grows out 
of the fact that there is abi'oad no market 
for bills on New York. Thus, the New York 
importer of goods, in order to pay for them, 
buys a bill on ships' specie, instead of order- 
ing his creditor abroad to draw upon liim, 
which would be done if a bill on New York 
were saleable in the London market. It is 
understood, tliat when such amounts of bills 
from the south and elsewhere are sent to 
New York for sale, the proceeds of those 
sales form a large fund due by New York to 
those sections. These funds are deposited 
in the New York banks, and by them em- 
ployed in loans upon stocks, or in such other 
ways as will pay an interest. Thus the 
whole country contributes to the supply of 
capital at that common centre. The New 
York banks, some fifteen years since, in 
order to encourage that centralization, allow- 
ed interest of 4 per cent, on the funds so 
deposited. This caused a greater sum to be 



so employed, and imposed on tlie banks the 
necessity of lending it, in order to make a 
profit. The amount of funds lying in New 
York varies from -^50,000,000 to $90,000, 
000, according to the season of the year. The 
banks in all sections of the country that have 
such funds in New York do not draw against 
it directly in favor of those who want to re- 
mit to New York, but they use the funds to 
buy up their own or other paper cheap. 
The effect is to swell the supply of funds in 
New York, and at times foster speculation 
there. 

The funds that accumulate in New York, 
make it also the mart for stock operations ; 
and these are very large, as well for regular 
investments, as for merely gambling opera- 
tions. 

AVith the creation of any commodity 
whatever, there springs up almost simul- 
taneously a class of persons to deal in it, and 
to appropriate more or less capital to its 
prosecution. This capital is most generally 
applied to the purchasing of it when it is 
thought to be cheap, in order to hold it un- 
til it can be disposed of to better advantage, 
or in advancing money to the needy seller. 
The persons so engaged, by devoting their 
time and attention to the subject of their 
traffic, reduce it to science, and soon deter- 
mine and classify the kinds and qualities 
adapted to the markets and wants of the 
public. The dealing in stocks is compara- 
tively of modern origin, and commenced with 
the credit system of the European govern- 
ments, at the close of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, when William of Orange avoided tlie 
dangers that beset the throne of the Stuarts, 
by borrowing money instead of extorting it 
by illegal taxation like Charles I., or steal- 
ing it like Charles II. The moment that 
government stocks — or certificates of debt 
issued to the government creditors — made 
their appearance, they became subjects of 
traffic, and with the certificates of stock in 
corporate companies, formed the material for 
speculation, and the exchange markets, 
where the surplus wealth of communities 
seek investment, became the theatre for 
operations in securities. The American 
colonies had no stock debts or corporate 
companies, since little surplus capital existed 
for such investments. The paper money 
that they issued, however, aflbrded by its 
fluctuation many opportunities of jobbing at 
the expense of the public. When the revo- 
lutionary war broke out, the continental 



KEW YORK TELEGRAPH EXPRESS GOLD. 



195 



money of the federal government gave a 
larger field for these operations, which were 
based mostly on the rapid depreciation of 
their value. Thus, a person would borrow a 
sum, returnable iu the same description in a 
fixed time. Its value in that time having 
fallen, he could return it at a profit. Sup- 
posing the money to be par, a person would 
pledge a bag of $1,000 for paper; a fall of 
eight or ten per cent, in sixty days would 
enable him to redeem his dollars with $100 
profit. In the time of the revolution, a 
stage driver, having a talent that way, made 
money in the traflic, and subsequently be- 
came the head of the largest bank and stock 
house of his time in New York, ending a 
long and respected life by suicide. This 
paper soon perished, and was succeeded by 
the government stock, representing the pub- 
lic debt. This was soon accompanied by 
United States and other bank stock, insu- 
rance, canal, mining, railroad, etc., to an 
immense amount. Up to 1825 the majority 
of the stocks were banks and insurance, but 
tliere was no regular stock market. There 
were brokers who bought and sold stocks, 
but there was no concentration of operations. 
In that year the legislature of New York 
authorized the New York stock board, which 
has since continued to be the stock market. 
Within the last twenty years, boards of bro- 
kers have been started in most of our large 
cities. Their operations are, however, to 
a very great extent, based upon those of 
New York, with which they communicate by 
telegraph. The board of brokers sits with 
closed doors from 10 1-2 A, M. to 12 M. ; 
an irregular session is held about 2 1-2 P. M. 
There is a president, a treasurer, and a 
secretary ; the latter keeps a list of all the 
stocks dealt in in the market ; the members 
are admitted by ballot after notice of nomi- 
nation by one of the board. He must have 
been at least a year a broker, and on his 
admission pays a fee of $450. When the 
members are assembled, the president pro- 
ceeds to call the list, and as each stock is 
named in succession, those who have orders 
to buy or sell make their ofters, and the 
transactions are recorded, when they become 
binding upon the members. If any of these 
defaults he loses his seat until he can pay or 
arrange the claim. The theory of the board 
is that it is the reservoir where all stocks 
held by the public are brought for sale, and 
where all buyers come, through brokers, to 
purchase. The number of brokers is some 



850, and the commission charged is a quar- 
ter of one per cent., that is to say $25 on 
$10,000. The board requires each member 
to charge not less than a quarter, but as 
most of them sell again for their customers for 
nothing, the charge is practically one-eighth. 
The quantities of stocks to be dealt in 
have rapidly increased of late years. A 
late report of the Secretary of the Treasury 
gives an approximation of the amount of 
stocks now in the country ; to that return 
we have prefixed the amount of the same at 
a previous date : — 

1840. 1871. 

United States stocks and bonds. $25,000,000 $1,9.35,000,000 

State stocks 174,908,997 425,132.425 

113 cities' & towns' stk's & b'ds. 13,107,000 312,000,000 

350 counties' stocks and bonds.. 1,.500,000 125,000,000 

1715 national bank stocks 290,772,091 436,478,311 

state Banks 92,000 000 

150 insurance stocks 40,101,000 100,000^000 

Railroad stocks 45,102,208 1.100,000,000 

" bonds 40,897,792 1,220,000,000 

15 canal and navigation stocks. . 31,219,911 48.000,000 

bonds.. 19,207,101 46,400,0000 

45 miningand other co's stocks. . 10,101,201 186,000,000 

" bonds.. 1,000,000 7,800,000 

$692,915,301 $6,032,810,736 

This vast increase of stocks is manipulated 
mostly upon the New York stock board, and 
the stocks are to a considerable extent 
caused to float by the sums sent to brokers 
by their correspondents in the country and 
neighboring cities, with which to " operate." 
The speculative transactions far exceed those 
of other kinds. The actual investments of 
capital are not large at the board. Those who 
take stocks for income do so of the issuers 
when the proposals are put out, and they 
hold them like the United States and state 
stocks, which rarely come on the stock ex- 
change. The mass of the transactions then 
are of non-dividend paying stocks, that are 
the foot-ball of speculation, and so pay the 
operators profits. The brokers are mostly 
cliques of operators, who, when the market 
is dull and prices are low, combine, as "bulls," 
to purchase, producing a rapid rise, in the 
hope, seldom disappointed, that the spec- 
ulative community will be tempted by that 
rise to come in and buy ; as they do so the 
brokers unload themselves upon the buyers, 
and then become " bears," combining to de- 
press the market, and to compel a fall at least 
equal to the rise, skinning the outsiders in 
the process. The speculators generally buy 
on time, that is, to pay for the stock at their 
option, any day within thirty or sixty, as the 
case may be. In this way the buyer pays 
interest on the purchases. He may also sell 
to deliver at any day he pleases within a 
specified time, or " seller's option," or to 



190 



Land settlement — internal trade. 



deliver at the " buyer's option ;" he may 
borrow stock and sell it in the hope of buy- 
ing it back cheaper on delivery ; he may 
buy a privilege to deliver a stock at a certain 
price at a specified time, or not, as it suits 
him ; or he may sell or buy a privilege of 
taking and paying for a stock or not as it 
suits him ; he may buy cash stock and sell 
on time. To produce a fall, cliques will sell 
for cash all the stock they have or can bor- 
row, and then offer time contracts without 
limit, until other holders are frightened and 
sell. Confederates keeping up a clamor to 
alarm the public at such times, all offers to 
buy are smothered, and orders to purchase 
are su])pressed. On the other hand, a com- 
bination for a rise is accompanied by the 
most astonishing prophecies of a " good 
time." Considerable quantities are bought on 
time, the sellers hoping to get them cheaper. 
Meanwhile the cash stock is bought up and 
pledged for more money to repeat the opera- 
tion ; the demand for the stock bought on 
time runs up the rate, and the public are 
expected to come in with sufficient strength 
to let the clique all sell out at a profit, when 
they will be ready for a bear operation. 
There are numberless modes of varying and 
combining speculative operations, which 
would fill a volume. All these time operations 
were illegal until 1859, when they were all 
legalized, and a stock debt may now be col- 
lected like any other. 

The amount of the transactions is immense. 
In 1840, the aggregate of sales for the month 
of June was 83,684,460 ; of this one-half was 
bank stock and one-half Delaware and Hud- 
son canal. In June, 1857, previous to the 
panic, the sales reached $250,000,000, mostly 
railroad stocks. In 1871 the sales for May 
were considerably over $600,000,000. In 
a speculative year the stock transactions 
will run twenty-eight or thirty-eight thou- 
sand millions of dollars. Those trans- 
actions require a great deal of money to con- 
duct them, and these funds come to New 
York to a considerable extent from neigh- 
boring cities, as well as from the west. They 
also employ a large portion of the funds of 
the banks put out " at call," and also the 
proceeds of bills sold by large exchange 
houses. Thus we may suppose a house sells 
on the departure of a steam-packet $500,- 
000 of sterling bills. This money is paid 
into bank, and is loaned out on stock secu- 
rities at 7 per cent, on call, until, by a suc- 
ceeding packet, it may be called in and re- 



mitted in gold to Europe. This operation, 
on a large scale, Avill induce the banks to 
call in their loans to protect their specie, 
and the value of money will rise in the 
market. The rule in stock speculation is 
loss, and the experience of the most fortu- 
nate dealers is that the interest and com- 
missions absorb the whole average profits. 
The funds sent to New York, therefore, for 
stock-dealing, only contribute to the central 
profits. 

If we were to throw into a tabular form 
the new agencies of business centring in New 
York, we should have results as follows: — 

Cost. 

Ocean navijration, 15 lines, 135 ships, $96,000,000 

Telegraphs. 60,000 miles, 44,063,000 

Express companies... 112,000 " 45,000,000 

Railroads 30,000 " 1,128,000,000 

City railroads 55 •' 23,000,000 

Canals 59,000,000 

$1,395,063,000 

The number of strangers that are drawn 
to the city in a year by ocean steamers is 
nearly 300,000, and they fill the hotels that 
have of late taken such splendid proportions, 
and have been carried up to Thirty -first street 
and Broadway, a distance of three and a half 
miles from the old business centre. The 
march of hotels up-town has been steady. 
The Astor House was, in 1833, the up-town 
house. From the Astor House to Chambers 
street was a long remove, in 1840. In 1852 
the St. Nicholas advanced a mile to Spring 
street, and became not only the up-town, but 
the "upper-crust" of all hotels. In 1854, 
Niblo's Garden, on Prince street, was occu- 
pied by the Metropolitan; and, soon fol- 
lowing, the Everett House, taking ground a 
mile higher, opened on Sixteenth street ; and 
in 1859, superior in distance, size, magnifi- 
cence, and expense, the Fifth Avenue Hotel 
opened on 2-)d street. The Southern, the 
Grand Central, the Hoffman, the St. James, 
and a score of others have since been added, 
besides the family hotels, like the New York, 
St. Denis, Clarendon, St. Germain, Spingler, 
Sturtevant, Prescott, etc. Extravagance 
is only an allurement. Indeed, the hotel- 
keepers seem to have followed the advice of 
Boyden, when he first gave popularity to 
the Astor. His cracker-baker complained 
that the waiters were inattentive: "Kill me 
two of them, and put it in your bill," he 
briskly replied. And to his partner, who 
spoke of the exactions of guests, he replied, 
" Furnish a gold-dust pudding, with diamond 



NEW YORK TELEGRAPH EXPRESS GOLD. 



197- 



plums, if they require, but charge accord- 
ingly." That is the secret of hotel-keep- 
ing in New York — let nothing be wanting, 
not even a sufficient charge. Immense waste, 
no doubt, attends the system, but it attracts. 
The splendid arrangements tempt many city 
families to take up their abode in them ; and 
a small family, even at $3.50 per day per head, 
do better than to pay the extravagant rents 
demanded for fashionable houses, with the at- 
tendant expenses. That these things are not 
done cheaply, the bill of $91,000, presented 
to the city of New York by the Metropolitan 
Hotel for the entertainment of the Japanese 
ambassadors, is ample evidence. The nu- 
merous visitors to New York from the south 
and west, as well as the constant current of 
traders, better class of emigrants, and Cali- 
fornia passengers, fill the hotels of the lower 
parts of the city; and the whole mass, by 
their purchases for personal use, make an 
important part of the city retail trade, of 
which Broadway is the main locality. The 
records of arrivals show the average number 
per day at all the hotels is not far from 
3,000, or the immense number of $1,095,000 
per annum. This, at an average of $3, gives 
$3,285,000 for hotel bills alone, but all the 
expenses cannot be estimated under $12,000, 
000. The facilities of railroads and ferries 
also induce a great deal of trade from sur- 
rounding cities and towns within a reason- 
able distance. Within an area of fifty miles 
there are few who do not do their shopping 
in New York, and very many of the small 
local shops send daily messages to the city 
to complete orders they may have received. 
On the other hand, a large quantity of manu- 
factures that were formerly confined to the 
city are now sent long distances into the 
country, particularly in the winter, whei'e they 
are done cheaply by those who are not de- 
pendent upon them for a living. The large 
circle of country thus loses its rural charac- 
ter, and partakes of the metropolitan nature. 
It follows that, as city localities become 
known for particular business, and visitors 
seek them to trade, all of that class of deal- 
ers seek business places there, and thus con- 
centrate the business. The fixed population 
of the city is given by the census at 942,338, 
and, with the neighborhood more or less 
connected, the wants of 3,000,000 require 
to be met from the retail stores of the cities, 
in addition to the crowds of visitors from 



abroad. The retail trade is therefore a very 
important one, and its vigor, apart from the 
purchases of visitors, depends in some degree 
upon the cheapness of food. Where immi- 
gration has reached over 1,000 souls per 
day, composed of persons skilled in almost 
all employments, and all eager to obtain 
work, competing with those in the city who 
live by their occupation, and with those in 
the country, who are, so to speak, amateurs, 
it is evident the wages cannot be extravagant, 
and the amount that can be spared from 
them, after deducting house-rent and food, 
is not much in the average. Food is, how- 
ever, the important item. When that is 
cheap, trade is more active. An indication 
may be aflforded in flour. The quantity used 
in New York is 2,400,000 bbls. per annum. 
In some years the price has been as low as $4, 
in others as high as $15. The difterence be- 
tween these sums is $26,400,000 in one year. 
The tax, in years of dear food, thus thrown 
upon the city is enormous. It fortunately 
happens, that in years of dear food the food- 
sellers make more purchases. The influence 
of such times is very perceptible in the 
operations of the pawnbroker, whose busi- 
ness it is to lend small sums on the pledge 
of almost any conceivable article that may 
be oft'ered. They charge 24 per cent, per 
annum, and the article, unredeemed at the 
end of a year, becomes forfeit by sale at 
auction. The amount of loans in one year 
was given at $3,000,000, and the number of 
pledges 4,875,000, which would give an 
average of about 68 cents each loan. 

While cheap food is an important item in 
the ability to purchase, yet employment is 
the main consideration, and this depends 
upon the prosperity of those sources on 
which the city depends for its business. 
These in the long run are progresiSive, not- 
withstanding the reactions that sometimes 
take place, and the diffusion of employments 
which machine inventions tend to bring 
about. 

The general prosperity of the whole country 
does not, however, depend upon any locality : 
all production and all business is constantly 
seeking the conditions under which it can 
best thrive. These cannot be dictated ; but, 
being found, the general welfare is as a con- 
sequence the greater, and with the general 
prosperity the common centre must only 
become the more magnificent. 



BANKS m THE UNITED STATES. 



CHAPTER L 

BILLS OF CREDIT— GOVERNMENT ISSUES- 
UNITED STATES BANK. 

The use of paper money is a modern in- 
vention, and may yet be considered but as 
an experiment, since, from its first emission 
in the colonies to the present day, paper 
money has constantly changed its form and 
the conditions of its circulation. It is not to 
be inferred that paper money originated on 
this continent, since it was used long before 
in the countries of Europe. Its nature has, 
however, been more developed here, and 
every phase of it has had full scope of action. 
The circulating paper is of many forms, such 
as bills of exchange, promissory notes, gov- 
ernment bonds bearing interest, government 
bonds bearing no interest and not converti- 
ble into coin, but receivable for taxes and 
dues, and lastly, corporation or bank prom- 
ises to pay coin on demand. There are many 
other descriptions of circulating paper, but 
these are the chief that are used. The last 
two are those which have figured most as 
money. The intention of paper money is to 
supply the place of coin where that article is 
not sufliciently abundant, as was eminently 
the case with the early colonies. The colo- 
nies were none of them rich, and had not 
been able to import and keep as much of the 
precious metals as would serve for a currency, 
that being as much an instrument of com- 
merce as a road or a ship. In substituting 
paper for coin there is no difficulty as long 
as the quantity emitted does not exceed the 
demands of business for a currency. If there is 
no trade — that is, if no one wants to exchange 
his commodities for others — there is no want 
of currency. As the desire to trade increases, 
a want of money to represent commodities 
is experienced, and the want is proportioned 
to the numbers, wealth, and activity of the 
traders up to a certain point; because when 
trade is very active, money itself changes 
hands rapidly and performs more transfers 



than when it is sluggish. There must be, 
however, great confidence in the value of the 
money, because doubt in that respect in- 
stantly checks traffic. The early colonists 
were in that position. They had commodi- 
ties which they had raised and made, but 
they liad no currency, or not enough. In 
this position, in 1690, it became necessary for 
Massachusetts to send a military expedition 
to Quebec to drive the French out of Canada. 
The expedition failed, and the troops came 
back clamorous for pay. The colony had no 
money to pay with, and it adopted the expe^ 
dient of issuing promises in convenient 
amounts. The faith of the colony was 
pledged for the payment of these, and they 
would be received for taxes and dues. It 
will be observed, that these bore no interest, 
and were not convertible into coin. They 
were, in fact, mere orders of the government 
upon farmers and others for food, clothing, 
etc., in favor of the soldiers, to be called in 
by taxes, not to be paid in money. The 
paper was worth nothing to export. Its only 
value consisted in its being good to pay taxes 
with. It is at once obvious that no man 
wanted more than would suffice for that pur- 
pose. Tlie aggregate amount that could be 
issued was then measured by the sum of the 
taxes. In order to increase the amount, the 
colonial government made it a legal tender, 
that is, compelled creditors to take it for pri- 
vate debts. This was so palpably unjust, and 
w'as productive of so many evils, that the 
home government suppressed it. Neverthe- 
less, the same necessities produced similar 
devices, and other colonies followed the ex- 
ample of Massachusetts with similar results. 
In 1745, Massachusetts, to defray the ex- 
pense of an expedition to Louisburg, again 
issued bills of credit to the extent of 
£3,000,000. This paper speedily deprecia- 
ted to 11 for 1: that is, £l in silver was 
worth £11 in those bills. The English gov- 
ernment then sent out £180,000 in silver, to 
pay the cost of the expedition, and with this 



BILLS OF CREDIT GOVERNMENT ISSUES UNITED STATES BANK. 



199 



the thrifty colony boui>;ht up its own paper 
at 11 for 1, New York, during the period 
1709 to 1V86, made thirty-four issues of bills 
of credit, amounting in the aggregate to 
£1,563,407, and the depreciation was about 
2 to 1 ; in other colonies much more. The 
evils attending these issues were very great, 
but the cause continued to operate, and when 
the war broke out in 1775, the Congress of 
the Confederation was forced upon the issue 
of $3,000,000 worth of" continental money," 
as distinguished from the state issues; and 
to give these issues some lirmncss, they made 
them a legal tender. This supply of paper, 
in addition to the colonial emissions, in- 
creased the difficulties, and some of the colo- 
nies went a step further and made lieraonal 
•property a legal tender, according to apprais- 
als to be made for the purpose. Notwith- 
standing the general discredit. Congress was 
obliged to push the issues. In 1779 the 
amount outstanding was $160,000,000, and 
by 1780 it reachcd"$200,000,000, when the 
value fell so fast that before the end of the 
year the bills ceased to circulate. There are 
those still living who remember giving $100 
for "a cake of gingerbread," or $10,000 for 
a hat cocked in the fashion of the day. 
The whole amount issued by Congress was 
$359,456,000, and on the formation of the 
new government they were purchased at the 
rate of 1 cent for $1. The state issues met 
with similar fate. The entire absence of 
money thus brought about, with the attend- 
ant evils, mainly induced the adoption of the 
federal constitution, which at once prohib- 
ited the states from ever again issuing " bills 
of credit," or making "any thing but gold 
and silver a tender for the payment of debts." 
That is, those prohibitions are a record of 
the experience derived from the colonial ex- 
periments in paper money. 

The condemnation of "bills of credit" was 
a great good. The important question was, 
however, what to do next ; and this engaged 
all minds. Specie had vanished, and govern- 
ment paper money was dead. Mercantile 
sagacity had, however, on the death of the 
continental money, devised a partial remedy 
in 1781. This consisted of the substitution 
of private corporate credit in place of gov- 
ernment credit, and took shape in the char- 
tering of the Bank of North America, at 
Philadelphia; the Bank of New York, in 
the city of New York ; and the Bank of Mas- 
sachusetts, in Boston. 

It is an erroneous idea, that was enter- 



tained for a long time, that banks, by the 
issues of credit, create capital, and on this 
idea many new banks were started, impart- 
ing much activity to trade. The good 
effects of their operation were due, however, 
rather to the concentration and application 
of capital to mercantile uses, than to an in- 
crease in the quantity of capital. Before the 
establishment of banks, individuals kept the 
money they received in their own houses, 
tempting robberies, and subjecting them- 
selves to loss of interest, and to risk and 
trouble in seeking small investments. The 
shopkeeper and merchant who received 
money in the course of business in small 
sums, kept it by him until he made his 
wholesale purchases, when he paid it out 
altogether. The aggregate sum thus lying 
entirely idle was very large. On the estab- 
lishment of a bank, the owners of money 
deposited it in the vaults. The institution 
thus became the common receptacle for all 
idle funds. Inasmuch as that, although all 
the depositors were entitled to draw their 
money whenever they chose, yet but a small 
proportion did so, the banks might safely 
lend the money so deposited on notes at 
short dates, sixty to ninety days, and still 
have as much within their control as would 
meet the probable demand of the depositors 
for payment. It was necessary, however, 
that the notes discounted should be prompt- 
ly paid at maturity, in order that the bank, 
itself subject to be called upon to pay on 
demand, might have control of the means of 
payment. The discount of mercantile notes 
with two good endorsers then became the 
business of banks ; and Ave may here remark 
in passing, that this wrought a change in the 
mode of borrowing money in the communi- 
ty. Up to that period, good character, in- 
dustrj', and sobriety were security for loans. 
An illustration of this is afforded in a be- 
quest of Dr. Franklin in trust to the city 
(then town) of Boston, of a sum of money 
from which young mechanics of the above 
characteristics were to be loaned two hun- 
dred dollars to start them in business. They 
were to repay the money with interest, and 
the sum, with its accumulation, was to con- 
tinue a fund for the same purpose. The 
fund still continues to exist, but without 
accumulation. Under the newly established 
banking system, character was no longer an 
element of credit. A note with two good 
names became indispensable. The capitals 
of the banks were seldom paid in loanable 



200 



BANKS IN THE UNITED STATES. 



money. They were notes of the subscriber, 
or real estate, and were mostly designed to 
inspire confidence. A portion of it was req- 
uisite to be kept on hand in specie to meet 
the calls of depositors and note-holders. 
The banks, in order to increase their loan- 
able funds, were permitted to issue their own 
promises to pay specie on demand, these 
promises to circulate as money. The old 
colonial issues of credit bills did not pretend 
to be payable on demand, and the applica- 
tion of that principle, it was now supposed, 
would obviate the evils that had grown out 
of the old system. The bills were freely 
taken and circulated. The institutions were 
not limited in the amount that they might 
issue, and they increased the currency al- 
most at pleasure. It became obvious, how- 
ever, that if one bank issued a larger quan- 
tity in proportion than the other banks, its 
notes, paid into the rival institutions, would 
immediately be sent back to it for redemp- 
tion, and it would have to pay in specie the 
balance above what it held of their notes. 
Hence the laws of trade compelled each 
bank to keep its credits within a safe ratio 
to those of other institutions. This, how- 
ever, did not prevent all from increasing 
their issues to any extent as long as their 
mutual balances were adjusted. When, 
however, the whole of them increased their 
circulation, the mass of currency became 
cheap, a fact which manifests itself in a rise in 
prices of all commodities. The eftect of this 
is, that the produce of the country ceases to 
be exported, because it is too high to pay a 
profit to the merchant, while, on the other 
hand, goods are imported to avail of the high 
prices. This state of affairs involves an ex- 
port of specie, which drains the banks, and 
forces back .upon them their bills for re- 
demption. Hence, if the banks regulate 
each other by their balances, the foreign 
trade becomes the common regulator of all. 
Kept within a certain limit, governed by 
produce and business, the bank circulation 
is useful. Although it does not in any de- 
gree create capital, it supplies the place of 
the precious metals as currency. If we sup- 
pose a miller wishes to pui'chase grain ; he 
gets a note or acceptance at sixty days, on 
New York, discounted at a local bank, 
which pays out to him circulating notes. 
With these he purchases wheat of the farmer, 
flours it, and forwards it to New York for 
sale, and the proceeds are applied to the 
taking up of his draft that the bank had dis- 



counted. In the mean time the farmer has 
paid away the notes he took for his wheat, 
probably to the stoi'ekeeper in discharge of 
ids bill. The storekeeper has now to remit 
to New York to pay a note that falls due for 
merchandise previously purchased, and fur- 
nished to the farmer. To do so he goes to 
the bank, and buys of it the draft on New 
York that the institution had discounted for 
the miller. This he remits to his merchant, 
who gets it paid from the proceeds of the 
flour. The transaction is thus closed, and 
by it farm produce has been got to market, 
and merchandise, in return, has passed from 
the manufacturer to the consumer, eflccting 
an exchange of commodities Avithout the use 
of any money at all. The notes that the 
bank put out on a draft, after performing 
the functions of money, returned to it in ex- 
change for the draft, and all obligations 
were cancelled. This is the operation of 
paper when confined to actual business 
transactions. The number and kinds of 
these are almost infinite, but the principle is 
the same when the paper is only issued on 
actual commodities, the exchange of which 
cancels the obligations that grow out of 
them. There is, in this, no creation of capi- 
tal, only the facilitating the exchange of that 
already created. Under such circumstances, 
the quantity of currency rises and falls with 
the quantities of produce and merchandise. 
The moment the bank lends its notes to 
speculative operators, who seek to borrow 
capital itself, rather than credits with which 
to interchange capital, it becomes insolvent, 
because it lends what it has not got to spare. 
The early banks mostly confined themselves 
to sound rules, and with the rapid increase 
of business which followed the formation of 
the- new government, their business being 
profitable, stimulated the increase of institu- 
tions, mostly in New England, where com- 
merce was concentrated. The three origi- 
nal state banks were eminently success- 
ful, and they suggested a resource to the 
federal government. This was developed 
in the celebrated report of Alexander Ham- 
ilton, Secretary of the Treasury, in favor of 
a National Bank. The proposition at once 
called up the right of Congress to charter a 
bank under the constitution. After a warm 
congressional debate upon the subject, I'resi- 
dent Washington demanded written opinions 
of his four cabinet ofticers. The Attorney 
General and the Secretary of State declared 
the bank unconstitutional. The Secretary 



BILLS OF CREDIT GOVERNMENT ISSUES UNITED STATES BANK. 



201 



of War and tlie Secretary of the Treasury 
■were of a contrary opinion, and the celebra- 
ted paper of the latter upon the subject de- 
cided Washington, who signed the bill, and 
the bank went into operation with a capital 
of f;l 0,000,000, of which $2,000,000 was sub- 
scribed by the government, and 88,000,000 
by individuals. Of this latter amount, 
$2,000,000 was to be paid in specie and 
$6,000,000 in six per cent, stock of the 
United States. The charter was to continue 
until March 4, 1811. Immediately on the 
organization of the bank, the shares rose 25 
to 45 per cent, premium, and the institution 
paid 8 1-2 per cent, dividend. The creation 
of this bank was attended by the rapid mul- 
tiplication of banks in the various states, be- 
coming rivals to each other, and gradually 
consolidating an interest which was strong 
enough in 1811, with other interests, to defeat 
the recharter of the Bank of the United 
States. The recharter was opposed on the 
grounds: 1st, that it was unconstitutional; 
2d, that too much of its stock was owned by 
foreigners ; 3d, that state banks were better. 
It is singular that at a time when capital 
was scarce in the countrj', objections should 
have been made to its coming in from abroad. 
Nevertheless, the bank was closed, and on 
settlement paid $108 1-2 to each share of 
$100. From that date, gold and silver only 
were by law receivable for government dues. 
The winding up of the National Bank was the 
signal for creating state banks to fill the 
vacuum. The old bank and its business was 
purchased by Stephen Girard, who conducted 
with it a large private banking business with 
great success on a capital of $1,000,000. In 
four years, to 1815, 120 banks, with an ag- 
gregate capital of $40,000,000, went into 
operation. Pennsylvania alone, by act of 
March 21, 1814, created 41 b^nks. The 
amount of notes emitted by these institutions 
was never known with certainty, but was es- 
timated by Mr. JetFerson, in 1814, as high as 
$200,000,000. A large portion of these, in 
the middle states, were issued as loans to the 
government ; and the war pressure became 
such, that in September, 1814, all the banks 
out of New England stopped payment. The 
bills immediately depreciated 20 per cent. 
in Baltimore, and 1 5 per cent, in New York. 
The news of peace, in February 1815, caused 
some improvement, but in 1816 the difficul- 
ties were greater than ever. The discount 
in Baltimore was 20 per cent., Philadelphia 
17, New York 12 1-2. This kind of paper 



being the only currency, the government was 
compelled to take it for dues, in violation of 
law. This caused the greatest injustice, since 
the funds received in one place were more 
depreciated than in another, and New Eng- 
land, where the currency was sound, had 
great cause of complaint. In such a state of 
aftairs, although the state banks had multi- 
plied to 246, with $89,822,422 capital, a new 
National Bank became inevitable, and Con- 
gress, by act of April, 1816, again chartered 
a National Bank, which went into operation 
January 1817. Its charter was to last until 
March 4, 1836; its capital was $35,000,000, 
of which the United States subscribed 
$7,000,000 in a 5 per cent, stock, and the 
remaining $28,000,000 was to be subscribed 
by individuals — one-fourth in gold and silver 
and three-fourths in the funded debt of the 
United States. The debts of the bank, in 
excess of its deposits, were not to exceed 
$35,000,000. The bank was to pay a bonus 
of $1,500,000, and perform the money busi- 
ness of the government free of charge. In 
return it received the public funds on deposit, 
and nothing was to be taken for public dues 
except specie, treasury notes, notes of specie 
paying banks, and the National Bank notes. 
When the bank went into operation it became 
necessary for the state banks to resume or 
wind up. Those of New York, Philadelphia, 
Baltimore, and Virginia resumed, and those 
which did not were gradually purged olr. 
From 1811 to 1830, 165 banks, with a capital 
of $30,000,000, closed business. The loss 
of the government by these was estimated at 
$1,390,707, and the public lost much larger 
sums. The bank, in the first few years of 
its operation, encountered many perils, grow- 
ing out of the foreign trade. Imports poured 
into the country in prodigious amounts, and 
an active demand for silver sprung up for 
Europe and Asia. The institution had, how- 
ever, in the public stock and in its own stock, 
forming its capital, the means of drawing 
specie from Europe, which it did to an ex- 
tent that subjected it to a loss of over half a 
million dollars. 

The institution was of much service to 
the government, and enjoyed great facilities 
from the use of the public funds. The prin- 
cipal bank was at Philadelphia, with branches 
in most of the large cities. This organiza- 
tion of the bank made it very powerful as a 
means of exchange, and this power was likely 
to grow with the increasing wealth of the 
country, up to the time when railroads and 



202 



BANKS IN THE UNITED STATES. 



telegraphs made communication more rapid. 
The power of the hank was based upon the 
federal finances, of which it was the agent, 
and it operated through the growing busi- 
ness of the country, which was conducted 
largely upon the credit system. As the 
country increased in prosperity, other banks, 
under state charters, sprung up, and these 
became the recipients of mercantile deposits, 
or, in other words, of the money which each 
merchant received in the course of his busi- 
ness, and also of private funds. The mer- 
chants who thus placed their funds with the 
banks were constantly debtors of the govern- 
ment for duties and taxes ; these they paid 
by checks on their respective banks. The 
United States Bank, being the common re- 
cipient of all these checks, was thus always 
the creditor of the local banks, and could 
always force them to contract their loans by 
compelling them to pay, or could permit 
them to increase their loans by being indul- 
gent in regard to balances. The govern- 
ment funds thus collected by the United 
States Bank were paid out by it wherever 
the government required. Thus the Boston 
and New York branches would collect the 
largest amounts, but the branches in Rich- 
mond and elsewhere, or the parent bank in 
Philadelphia, would pay the drafts of the 
government. In the first year of the old 
bank it received $3,652,000 of the pub- 
lic money. As business prospered, the 
amount rose annually, until it reached 
$1Y,038,859 in 1808, before the embargo. 
Thus the receipts and payments on govern- 
ment account were thirty-four millions in a 
year, when the whole population was 
5,200,000 souls. The new bank in 1817 re- 
ceived 132,786,662 for accounts of the gov- 
ernment. The sum declined year by year 
to 121,347,000 in the year of crisis, 1825, 
and subsequently continued at about twenty- 
four millions per annum, until 1833, when 
the deposits were removed by the govern- 
ment. These large sums annually flowed in 
and flowed out of the bank on account of 
the government, and a large proportion of 
the payments were on account of the public 
debt. This reached $127,334,934 in 1816, 
and was by annual payments extinguished 
in 1835, a period of nineteen years; the 
average amount paid oft' annually by the 
government was thus $6,700,000. The 
government bank, being furnished with such 
machinery, was necessarily the best medium 
of collecting bills ; thus the New York mer- 



chants, as an instance, sold their goods to 
the shopkeepers all over the Union, and 
they took notes payable at the local banks. 
The credits thus granted could be collected 
by the United States Bank cheaper than by 
any other bank. Hence, in New York, the 
" branch" would be the receptacle for 
accounts to be collected in all other cities ; 
the bank would forward these to its appro- 
priate branch, say Richmond ; the branch 
there would notify the local merchants of 
the notes it held against them ; these would 
pay in checks upon the local banks where 
they kept their deposits, and all these checks 
collected by the United States branch would 
make it the common creditor of all the local 
banks, whose specie it thus controlled ; it 
would notify the New York branch of what 
collections had been made, and these would 
credit the mercantile owners with the 
amounts. The power of the bank from this 
source, operating through all its branches, 
was much greater than from the use of the 
government funds, and the state banks com- 
plained loudly of the tyranny that they 
alleged it exerted over them. A stormy 
opposition was thus formed against it, while, 
on the other hand, a generation of merchants 
had grown up under its administration of the 
exchanges, and they feared the results of a 
change. Meanwhile, the question became 
political, and a great party, as early as 1829, 
gave indication that the recharter in 1836 
would not be granted. A struggle between 
the bank and the government ensued, and 
in 1833 the President removed the public 
deposits from the bank and placed them 
with numerous state banks. These ran a 
race of expansion with the United States 
Bank ; the consequence was an immense spec- 
ulation, which resulted in general bankruptcy 
in 1837. The government, on removing the 
deposits to the state banks, enjoined them 
to be liberal to the merchants. This was 
done in the view of counteracting the strin- 
gency which the closing up of the United 
States Bank Avas expected to cause. This 
did not occur, however, since that institu- 
tion also was liberal with its loans. A rapid 
expansion resulted from this rivalry, and 
speculation ran wild, particularly in public 
lands. In the midst of this excitement, the 
government issued the famous " specie cir- 
cular," by which the lands were to be sold 
for cash, gold and silver only. The effect of 
this would be either to kill the speculation 
or to drain all the specie into the land oflSces ; 



BILLS OF CREDIT GOVERNMENT ISSUES UNITED STATES BANK. 



203 



it did the former. This was followed by a 
resolution of the Bank of England to cut 
off credits to American merchants, and the 
revulsion was precipitated. The charter of 
the United States Bank was not renewed by 
Congress, but the same institution obtained 
a charter from the State of Pennsylvania, 
February 18, 1836, under the name of the 
United States Bank of Philadelphia. The 
terms of this charter were very onerous, such 
as no institution could pay from profits ; the 
bank consequently failed, in common with 
all others in the Union, in 1837. It resumed 
its payments, following those of New York, 
January, 1839, and struggled on until Octo- 
ber 1839, when it finally failed. On 
going into liquidation, it was found that 
more than the whole of its large capital, 
$35,000,000, had been swallowed up, sub- 
jecting the stockholders to a total loss. This 
disaster was no doubt brought about by its 
abandonment of sound principles in the vain 
hope of compelling the government to re- 
charter it. But the institution had outlived 
its usefulness ; the country had outgrown 
the circumstances for which such a bank 
was fitted. We have thus sketched the 
outline of that bank before glancing at the 
progress of the state institutions, because, 
up to 1840, that bank was the controlling 
power. The progress of banking among the 
states has been step by step with the grow- 
ing wealth, population, and commerce of the 
country. This growth was manifestly too 
vigorous to permit of the continued existence 
of any regulating power. 

The relative growth of the state banks, 
and the business of the country proportional 
to the national bank, was as follows : — 





No. 


State banks. 


National bank 




Capital. 


Capital. 


1791, 


3 


2,000,000 


10,000,000 


1811, 


89 


52,601,601 


10,000,000 


1817, 


246 


89,822,422 


35,000,000 


1837, 


634 


290,772,091 


35,000,000 


1860, 


1,562 


421,880,095 





Thus the national bank, which began 
with a capital five times as large as all the 
state banks, was only one-fifth of their 
aggregate in 1811. In 1817 the state capi- 
tal was two and a half times the new Na- 
tional Bank capital, and in 1836 it was eight 
times that capital. Had it then been re- 
chartered, with the same amount, it would 
now have been but one-twelfth of the capital 
of the state banks. 



CHAPTER II. 

STATE BANKS— SUFFOLK SYSTEM-SAFETY 
FUNDS— FREE BANKS. 

The growth of state banks has fluctuated 
from time to time, under different circum- 
stances of local trade, and the general nature 
of banks has changed in obedience to similar 
conditions. The nature of the banking sys- 
tems of each locality has, however, under- 
gone repeated modifications, and the general 
tendency is to the circulation of less paper. 
We shall endeavor to give a sketch of each. 
The first attempt at banking in New England 
was the creation of a land bank in 1740. 
At that time about eight hundred persons 
subscribed a capital in real estate, and hav- 
ing appointed ten directors, agreed to issue 
one hundred and fifty thousand pounds in 
paper, to circulate as money. This was dis- 
solved by Pai'liament, and the stockholders 
held individually liable for the bills. In 
1784 a bank was chartered by the Massachu- 
setts Legislature, and the other New England 
states followed the example from time to 
time. In 1805 there were in existence 
forty-seven banks in the six New England 
states, with an aggregate capital of $13,- 
353,000. In 1815, at "the close of the war, 
these had risen to sixty-three banks, and 
$19,053,902 of capital, and the circulation 
had become large. In 1800 the number of 
banks in those states had risen to five hun- 
dred and five, with a capital of $90,186,990. 
In the course of this increase, the system of 
banking there had undergone less changes 
than in other states- 

The paper currency of New England was 
generally of small denominations, and emit- 
ted by a larger number of banks with small 
capitals than that of most other sections. 
These institutions were scattered over the 
six New England states, and the bills of 
each bank forming the currency of its neigh- 
borhood, would, in the course of trade, ulti- 
mately find their way to Boston, the com- 
mon centre of business. There being no 
provision for their redemption, they circu- 
lated at a discount, and this discount was 
increased in proportion to the issues of each 
bank, inflicting loss upon the community. 
To remedy this, the Suffolk Bank of Boston, 
in 1825, undertook to receive all the bills 
and send them home by an agent to the 
issuing bank, requiring each to redeem in 



204 



BANKS IN THE UNITED STATES. 



specie at its own counter. This compelled 
each bank to keep a large amount of specie 
on hand, at an expense which ate up the 
profits of the circulation. They all agreed, 
in consequence, to keep at the Suffolk about 
three thousand dollars deposited, to redeem 
any balance of notes that might be there 
found against them. To keep down that 
balance each was then compelled to restrict 
its circulation to the actual business wants 
of its locality, that there might be no surplus 
currency ; in other words, that the course 
of trade might carry to Boston no more of 
its bills than would be paid by the produce 
of the locality sent thither for sale, and also 
to send promptly to the Suffolk any bills of 
other banks that might come into its hands, 
as an offset to its own balances. Thus all 
the banks in New England were actively en- 
gaged in running each other, and five hun- 
dred streams poured country money daily 
into the Suffolk receptacle, to be assorted 
and sent back to the issuers. This kept down 
the volume of the currency in that section. 
After the creation of railroads and tele- 
grajihs, the difficulty of keeping out an excess 
of circulation was greater. To be " thrown 
out of the Suffolk," or, in other words, not 
be able to meet a balance there, was fatal 
to the reputation of a bank. The system 
worked well up to the civil war. It was 
the case, however, that although those insti- 
tutions could not put out an excessive cir- 
culation in New England, many of them 
lent their notes on securities, on condition 
that the notes should be paid out at the far 
west, whence they would be very slow in re- 
turning for redemption. The Suffolk mode 
of regulation by the laws of trade was, upon 
the whole, very successful. 

In New York the same evils manifested them- 
selves as in New England, and in 1829 a rem- 
edy was attempted in the shape of the " safety 
fund." This did not undertake to restrain the 
issues of the banks, but to protect the public 
from loss by failure. Under it all the banks 
doing business in the state were required to 
contribute one-half of one per cent of their 
aggregate circulation to a fund to be called 
the " Safety Fund," out of which the notes 
of a broken bank Avere to be paid in full. 
This worked very well during a number of 
years of prosperity, but in the revulsion of 
1837 a number of banks failed under disas- 
trous circumstances, and the fund was found 
to be entirely insufficient — besides being 
wrong in principle, since it called upon the 



honest and well-conducted banks to pay the 
debts of the dishonest ones. It is hardly 
worth while, in a short history like this, to 
enumerate all the restrictions as to discounts, 
specie on hand, and emission of bills, that 
the various states have incorporated in bank 
laws. It may suffice to say, that all are 
powerless to prevent evil. On the failure of 
the safety fund system of New York, how- 
ever, a radical change took place in the policy 
in regard to banks. The privilege of issuing 
notes to circulate as money at their own will 
and pleasure, liad been found to be danger- 
ous to the public, and the law of April, 1838, 
called the " free banking law," was passed, 
by which the power to issue bills directly 
was taken from the banks. Under that law, 
the Comptroller of the state prepared the 
plates, and delivered the bills to the banks, 
upon their lodging with him such securities, 
mostly state stocks, as amply secured the re- 
demption of the bills. The name, " free 
banking," was given to the law, because it re- 
moved from the banks the restrictions rela- 
tive to discounts, and the necessity for a char- 
ter. This law was altered in some respects 
almost every year of its existence, but its 
main features remained the same, and it be- 
came in New Y'ork the sole law to regulate 
banking. All the old banks, as their charters 
expired, reorganized under it, since the state 
constitution provided that no new charters 
could be granted or old ones renewed. The 
working of this law was so efficient and pop- 
ular, that it spread into most of the northern 
and western states. The progress of bank- 
ing in New Y'^ork has been as follows : 





NUMBER OF BANES 


AND AGGREGATE CAPITAL. 




No 


Capital. 




1801, 


5 


4,720,000 




1811, 


8 


7,522,760 


Expiration of first U. S. bank. 


1816, 


27 


18,766,756 


Recharter U. S. bank. 


1836, 


86 


31,281,401 


Charter U. S. Bk expired ; susp 


1838, 


94 


38,401,460 


Free banking law ; resumption. 


1857, 


294 


107,449,143 


Suspenion. 


1860, 


303 


111,441,370 


Recovery . 


1S61, 


802 


109,982,324 


War commenced. 


1863, 


309 


109,258,147 


Organization of Nat. banka. 



The New York law requires the banks to 
issue the bills at the place of their location, 
and to redeem them at not more than one- 
half per cent, discount in the city of New 
York. These institutions, however, have an 
arrangement with the Metropolitan Bank, in 
New York, by which they are redeemed at 
a less rate. 

Pennsylvania, in the early part of the cen- 
tury, was slow to create banks, and it had 
but three up to 1814, in which year 41 new 



STATE BANKS SUFFOLK SYSTEM SAFETY FUNDS FREE BANKS. 



205 





No 


Capital. 


1801, 


2 


5,000,000 


1811, 


4 


6,153,000 


1815, 


i'l 


15,0 _i8 ,000 


1820, 


3!) 


14,681,0i>0 


1835, 


49 


23,75 >,338 


is;«, 


49 


25,255, r83 


1859, 


87 


24,565,805 


1S61, 


89 


25,843.215 


1863, 


94 


26,561,3o7 



banks were incorporated. Subsequently, it 
created numbers, and has probably suflTered 
more than any other state from its abused 
bank credits. The progress of affairs there 
was as folbws, exclu.^ive of the United States 
Bank, which was situated at Philadelphia: — 

Expiration of U. S. bank. 
Low credit ; 41 new banks. 
Twenty-two banks failed. 
State charter U. S. bk ; susp. 
Resumption . 

Recovery from panic of 1867. 
AVar commenced. 
Organization Nat. banks. 

There was, up to 1830, a great number of 
unauthorized banks doing business in Penn- 
sylvania, and I hey presented a constant suc- 
cession ot bankruptcies. The authorized 
capital down to the present time has not kept 
pace with that of other states, taking the 
wealth and population of Pennsylvania into 
consideration. 

Maryland chartered its first bank in 1790, 
the Bank of Maryland, capital $300,000, and 
continued to increase them moderately up to 
the present time. The progress of capital 
there has been as follows : — 



No. 

1801, 2 

1811, 6 

1814, 17 

1820, 14 

1837, 21 

1839, 32 

1862, 33 



Capital. 

$1,600,000 

4,835,402 

7,882,000 

6,708,180 

10,438,65.5 

12,560,635 

12,505,559 



U. S. Bank expired. 
Banks suspended. 

Suspension. 

War in progress. 



New Jersey has been influenced to some 
extent in her banking operations, by the state 
of things in New York and Pennsylvania, 
and in 1 850 it adopted the general banking 
law of New York. Its progress has been as 
follows : — 



No. 

1805, 2 

1811, 3 

1815, 11 

1820, 14 

1837, 25 

1850, 24 

1855, 32 

1857, 48 

1859, 46 

1862, 51 



Capital. 
$1,000,000 
789,740 
2,121,933 
2,130,949 
3,970,090 
3,565,283 
5,314,885 
7,494,«12 
7,356,122 
7,933,933 



U. S. Bank expired. 

Suspension. 

Suspension. 
Free law. 

Suspension. 

War in progress. 



The multiplication of banks in New Jersey 
under the new law, was mostly for the benefit 
of circulating^ their issues in New York at a 
discount, and they were of but little service 
to New Jersey. 

Delaware has created banks in proportion 
to its size, in the following ratio : — 





No. 


Capital. 




1801, 


1 


$110,000 




1815, 


5 


966,000 


Suspension. 


1819, 


6 


974,000 




1837, 


4 


817,775 


Suspension. 


1849 


2 


210,(100 


Gold discovery. 


18.59, 


12 


1,638,185 




1862, 


14 


1,915,010 


War in progres 



Ohio has been, of all the states, the most 
diversified in its policy in regard to banks. 
Its first bank was chartered in 1803, but it 
did not increase charters much until migra- 
tion set thither after the w:ir of 1812, when 
the new United States Bank established two 
branches, one in Cincinnati and one in Chil- 
licolhe. The progress of banks was then 
rapid up to the explosion of 1837, when about 
36 of the banks of that state faiUd. under 
disastrous circumstances, leaving hut few in 
existence on the resumption of specie pay- 
ments in 1840. In 184-0, a new system of 
banking was introduced, designed to restore 
that confidence in banks which had been so 
rudely shaken by the previous failures. It 
was called the '' safety fund system," being 
composed of thirty -six banks which, together, 
form the State Bank, under a board of con- 
trol, composed of delegates from each bank, 
which furnishes the notes to all for circula- 
tion. Each bank must deposit with the board 
10 per cent, of its circulation in securities. 
Of 42 banks started under this law, 36 re- 
mained with capital of $4,034,525. The same 
law created the "independent system," by 
which the banks doing business under it 
must deposit Ohio or United States stock 
with the State Treasurer to secure the circu- 
lation. There were 7 of these banks. There 
remained the old chartered banks, of which 
the Ohio Life and Trust — whose explosion 
in 1857 precipitated the panic which had 
been prepared for the public mind — was 
the last. In 1851, the free banking law of 
New York was adopted ; under this 1 3 banks 
were started. In the same year, by the new 
constitution of the state, the legislature was 
deprived of the right to grant banking powers 
until the law for so doing should be approved 
by the people. The general progress in Ohio 
to 1862, was as follows : — 



No. C.apital. 

1805, 1 $200,000 

1811, 4 895,000 

1816, 21 2,061,927 

1837, 32 10,870,089 

1845, 8 2,171,807 

1851, 56 7,129,227 

18.54, 66 7,166,581 

1859, 53 6,701,151 

1862, 56 5,539,950 



New U. S. Bank. 

Suspension. 
State bank law. 
Free law. 
Free law. 
Recovery. 
War in progress- 



206 



BANKS IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Indiana became a state in 1816, and in 
1819 there were two banks, with a capital 
of 1202,857, and so continued until 1834, 
when the State Bank of Indiana was created, 
capital $l,600,0(>O, and with ten branches, 
which were mutually liable for each other's 
debts, and notes under $5 were jjrohibited. 
The bank stopped, partially, in 1837, and 
resumed payment October, 1841. In 1852 
the general banking law of New York was 
adopted, and under it ninety-four banks were 
speedily organized, and fifty-one of them soon 
failed. The charter of the State Bank of 
Indiana having expired, the legislature char- 
tered a new one, with capital of $6,000,000, 
and twenty branches, which bought out the 
state interest in the old bank, the charter 
being paid up to January 1, 1857. The 
progress of the state has been as follows • 

No. Capital. 

1819, 2 $202,857 

1835, 10 800,000 State bank. 

1837, 11 1,845,000 Suspension. 

1839, 11 2,216,700 Resumption. 

1841, 11 

1 852, 44 5,554,552 Free banking law. 

1854, 59 7,281,9.34 New state bank. 

1859, 37 3,617,629 

1862, 39 4,557,654 War in progress. 

Eighteen of these free banks, capital 
$1,203,454. 

Illinois came into the Union in 1818, and 
in 1819 there were two banks, capital 
$140,910 — one of which had been chartered 
in 1813, under the territory. It stopped in 
1815 and rema'ued so until 1835, when the 
legislature revived it and increased its capital 
to $1,400,000. The constitution of the 
state in 1818 forbade the creation of any 
new banks except a state bank, which 
was chartered in 1819, with a capital of 
$4,000,000. This was repealed and a new 
bank chartered, which speedily failed. In 
1835 a new bank was chartered, capital 
$1,500,000 to S2,500,000. These banks sus- 
pended in 1837, going into liquidation in 

1842, and no banks existed in the state until 
the adoption of the free banking law in 1851. 
The general progress to 1862, was as follows : 

. No. Capital. 

1819, 2 $140,910 

1835, 2 278,739 State bank charter. 

1838, 2 5,473,050 Failure. 

1843, Liquidation. 
1854, 29 2,513,790 Free banking law. 
1857, 45 4,679,325 Suspension. 
1859, 103 8,900,000 Recovery. 

1862, 18 712,361 Warproduced a crisis. 

Michigan was admitted as a state in Jan- 
uary, 1837, but there had been already a 



number of small banks authorized by the 
territorial legislature. These rapidly multi- 
plied under the state, during the speculative 
year 1837. In the early part of that year 
there existed 20 banks, with a capital of 
$1,918,361. These were a total wreck, and 
in March, 1838, a general banking law 
was passed, in order, as was alleged, to throw 
the business open. In one year, 49 banks, 
with a capital of $3,915,000, were projected. 
Of these, 42 went into operation. Those 
banks were not required to redeem their 
issues on demand. The result was utter in- 
solvency, inflicting a heavy loss upon the 
public. In 1849, the " free banking law " 
was adopted, with personal liabilities to stock- 
holders. The progress was as follows ; — 

No. Capital. 

1835, 8 $658,980 Territorial government. 

1837, 9 1,400,000 State and generallaw. 

1838, 43 2,317,765 Revulsion. 
1844, 3 202,650 Liquidation. 
1849, 5 392,530 Free law. 
1859, 4 755,461 

1862, 4 786,455 

Iowa was admitted into the Union in 1846. 
It had at Dubuque the Miners' Bank, char- 
tered by Wisconsin before the erection of 
Iowa territory, in operation since 1838. In 
1858 it adopted the free banking law, and 
authorized a State Bank, wliich, with its 
bi'anches, organized in 1859. In 1862, the 
State Bank and its 15 branches had $720,- 
890 capital. 

Wisconsin was admittted into the Union 
in 1848. It had, during some ten years, two 
banks, that of Mineral Point and the Bank 
of Wisconsin; these failed, and in 1851 a 
new bank was started at Milwaukee. In 1854 
the free banking law was adopted ; since that 
time the progress has been as follows : — 



1837, 
1839, 
1848, 


No. 
2 
2 


Capital. 
$119,625 
139,125 


Suspension. 
State admitted 


1854, 


10 


600,000 


Free law. 


1857, 
1859, 
1860, 
1862, 


38 

98 

108 

70 


2,635,000 
7,995,000 
7,620,000 
4,397,000 


Suspension. 
Expansion. 
Expansion. 
Panic. 



The operation of the free law, by retarding 
the convertibility of the bills of the Wis- 
consin banks, caused, when crops are short, 
exchange on the east to rule high, in other 
words depreciates the currency. The bank 
circulation was about $4,600,000. 

Minnesota has made, as yet, little prog- 
ress in banking. It adopted the free bank- 
ing law in 1858, and several banks were 



STATE BANKS SUFFOLK SYSTEM SAFETY FUNDS FREE BANKS. 



207 



started under it. lii 1800 there were 17, 
but before May, 1862, 14 of these had foiled 
and 2 of the remaining three did no business 
in the state. 

Nebraska, before becoming a state, had 
a number of banks, chartered by the legisla- 
ture, but these all went down, some in the 
panic of 1857 and some afterwards, and in 
1862 she had not one left. 

Kentucky was admitted into the Union in 
1792, and in 1801 it authorized a bank, with 
a capital of $150,000, under the guise of an 
Insurance Company, authorized to issue 
notes. In 1804 it chartered the Bank of 
Kentucky, capital |1, 000, 000 ; this bank 
failed in 1814, but resumed in 1815. In 
18l7abatch of forty banks, with $10,000,000 
capital, was authorized to redeem their notes 
by paying out Kentucky bank-notes for 
them instead of specie. The result was a 
flood of irredeemable paper, which stimu- 
lated all kinds of speculation and jobbing, 
and ended in a general explosion and dis- 
tress within the year. To " relieve " the 
people, the state chartered the Common- 
wealth Bank, capital $3,000,000, pledging 
lands south of the Tennessee river, in addi- 
tion to the faith of the state, for the redemp- 
tion of the bills, which creditors were re- 
quired to take at par for their claims, or 
wait two years for their pay. The bills fell 
at once to fifty cents on the dollar, and 
which proportion of their debts creditors 
were thus required to lose. This gave rise 
to party strife, which, at the end of five years, 
resulted in the repeal of the law and the 
suppression of the paper. The United States 
Bank had two branches in the state, one at 
Lexington and one at Louisville. When, in 
1833, it became evident that that institution 
would not be rechartered, three new banks, 
with branches, were authorized, capital 
$7,030,000 ; subsequently another was start- 
ed. These went into operation, but sus- 
pended in 1837, resuming in 1839 with the 
United States Bank, and again suspended on 
the final failure of that concern. In 1842, 
the banks again resumed, and since then the 
number has gradually increased, as follows : 

No. Capital. 

1819, 18 $4,307,431 Irredeemable. 

1833, 2 192,427 New charter. 

1835, 4 4,106,262 With ten branches. 

1837, 4 8.499,094 Suspension. 

1851, 26 7,536,927 

1857, 35 10,596.'^^- Piippension. 

1860, 45 i2,835,670 Kecoveiy. 

1S62, 57 15,305,500 Wartime. 



Tennessee commenced banking in 1807, 
with the Bank of Nashville, which soon 
failed with great loss. In 1811 it again 
chartered ten banks, and a number of others 
were from time to time started, but failed 
disastrously. In 1852 the free banking law 
was adopted, and the progress of affairs to 
1860 was as follows : — 

No. Capital. 

.819, 3 $1,545,867 Disastrous fliilure. 

1820, 1 737,817 State bank charter. 

1835, 3 2,890.381 Four branches. 

1837, 3 5,293,079 Suspension. 

1852, 23 6,8S1,568 

1857, 45 9,083,693 Suspension. 

1860, 34 8,067,037 

Arkansas had two banks that were started 
upon state bonds. These the state issued 
to the extent of $3,500,000 to the banks to 
form their capitals. The bonds were sold 
through the United States Bank, and the 
money obtained for them was loaned out 
pro rata to the stockholders, who became so 
by filing mortgages on their plantations and 
lands. Speedy ruin, of course, overtook 
both banks. These went into liquidation, 
owing the state some $3,000,000 on the 
bonds' which were not paid. No banks Avere 
started again in Arkansas till after the war. 

Mississippi is a state in which banking 
for a long time ran riot, but which has had 
but little in the last ten years. When the 
state came into the Union in 1817 it had 
one bank, which continued with an increased 
capital to 1830. In that year the state 
chartered the Planters' Bank, with a capital 
of $3,000,000, two-thirds to be subscribed 
by the state in stock, which was issued, and 
the bank went into operation. Other banks 
were then chartered, and in 1837 there were 
seventeen, with eighteen branches, and a 
capital of $10,760,951. In that year the 
Union Bank was chartered, with a capital of 
$15,000,000 in state stock; of this amount 
$5,000,000 was issued, and repudiated on 
the ground of illegality of sale, and in 1852 
the people refused, by a large vote, to pay 
those bonds. All the banks of Mississippi 
failed, and there has since been but little 
movement, as follows : — 

No. Capital. 

1820, 1 $900,000 

1830, 1 950,600 Capitalincreased. 

1834, 1 2,666,805 

1837, 17 16,760,951 18 branches. 

1838, 11 19,231,123 Suspension. 
1840, 18 30,379,403 Failure. 
1851, 1 118,460 

1859, 2 1,100,000 

1861, All failed. 



208 



BANKS IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Missouri had one bank when it came into 
the Union in 1821, but it failed disastrously. 
The State Bank of Missouri and branches 
continued to be the only institution up to 
I806, when a law was passed authorizing 
others, and the progress to 1862, w-as as 
follows : — 



1819, 
1837, 
1839, 
1857, 
1859, 
1860, 
1862, 



No. 

1 

I 

1 

5 
17 

9 
44 



Branches. 

1 
1 
5 
5 
29 



Capital. 
$250,000 
533,350 
1,027,870 
2,620,615 
5,796,781 
9,082,951 
13,884,383 



State bank. 

Suspension. 
Expansion. 





No. 


Branches 


1 830, 


3 




1837, 


16 


31 


1840, 


16 


31 


1843, 


6 


22 


1851, 


6 


22 


1857, 


6 




1860, 


13 


— 



Louisiana came into the Union in 1812, 
with one bank, having a capital of $500,000. 
This was increased to three banks in 1815, 
capital $l,4;32,O0O. The progress subse- 
quently was not great until after 1830, when 
the speculative spirit of those years was 
largely developed in Louisiana, and thence 
to 1860, was as follows : — 

Capital. 
$4,665,980 

36,769,455 Suspension. 
41,711,214 Faihire. 
20,929,340 Liquidation. 
12,370,390 Free bank law. 
22,800,830 Suspension. 
24,496,866 

The free banking law was a,dopted in 
1853, and four banks were started under its 
provisions, which required the banks to 
keep one third of their liabilities in specie 
on hand. 

Alabama has had experience of a disas- 
trous nature in state banking, and there has 
been little enterprise in that direction since 
the &,;lure of the State Hank. When she 
came into the Union in 1819 she had one 
bank, with a capital of $321,112. In 1830 
she had two banks. It was then supposed 
that by embarking in banking, the state 
miglit derive profits enough to pay all the 
state expenses and dispense with taxation. 
Accordingly, state bonds were issued to form 
the capital of the State Bank, which how- 
ever, soon failed, and the state was saddled 
with a debt of some $11,000,000. 

The progress was as follows : — 





r'"o- 


" 


"'"^ . 




No 




No. 


Capital. 




1811, 


1 


1819, 


1 


$321,112 




1816, 


3 


1830, 


2 


781,010 




1820, 


4 


1837, 


3 


10,141,806 


Suspension. 


1833, 


13 


1840, 


3 


14 379,255 


Liquidation. 


1837, 


16 


1843, 


1 


1,500,000 


Bank of Mobile. 


1840, 


39 


1851, 


1 


1,500,000 


Free banking law. 


1846, 


22 


1857, 


4 


2,297,800 


Suspension. 


1857, 


30 


I860, 


8 


4,901,000 




1860, 


20 



Virginia chartered a bank as early as 1804 
for 53 years, the Bank of Virginia, capital 
$1,500"UU0, since enlarged. In 1830 there 
were four banks, and the change was not great 
down to 185 1 , when the free law was adopted, 
but the charters, of the old banks were re- 
neM'ed as they expired. The course of 
events was as follows : — 

No. Branches. Capital. 
1819, 3 $5,112,192 

18.30, 4 18 5,571,181 

1837, 5 18 6,732,500 Suspension. 

1839, 5 20 7,458,248 

1840, 6 10,.S63,362 

1851, 6 20 9,731,370 Free banking law. 
1857, 22 40 14,651,600 Susi)en,sion. 
1860, 24 41 16,005,156 

North Carolina began her Dank career in 
1804, in granting a charter for $250,000 
cajjital. From that time the number and 
amount of capital steadily increased, with- 
out any material deviation from a steady 
course, imtil 1860, as follows : — 

No. Branches. Capital. 

1810, 3 $2,964,887 

1830, 3 3,195,0110 

1837, 3 7 2,880,590 Suspension. 

1850, 3 12 3,789,250 

1860, 12 18 , 6,526,488 

South Carolina was more variable in its 
banking movement. Its first institution 
was the State Bank. In 1820 the capital 
was pledged as security for the state debt, 
and it became a regular bank. The progi'ess 
of the state to 1860 was as follows : — 



1792, 
1711, 

1820, 
1836, 
1837, 
1839, 
1850, 
1860, 



No. 

1 

4 

3 
10 

4 
11 
14 
20 



Capital. 
$675,000 
3,475,000 
2,474,000 
8,636,118 
4,100,000 
9,1.53,498 
13,179,131 
962,062 



Suspension. 
Ei^ht new charters. 



Georgia had a regular supply of banks 
after the expiration of the first United States 
Bank in 1811, when she chartered an insti- 
tution with $21'"),000 capital. In 1820 this 
had increased to four banks, with a capital 
of $3,401,510, and the progress to 1860, 
was as follows : — 



Capital. 

$215,000 Old U. S. Bank expired. 

1,:)02,000 New " chartered. 

3,401,510 

6,534,691 Deposits removed. 
11, -138, 828 Suspension. 
15,098,694 

8,970,789 
16,015,256 Suspension. 
16,689,560 



BANKS OF THE UNITED STATES CLEARING HOUSES PRIVATE BANKING. 209 



District of Columbia banks were estab- 
lished as early as 1792, in the district, and 
increased pretty rapidly, as follows : — 





No. 


Capital. 


1792, 


1 


^500,000 


1802, 


2 


1,500,000 


1811, 


4 


2,3*1,395 


1815, 


10 


4,078,295 


1820, 


13 


5,525,319 


1830, 


9 


3,879,574 


1837, 


7 


2,204,445 


1844, 


6 


1,649,280 



Most of the charters expired, and not 
being renewed, the concerns gradually went 
into liquidation. 

Florida came into the Union in 1845, with 
a load of five banks that had been chartered 
by the territory in 1838, with an aggregate 
capital of $2,113,000. These were mostly 
based upon $3,500,000 territorial bonds, 
issued to the banks for capital, and sold in 
London. The concerns foiled almost as soon 
as they got the money, and went into liqui- 
dation, when the state repudiated the bonds. 



and there were no banks in Florida, until 
1860, when two were started, with $300,000 
capital. 

From this sketch of banking in each state, 
it is to be observed that the creation of banks 
has been due more to the desire to borrow 
money through their operation than to lend 
it. The mistaken idea that they could sup- 
ply capital, was the temptation to their cre- 
ation, and disastrous failure everywhere at- 
tended the experiment. Gradually a prin- 
ciple of sound banking vindicated itself amid 
numerous disasters, and actual capital came 
to be employed in the business. 



CHAPTER III. 

BANKS OF THE UNITED STATES— CLEAK- 
ING HOUSES— PRIVATE BANKING. 

Having sketched the course of events in 
each state, we may recapitulate the leading 
features of all the state banks : — 



1791, 
1800, 
1811, 
1815, 
1816, 
1820, 
1830, 
1837, 
1840, 
1843, 
1846, 
1854, 
1857, 
1860, 
1863, 



BANKS OF ALL THE UNITED STATES TOTAL OF rMPORTS 

Loans. Circulation. Specie. 



No. 

3 

32 

89 

208 

246 

308 

330 

634 

901 

691 

707 

1,208 

1,416 

1,562 

1,466 



Capital. 

$2,000,000 

23,550,000 

52,601,601 

82,259,590 

89,822,422 

137,110,611 

145,192,268 

290,772,091 

358,442,692 

228,861,948 

196,894,309 

301,376,071 

370,834,686 

421,880,095 

405,045,829 



200,451,214 
525,115,702 
462,896,523 
254,544,937 
312,114,404 
557,397,779 
684,456,889 
691,945,-580 
648,601,863 



$28,100,000 

45,500,000 

68,000,000 

44,863,344 

61,323,898 

149,185,890 

106,968,572 

58,563,608 

105,552,427 

204,689,207 

214,778,822 

207,102,477 

238,677,208 



115,400,000 
17,000,000 
19,000,000 
19,820,240 
22,114,917 
37,915,340 
33,105,155 
33,515,806 
42,012,095 
59,410,353 
58,349,838 
83,594,537 

101,227,367 



AND EXPORTS — POPULATION. 

Deposits. Imports & Exports. Population. 

$48,212,041 3,929,827 

162,224,548 5,305,925 

144,716,833 7,449,960 

165,599,027 8,353,338 

229,024,452 8,595,806 

$35,950,470 144,141,669 9,638,131 

55,559,928 144,726,428 12,866,020 

127,397,185 258,408,593 15,681,467 

75,686,857 2;J9,227,465 17,069,453 

56,168,628 149,100,279 18,713,479 

96,913,070 235,180,313 20,515,871 

188,188,744 582,803,445 26,051,890 

230,351,352 723,850,823 28,406,974 

253,802,129 854,500,000 31,443,321 

393,686,126 594,097,046 34,478,633 



This table shows the number of banks, 
with their aggregate capital, at important 
eras. As in 1791, when the national bank 
and mint went into operation; 1811, when 
the bank charter expired; 1815, when the 
numerous banks that had sprung into being 
on the dissolution of the National Bank, were 
all suspended; in 1816, when the peace, 
bringing with it large imports of goods, and 
a heavy drain of specie to Europe and Asia, 
increased the confusion and aided the re- 
establishment of a national bank ; 1820, 
when that bank, in full operation, was stag- 
gerring under adverse exchanges and the ope- 
ration of local banks ; 1830, when five years 
of successful working, after the revulsion of 
1825, and under a high tariff, had given con- 
fidence to the public ; 1837, when the rivalry 
between the state and the national banks 
13* 



had, aided by the state of affairs in Europe, 
stimulated speculation, which resulted in the 
revulsion of that year; 1840, when the 
number of banks had reached the highest 
point, under efforts to restore prosperity 
by paper credits ; 1843, the lowest point of 
depression after the failure of those efforts, 
and the liquidation of the unsound banks ; 
1846, when the bank capital was at a low 
point, but bank credits had begun to multiply 
under the effects of the famine abroad ; 1854, 
when the gold discoveries had prompted the 
creation of five hundred new banks ; the 
panic period of 1857 ; the partial restora- 
tion of 1860 ; and the contraction and gen- 
eral upheaval in all financial operations pro- 
duced by two years of war, in 1863. 

The mere figures, showing the magnitude 
of the bank movement, do not indicate the 



210 



BANKS IN" THE UNITED STATES. 



changes in tlie manner of doing business, nor 
do they indicate any unsafe expansion, except 
as in connection with tlie business they 
represent. Thus, in 1837, the bank loans 
were 1525,000,000, and their circulation 
$149,000,000. Events proved that those 
loans were of the most speculative and un- 
safe character. In 1860, the loans were 
$691,900,000, and the circulation $207,000,- 
000. Yet these larger figures were very far 
from being excessive. They represent but 
$6 circulation per head of the people, while 
that of 1837 was nearly $10 per head. The 
imports and exports, were, in 1837, but half 
the amount of bank loans. In 1860 they 
exceeded the amount of bank loans, but 
in 1863 were fifty-four million less. It is 
thus evident, that the larger sum of bank 
loans represents actual business, while those 
of 1837 represented only speculative values. 
This fact of the nature of loans made is the 
key to sound banking. It is a matter which 
depends upon the judgment and skill of the 
banker, and it cannot be regulated by law. 
Hence the futility of all the laws that have 
been devised to prevent banks from breaking. 
It is to be remembered, that the bank loans 
form but a portion of the credits which are 
the great purchasing power in trade. Almost 
all the wholesale business of the country is 
done with the notes of individuals, running 
for a longer or less time. These are entirely 
independent of law or banks. In a time of 
great mercantile confidence and speculative 
activity, business men are disposed to buy 
on credit, and their competition for produce 
and merchandise causes a rise in prices. This 
rise stimulates greater activity, which reacts 
upon prices until revulsion is brought about. 
The agency which the banks have in this 
matter is to discount a portion of the notes 
which a dealer takes in exchange for the mer- 
chandise he sells. The bank in discounting 
does not actually lend any money. It 
merely operates a canceling of credits by 
book accounts. Tlius, a merchant buys goods 
and gives his note at six months. He then 
deposits what money he receives in the 
course of business to' await tlie maturity of 
the note. As the period approaches, he finds 
that he has not money enough, but he has in 
his pocket-book a number of notes that he 
has taken for goods. These he takes to the 
bank and offers as collateral security for his 
own note, that he offers for discount. The 
bank making the discount places the amount 
to his credit. He draws a check aarainst that 



credit in favor of the note he has to pay, and 
the two entries cancel each other. There 
has been no money used, but one kind of 
promise has supplanted another. As the 
crops come forward from the country, the 
drafts drawn against them pay the notes held 
by the merchant and lodged as collateral. 
Dearnessor scarcity of money in the market 
depends mainly upon the disposition of the 
banks to facilitate the canceling of credits, 
and in this the institution affects to be gov- 
erned by the state of the foreign trade. If 
the disposition to buy goods has been very 
active and prices are consequently so high as 
to pay good profits on imports, the arrivals 
of merchandise will be large and the exports 
proportionably small. This involves a demand 
for specie which the banks avoid, by refusing 
to come under new obligations. A competi- 
tion in curtailment sets in. The bank that 
curtails the most rapidly will have the 
balances in its favor from the other banks, 
and will command their specie. Each en- 
deavors to attain such a position. The pres- 
sure becomes great, the public alarmed, and 
individual depositors draw their specie, which 
exhausts the banks, and they stop. This was 
the state of affairs in 1857. 

The general tendency of the banks has 
been, under the teachings of experience, to 
equalize balances and to insist on prompt 
payment. In the case of circulation tliis was 
done in New England by the Suffolk system, 
and in New York and most other states by 
the free law, which required a deposit of state 
stocks of dollar for dollar of the circulation. 
It is obvious, however, that these regulations 
in no degree affect discounts and those ope- 
rations where circulation is not in question ; 
as in the checks of individuals, by which a 
large portion of credits are transferred. In 
New York city there were about 60 banks, 
each of which received checks on all the other 
oanks. and had checks drawn upon it in favor 
of all others. There were also drafts and bills 
from abroad, constanly coming to each 
to be paid by others. Up to 1853, all 
the banks employed each a man to go round 
and collect all these checks and drafts each 
day, and each bank kept fifty accoimts open. 
To obviate this and to enforce settlement, 
the " clearing house " was devised. By this 
system, each l)ank sends thither every day a 
clerk, with all the demands it has against all 
other banks. The fifty or sixty clerks as- 
sembled make a mutual exchange of all 
claims, and the balance, if any, is struck, and 



UA.NKS OF THE UNITED STATES — CLEARING HOUSES — PRIVATE BANKING. 211 



each bank pays in cash the amount of that 
balance. The amount of accounts depends 
upon the activity of business. The clearing 
house commenced in Oct., 1853, and its ope- 
rations have been as follows : — 





Amount Exchanged. 


Balances Paid. 


1854, 


5,750,455,987 


' 297,411,493 


1856, 


6,906,213,328 


334,714,489 


1858, 


4,756,664,386 


314,238,910 


1860, 


7,231,143,057 


351,000,000 


1862, 


6,871,443,591 


415,530,331 


1864, 


24,(197,196,656 


885,719,205 


1866, 


28,717,146,914 


1,066,135,106 


1868, 


28,484,288,637 


1,125,4.55,2.37 


IS 70, 


27,804,539,406 


1,036,484,822 



The emergencies of the war required the 
issue of demand notes by the Government, 
of small denominations to serve for circula- 
tion, as well as the putting forth of bonds, 
treasury notes, and loans of various kinds. 
At first these demand notes were the equiva- 
lent of gold and silver, and were receivable 
in payment of customs duties, as well as all 
other moneys due to the United States ; but 
the gradual advance in the price of gold made 
them so valuable as to take them out of the 
circulation, and cause them to be hoarded as 
gold. Congress then authorized the issue 
of legal-tender notes of small denomina- 
tions, receivable for the payment of all dues 
to the Unites States except customs, which 
must be paid in gold, the coin being needed 
to pay the interest on that portion of the 
national debt upon which interest in gold 
was guaranteed. Of these legal tender notes, 
or greenbacks, $450,000,000 were issued, and 
on the 1st of December, 1871, there was 
outstanding only $357,592,801. Beside 
this. Congress authorized the issue of postal 
and fractional currency to the extent of 
$50,000,000, but the amount issued never 
exceeded $45,000,(100, and was, December 
1, 1871, only $40,166,036. From our brief 
review of the condition of the banks in the 
various states, from 1860 to 1863, it will be 
apparent that they were rapidly approach- 
ing a crisis, their issues being very generally 
distrusted and the discounts on them so per- 
plexing and ruinous to the holders that every 
one who could, shunned them. The issue 
of legal-tender notes and fractional currency, 
while it was absolutely necessary to the ex- 
istence and efficiency of the National Gov- 
ernment, in the great war it was conducting, 
was seen by the great financiers who were 
managing the nation's finances, to be but a 
temporary expedient, and liable to the seri- 
ous objection, as a permanent currency, of 



expanding most when it should be contract- 
ed and least, when expansion was necessary. 
But a national currency was needed ; for the 
people would not go back to the old uncur- 
rent money and the mysteries of the coun- 
tei'feit detectors and uncurrent money lists, 
the banks of the country could not issue notes 
which would inspire general confidence. The 
national banking system devised by Mr. 
Chase, then Secretary of the Treasury, and 
based in its main features upon the New 
York Free Banking law, though with addi- 
tional safeguards for depositors and bill hold- 
ers, satisfied this demand fully, and at the 
same time furnished a home market for 
$300,000,000 or more of the bonds and 
Treasury notes the Government was then 
issuing. The capital of the National Banks 
consisted of these Bonds, Treasury Notes, 
&c., and these being deposited in the U. S. 
Treasury, the Controller of the currency is- 
sued to the banks, National Bank notes of 
different denominations (printed from the 
same plates, but with the name and place of 
the bank and the coat of arms of the state 
to which it belonged inserted,) to the amount 
of not more than ninety per cent, of the par 
value of the bonds. The amount of circu- 
lation was at first limited to $300,000,000, 
but in July, 1870, an additional amount of 
$50,000,000 was permitted. Minor modi- 
fications of the original law have been made 
providing for rigid and frequent inspection 
of the condition of each bank, redemption 
in New York city, and avoiding all depreci- 
ation of the notes. At first the development 
of the National Banks was slow, as their 
advantages were not appreciated, and the 
state and local banks made a very bitter 
fight against them, but Congress passed in 
1865, an amendment to the Internal Reve- 
nue Law taxing the circulation of the state 
banks so heavily that they were glad to with- 
draw it from the market and most of them 
reorganized as National Banks, which from 
this time had a rapid growth. 

The following Table shows the progress 
of the National Banks : 



Oct., 



Year. 


No. of Banks 


Capital. 


Circulation, 


1863, 


66 


$7,188,393 




1864, 


507 


86,782,802 


45,260,504 


1865, 


1,513 


393,157,206 


171,321,903 


1866, 


1,643 


415,278,969 


280,129,558 


1867, 


1,643 


420,073,415 


293,887,941 


1868, 


1,645 


420,634,511 


295,769,489 


1869, 


1,617 


426.399,151 


293,593,645 


1870, 


1,615 


430,399,301 


291,798,640 


1871, 


1,784 


462,518,602 


322,952,030 



212 



BANKS. 



The following Table, giving the condi- 
tion in several particulars of the National 



Banks, Sept. 30, 1871, is of interest in this 
connection. It is official. 



Statement showing the number of Banks, amount of capital, amount of bonds deposited, and circulation, in each 
State and Territory, on the 30th day of September, 1871. 



States and 
Territories. In operation. 

Maine, 61 

New Hampshire, ... 42 

Vermont 41 

Massachusetts, 207 

Rhode Ishmd, 62 

Connecticut, 81 

New York, 291 

New Jersey, 57 

Pennsylvania, 198 

Maryhmd 32 

Delaware 11 

District of Columbia, 3 

Virginia, 23 

"West Virginia, 17 

Ohio 130 

Indiana, 75 

Illinois, 115 

Michigan, 61 

Wisconsin, 41 

Iowa, 60 

Minnesota, 23 

Kansas, 12 

Missouri, 30 

Kentucky 29 

Tennessee, 19 

Louisiana, 6 

Mississippi, 1 

Nebraska, 5 

Colorado, 4 

Georgia, 10 

North Carolina, 9 

South Carolina, .... 7 

Alabama, 8 

Nevada, 1 

Oregon, I 

Texas, 5 

Arkansas, 2 

Utah 1 

Montana, 1 

Idaho, .. .i 1 

Wyoming, 1 

New Mexico, 1 

Fractional redemption, . . 

Total, 1,784 



Capital paid in. 

$9,125,000.00 

4,889,000.00 

7,910,012 50 

88,072,000.00 

20,364,800.00 

25,0.56,820.00 

113,140,741.00 

12,580,350.00 

51,780,240 00 

13,590,202.50 

1,528,185.00 

1,350,000 00 

3,870,000.00 

2,621,000.00 

24,349,700.00 

15,032,000.00 

17,128,000.00 

7,263,800.00 

3,400,000.00 

4,997,750.00 

2,432,025.00 

850,000.00 

8,895,300.00 

6.168,240.60 

2,817,300.00 

3,500,000.00 

100,000.00 

650,000.00 

400,000.00 

2,384,400.00 

1,560,000.00 

1,895,460 00 

916,275 00 

250 000.00 

250,000 00 

625,000.00 

200,000.00 

250,000.00 

100,000.00 

100,000.00 

75,000.00 

150,000.00 



Bonds on deposit. 

$8,399,250 

4,919,000 

7,271.400 

65,616,750 

14,851,400 

20,078,400 

73,545,900 

11,371,850 

45,731,750 

10,296,750 

1,4.53,200 

1,234,000 

3,711,500 

2,504,750 

21,401,400 

14,333,300 

15,527,200 

5,896,300 

3,314,550 

4,764,000 

2,413,000 

785,000 

6,191,750 

5,625,150 

2,706,150 

2,858,000 

80,000 

640,000 

404,000 

2,156,400 

1,515,100 

1,380,000 

842,150 

100,000 

2.50,000 

625,000 

200,000 

150,000 

100,000 

100,000 

30,000 

150,000 



Circulation issued. 

$8,414,346 

4,835,845 

7,191,350 

68,2.33,960 

15.081,565 

20,443,410 

83,960,388 

ll,42i,575 

46,537,610 

10,789,210 

1,477,875 

1,471,800 

3,481,880 

2,452,540 

22,357,655 

14,095,465 

15,245,550 

5,909,210 

3,359,650 

5,146,875 

2,325,500 

741,800 

6,401,670 

5,3.50,510 

2,656,170 

2,813,020 

66,000 

581,100 

383,490 

2,041,300 

1,385,300 

1,245,340 

884,100 

146,200 

136,000 

648,300 

192,.500 

176,520 

90,000 

94,300 

27,000 

135,000 



462,518,601.60 



365,444,350 



380,609,879 



In actual circulation. 

$7,538 600.00 

4,341,695.00 

6,468,720.00 

57,480,866.00 

13,236,805.00 

17,800, 455.(.0 

64,018,348.00 

10,032,520 00 

40,357,046.00 

9,181,306.00 

1,. 303, 4 75.00 

1,081,570.00 

3,312,400.00 

2,175,5-JOOO 

19,.338,976.00 

12,524,942.00 

13,722,825 00 

5,310,360.00 

3,083,257.00 

4,452,999 00 

2,104,600.00 

649,600.00 

5,679,718.00 

5,071,7.30.00 

2,443,171.00 

2,555,489.00 

33,776.00 

561,500.00 

358,990.00 

1,942,743.00 

1,362,300.00 

1,240,150.00 

76tj,783.00 

72,486.00 

135,000.00 

557,500.00 

180,000.00 

132,281.00 

90,000.00 

89,500.00 

27,000.00 

135,000.00 

8 20 

322,952,030.20 



There are two National Gold Banks in existence, as follows : 

Gold Banks. Capital. Gold on Deposit. Gold Notes Issued. Circulation. 

Massachusetts, 1 300,000.00 150,000 120,000 120,000.00 

California, 1 1,000,000.00 500,000 375,000 375,000.00 

Total, 2 1,300,000.00 650,000 495,000 495,000.00 



There were in the United States in May, 
1871, 3.t2 chartered banks (not National) 
but working under special charters. None 
of them were, of course, banks of circulation, 
but only of discount and deposit. Their 
aggregate capital was, at that date, about 



$93,000,000. There has been also a great 
increase of private banking houses, and 
some of these having extensive foreign con- 
nections and employing a larger capital than 
any National bank, do an extensive busi- 
ness. 




IMERIOK Ut lliL MINI Pllll ADLLFIH A CUIMNIt k(» )M 




INTERIOR VIEW OF THE MINT, PHILADELPHIA, ADJUSTIKU UOOil. 



UNITED STATES MINT. 



CHAPTER I. 

ESTABLISHMENT OF MINT— STANDARD OF 
COINS— LAWS REGULATING COINAGE- 
PROGRESS OF COINAGE— PRECIOUS MET- 
ALS IN THE COUNTRY. 

The currency, or circulating medium of 
a country, is of itself a very simple matter, 
although complicated at times by the theo- 
ries of financiers, and the efforts to make 
promises of a thing pass for the thing it- 
self. In the early stages of society the pro- 
ducts of industry constitute the wealth of 
the people, after they have ceased to be 
merely herdsmen. These products being 
exchanged against each other, the transac- 
tions form barter trade. As wealth in- 
creases and wants become more diversified, 
as well as the products of industiy, by being 
subdivided, some common medium of value 
becomes requisite to meet all the wants of 
interchange. The precious metals have gen- 
erally been adopted as this medium, because 
the supply is the most steady, the equivalent 
value most generally known, and the trans- 
portation most convenient. Hence all trade 
comes to be represented by a weight of pure 
gold or its equivalent of pure silver, and all 
commodities come to be valued, or called 
equivalent, to certain quantities of these 
metals. To ascertain the purity and weight 
of the metal offered in payment at each 
transaction would, however, involve difficul- 
ties that ^vould neutralize the value of the 
metals as a common medium of exchange. 
Every man would require to be an assayer, 
and to be provided with scales. To obviate 
this the government steps in, and by means 
of a mint assays the metals, and weighs 
them into convenient pieces, placing on each 
a stamp, which soon becomes universally 
known, and this is called " money." Every 
nation makes the pieces of different weights, 
and puts in more or less pure metal. To as- 
certain the ^'' par of exchange" between two 



countries, the coin of each is assayed, and 
the quantity of pure metal in each being 
ascertained, the par of exchange is known- 
When this continent was discovered, its in- 
habitants were savages, who had no idea of 
property, and no trade beyond the mere ex- 
change of, perhaps, a skin for a bow or a 
bunch of arrows. Money was unknown, 
and the value of the precious metals was not 
understood. The little gold and copper that 
they had was twisted into rude ornaments ; 
but no man would work for a piece of these 
metals. When the first emigrants landed, 
they commenced the cultivation of the earth 
and the interchange of its products. The ac- 
cumulation of industrial products formed 
wealth. Their first exchanges were mere 
barter. As late as 1652 the payment of 
taxes and other dues was made in cattle, 
skins, and other products in Massachusetts ; 
and tobacco was a medium of trade in Vir- 
ginia. Some money existed, but this was 
mostly the coins brought by the immigrants 
from the mother country, and did not suffice 
for the daily wants. Massachusetts, there- 
fore, established a mint for the coinage of 
shillings, sixpences, and threepences of ster- 
ling silver, which wei'e " two pence in the 
shilling of less valew than the English 
coyne." This " pine tree shilling," so called 
from a pine tree on the reverse, was worth 
about twenty cents. This coinage gave 
umbrage to the mother country, and when 
Governor Winslow was introduced to 
Charles H., that usually good-natured mon- 
arch took him roughly to task for the pre- 
sumption of the colony in assuming to coin 
money, at the same time producing the coin 
with the pine tree upon it. The ready wit 
of the governor, however, turned the rebuke, 
by assuring his Majesty that it was an evi- 
dence of the devotion of the colony, which 
struck these medals in commemoration of 
the escape of his Majesty in the Royal Oak, 
which was executed as well as the poor state 
of the arts in the colony would permit. The 



214 



UNITED STATES MINT. 



coinage was nevertheless suppressed, and the 
example of Massachusets was followed by 
Maryland with the like results. Carolina 
and Virginia struck some copper coins, but 
without much effect. There being no mint, 
therefore, in any of the colonics, foreign coins 
were circulated freely as a legal tender. The 
country produced none of the precious 
metals, but as the trade of the colonies in- 
creased, and they began to have a surplus of 
fish, provisions, food, tobacco, etc., beyond 
their own wants, to sell, they built vessels, 
and carried these articles, mostly fish, to the 
West Indies and the catholic countries of 
Europe ; and as the mother country did not 
allow the colonies to buy manufactures ex- 
cept from herself, money was mostly had in 
exchange for this produce. Guineas, joes, 
half joes, doubloons, and pistoles of various 
origin constituted the gold currency, while 
the silver was mostly the Spanish American 
dollar and its fractions : the half, quarter, 
eighth, and sixteenth, with the pistareen and 
half pistareen. This silver coin fiowed into 
the colonies from the Spanish West Indies, 
in exchange for fish and food ; and the 
Spanish dollar thus came to be the best 
known and most generally adopted unit of 
money. The coin had upon its reverse the 
pillars of Hercules, and was known as the 
pillar dollar ; hence the dollar mark (8), which 
represents " S," for " Spanish," entwining the 
pillars. Inasmuch as the " balance of 
trade" was in favor of England, the lai'gest 
portion of the coin that flowed in from other 
quarters was sent thither, and this tendency 
was increased by the pernicious issues of 
paper money by the colonies. This paper 
displaced the coin, and drove it all out of the 
country. The exigencies of the several 
colonial governments caused them to make 
excessive issues of this " paper" or " bills of 
credit," and it fell to a heavy discount as 
compared with coin. Not being convertible 
at the date of the Revolution the deprecia- 
tion in the several colonies was nearly as 
follows : — 

VAXUK OF THE DOLLAE ANT) THE £ STERLING IN 
COLONIAL PAPER MONEY. 

£ sterling. Dollar. 

£. 8. d. 8. d. 

New England and Virginia ... 1 68 60 

New York and North-eastern . 1 15 61 8 

Middle states 1 13 4 7 6 

South Carolina and Georgia ... 1 8i 48 

On the formation of the new government, 
the terrible state of the currency first attract- 



ed attention. The country had been flooded 
with " continental money," which had been 
issued to the extent of three hundred and 
sixty millions for war expenses. The states 
had issued " bills of credit," which were de- 
preciated as in the table ; and the debased 
and diversified foreign coins that circulated 
were very few in number. Private credit 
hardly existed. Frightful jobbing took 
place in the government paper, and industry 
could with difliculty get its proper reward. 
The first effort was to give the federal gov- 
ernment alone the right to coin money, to 
prohibit the states from issuing any more 
" bills of credit," and to get the continental 
money out of circulation by providing for 
its payment. Robert Morris had been di- 
rected to report upon the mint and a system 
of coinage, and he did so early in 1782. 
Many plans were based upon his report, and 
finally that of Mr. Jefferson was adopted. 
It conformed to the decimal notation, with 
the Spanish dollar as the unit : A gold piece 
of ten dollars, to be called the eagle, with 
its half and quarter ; a dollar in silver ; a 
tenth of a dollar in silver ; a hundredth of a 
dollar in copper. 

In accordance with the plan of Mr. Jeffer- 
son, a law of April 2, 1792, enacted regula- 
tions for a mint, located at Philadelphia, and 
the coinage proceeded. It was found that, 
owing to the rise in the value of copper, the 
cent had been made too heavy, and, Janu- 
ary 14, 1790, it was reduced to two hundred 
and eight grains, and January 26, 1796, it 
wa.? again reduced to one hundred and sixty- 
eight grains, at which rate it remained until 
the late introduction of nickle. The mint 
being established at IMiiladclphia, the work 
of coinage went on slowly, for two principal 
reasons. The first was that the material for 
coin — that is, gold and silver, no matter in 
what shape it may be — was obtained only, by 
the operation of trade, from abroad, and 
nearly all of it arrived at New York, the 
property of merchants. Now, although the 
government charged nothing for coining, 
yet, to send the metal from New York to 
Philadelphia during the first forty years 
of the government, when there was none but 
wagon conveyance, was expensive, and ac- 
companied with some risk. It was not, 
therefore, to be expected that the merchants 
would undertake this without any benefit ; 
the more so, as the same law, in the second 
place, still allowed the foreign coins to be 
legal tender. The merchant who received. 



UNITED STATES MINT. 



215 



say ten thousand dollars in gold coin at 
New York had only to lodge that coin in the 
local bank, and use the paper money issued 
by the bank. There was no necessity to 
send the coin to Philadelphia merely to be 
recoined without profit. It was also the 
case that in the course of the newly devel- 
oped commerce between the United States 
and the countries of Europe, it was found 
that silver had been valued too high at the 
mint. It was coined in the ratio of tifteen 
to one of gold, when its real value was near- 
er sixteen to one. This relative value of the 
two metals depends upon the respective de- 
mand and supply in the markets of the 
world. At about the date of the discovery 
of America it was ten to one ; that is, ten 
ounces of pure silver were equal to one 
ounce of pure gold. When Peru and Span- 
ish America poured in their large supplies 
of silver, the rate gradually fell to fifteen to 
one. At the close of the eighteenth centu- 
ry, and with the greater freedom of com- 
merce in the first half of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, it was foupd still to decline. The 
reason of this is obvious, since, in any local- 
ity, the relative value of the metals will be 
proportioned to the local supply of either, 
influenced by the expense of sending either 
to other localities. Thus, silver may have 
been really fourteen to one in one place, and 
sixteen to one in another, and the difticul- 
ties of transportation prevented an equaliza- 
tion. As soon as communication became 
prompt and cheap the equalization took 
place, and the general relative value was 
found to be somewhat changed. The effect 
of this was that silver came here and gold 
went away. Nearly all the coinage of the 
mint was silver. This evil attracted the at- 
tention of the government, and a remedy 
was sought. This was finally found in 
changing the relative value of the silver to 
gold in the coinage by simply putting less 
pure gold into the eagle, and letting the 
silver remain as it was. The quantity of 
pure gold in the eagle was, therefore, by the 
law of June 28, 1834, reduced from 247.5 
grains to 232 grains, or rather more than 
six and five-eighths per cent, and the quan- 
tity of alloy was slightly increased, so as to 
make the fineness of the gold nine-tenths, 
or nine grains of fine gold to one of alloy in 
each piece. 

This was found not to be exact, and in 
1837 the pure gold was slightly increased, 
and this regulation remains. Under all 



Fine- 
ness. 



the laws the gold coins have been as fol- 
lows : — 

Pure .,, _ , Total 

poUl. „., ^'loy- Total i ,j 

(trains. ^'l^*^""- <^"PP"- ^""y- Grains 

1792, 247.5 5.G2^ 16.87^ 22.5 270 916.7 

1834, 232.0 6.50"" 19.50 26.0 258 899.2 

1837, 232.2 6.45 19.35 25.8 258 900.0 

These proportions remain now the same 
for gold. In order to bring the silver to the 
same standard, the law of 1837 reduced the 
alloy in dollars three and a half grains, mak- 
ing the dollar weigh 412 1-2 grains instead 
of 416, 

In all this period, up to 1838, there had 
been but one mint, and that at Philadelphia. 
In 1831, under the desire of the government 
to enlarge the metallic basis of the national 
currency, three branches were authorized, 
one at New Orleans, one at Charlotte, North 
Carolina, and one at Dahlonega, Georgia. 
These two latter were in mining districts, 
where gold began to be produced to some 
extent, and all three went into operation in 

1838, The coinage progressed down to 
1853, when, in consequence of the change 
brought about by the gold discoveries in 
California, a new law in relation to the silver 
currency was enacted. Before giving an 
account of that change, we may take a table 
of the coinage at the mint since its organiza- 
tion for several periods, 

UNITED STATES COINAGE. 



Gold. Silver. 

7,431,545 10,980,431 

4,3M.345 25,311,647 



Total to 1834, 
1834 to 1837, 
1838 to 1848, 
1849 to 1852, 
1853 to 1860, 
1861 to 1870, 

Total, 



ll,8'.'5,89l) 


36,295,078 


658,590 


11,424,450 


12,560,115 


1,37,323 


53,329,965 


24,251,769 


513,336 


60,211,315 


6,014,509 


311,207 


351,377,501 


46,318,956 


1,099,347 


383,210,040 


18,476,710 


8,473,235 



Copper 
and Nickel. Total. 

421,795 18,833,771 

236,793 29,945,787 



48,779,558 
24,121,888 
78,195,570 
166,567,031 
498,790,804 
410,180,985 



$871,409,161 144,012,137 11,2'23,038 1,226,144,833 



In the first twenty-seven years of the mint 
operation, the gold coinage was about seven- 
ty-five per cent, of the silver coinage. That 
whole period embraced the European war, 
and the first operations of the mint were to 
coin as much of the metals already in the 
country as came within their reach. In the 
second period, from 1821 to 1834, the effect 
of the change in the relative value of the 
metals of which we have spoken, became 
manifest, and the gold coinage was about 
one-sixth only of the silver coinage. In 
1834 the new gold bill produced a change, 
and the gold coinage became nearly equal to 
that of silver. Soon after the passage of 
this law, the payment of the French indem- 



216 



UNITED STATES MINT. 



nity, enforced under the administration of 
General Jackson, took place, and it was paid 
in the form of gold Lars, of weight varying 
from twenty-five to six hundred and fifty 
ounces each. The first of them were received 
at the United States mint September, 1834, 
and from that date to September, 1838, six 
hundred of these bars were deposited at the 
mint; the value was $3,500,000. In 1838 
the branches came into operation, and the 
coinage was increased by their operations 
and by 13,705,250 of gold of domestic pro- 
duction, to the close of 1848. In 1849 
California gold began to make its appear- 
ance, and $7,0*79,144 worth of it was coined 
in that year. The great infiux of gold bul- 
lion upon the mint by far exceeded its capac- 
ity to do the work, and Congress author- 
ized, by the act of March 3d, 1849, the coin- 
age of double eagles, or $20 pieces, and 
also one dollar pieces to supply the place of 
the silver coin, which had been drained oft" 
to California in exchange for the gold, which 
sold as low as $15 and $16 per ounce, 
although worth $20 and $21. The law of 
May, 1852, authorized the coinage of $3 
pieces. 

In ten years, to the close of 1848, the 
gold coinage had amounted to double the sil- 
ver coinage, and the new influx of gold excited 
fears that the value of silver would rise rap- 
idly as compared with gold. From 1848 
to 1857 the coinage of silver was very small, 
while the demand for it was large. To avoid 
inconvenience from this cause, a new bill 
was passed, to take effect April 1st, 1853. 
By this bill it was enacted that gold or sil- 
ver deposited with the mint, might be cast 
into bars or ingots of pure metal, or standard 
fineness, at the option of the depositor, with 
a stamp designating the weight and fineness ; 
no pieces less than ten ounces shall be other 
than of standard fineness ; the charge for 
this is one-half per cent. Inasmuch as most 
of the gold arrives at New York, efforts were 
made to procure the establishment of a mint 
at that point. Instead, however, of a mint, 
an assay office was established there, and a 
branch mint at San Francisco, in 1854. The 
law allows the depositor to draw either bars 
or coin in return, the description desired to 
be stated at the time of the deposit. The 
production of bars and coins under all these 
regulations has been large, for gold as well 
as silver. 

Until the law of 1834, the quantity of 
gold coin in circulation was not large. The 



banks supplied so large a quantity of small 
bills as to fill the channels of circulation for 
sums above a dollar, and under that amount 
the circulation was almost altogether small 
Spanish coins, which, being much depreci- 
ated by wear and tear, passed for more than 
their intrinsic value, and consequently flood- 
ed the country, greatly influencing retail 
prices. This was particularly the case with 
the pistareens, which, up to 1827, were 
taken at twenty cents, or five to the dollar, 
although they were really worth but eighteen 
and a half cents, consequently there was lit- 
tle other change to be had. In conse(juence 
of a report of the Mint Director of that year, 
they were refused at more than seventeen 
cents, and they very speedily disappeared 
from circulation, and have not now been 
seen for more than 35 years. The quar- 
ters continued to circulate at twenty-five 
cents, although the average value was twen- 
ty-three and a halt" cents ; the eighths were 
taken at twelve and a half, although they 
were worth only eleven and one-eighth ; the 
sixteenth was taken at six and a quarter, 
although worth but five cents. It resulted 
that these coins became very abundant, driv- 
ing out the dimes and half dimes, and in 
1843 the post-office and the banks refusing 
them altogether, they were supplanted by 
the American coin, until the gold discover- 
ies of 1848. After that event, owing to the 
increased production of gold, and the fact 
that some of the European states changed 
their monetary policy, making silver the 
sole standard of value, the latter metal be- 
came worth more in market than its nominal 
value in United States coin, and was gradu- 
ally withdrawn from the currency, until, in 
1852, silver coin became very scarce, and 
there was not sufficient left in circulation for 
the purposes of change. A premium of four 
per cent, was paid for dollars and half dol- 
lars for export, and the smaller coins com- 
manded, in many cases, a still higher price, 
for use among shop-keepers and small traders. 
It was easy to see that, unless the weight of 
our silver coin was reduced, there would 
soon be none left in the country. Already 
the eating-houses and drinking saloons had 
issued their tickets, or shinplaster tokens, in 
place of coin ; and the poor, Avho purchased 
the necessaries of life in small amounts, 
were put to great inconvenience, or obliged 
to submit to ruinous shaves upon their paper 
money. To remedy these evils, Congress 
passed the act of February 21st, 1853 (to 



UNITED STATES MINT. 



217 



take effect the 1st of April following), au- 
thorizing the coinage of half dollars, quarter 
dollars, d.mes, and half dimes, weighing 
less than the old coin, as follows : 



H If dollar, grains. 
Qua-ter dollar, do. . 
i'.me, do.. 

Half dime, do.. 



01(1 coin. 
..2061^ 
..1U.31^ 
.. 4114 
.. 20% 



New coin. 

192 

96 

38 2-5 
19 1-5 



The dollar was not changed, and the 
weight of that piece is 412 1-2 grains, the 
weight which it has borne since 1836 ; this 

Philadelphia. New Orleans. 

Pieces. Pieces. 

Dollars 1,621,000 875,000 

Half dollars 14,323,130 12,566,000 

Quarter dollars . . . 23,089,430 2,348,000 

Dimes, 7,236,380 2,350,000 

Half dimes 13,826,130 4,660,000 

3 cent pieces 4,222,230 720,000 

64,318,300 23,519,000 

In addition to this small silver coin, there 
has been coined since 1849, $18,900,000 in 
one dollar gold pieces. These were never, 
however, a popular coin. 

The main source of supply of the precious 
metals to the mint was, before 1849, from 
abroad, through the operations of commerce, 
though the Southern States furnished almost 
fifteen millions. Since that time, the Pacific 
slope has been the leading source. The quan- 
tity of domestic gold deposited at the mint 
has been as follows : — 

DEPOSITS OP BOIIESTIC GOLD AT IMNT AND BRANCHES. 



Virginia. 

N. Carolina, 

S. Carolina, 

Georgia, 

Tennessee, 

Alabama, 

New Mexico, 

California, 

Kansas, 

Oregon, 

Other places, 



To 1851. 

1,197,338 

6,707,458 

817,692 

6,018,603 

76,574 

186,627 

38,963 

31,838,079 



41,103 



1851 to 1859. To 1870. 



327,977 

2,236,951 

462,913 

782,270 

4,337 

10,131 

9,709 

419,472,761 

4,172 



1,615,736 

9,684,622 

1,371,384 

7,151,236 

81,530 

206,041 

523,133 

630,575,666 

5,008 



69,272 10,738,134 
33,121 106 596,699 



Total, $46,922,437 $423,418,614 $768,019,189 

Of this large amount, $721,096,752 of gold 
deposited at the mint and its branches in the 
20 years, 1851-1870, about $236,000,000 
was cast into bars, and exported, together 
with the surplus of coin, to Europe, as mer- 
chandise. The domestic silver supplied to 
the mint and branches amounted in all to 
$12,558,244 up to June 30, 1870. The 



reduction of weight being fourteen and a 
half gi-ains in the half dollar, or nearly seven 
per cent. The silver currency was not 
debased, in the ordinary sense of the word, 
the same fineness (nine hundred parts pure 
silver, and one hundred of alloy) being re- 
tained, and the only change in the coin itself 
being in the weight. A very important pro- 
vision, however, was made in regard to it ; 
it is not a legal tender in payment of debts 
in sums exceeding five dollars. 

The quantity of silver coined at the mint 
and branches, under the law of 1853, to 1870, 
has been as follows : — 



S. Francisco. 






Pieces. 


Total pieces. 


Value. 


20,000 


2,516,200 


2,516,000 


11,163,450 


38,052,580 


19,026,290 


1,509,400 


26,946,830 


6,736,709 


2,160,750 


11,747,130 


1,174,713 


1,060,000 


19,546,130 


977,306 




4,942,000 


148,260 


15,913,600 


103,750,670 


$30,579,278 



largest amount, almost one-half, was parted 
from domestic gold, and $767,448 was from 
fine bars privately assayed. Nevada fur- 
nished almost $5,000,000. 

The amount of specie actually in the coun- 
try cannot be ascertained with perfect ac- 
curacy. The amount in the country in 1821 
was estimated at $37,000,000. The calcula- 
tion, then, up to 1849, upon official figures, 
would be as follows ; — 



Specie in the country in 1821, 
Product of U. S. mines to 1849, 



$37,000,000 
13,811,206 



Imported 1821 to 1849, 
Exported " " 



242,239,061 50,811,206 
180,596,664 61,642,397 



Specie in the country in 1849, 



$112,453,603 



Of this amount, $43,619,000 was in the 
banks and $5,700,925 in the ffederal treas- 
ury ; $32,133,688 was probably in circula- 
tion, and $31,000,000 in plate and orna- 
ments. From 1849 to 1859 the amount 
was as follows : — 

In the country in 1849, $112,453,603 

Coinage, 1849 to 1859, 529,619,919 

Supply to 1859, $642,073,522 

Import of the metals, 1849 

to 1859, 78,838,864 

Export in the same time, 435,023,906 



Excess export. 
In the country in 1859, 



356,185,042 

$285,888,480 



218 



UNITED STATES MINT ^ 



This gives an increase of $173,434,877 of 
specie in the country to 18G0. The distri- 
bution of this money was nearly as follows : 

Stock in the country, $285,888,480 

United States treasury. Si 0,000,000 
In all the banks, 10«,537,818 

In plate, ornaments, &c., 50,000,000 
In general circulation 121,350,662 

$285,888,480 

Immigrants bring with them large sums of 
com and bullion which go either to the mint 
or the brokers for export. We may now 
ascertain the amount of money that circula- 
ted in the country in 1859, as follows : — 

1849. 1859. 

Less notes on hand 16,427,000 18,858,289 

Bank notes in circulat'n, 112,079,000 174,448,529 
Specie in circulation, 32,133,688 121,350,662 

Total mixed circulat'n, $144,212,688 $295,799,191 
From 1859 to 1870 some new elements 
entered into the calculation. The suspen- 
sion of specie payments in 1861, led to hoard- 
ing and the disuse of specie in circulation, 
but the amount of gold and silver in the 
country was very nearly as follows : — 

Specie in the country in 1859, $285,888,480 

Accession from 1859 to 1870, 836,452,754 

$1,122,341,234 
Less export 1859 to 1870, 582,074,940 

$546,266,294 

Of this large amount, the United States 
Treasury held — 

At the end of 1870, $107,802,280 

The National Banks held 26,307,251 

State banks and private banks about 104,000,000 

Gold brokers and speculators 25,000,000 

Plate, watches, ornaments, &c., 150,000,000 

Hoarded, 127,140,0( 

$540,259,531 

There was at this time, (Dec. 1870) of 
course no specie in general circulation, ex- 
cept the nickel and silver five and three cent 
pieces, and the copper cents and two cent 
pieces, and these did not exceed $4,000,000 
or $5,000,000 in value. The circulating me- 
dium consisted of — 

Leg-al tender notes, (greenbacks) $356,101,086 

Fractional currency, 39,995,089 

Gold certificates of deposit, 26,1 49,000 

National Bank Notes, 296,205,446 

$718,450,621 

The mint operates upon the various forms 
of the metals brought to it, and these are of 
great variety, from the most delicate plates 



and ornaments down to base alloys, and these 
are all included under the general term bul- 
lion, except United States coins. The bullion 
is either unwrought or manufactured. The 
first description embraces gold dust, amalga- 
mated cakes and balls, laminated gold, melted 
bars and cakes. The " dust " is the shape in 
which it is derived by washing in the i^lacer 
mines. In South America, Russia, and 
elsewhere, amalgamated gold is that which 
has been procured by the use of quicksilver, 
forming a lump. Laminated gold is that 
which is combined with silver, and derived 
mostly from Central America. Both these 
kinds come to the mint in bars and cakes 
three inches wide, and one and a half thick, 
weighing 275 ounces, and are Avorth $5,900. 
The manufactured is mostly jewelry, plate, 
and coin. Jewelry is received at the mint 
in every variety of article into the manufac- 
ture of which gold enters. Its value dependg 
upon the quantity of pure gold in it, and this 
requires to be extracted by assaying. The 
range of fineness of the better kinds of jew- 
elry is 300 to 6uO, or from 1 3 to 2-3 the 
value of coin of the same weight, but the 
cheaper kinds contain very little gold. All 
this mass of metal must be reduced to a uni- 
form material, containing the proper propor- 
tion of alloy, and cast in bars, 1 2 in. long, 
^ in. thick, and from I to 1 1 in breadth, ac- 
cording to the size of the coin to be struck. 
These are tested to see if they are of the legal 
fineness. They are then anrtealcd, and rolled 
into long thin strips by means of a steam en- 
gine. These strips are tlien drawn through 
plates of the hardest steel, to proper thickness, 
and by a steam press cut into '• planchets " 
or pieces of the exact size of the coin wanted, 
at the rate of IGO per minute. These are 
then cleaned, annealed, whitened, weighed, 
and jjlaced in a tube, which slides them one 
by one into a steel collar, in which they fit. 
The piece is seized, stamped with perfect im- 
pressions on both sides by the dies, and in- 
stantly pushed away to be followed by ano- 
ther piece. The devices on these dies are first 
cut in soft steel. This " original die " is then 
hardened, and is used to impress a piece of 
soft steel, which is then like a coin with the 
figures raised, and is called a " nvib." This 
being again hardened, is used to impress the 
dies, with whfch the coining is done, and a 
pair of them will do two weeks' work. The 
coining presses are of sizes proportionate to 
the work. 



INSURANCE-FIRE AND MARINE. 



The history of Fire Insurance dates back 
only to the year following the Great Fire in 
London in 1666, if indeed it can be said to 
have had any clearly defined existence be- 
fore the year 1696, when the first organized 
association was formed, based upon the sim- 
ple principle of contribution in the shape of 
annual premiums proportionate to the 
amount of property insured, to a common 
fund, out of which the losses of its various 
members were to be made good. This as- 
sociation was very appropriately styled the 
" Hand in Hand, or Amicable Contribution 
Society," and was strictly mutual in charac- 
ter. A number of attempts had been made 
for some system of Fire Insurance as early 
as 1669, all of which proved abortive, as 
did the attempt of the City of London in 
1681 to settle lands and ground rents to the 
value of £100,000, together with the sums 
to be received for premiums, as a fund for 
the insurance of houses. About the year 
1 670 a company was established in Edinburgh 
for friendly insurance against fire, consisting 
of a number of private contributors, who 
agreed to insure each other. This insur- 
ance, howevt'r, was not personal, like modern 
fire insurance, but the interest, and stock, 
and benefit were inseparably annexed to the 
houses insured as long as the contribution 
was continued. Little progress was made 
under any of these forms before the com- 
mencement of the eighteenth century, when 
the Sun Fire Office in London was estab- 
lished in 1710, from which time Fire Insur- 
ance may be said to date its progress under 
the form of both mutual and stock compan- 
ies. The limited experience obtained up to 
that time, had given some general notions as 
to hazards of different classes of property, 
and by enabling a proper rate to be fixed 
proportionate to the hazard, had so far re- 
duced the rates charged as to render insur- 
ance easily obtainable and popular. From 
this time companies multiplied in England, 
and previous to the war of our revolution 
had numerous agencies in the then Colonies. 
In other countries of Europe the practice of 
insuring against fire was not introduced until 
a much later period, about 1754, when the 



marine companies in Paris obtained permis-. 
sion from the government to make insurances 
against fire. For a long time the practice 
was by no means general. Owing to the 
solid structure of their buildings and the ex- 
traordinary caution on the part of the people 
for the prevention of fires, few sought pro- 
tection by means of insurance. It has been 
confidently asserted by persons well ac- 
quainted with both the cities of London and 
Amsterdam, that after making all fair allow- 
ances there is upon an average more pro- 
perty destroyed by fire in the former in one 
year than in the latter in twenty. Fire In- 
surance has, however, now become very 
general, and some of the continental com- 
panies are the largest and strongest in the 
world. 

The first Fire Insurance Company organ- 
ized in the United States was the " Philadel- 
phia Contributionship for insuring houses 
from loss by fire," in 1752. This was pure- 
ly a mutual company, lequiring a deposit 
from the insured, the interest of which would 
meet the losses of each year and yield some- 
thing over for a dividend at the termination 
of the risk, which was for seven years. The 
plan was borrowed from the first English 
company of similar name, and the company 
numbered among its directors Dr. Franklin 
and other men eminent in colonial and revo- 
lutionary times. For many years after the 
peace of 1783, an insurance company, on 
the principle of the ancient London " Hand 
in Hand," existed in New York, and con- 
tinued to do a moderate business until incor- 
porated companies with capital stock became 
common and superceded the mutual plan, 
which was found to be too slow and cum- 
brous for the growing business of that city. 
The first stock company formed in the 
United States was the Insurance Company 
of North America in Philadelphia in 1794. 
Others followed in Providence, Boston, and 
New York from that time until a few years 
after the beginning of the present century, 
when Fire Insurance in this country may be 
said to have been established on essentially 
the same general principles as at present 
conducted. The first quarter of this cen- 



220 



INSURANCE FIRE AND MARINE. 



tuiy witnessed a moderate growth ; the 
second quarter made some progress, not- 
withstanding the two great fires, and ended 
with a moderate increase in capital and 
business. The extensive and enormous de- 
velopment of fire insurance in this country 
has been the work of the last twenty-five 
years, during which time a radical change 
has been wrought in the mode of doing the 
business by stock companies instead of mu- 
tual, and by the jsresent wide-spread and 
almost universal system of agencies. 

In 1833, previous to which we have no 
reliable statistical information, there were in 
the City of New York some eighteen Fire 
Insurance Companies, with an aggregate 
capital of a little over $6,000,000, one of 
which had a capital of $1,000,000, and three 
others had $500,000 each, while the remain- 
ing capitals ranged from $200,000 to $350,- 
000. It would be interesting to know the 
exact amount of premiums annually received 
by these companies at tliat date, but having 
no reliable statistics to refer to, an approxi- 
mate estimate can only be formed, based 
upon the recollection of parties who were 
then connected with certain of those institu- 
tions. From the last data of this kind now 
available it is ascertained quite satisfactorily 
that the whole amount of premiums received 
by all the companies in that and the two 
following years respectively, was something 
less than $1,000,000. At that time there 
were no agencies of companies of other 
states, or foreign companies, in the State of 
New York, the English companies having 
been excluded by a law passed March, 1814. 
From 1833 to December, 1835, seven new 
companies were organized, with an aggregate 
capital of about $1,700,000, making the en- 
tire fire insurance capital at the time of the 
great fire in December of the latter year a 
little less than $8,000,000. The great fire 
of 1835, which destroyed about six hundred 
buildings, mostly stores and warehouses, and 
property to the value of between $15,000,000 
and $20,000,000, caused the insolvency of 
all but seven of the companies then in exis- 
tence in that city, thus reducing the actual 
capital for fire insurance to about $1,000,000. 
The insolvent companies paid variously from 
40 to 90 per cent, on the claims for losses 
under their policies. During the next ten 
years many of the companies were revived 
under favorable legislation and new com- 
panies organized, so that the fire insurance 



capital of New York and Brooklyn amount- 
ed to about $6,000,000 ; to which should be 
added a considerable immber of mutual 
companies and agencies of Hartford and 
Boston companies, which were then estab- 
lished for the first time to any considerable 
extent in that city. The great fire of July, 
1845, swept most of these mutuals and again 
several of the stock companies into insolv- 
ency, and left a large number with capitals 
seriously impaired. Of the companies ren- 
dered insolvent by this last calamity, none 
ever revived. From this time there was 
little increase in companies or capital until 
the passage of the general insurance law by 
the State of New York in 1849, under which, 
and the law of 1853, which took its place, a 
very large number of the companies were 
organized in the City of New York, thus 
bringing the aggregate fire insurance capital 
of the state at the end of 1870 up to over 
twenty-nine millions of dollars, again, how- 
ever, reduced at the end of 1871 to a trifle 
over twenty-tAvo millions by the great fire 
at Chicago. The progress of fire insurance 
in the City of New York may be taken as 
a fair criterion by which to judge of its pro- 
gress in other prominent cities of our coun- 
try. Philadelphia and Boston have not ex- 
perienced such sudden fluctuations in capital 
as New York, having escajjed fires of mag- 
nitude like those of 1835 and 1845. The 
older companies in both cities have been 
noted for solidity and conservatism. To 
Hartford belongs the credit of originating 
and giving vitality to the agency system in 
fire insurance. For a time, indeed, that city 
had almost a monopoly of the agency fire 
business, and is now second to none in the 
country in the character, position, and finan- 
cial strength of its companies. The busi- 
ness has proved a source of wealth to that 
city, and it now has more insurance capital 
in proportion to its size than any other city 
in the country. Within the past fifteen 
years a great number of companies have 
been started in the prominent cities of the 
west, with more or less success. Such as 
have been organized with actual capital and 
prudently managed have generally succeeded, 
with the exception of the Chicago companies, 
which were engulfed in the terrible disas- 
ter of October, 1871. The past thirty years 
have witnessed the rise and extinction of 
hundreds of mutual and stock companies of 
purely speculative character, which never 



INSURANCE FIRE AND MARINE. 



221 



deserved public confidence, and soon met the 
fate which always attends corporations or- 
ganized with fraudulent purpose or managed 
by incompetent men. To one of these 
causes may be attributed the failure of near- 
ly all the companies which have gone down 
daring that time, except such as have been 
overwhelmed in one or the other of the 
three great fires already referred to. Many 
strong and well managed companies have 
been swept away before the great cyclones 
of fire which have more than once marked 
the history of the past forty years, and in 
yielding to inevitable and unavoidable ca- 
lamity have secured the commendation rather 
than csnsure of the public ; while such cor- 
porations, whether mutual or stock, as have 
been conceived in fraud and designed to prey 
upon the credulity or ignorance of the as- 
sured deserve only contempt and the sever- 
est punishment of the managers through 
whom such vast injury has been done to the 
insuring public. 

Of this class of companies, those of a 
mutual character have been most noticeable 
for the injury which has been inflicted on 
the insured and the disrepute into which the 
business of fire insurance was brought in 
the ten years following 1850. Under the 
general insurance law of 1849 a large num- 
ber of mutual companies were organized in 
the State of New York, and in 1853 num- 
bered 62, with nominal assets in excess of 
eleven and a half millions of dollars. In 
1860 the number had fallen to 27, with as- 
sets less than four and a quarter millions, 
and in 1870 only eight companies were in 
existence, with assets of about two and a 
quarter millions. In the State of New York 
the system of mutual insurance has proved 
a signal failure. In Massachusetts, at the 
close of 1849, sixty mutual companies were 
in existence, and at the close of 1868 the 
number had been reduced to 54, with gross 
assets of $3,990,367.66, and outstanding 
risks to the amount of $307,063,988.05. 
Most of these are located in the interior of 
the state, and are so small as to make the 
policies of comparatively little value, since, 
to pay losses, assessments are required, and 
these, if of any considerable magnitude, are 
fatal to the standing of the companies. The 
mutual system in Massachusetts is adapted 
only to the immediate locality of the com- 
panies, and seems to be gradually following 
the fate of the system in New Y'^ork, as will 



be noticed in the fact that the entire premium 
receipts of all the mutual fire insurance com- 
panies in that state do not exceed one-third 
of those of the ^tna of Hartford, or one- 
half those of the Home of New York, while 
the premiums of nearly a dozen stock com- 
panies separately equal the entire aggregate. 
In Vermont the system has been tried for 
more than forty years by the Vermont Mu- 
tual with better results, owing to the excel- 
lent management of the company, and the 
fact that its business has ever been confined 
exclusively to risks in that state. In other 
states of the Union mutual companies have 
shared the same fate as those of New Y^ork. 
and it would seem that the system, as such, 
is totally inadequate to the growing demands 
of trade and the increasing value of property 
to be insured. 

It is a noticeable fact that in 1837 there 
were 48 joint stock companies in Massa- 
chusetts, with a combined capital of $9,415,- 
000, while in 18G8 there were only 29 com- 
panies, with a capital stock of $6,934,800. 
Comparing, however, the business of the 
companies, it will be found that the 48 com- 
panies in 1837 were insuring fire and marine 
risks to the amount of only $140,000,000, 
while the 29 companies in 1868 had $330,- 
000,000 at risk. The increase of risks as- 
sumed in that state by companies from other 
states for the 16 years previous to 18G9,was 
even more marked than that of the state 
companies, having risen from $6,373,000 in 
1852 to $250,000,000 in 1868. The devel- 
opment of the joint stock plan of fire in- 
surance in the State of New York has been 
equally remarkable. In 1844 there were 
20 comjianies, having an aggregate capital 
of $5,710,000, with amount" nisured $119,- 
571,000, while in 1870 the number had in- 
creased to 105, with an aggregate capital of 
29,761,232, and amount insured $2,813,- 
983,769. The number of companies in the 
state at the end of 1 87 1 was reduced by the 
great fire at Chicago to 84, with capital of 
$22,307,010, and amount of risks covered 
$2,397,339.63. It may be proper to note 
in this connection the increase of capital in 
companies from other states doing business 
in the State of New York from $12,351,315 
with $567,887,673 at risk in 1859, to $22,- 
971,101 for capital in 1870, with risks $1,- 
695,633,560. 

The following table, compiled from offi- 
cial reports of companies doing business in 



222 



INSURANCE — FIRE AND MARINE. 



the State of New York from 1859 to 1871 
inclusive, shows the increase of capital in- 
vested in the business of fire insurance dur- 
ing that time, and the amount of dividends 
declared from year to year, with the yearly 
percentage and the average percentage for 
the whole period. 



Aggregate, 



1859 


$32,358,315 


18G0 


29,998,760 


1861 


29,381,260 


1862 


29,834,260 


1863 


33,24ii,7ti0 


1864 


41,ti29,9l5 


1865 


44,282 750 


1836 


44,410,350 


1867 


45,611,232 


1868 


49 ..331,194 


18C9 


51,118,602 


1870 


52,732.333 


1871 


43,857,010 



$527,795,771 



DITIDENBS. 



$4,595,350 74 
3,83ii,141.97 
3,250,749.76 
3,324 ,5t;6.01 
3,567,331.51 
4,141,374.42 
4,616,607.11 
3,369,25070 
3,774,31:6.96 
5,051.796.38 
6.252,779.39 
6,509,998.68 
4,834,880.00 



$57,125,153.63 



PERCENTAGE. 



14.19 
12.78 

10.(i6 
11.11 
10.72 
9.94 
10.42 
7. SI 
8.27 
10.24 
12.23 
1234 
11.02 



10.82 



This table embraces a very large propor- 
tion of all the American companies, as near- 
ly all fire companies seek to do business in 
the State of New York, and in order to do 
so have to make annual reports, which form 
the basis of this table. As near as can be 
ascertained the entire fire insurance capital 
of the country at the close of 1 870 amounted 
to $65,000,(100. It will be noticed that the 
average dividends on this enormous amount 
of capital has been less than 11 per cent, 
during the past thirteen years. If the loss 
of capital itself during that time be taken 
into account, it is doubtful if the average 
dividends would amount to nine per cent, a 
figure by no means unreasonable for income 
on capital subjected to such fearful hazards 
as those of fire insurance. It is fliir to as- 
sume that the capital of all the companies 
not reporting to tlie New York Department 
has yielded about the same average divi- 
dends, and as the capital would of itself earn 
at least seven per cent., there remains only 
about two per cent, for the profits of the 
business, as such, a figure quite insignificant 
in view of the nature of the business and 
the risk assumed. 

It may be interesting to note the increase 
in the amount of premiums received, and the 
fluctuations in the amount of losses, with 
the various yearly percentage of losses to 
premiums, as will appear by the following 
table, showing the same for the past thir- 
teen years, compiled from official sources 



and embracing the same companies as the 
foreiroinof table. 



1859 
I860 
1861 
1862 
1863 
1864 
1865 
1866 
1867 
1868 
1889 
1870 
1871 



Agpregate, 



FIRE PREM. EEC D. 



$14,413 

11,S66, 

10,527 

11,308 

14,019 

20,141 

2.5.419 

32,281 

36,162, 

37,395, 

39,353 

37,23 

36,984, 



458.56 
.548.45 
,327.76 
418.99 
,6.58.13 
,152.68 
,589.55 
,404.76 
138.45 
740.25 
,578.57 
,621.73 
,570.00 



327,111,207.88 



FIRE LOSSES PAID. 



$8,0.31 

6,993 

6,249 

7,056 

5,656 

11356 

17,264 

23,913 

20,818 

19,283 

20,054 

21,869 

31,504 



247.41 

630.90 
,689.79 
731. .57 
975.64 
,624.97 
618.33 
,745.87 
,269.87 
979.11 
341. SO 
,440.75 
18U.00 



$200,0.53,476.01 



65.72 
58.93 
59.33 
62.40 
40.35 
56.38 
67.91 
74.07 
57.56 
51.56 
50.95 
68.72 
85.18 



61.15 



Thus it will be seen that the leading Ame- 
rican fire companies lost over 61 per cent, 
of their premium receipts from 185 'J to 1871 
inclusive. 

It is proper to remark that the New York 
Report for 1867, embracing the New York 
Companies doing Fire, Inland, and Marine 
business from 1848 to 1866 inclusive, gives 
over 63 per cent, of losses to premiums for 
that period ; while the strictly mutual state 
companies from 1853 to 1867 inclusive suf- 
fered a loss of over 61 per cent. The fire 
companies in Massachusetts from 1858 to 
1866 inclusive paid for los.se3 67 per cent., 
and companies from other states, doing fire 
business in that state, over 59 per cent, for 
the same period, or an aggregate loss on 
both classes of comi:)anies of over CO per 
cent. The great fire at Chicago increased 
the general average of the last thirteen years 
at least one per cent, above the normal aver- 
age. It will therefore be safe to assume 60 
per cent, as the average for the last thirty 
or forty years of fire losses in this country 
to premium receipts. 

The expenses of management form an im- 
portant item in the history ot fire insurance, 
and have not only exercised a great influence 
on the profitableness of the business but 
also on the character of the business done. 
The increase of the commission to brokers 
and agents in 1865 from ten to fifteen per 
cent., no doubt had a bad influence on the 
general conduct of the business, aside from 
the increased losses on risks influenced by 
the increased commission. 

The following table shows the cash pre- 
miums received and expenses paid, with 
average percentage for time named : 



INSURANCE FIRE AND MARINE. 



223 







expend's, less 






NET CASH PREM'S 


divd's, losses, and 




TEAR. 


RECBIVED, IN- 


AMOUNT PAID IN 


PER CENT. 




CLUDING INLAND. 


INTEREST ON SCRIP 
AND REDEMPTION. 




1859 


$14,535,112.94 


$4,004,557.39 


27.55 


18150 


13,750,762.49 


3,741,323.86 


27.20 


isr,i 


12,400,645.09 


3,484,593.73 


28.10 


18G2 


13,404,597.62 


3,569,905.98 


26.63 


18G3 


16,414, 21:3.94 


4,500.850.50 


27.42 


18)4 


23,843,521.89 


6,861,790.25 


28.77 


18f55 


29,519,092.28 


9,403,134.28 


31.85 


1866 


38,867,492.27 


11,791,369.66 


30.33 


1867 


42,236,059.-38 


13,124,292.14 


31.07 


1863 


43,023,947 81 


13,874,810.99 


32.24 


1869 


45.024,145.51 


14,924,366.16 


33.14 


1870 


42 ,.593,085. 68 


15,128,590.66 


35.51 


1871 


40,818,312 00 


10,879,392.00 


26.65 


Aggregate, 


S376,430,998.90 


.$115,288,677.60 


30.62 



From this table it appears that the aver- 
age expenses of American Companies is not 
le.-^s than 30 per cent, of the premiums re- 
ceived. This figure, however, inckides taxes 
on capital, wliich in most of the states are 
paid by the companies. The expenses of 
companies in England average about 31 per 
cent. ; those of France about the same, while 
those of Germany average about thirty per 
cent. If, therefore, we assume thirty per 
cent., in round numbers, as the average ex- 
pense of conducting the business, we shall 
not be far from the absolute figure. Com- 



bining the ratio of los.«es with that of ex- 
penses, we find a margin of only one-tenth 
of the premium received for profit, loss of 
capital, sweeping conflagrations, and epidemic 
periods. How far this can be trifled with 
by ignorance or credulity the public mind 
must judge for itself. To the intelligent and 
prudent property-holder these figures are 
full of meaning and admonition. 

Thus far attention has been directed to 
the profits of underwriting and only inferen- 
tially to the adjustment of rates to hazards. 
The comparison of looses and expenses with 
premiums will go far towards enabling the 
practical underwriter to form a correct judg- 
ment, in view of past rates and experience, 
on individual risks ; but to the political econ- 
omist it is of first importance to know the 
absolute relation between losses and amount 
of property insured, the actual amount of 
risks assumed to each dollar of lo:-s, and the 
average rate of premium on ri.-^ks written, 
as affording some safe criterion of judgment 
as to the aspect of the business as a whole. 
With this view the following table has been 
prepared, embracing twelve years, from 1860 
to 1871 inclusive: 







HRE PREMIUMS 




"93 


^11 


^|S 




TEAR. 


FIRE RISKS WRITTEN. 




FIRE LOSSES P.UD. 


%'Z S 


g'^^a 


"o ''o 


bi§-J 






RECEIVED. 




O 


.4323 


el? 




18G0 


$1,617,439,267 


$11,866,548.45 


$6,993,630.90 


58.93 


231.27 


.7336 


1861 


l,5.-i0,019,235 


10,527,327.76 


6,249,689 79 


59.36 


.4084 


244.81 


.6880 


1862 


1,729,988,571 


11,308,418.99 


7,056,731.57 


62.40 


.4079 


245.15 


.6536 


1863 


2,150,200,798 


14,019,658.13 


5,656,975.64 


40.35 


.2630 


380.09 


.6520 


1864 


3,166,532,904 


20,141,1.52.68 


11,356,624.97 


56.38 


.3586 


278.82 


.6360 


1865 


3,428,105,224 


25,419,589.55 


17,264,618.-33 


67.91 


.5036 


193.56 


.7415 


1806 


3,930,048,321 


32,281,404.76 


23,913,745.87 


74.07 


.6084 


164.34 


.8213 


1867 


3,812,294 907 


36,162,138.45 


20,818,269.87 


57.56 


.5460 


183.12 


.9485 


1868 


4,169,495,474 


37,.395,740.25 


19,283,979.11 


51.56 


.4625 


216.21 


.8968 


1869 


4,4.54,808,663 


39,353,578.57 


20,054,341.80 


50.95 


.4,501 


222.13 


.8833 


1870 


4,509,617,329 


37,237,621.73 


21,869,440.75 


58.72 


.4849 


206.20 


.8257 


1871 


4,204,798,338 


36,984,570.00 


31,504,180.00 


85.18 


.7492 


133.46 


.8795 


Aggregate, 


$38,703,349,031 


$312,697,749.32 


$192,022,228.60 


61.40 


.4961 


201.55 


.8079 



During these eventful twelve years the 
amount insured has more than doubled, hav- 
ing reached in ls7() more than four thousand 
five hundred millions of dollars. The gross 
premiums have more than tripled, havipg 
risen from less than twelve millions in 1860 
to nearly thirty-seven millions in 1871. The 
losses also increased from less than seven 
millions in 1860 to more than twenty-one 
millions in 1870, and more than thirty-one 
millions in 1871, including losses paid at 



Chicago. The most alarming feature is, 
however, found in the enormous increase of 
the percentage of losses to amount insured 
from .4.323 to .4849 in 1870, or .7492 in 
187 1, including the Chicago fire, or a general 
average for the twelve years of .4961. This 
fact is full of meaning, and shows that the 
losses by fire have more than doubled in 
that time, a fact well calculated to call at- 
tention to the cau-es which have produced, 
in so short a time, so fearful an increase in 



224 



INSURANCE — FIRE AND MARINE. 



the destruction of property in this country 
by fire. When it is considered that every 
loss of property by fire, whether insured or 
not, is a loss to the common wealth of the 
country, the import of these figures will be 
more fully appreciated. So great, indeed, 
has become the destruction of property by 
fire, that it has been doubted even by wise 
and intelligent persons whether, in a general 
or national point of view, the benefit^ re- 
sulting from insurance are not more than 
counterbalanced by the mischief it occasions. 
The objections in that point of view which 
have been urged are, carelessness and inat- 
tention which security by insurance naturally 
creates, and the temptation to arson engen- 
dered by it. But though it must be admit- 
ted that this species of insurance has been 
oftentimes the cause of fires, the benefits 
really outweigh the mischiefs ascribed to it, 
and it would at this day be difficult to con- 
ceive how the vast movements of tiade and 
manufacture could be carried on without the 
protection of fire insurance. The immense 
accumulations of merchandise demand it, 
and notwithstanding the serious objections 
stated, it is essential to credit and the great 
industrial interests of the country. The 
general practice marks tlie civilization of the 
age in which we live, and has now become 
indispensible to the mterests of trade and 
progress. 

With all the development made in this 
important branch of political economy there 
yet remains much to be done before the 
business of fire insurance will be reduced to 
anything like the exactness its importance 
demands. Many reforms must be intro- 
duced, systematic statistics on fire insurance 
must be obtained and classified so as to af- 
ford a scientific basis on which the business 
should be conducted. The evils of over-in- 
surance, so productive of incendiarism ; loose 
underwriting; hasty adjustment and pay- 
ment of losses, as an encouragement to crim- 
inal carelessness or positive fraud, with nu- 
merous irregularities that have insidiously 
crept in upon the business, must be corrected 
before it can claim the high rank to which 
it is entitled. 

There is a great law of average governing 
the business, certain and universal as the 
law of gravitation, though it is as yet im- 
perfectly understood. Its principles are even 
now sufficiently well known to afford a safe 



guide for the practical administration of the 
business, and with a wise caution on the part 
of the public there is little danger that a 
business like that of fire insurance, com- 
manding as it does its full share of skill, 
talent, integrity, and honor, will be wantonly 
thrown into the hands of men or corjiora- 
tions devoid of all these qualities. It is a 
matter of public concern that these great 
interests, so intimately interwoven with all 
the industrial pursuits of the country, should 
be so conducted as to lessen one of the bur- 
dens that now presses so heavily upon them. 
Such should be the aim of those to whom 
these interests are entrusted, to the end that 
undoubted mdemnity may be secured to 
the insured and profit to the capital invest- 
ed. 

Marine Insurance is of a much olCev 
date than fire, and is su]iposed to have ex- 
isted under the early Koman Emperois. 

The Lombards from Italy introduced ma- 
rine underwriiing into E^ngland about the 
end of the 14th century. The first organized 
Company in New York was the New York 
Insurance Compimy in 17'J6, with a capital 
of 5^500,000. The business has increased 
under Stock and Mutual Companies until 
the total assets in l.SGO were $;21.H67,1V)H, 
and in 1S71 S2.").874,U6. Total losses for 
same time were i?138,G.')8,n61. 

The "United States Lloyds," of New 
Y'ork, is composed of 100 individual under- 
writers, who have each paid into the com- 
mon fund or capital SI, 000, and each of 
whom is peisonally liable for at least an 
hundredth jiait of each and every risk taken 
by the attorneys of the association. 

The Fire and ]\farine Companies of 
Massachusetts in 18G8 insured S104,Go4,- 
966 — received $2, 4.38, "2i") 6 premiums, and 
sustauied losses to the amount of $1,709,872. 
INIany of the fire companies assume also In- 
land risks on our We.-^tern rivers and lakes, 
and tliere are a large number of companies 
scattered along the great rivers of the west 
devoted exclusively to this class of business. 
It is, however, impossible to obtain informa- 
tion sufficiently accurate to warrant any gen- 
eral classification. 

The business of marine insurance has 
made rapid progress within the last fifty 
years under the mutual plan, which seems 
to be the only system adapted to its success- 
ful prosecution in this country. 




HOOK AND LADDER HOSE CARRAIGE. AND MODERN HAND FIRE ENGINE, WITH SUCTION AND FORCE PUMPS. 



LIFE INSURANCE. 



Life Insurance treats human life as pro- 
ductive capital, as having absolute and defi- 
nite money value, and offers indemnity 
against its loss. Every person engaged in 
a productive industry, or whose income de- 
pends in any degree upon his labor, skill, or 
care, is vi^orth in money to those dependent 
upon him what he earns, and is to earn for 
them during the period he may expect to 
live according to the average duration of 
life among men of his age. If he die pre- 
maturely, his dependents lose just so much 
capital or money as would be earned by 
him had he lived his full limit. Life insur- 
ance brings together the men so situated, 
and upon their contributing to a common 
fund, according to their several chances of 
dying, according to the law of mortality, 
undertakes to replace to the surviving de- 
pendents the capital lost by the death of 
him who produced it for them. 

As regards the individual, nothing is so 
uncertain as the time of his death ; as re- 
gards the multitude, nothing is so uncertain 
as what individuals will die first, or within 
a given time ; but, on the other hand, noth- 
ing is so certain as that the individual must 
die at some time : and that among the mul- 
titude, the individuals will die at a certain 
rate until all are gone. To ascertain the 
rate of death or mortality, is therefore the 
consideration of first importance to a Life 
Insurance Company. This can be done 
only by a long and careful observation of a 
number of lives sufficiently large to give a 
uniform operation of the law of average in 
each year. Many tables of mortality, more 
or less imperfect, according to the, circum- 
stances of their, construction, have been pre- 
pared and used. Those in use in modern 
offices are principally four, the Carlisle, the 
Actuaries, Farr's Table No. 3, and the 
American Experience. Any of these seem, 

*14 



by the experience of American companies 
at least, to place the rate of mortality so 
high as to make them safe guides for offices 
which accept only sound lives, as is gener- 
ally the case. Experience proves the rate 
to be an increasing one ; that is, the pro- 
portion of the dying to the living, increases 
with each year of age ; in consequence of 
which the contribution each person insured 
would be called upon to make in payment 
of policies of decedents would considera- 
bly increase from year to year. For exam- 
ple, suppose 10,000 persons mutually insur- 
ing each other for $10,000 each, at the age 
of 30 ; the first year each survivor would 
have to contribute $84.71 to pay the losses 
occurring during that year. In the tenth 
year he would have to pay $102.03 ; in the 
twentieth year, $152.64; in the thirtieth 
year, $207.96, nearly a thousand dollars in 
the forty-fifth year, over two thousand in 
the fifty-fifth year, and so on. It was found 
necessary to devise means whereby a com- 
pany could provide the increasing sums 
necessary to pay its increasing losses, and at 
the same time demand from its members no 
increase of their annual contribution or pre- 
mium. This could only be done by charging 
a premium in excess of the losses for the 
first years of the contract, and reserving the 
excess to meet the future rapid losses. This 
accounts for the large accumulation of assets 
by the life offices, as compared with the 
fire. To take the example just given : 
Suppose the company assumes that it can 
earn four per cent, compound interest, on 
any investments for the next seventy years, 
and charges each of the ten thousand mem- 
bers $169.72 each, for life : it will receive 
for the first year $1,697,200, pay out $840,- 
000 for losses, and have in reserve, from 
the premiums and interest, $930,700 invest- 
ed in some sort of proper assets ; the second 
(225) 



226 



LIB^E INSUUANCE. 



year it will receive in premiums $1,682,942, 
and pay for losses $850,000, and have in 
reserve, from premiums, interest, and former 
reserve, $1,875,512: the fifth year it will 
receive in premiums $1,639,1.'j6, pay for 
losses S880,000, and have in reserve, from 
premiums, interest, and former reserves, $4,- 
793,160; the tenth year it will receive in 
premiums $1,562,782, pay for losses $930,- 
000, and have in reserve, from premiums, 
interest, and former reserves, $9,936,629 • 
the twentieth year it will receive in premi- 
ums $1,388,479, pay for losses $1,230,000, 
and have in reserve $20,721,981 : in the 
thirtieth year it Avill receive in premiums 
$1,101,14:5, pay for losses, $1,890,000, and 
have in reserve $27,423,219 : the highest 
reserve will be in the thirty-third year, when 
the premium receipts will be $996,596, 
losses $2,140,000, and the reserve $27,913,- 
843 : in the fortieth year the premium re- 
ceipts will be $705,017, the losses, $2,650,- 
000, and the reserve, $24,690,628; the 
reserve is now being constantly drawn 
upon to pay losses which have really ex- 
ceeded the premium receipts since the 
twenty-third year ; the fiftieth year the 
premium receipts will be $261,538, loss- 
es $2,300,000, and resei-ve, $10,428,688: 
the sixtieth year the premium receipts 
will be $25,7D7, losses $630,000, reserve 
$1,310,591: in the sixty seventh year the 
premium receipts will be only $339, losses 
$20,000, reserve $18,484, and only two 
persons left alive, who will die within the 



next three years, and the $18,484 reserve, 
with the additional premiums to be paid by 
them, and the four per cent, interest will 
provide the $10,000 to be paid at the death 
of each, and leave not a cent in the hands 
of the company. Every dollar of the vast 
accumulation it once held was reserved 
against a day of certain need, and went in 
its appointed time to its appointed owner, 
according to the law of mortality. 

The constant additions of new lives, pro- 
cured by the companies, prevents any .such 
extinction of assets as is above shown, by 
replacing the reserves withdrawn by old 
members, with those derived from the new. 
There is always in progress, the practical 
substitution of a new company for an old 
one. 

No enterprise has had more rapid growth in 
this country within the last ten years, than 
Life Insurance. On the first of January, 
1871, there were 113 companies incorpo- 
rated by the several States ; these had in 
force 834,498 policies, insuring the immense 
sum of $2,263,438,213. The necessary 
reserve to provide for the ultimate payment 
of this sum was, at that date, about $250,- 
000,000, and they held assets amounting to 
$300,616,056. Over 620,000 of these poli- 
cies were issued by only 24 companies, who 
also held over $232,000,000 of the entire 
amount of assets held by all the companies. 
The following table shows the distribution 
of this business by States: 



State. 


No. of Co'g. 


No. of Policies. 


Amount insured. 


Amount of Assets. 


Average amount of 
Assets to each Co. 


Maine, - - - 


1 


15,852 


$36,008,360 


f5,295,?33 




Vermont, - 


2 


8,494 


6,500,326 


1,075,111 


$537,555 50 


Massachusetts, - 


6 


52,137 


135,189,840 


17,724,629 


2,954,104.66 


Rhode Island, - 


1 


2,743 


6,359,718 


817,897 




Connecticut, 


9 


177,676 


447,207,886 


65,373,407 


7,263,600,00 


New York, 


41 


377,744 


1,048,889,779 


133,546,120 


3.257,222.43 


New Jersey, 


4 


45,339 


148,793,850 


23,343,275 


5,835.818.76 


Pennsylvania, - 


6 


*23,778 


64,493,461 


16,519,647 


2,753,274,60 


Maryland, - 


2 


1,425 


4,296,772 


623,332 


311,666.00 


Delaware, - 


1 


1,052 


1,841,907 


187,923 




Virginia, 


1 


8,715 


28,178,a54 


1,606,063 




South Carolina, 


1 


320 


1,099,040 


47,375 




Georgia, - 


1 


1,592 


6,675,425 


562,607 




Alabama, 


1 


790 


1,808,500 


331,235 




Louisiana, 


1 


408 


2,070,500 


264,242 




Tennes.see, - 


1 


8,467 


33,361,709 


2,045,169 


1,022,580.00 


Kentucky, 


2 


2 530 


9,548,243 


1,059,142 


629,56100 


Missouri, 


8 


33,256 


131,388,8S3 


10,671,534 


1,333,941.75 


Ohio, 


4 


11,807 


22,135,199 


1,375,952 


343,988.00 


Illinois, 


6 


9,545 


13,9;«,703 


2,364,404 


390,734.00 


Indiana, - 


1 


1,011 


2,433,314 


177,311 




Michigan, - 


1 


1,674 


3,021,0(55 


219,842 




Iowa, 


1 


452 


796,622 


166,687 




Minnesota, • 


1 


326 


703,700 


137,460 




California, 


2 


2,668 


8,357,745 


1,361,683 





5 " o"^'"' _ ^ =-5-. 



S'^'C 2,=-° -,|3i" g - ;__ 

3-ai:s'!S3-Hg.s5f3 O 

"§~o3S?2.5-;^„3 K 



JoS^a 


;; 


sgg 


<tl 


- 


n 




■" ^^ S 


T3 




- 


^ 


■d* 


*S« 




^3£ 




3 


n 

33 


1 


iii 

3 §.2. 


C 

a. 


3 5!» 




O 

a. 


















■< = o 






3 


7. 


3! 


^ 


TS-^S' 


s; 


3*0.0 


w 










3- 


^.£3 


1 


:t 






yi cj-r- - 


» 




- 


>^ 







"-^ S'"^ 3 w*^ X^^ 









;^ 3 § a-2 3 ="-„ ° -^ J ? ^ o <» ;?-5 ff^"?;?'^ 

2," 3'?"^ 2,*^ Z.O D.3J3 ?'o" — ^3 o'^ OT^ ^ ^^ -^ 

S o -Hs-"'-!'" g'><'3 5 ^ _ S » g S^"" i, 

5 ^"■"n'-'^' o'i 3-" ^ I o*^ 3-2°^ S"^"* ^ o " 

-•! " H 3-" D.^ "= ^'=j? " 3 -"' ES'rs°--'^i 
o »-p " =;»rE.o g^ S'a|^° ? Sn » E'T 2.g IS' 

3 _.3 O g 3 -=^";^ ^Z^'< S-^ ■"-" -.""< 

•g gx! o S |,« •? »-5| £>S 3 -2:5»^ 3 J. 53,0 
?.o g-?i ^ S 3 a'i : " ^S.«=-" 3 5 g.-„ 1^ 
I 3 ^ 



^''^ > O r*Cf? 



9-a " 3 go 3 ^^ «__J«^ ^n o Q ^ ^5 
cS'°'?'^ =2,= 3 <'" 5 I'SS aS.'" ^»o ""o_o 2. . 

'*'^®or:=:rt'23'°""3„fB3''^i3 3oreJB_f^i^ — 

3S;;'o'53o'?^^°^p'^!lo3^r»''» 
=■»•■-!- 03or;3Q,n = -.o^;rj:_ 
= 3 a.-s^gcLo":^-"^"??? 

3'2>Oo3-. --J-S -r2°S 3-S ^^ " o3 S^ 

*< * rt 3^2.p"'o M**! 2. — ~g — -. ^i^ ""o"^ "^ 
rr^% ^ 3-3.3 '3 3 3-^« "^ 3 B w ;^= B O "i"-? 
O^O — (t ""^ 3*0, ^- 5 ^ ^Cfq 5-3^^ 3 -3_Q.3 

.S»^?&3'93'3'§bIS.'S''»3-3'2b' 




B-ao 3^^ ± 



LIFE INSURANCE. 



227 



The following table shows the comparative 
magnitude of the business of Life Insurance 
in the United States as compared wiih Great 
Britain, the English Colonies, and Germany : 







Number of 
policies. 


United States, 
Great Britain, 
English Colonies, 

Germany, 


113 

85 
4 

36 


834,498 

1,225,308 

12,741 

424,922 



$2,263,4^8,213 

1,437,969,895 

26,050,270 

Thalers. 

401,032,407 




$300,616,056 

459,330,.3.^>0 

6,079,815 

Thalers. 

61,446,040 



The largest foreign company is the 
Gotha of Germany, which had in force 
January 1st, 1871, 36,392 policies, with 
assets amounting to 19,439,728 thalers. 
The Mutual Life of New York, the Con- 
necticut Mutual, and the -^iltna of Hartford, 
the Mutual Benefit of New Jersey, and the 
New York Life, each had a larger number 
of policies in force at that time, and pos- 
sessed a larger amount of assets, some of 
them several fold. 



IMMIGRATION. 



CHAPTER I. 

GENERAL MIGRATION— COLONIES AND 
UNITED STATES. 

At the date of the recent national census, 
(1870) nearly one-seventh of the inhabitants 
of the Unhed States, (5,566,546 out of 38,- 
555,983) were of foreign birth, and since 
that time (to Jan. 1, 1872) about 500,000 
more aliens have arrived in this country. Of 
those classed as " natives " in the census, 
quite as many more are children, one or both 
of whose parents were foreigners. It may, 
tlien, be safely computed that two-sevenths 
of our population are either of foreign birth 
or parentage. This is irrespective of the 
large negro element, most of which has been 
in this country for more than one genera- 
tion. 

The term " native " has been used to dis- 
tinguish the born citizen from the newly ar- 
rived foreigner, as well as the former from the 
" red man," who was also an emigrant in the 
view of the lost races that preceded him, and 
of which monumental traces alone remain in 
evidence that they ever existed. The history 
of the human race is a history of migration. 
Twice has the race comprised only a sin- 
gle family, occupying a single point on the 
earth's surface, and twice has it spread in all 
directions, forming nations and founding em- 
pires. The antediluvian world was swept 
away by the deluge, and all traces of the 
race of Adam had been washed away by the 
obliterating waters from the earth's surface 
when the ark gave up its freight. From its 
door migration was resumed, and three con- 
tinents owe their populations to the several 
sons of the patriarch. Asia, Africa, and 
Europe were settled by Shem, Ham, and 
Japhet and their descendants, who have 
stamped their characteristics upon each. 
From that day to the present, the same re- 
curring circumstances have from time to 
time produced the same results. As each 
locality became overcrowded by increase, the 
most adventurous sallied forth in quest of 
new homes, which, in their turn, filled, aad 



overflowed into some more distant region. 
These successive waters rolling on until the 
remotest shores of each continent were occu- 
pied, were succeeded by more formidable 
hosts of armed invaders, who came, sword in 
hand, to dispossess occuj^iers and seize accu- 
mulated wealth. With the growth of mod- 
ern civilization migration has no longer a 
destructive character. It seeks to build up 
by bringing industry and aid of natural re- 
sources, rather than to destroy by seizing 
what others have produced. It is more steady 
and effective in its commercial character — 
having industry for a means and prosperity 
for an object — than in its old form of inva- 
sion, plundering by force and leaving deso- 
lation in its train. 

The British Islands were the last subjects 
of European incursions. The Britons, of 
mythic origin, were plundered by Norse en- 
terprise, and the Saxons alternated with the 
Danes in dominating the nation on the with- 
drawal of the Romans, to be in their turn 
subjected to the Normans. Sine then 800 
years have been spent in amalgamating the 
races and in peopling the islands. Even at 
that date the adventurous Norseman, in 
search of the whale, had discovered the new 
continent and formed a colony on what is 
now known as Newfoundland. It required 
long centuries, however, in that barbarous 
age, for the people to struggle successfully 
against the effects of feudal oppression, civil 
wars, and their consequences, famine and 
plague. Nevertheless, progress was made and 
commerce a good deal developed, when, at 
the close of the fifteenth century, the dis- 
covery of the West Indies by Columbus was 
followed by an influx of the precious metals 
into Europe, givijig a renewed impetus to 
industry and enterprise. The Spanish were 
attracted by gold, and the commercial Dutch 
by the desire to found colonies, and their 
example was followed by the English and 
French. In both these cases, however, the 
desire of civil and religious freedom was a 
powerful incentive to the emigrants. These 
motives were more strongly developed when 



GENERAL MIGUATION — COLONIES AND UNITED STATES. 



229 



the English revolution began to operate in 
the first half of the 17th century. The new 
world was then looked upon as the place of 
refuge, and Cromwell himself, with his com- 
panions, were only prevented from migra- 
ting by the interposition of the government 
which they afterward overthrew. Of the four 
leading nations that planted colonies on this 
continent, the English alone became perma- 
nently successfid. The Spaniards sought gold 
only. The French settlement of the Missis- 
sippi was more a financial bubble of Law than 
a movement ot settlers. The Dutch had not 
sufficient breadth at home to sustain the un- 
dertaking ; and the English necessarily ab- 
sorbed the whole, with their steady industry 
and abiding religious faith. 

The disposition to emigrate to America 
gradually gained ground as the eighteenth 
century advanced, more particularly in the 
north of Ireland and Scotland, which already 
enjoyed the advantage of some intercourse 
with friends in America. Just before the 
Revolutionary war, this disposition to emi- 
grate showed itself strongly. The linen 
weavers in the northern part of Ireland were, 
by the decline in that trade, induced to mi- 
grate. For two years, 1771 and 1772, sixty- 
two vessels left with eighteen thousand pas- 
sengers for America, j^aying passages seven- 
teen dollars each. Most of these were linen 
weavers and farmers, possessed of property, 
aad they carried with them so much money 
as to attract the notice of the government. 
The movement, however, continued in 1773 
and extended itself to the north of Scotland, 
whence the highlanders migrated in great 
numbers. Knox, in his view of the British 
empire at that time, asserts that in the twelve 
years ending in 1775, about thirty thousand 
highlanders emigrated, exclusive of the low- 
landers ; and it was computet' that there 
were sixty thousand highlanders citizens of 
the United States in 1799. In the report 
of the committee on the linen manufactures 
in the Irish Parliament in 1774, it is stated 
that the whole emigration from the province 
of Ulster was estimated at thirty thousand 
people, of whom ten thousand were weavers, 
who, with their tools and money, departed 
for America ; thus adding to the numbers 
and wealth in the new world, in the propor- 
tion that the British Islands lost from the 
same cause. 

The breaking out of the War of Inde- 
pendence, naturally interrupted the commu- 



nication between America and the old world ; 
but with the return of peace, in 1783, the 
migration revived, notwithstanding the in- 
credible hardships which at that time at- 
tended the transit. The shipping was little 
adapted to the trade, and no special laws 
protected the rights of the poor emigrant. 
As an instance of this, it is related that in 
September, 1 784, a ship left Greenock with 
a large number of passengers, who had paid 
twenty-five dollars each for their passage. 
They were robbed of their chests and pro- 
visions by the master, and one hundred of 
them turned ashore on the Island of Rathlin, 
coast of Ireland. Another vessel rescued 
seventy-six emigrants from a desert island, 
where they had been turned adrift by the 
master of a brig, who had engaged to carry 
them from Dunleary, in Iceland, to Charles- 
town. In the same year there were great 
numbers landed at Baltimore, Philadelphia, 
and elsewhere. Blodgett's Statistical Man- 
ual, published in 1806, states that from 1784 
to 1794, the arrivals were four thousand per 
annum. In the year 1794, ten thousand 
persons were estimated to have arrived in 
the United States. Adam Seybert, a mem- 
ber of the House of Representatives, in his 
" Statistical Annals," admitting the number 
for that year, states that so large a move- 
ment did not again occur until 1817. 

When the colonies separated from the 
mother country, the population of the latter 
was, for England and Wales, 7,225,000, and 
about 2,000,000 for Ireland, making to- 
gether 9,225,000 souls, or about one-fourth 
the present inhabitants of the United States. 
The population of the newly formed United 
States in the year 1790 was 3,174,167 
whites, or about one-third the numbers in 
England and Wales. The founders of the 
nation were then not unmindful of the 
fact that these three millions of people, 
occupying 163,746,686 acres of land al- 
though possessed of a vast territory, had 
little else to depend upon. Capital was 
scarce, and manufactures had not been per- 
mitted under imperial rule, hence skilled 
artisans were not to be found. While all 
these things were indispensable to the new 
country, crowds of poorly paid and oppres- 
sed operatives on the other side of the At- 
lantic were impatient to enjoy the privileges 
that our new form of government held out 
to them. The French, German, and Eng- 
lish troops, that returned home after the 



230 



IMMIGRATION. 



war, had not only left a portion of their 
numbers here as settlers, but had carried 
home favorable reports of the advantages to 
be here enjoyed. It was manifestly to the 
interest of the new government here to in- 
vite and encourage these settlers, at the 
same time to guard against possible political 
abuse of the privilege. The new Constitu- 
tion therefore required Congress to pass 
uniform laws for naturalization. This was 
not done until April 14th, 1802, when the 
regulations that have since mainly continued 
were enacted. By that law, those aliens 
who were in the country prior to 1795 
might be admitted to citizenship on proof 
of two years' continuous residence in the 
United States, sustaining a good moral char- 
acter, and abjuring allegiance to foreign 
nations. Any alien arriving in the United 
States after the passage of the act was to 
comply with the following conditions : 

1. He shall, before some compent court, 
swear, at least tlu-ee years before his admis- 
sion, that it is his bonajide intention to re- 
nounce forever all allegiance to any sove- 
reign state to which he was a subject. 

2. He shall swear to support the Consti- 
tution of the United States. 

3. Before he can be admitted he must 
show that he has resided within the United 
States five years, and within the jurisdiction 
of the court one year. He must also show 
that he has been of good moral character, 
and well disposed to the happiness of the 
United States. 

4. He must renounce all titles of nobility. 
The law of March 3, 1813, required that the 
residence of five years should have been con- 
tiiuious in the United States. This restric- 
tion was repealed Jan. 26, 1848. The law 
of May 26, 1824, reduced the term of notice 
of intentions from three to two years. 
These were the chief regulations of the fed- 
eral ffovernment in relation to naturalization. 
Many of the states have, however, from time 
to time, passed laws relative to immigrants, 
importation of paupers, convicts, lunatics, 
etc. New York and many other states have 
laws requiring of the owner, or master, or 
consignee of the passenger ship, a well se- 
cured bond to the people of the state against 
loss for the relief or support of such pas- 
sengers. In lieu of this bond, commutation 
money may be paid. 

The federal government having smoothed 
the way, the migration proceeded until 



unfriendly relations between the United 
States and Great Britain, growing out of the 
wars of Euro])e, checked intercourse. The 
claim enforced by Great Britain to the prin- 
ciple, '• Once a subject always a subject," 
served to take from emigrants the security 
they sought under the American flag ; and 
in 1806 Great Britain declared France in a 
state of blockade, and France retorted upon 
the British Isles. These proceedings being 
succeeded by others, compelled the United 
States, in 1 809, to prohibit mtercourse with 
France and Great Britain. In 1810 Kir o- 
leon annulled his decree, but Great Britain 
continued her vexations, seizing American 
seamen, and riding rovigh-shod over their 
rights. The embargo was then succeeded 
by the war of 1812, during which migration 
was very limited. In February, 1815, peace 
was concluded, and the stream of migration^ 
long pent up, resumed its flow with greater 
force The accommodation was, of course, 
limited, and the more restrained that a law 
of Parliament restricted the number that 
might be carried to the United States to one 
for every five tons, although one for every 
two tons might be carried to any other coun- 
try. In the year 1817, 22,240 persons ar- 
rived in the United States, including Ameri- 
cans who returned home. This large mi- 
gration was attended with immense suffering. 
The attention of Congress was called to it, 
and a law was passed, March 2, 1819, to 
regulate the transportation of passengers. 
This act limited the number to two for every 
five tons of measurement, and provided for 
an ample allowance of food and fuel. When 
the famine of 1846-7 gave a new impulse 
to the movement, more complete laws were 
found requisite, and a number were passed. 
March 3, 1857, the present passenger act 
was enacted, repealing all former laws upon 
the subject, which with some slight modifica- 
tions since made, establishes the regidations 
now in force. It regulates the space for 
each passenger, the number of berths, ven- 
tilation and warming, and the kind and 
quantity of food to be fvirnished by the ship 
and how it is to be dealt out, and if any pas- 
senger is put on short allowance, the mas- 
ter or owner shall pay him three dollars each 
day of short allowance. 

The first accounts of the numbers of im- 
migrants commenced in 1820, under the law 
of 1819. The following table shows the num- 
ber of emigrants for fifty years. 



GENERAL MIGRATION — COLONIES AND UNITED STATES. 



231 



The number op Aubn Passengers arrived in the United States prom Foreign Countries, from the commencement of thb 
Government to the 31sr op December, 18*0. The dates are inclusive. 



COUNTIES. 


Prior to 1820. 


1820 to 1830. 


1831 to 1840. 


1841 to 1850. 


1851 to I860.' 


1861 to 1869.1 


Aggregate. 






15,037 

27,106 

3,180 

170 

35,534 


7,611 

29,188 

2,667 

185 

243,540 


32,092 

162,332 

3,712 

1,261 

848,366 


247,125 

748,740 

38,331 

6,319 

297,578 


154,039 

392,685 

24,913 

3,828 

389,422 


456,704 






1,360,051 






72,803 






11,763 






1,805,440 








Total from British Isles 




81,827 

7,583 
146 


283,191 

148,204 
4,250 


1,067,763 

422.477 
12,149 


1,338,093 

907,780 
43,887 


955,887 

690,288 

39,949 

4,114 

93,434 

14,844 

8,569 

84,162 

21,365 

6,377 

6,455 

1,790 

9,856 

73 

115 

8 

67 

1,905 

1,955 

487 

124 


3,706,761 






2,176.332 






100,372 






4,115 






94 

189 

1,127 

8,868 

3,257 

28 

2,616 

180 

389 

22 

17 

1 

20 
89 
21 


1,201 

1,063 

1,112 

45,575 

4,821 

22 

2,125 

829 

2,211 

7 

85 

35 

49 

277 

869 


13,903 

639 

8,251 

77,262 

4,644 

5,074 

2,209 

550 

1,590 

221 

79 

78 

16 

551 

105 


20 931 
3.749 

10,789 

79,358 

25,011 

4,738 

9,298 

1,055 

7,012 

1,790 

426 

5 

31 

457 

1,164 


129,563 






20,384 


Holland 




39,148 






242,226 






59,098 






16,239 






22,703 






4,404 






21,058 






2,103 






675 


Malta 




127 






183 






8,279 


Poland 




3,614 






487 






21 
2 
3 


7 


59 
51 
35 


83 

427 

41,397 


294 






626 


China 




8 


66,116 

186 

49 

33 

4 

3 


97.559 






185 






9 


39 


36 


43 


176 






33 














4 










7 
4 


15 
19 


25 






3 
2 

1 


1 


27 






77 

31 

8 

6 


79 






8 
4 


6 


5 


50 


Egypt 




12 












5 








4 
86 


1 

47 

2 

41,723 

3,271 

368 




5 






10 


186 


179 


458 






2 






2,486 

4,818 

107 


13,624 

6,599 

44 


59,309 

3,078 

449 


114,009 

1,923 

71 

43 

38 

36 

26 

40 

7 

8 

2 

1 

1,163 

3,598 

84 

80 

42 

4,787 

129 

75 

20 


231,151 

19,691 

1,039 

43 


Mexico 




Central America 




Guiana 
















38 


Peru 












36 














26 














40 














7 


Bolivia 












3 














2 


Paraguay 












1 






543 


856 


8,579 


1,224 


7,364 


Cuba 




3,598 














84 


Hayti 












80 














42 


West Indies, not specified. . . 




8,998 
2 
1 
79 


12,301 
3 
6 


13,528 


10,660 
104 
44 


45,274 






238 


Sandwich Islands 




28 


154 






99 


Isle of France 




2 


1 




3 








4 
6 


4 


8 


Society Islands 








i 


7 




2 

8,083 

68 

42 

9 

9 

4 

3 

1 

34,764 


2 


Azores 




13 


29 


327 


2,873 


6,325 






58 


Cape de Verdes 




4 
70 


15 

52 

1 

6 


8 
3 
3 

1 


7 

189 

13 

8 


71 






323 


St. Helena 


26 






271 


290 


Miquelon 




3 












10 
25,438 


11 


Countries not specified 


250,000 


32,892 
2 
4 


69,799 
5 


62,725 
2 


462,608 
9 


Barbary States 








4 


















260,000 


151,824 


599,125 


1,713,225 


2,598,214 


2,112,665 
339,046 


7,425,069 
339,046 




Total from the beginning of 













1870 


2,451,701 


7,756,511 



232 



IMMIGRATION. 



The returns gave the number from Great 
Britain in many cases without distinguishing 
the particuhir divisions where all the passen- 
gers were born. A very large portion of the 
whole, however, came from Ireland. The 
return sliows, then, that Ireland and Germany 
furnish the largest proportion of the emi- 
grants. Other nations have supi)lied a 
greater or less number, but irregularly. 
Since 1850, or the era of gold discovery, 
Asia — mainly China and Jajian — have sent 
about 80.000 emigrants to California. Those 
do not, however, as a general thing, intend 
remaining. They are for the most part fitted 
out with small sums borrowed of friends and 
neighbors, who share in the profits of the 
adventurer on his return. Numbers of those 
who come from other countries, as France, 
West Indies, and Southern Euroj^e, as well 
as to some extent from England, are mer- 
chants and travelei's, who are not to lie em- 
braced in the aggregate of settlers in new 
homes. The great sources of migration are, 
then, British and German, and the latter are 
confined mostly to the valley of the Rhine. 
The people of the north of Europe except 
the Norse folk seem to have lost the noma 
die character of their ancestors. It is true 
that then they were led by chiefs and tempt- 
ed by plunder to overrun the richer countries 
of the west, while at the present day migra- 
tion has no object but to seek an honest liv- 
ing in countries where labor is in demand, 
and wheie hospitality and protection await 
tlie worker. The Russian peasants while 
surfs were not allowed to leave their country, 
and the Russians in the table are mostly 
merchants and travelers. The Swede and 
the Norwegian are more free in their choice, 
and since 1860, have emigrated to this coun- 
try in large numbers, settling mainly in Iowa, 
Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, and Nebras- 
ka. Many of them also enter into domestic 
service in our large cities. The Swiss are to 
a considerable extent free and thrifty in their 
mouutain homes, but great division-! exist in 
respect of religion as well as politics, and 
there is amotg them a want of nationality. 
The canton,s of Vaud and Geneva are mostly 
French, and threaten to become quite so. On 
the side or the Tyrol the Swiss become Ital- 
ians. The German Swiss are mostly con- 
nected with Baden, and are embraced in the 
German movement. The Hollanders mi- 
grate to some extent, and often from motives 
of religion. The Moravian Brethren thus 



founded colonies in Pennsylvania. Gold 
seems, since its discovery in Calitbrnia, to 
have stimulated Dutch enterprise. The Ital- 
ians and Spanish do not migrate in the true 
sense of the word ; they leave their homes 
to some extent for the countries that border 
the Mediterranean, but they do not, unless 
under the ban of exile, cross the Atlantic. 
The Sardinians and Basque Spaniards go to 
some extent to the La Plata in South Amer- 
ica ; they do not frankly abandon tlieir coun- 
try to adopt a new one. The French are 
more markedly attached to their native soil 
and national character, and colonize little ; 
they migrate but moderately. Even Algiers 
has grown but very slowly under thirty years 
of governmental fostering care, and there are 
now but 60,000 French in the colony. Of 
those French who arrived in the United 
States up to 1870, about 40 per cent re- 
mained in the country according to the cen- 
sus. 



CHAPTER II. 

EUROPEAN MIGRATION— FRENCH AND 
GERMAN— NEW TRADE. 

The peace of 1815, in re-establishing the 
liberty of the seas, so long suppressed, 
opened new countries to European com- 
merce. On the other hand, many interests 
underwent adverse changes ; numerous ar- 
mies were newly disbanded, and great num- 
bers of men were forced to leave home in 
search of a useful application of their talents 
and energies. America was to them the chief 
point of attraction ; those who knew only the 
trade of arms, offered their swords to the 
Spanish colonies then fighting for emancipa- 
tion. Of these a majority found early graves 
from excess, fatigue, and misery ; many turn- 
ed their attention to agriculture, and the 
wisest sought refuge in the United States, 
where services were well requited, and the 
broad territories offered a limitless field for 
activity. At first the emigrants were iso- 
lated individuals ; soon entire families went 
in quest of new homes, and their success was 
a tempting example to other families, each 
of whom drew others in their train, until a 
continuous movement was established from 
the valley of the Rhine to America. 

This developed a new era in the inter- 
national commerce. The cotton of the south- 
ern states had up to that time found a limited 



*. '=^-: 




EUROPEAN MIGRATION. 



233 



market in Havre, but being carried thither 
in American ships, there being Uttle return 
freight for those vessels, the cotton was 
charged with freight both ways, out and 
home. The moment that considerable num- 
bers of passengers offered themselves for the 
return, that trade of itself became an object, 
affording a profitable home freight. It was 
then apparent that the light and elegant 
models of the American ships, which had so 
well answered the purpose of speed and 
efficiency during the war, were not adapted 
to the transportation of passengers. A differ- 
ent style of construction was needed,allowing 
of greater stowage of cotton out, and better 
accommodation to passengers, in accordance 
with the provisions of the law prescribing the 
room to be allowed to each passenger. This 
change causing greater attractions to the 
American ships, drew increasing crowds from 
the valley of the Rhine across France to 
Havre. Many of these poor people could 
raise only the sum needful for the passage, 
and depended upon begging their way 
across France to the port. These crowds 
of beggars alarmed the government, and it 
took measures to stop them. It was ordered 
that no one should be admitted to cross 
France unless he had previously paid his 
passage in the ship, was possessed of $150 
for every member of the family over eigh- 
teen years of age, and had his passport 
signed by the French embassador at Frank- 
fort. The effect of these absurd regulations 
was to destroy the trade of Havre, and turn 
the migration down the Rhine to Antwerp, 
Bremen, and Hamburg. The Havre mer- 
chants made great efforts to remedy the evil 
by sending agents to aid the emigrants, 
lending them the money to pass the frontier, 
and to be returned immediately after. A 
great rivalry was thus engendered between 
the northern ports and Havre, which still 
had great advantages in respect of the num- 
ber of American vessels that arrived with 
cotton, and finally the obstacles interposed 
by the government were removed. The 
city of Bremen was prompt to take advan- 
vantage of the error of the French govern- 
ment, and used every effort to attract the 
emigrants to that port, by granting facilities 
and protecting them from imposition. A 
law was passed regulating in the most min- 
ute particular the accommodations to be 
given to emigrants on shipboard. They are 
not to be taken on board until the moment 
of departure. To accommodate them prior 



to shipment, an immense building was con- 
structed to hold 2,000 people ; it has a front 
of 200 feet, and is 100 in depth. It has 
public rooms, sleeping apartments, kitchens, 
baggage-rooms, etc., and is warmed by steam 
throughout. There are also chapels for cath- 
olic and protestant worship, and a hospital, 
with thirty-three beds. The price charged 
with board is fourteen cents per day. By 
these and other means Bremen has acquired 
a large share of the emigrant business. 
Hamburg did not make the same efforts ; and 
it is only recently that societies for the pro- 
tection of emigrants have been there formed. 

The Germans formerly preferred to em- 
bark at Plavre, Southampton, or Liverpool, 
and on American ships, to sailing from Ger- 
man German ports and on German ships ; 
but a change has tnken place in this respect 
of late years. The German steamers, of 
which there are now three or four lines, are 
much better than formerly, and having good 
steerage accommodations, make the passage 
in 13 or 14 days. The French steamships 
do not carry emigrants, and as a result of the 
late war, there are few American steamers 
running regularly to Eui'ope. Emigration 
by sailing vessels is seldom attempted now, 
and only by the lowest class of emigrants. 
Tliere are numbers who go from Rotterdam, 
Ostend, or Hamburg, to England, and depart 
thence to their final destination. From Bre- 
men the emigrant ships go to a greater va- 
riety of ports than from Havre. The United 
States is, however, the uhimate destination 
of nearly all. 

The motives that impel German migration 
are variously understood. The reports of the 
numerous emigration societies give evidence 
of the highest traits of character. The Ger- 
man is described as a persevering worker, 
seeking to ameliorate his condition. He is 
always ready to go where his services will be 
the best paid, and certain professions have 
long been pursued by him in all countries. 
If his feeling of nativity is strong, his love 
of family is still stronger. And, moreover, the 
Teutonic race may now be said to be at 
home on half the entire globe. There are, 
however, other motives, and these are evi- 
dently the desire to find civil, political, and 
religious liberty, of which they have not the 
perfect enjoyment at home. The Germans 
have never succeeded in founding colonies 
of their own under good government, but 
they are a valuable acquisition where others 
have established liberty and order. They 



234 



IMMIGRATION. 



seek exemption from military service. They 
wish to contribute in just proportion to the 
public expenses, of which they enjoy the 
benefits, as equal citizens. They seek to 
escape the trammels of corporations. They 
wish also freely to dispose of the fruits of 
their own industry, and by so doing to avoid 
the misery of destitution. All this that they 
seek is evidently that which they have not 
got, or at least very imperfectly, at home. 

While Germany was divided into many 
petty states, their division, which materially 
checked industry and increased the taxa 
tion, was itself an exceedingly strong incen- 
tive to emigration ; and before their confed- 
eration into one government was fully accom- 
plished, almost every family had its repre- 
sentatives here, and the tendency had become 
so strong for a home in the '• land of prom- 
ise," that no political changes could greatly 
affect it. 

The German governments have all, more 
or less, occupied themselves with the ques- 
tion of migration, and in some cases have 
sought to check it. Among these attempts 
was that by Prussia to found agricultural 
colonies. The king offered lands in the 
duchy of Posen, and agents were sent among 
the emigrants from the valley of the Rhine. 
The conditions were, that the settlers should 
not leave the country without permission, 
and never without having performed military 
service. 

These, it may be supposed, were without 
success. Emigrant agents are, by some 
governments, required to submit to regula- 
tions; sometimes the number is limited, and 
sometimes they must give security. In Ba- 
varia only two houses are authorized to treat 
with emigrants for their passages across 
France, and the contracts must be inspected 
by the consul at Havre. There results a 
large clandestine emigration to avoid these 
restrictions, and at the frontiers numerous 
agents are ready to assist — a sort of under- 
ground railroad. The governments of Wur- 
temberg, Baden, and the two Ilcsses, are less 
rigorous, but nowhere can passports be ob- 
tained until every effort has been made to 
dissuade the emigrant. In case he persists, 
he must renounce all rights of citizenship 
and nationalit}'. On the other hand, meas- 
ures are taken to aid the emigrant. When 
the cause of departure is destitution, the 
communes and the government subscribe, 
while stipulating that the emigrant shall 
renounce all right to ulterior aid. All the 



persons so aided go from one canton together. 
When the emigrants pay their own expenses 
and have a small capital, bands of numerous 
families from divers points assemble and de- 
part together. Political exiles are very few, 
but these have generally considerable means. 
It is melancholy, however, to reflect in 
how great a degree destitution becomes the 
cause of migration. Singularly enough, the 
valley of the Rhine, of wliich the German 
poets sing the beauty and the fertility, is 
precisely the spot, of all Europe, where the 
misery of Ireland is most nearly reproduced. 
From the Lake of Constance to the frontiers 
of Holland, that famous valley has so long 
felt the oppression of feudalism and been 
the battle-field of contending powers, as to 
have become completely impoverished. In 
the duchy of Baden the day's wages of a 
skilled workman is twenty-eight cents — a sum 
which may sustain life in a year of good har- 
vest, but which is utterly insufficient in time 
of dearth, as in 1846, when potatoes became 
diseased. The insurrection of 1849 added 
to the calamities, and in 1852, of a popula- 
tion of 1,356,943 souls, 14,400 emigrated, 
or one per cent in one year. The thrift and 
endurance of the Germans are well devel- 
oped in a laud of such hardships, and on 
their arrival in the United States they are 
not slow in turning their persevering indus- 
try to account. It is singular that the dis- 
tress and destitution which centuries of 
misrule liave produced in Ireland, so famed 
for its natural advantages, should be repro- 
duced in Europe only in the Rhine valley, 
the garden of Europe. The two localities 
best endowed by nature are precisely those 
where man is most anxious to escape by mi- 
gration from an accumulation of miseries. 
The highest migration from Germany, by 
the four ports of Hamburg, Havre, Antwerp, 
and Bremen, rose to 203,537 in 1854. The 
movement has since declined, fluctuating 
with the harvests. There are, however, con- 
siderable numbers who go, by other convey- 
ance from those ports than the emigrant 
ships, to Liverpool, and embark thence for 
America. This aggregate German move- 
ment has come of late years to rival, and in 
some cases to exceed the broad stream of 
British migration. The migration from 
Great Britain has always been largest in the 
years of dear food, and it has again subsided 
when good harvests have diminished the 
prices of bread. The number that went 
abroad in 1843 was 57,212, and it continued 



EUROPEAN MIGRATION. 



2.15 



to augment year by year until it reached 
368,764 in the year 1852. Several causes 
concurred to produce this increase. The 
first was the famine of 1845-46-47, and the 
consequent means adopted by the British 
government for the relief of Ireland ; the 
second was the gold fever, which carried off 
thousands; and the third was the prosperity 
of the emigrants in the United States, where 
railroad building and other employments 
gave the means to send for friends in unu- 
sual numbers. The most important cause 
was, probably, the condition of Ireland. 
The conquest of that country, which was 
commenced seven centuries since, is but now 
being completed. We now see the insub- 
missive Celts quitting, with the aid of their 
conquerors, the disputed country, to seek 
new homes beyond the seas. They cannot 
assimilate to the conquering I'ace, and not 
being able to defend tliemselves, they aban- 
don the country rather than submit. Du- 
ring all the time of religious persecution, 
from the reign of Henry VIII. to George III., 
the economical condition of Ireland was de- 
plorable, and misery made incessant prog- 
ress. The landed population became in- 
volved in debt, and a fatal subdivision of 
the land was introduced in the mode of cul- 
ture. Farms were subdivided as fast as the 
people multiplied, which was fully equal to 
the proverbial fecundity of a state of ex- 
treme poverty, and the potato came to be the 
sole dependence of all for food. The sud- 
den destruction of that dependence by rot 
was an overwhelming calamity, that brought 
matters to a crisis. It was felt that migra- 
tion could not remedy the evil, but that a 
radical change in a wrong system was be- 
come indispensable. The system pursued 
had been for the landlords, mostly in debt, 
to absent themselves altogether. The land 
was then taken by " middle men," at a rate 
which hardly met the interest on incum- 
brances. This land was then parcelled out to 
the poor cotters in lots down to one-fourth acre 
or less, mere patches, at rates which gave a 
large aggregate rent to the " middle man." 
Those patches were planted with potatoes, 
which were the sole dependence of the 
family for food in the year. They were 
gathered, when ripe, into a pile, and that 
pile diminished by daily consumption until 
an approaching new crop found it exhausted. 
The supply of food for the year depended 
entirely upon the amount of the crop. Its 
yield was the sole dependence of the family 



to sustain life. The cotter had no property 
or capital of any kind to be made available 
in case of emergency. His only means of 
paying rent was an annual migration to 
England in harvest time to earn the necessa- 
ry sum. That done, the balance of the year 
was idly spent in watching the sinking pile 
of potatoes. It may well be imagined how 
great was the horror that seized such a peo- 
ple when the sole barrier between themselves 
and starvation was found rotten, suddenly 
perishing under their eyes. The scenes that 
followed were awful to contemplate. All 
that could, fled, and these were mostly the 
robust males, leaving the infirm, the old, and 
the young to encounter the slow death that 
was gradually approaching, and which over- 
took multitudes. The greatest eff"orts Avere 
made by the British government to purchase 
and distribute food, and to employ hands 
upon roads. At one time over 500,000 
were so employed. The introduction of the 
Indian corn was attempted as a substitute ; 
but it was nearly impossible amid a people 
entirely ignorant of- its use. Hand-mills 
were furnished to grind it, and the priests 
and others used great exertions to teach 
them to cook it. It was frequently the case, 
however, that the grain did not agree with 
the people, but exhibited poisonous effects 
on being eaten. The body swelled, and se- 
vere illness ensued. Migration and famine 
did its work in spite of all efforts of human- 
ity, and the census of 1851 showed how 
awful had been the havoc. 

The population of Ireland has been as 
follows, per official reports : — 



1821, 6,801,827 
1831, 7,767,401 
1841, 8,222,664 



1851, 6,623,984 
1861, 5,850,309 
1871, 5,402,759 



Dacrease from 1841—30 years, 2,819,905 

In the ten years ending with 1831, the 
increase was one and a half per cent, per 
annum. From that date to 1841 it was 
nine-tenths of one per cent, and that was a 
period of much comparative prosperity. The 
crops were still good, and the failure of the 
English wheat crops in 1837 raised the prices 
of Irish grain, and gave much employment to 
its agriculturists. If it had continued the same 
rate up to 1847, the famine year, the popula- 
tion would then have been 8,616,680 souls, 
when the migration took place in large num- 
bers, and continued the succeeding thirteen 
years down to 1859. The same increase in 
that thirteen years would have made the 



236 



IMMIGRATION. 



population 9,651,678 persons, or as fol- 
lows : — 

Population in 1841 8,175,124 

Ten years' increase at 9 per cent 735,761 



The population should have been in 1851 8,910,885 
Actual populatiou 6,553,291 



Loss by famine and migration 2,357,594 

Nuinbcr emigrated. , T 1,422,000 

Population in 1851 6,023,982 

Ten yeai-s' increase at 9 per cent 595,500 



The population should have been in 1861 7,148,791 
Actual population 5,850,309 



Loss by migration, etc 1 ,298.482 

Number emigrated 1 ,972,499 

In the famine years, up to 1851, 935,594 
persons disappeared more than were account- 
ed for by migration. From 1851 to 1861, 
there migrated 674,017 more persons than 
should have been lost by the census. The 
numbers who have returned were for a time, 
it is known, upwards of twenty thousand 
per annum, and these carried back much 
larger sums than they broiiglit with them. 

In this view the emigration reacted upon 
the northern states, the emigrants carrying 
off all that they have created. The whole 
operation above was as follows for fifteen 
years : — 

Population in 1 847 8,616,680 

1861 5,850,309 



Decreased .., 2,766,371 

Emigrated 3,393,499 



Excess 372,872 

Canying fonvard the estimate, the 

population in 1 861 was 5,850,309 

Ten years' increase at 9 per cent. . . 526,527 

The population should have been in 

1871 6,376,836 

Actual population 5,402,759 

A loss by migration, etc., of. 974,077 

The first reformatory efforts of the English 
government were to throw the support of the 
Irish poor upon the parishes, and as the tax- 
became onerous the forced sale of the encum- 
bered estates w-as authorized. The two mea- 
sures have succeeded. The land has passed 
into thrifty hands ; the bankru]>t landlord is 
dispossessed, and the extortionate " middle 
man" is abolished ; and the excessively poor 
population has been purged off by migra- 
tion. The " clearing of the lands" was in 
many cases conducted with much barliarity. 
The little huts of the peasants were pulled 



or burned down, and the hapless people 
driven forth to seek homes beyond the seas 
as they best could. In other cases the land- 
loi'ds, the government, or societies furnished 
the means of shipments. The government 
soon found the necessity of interposing by 
law, as the United States had done, to pro- 
tect them from the rapacity of shippers and 
their agents. The law of 1849 was passed 
with that object. By its provisions no sliip 
shall carry more than one person for every 
two registered tons ; nor shall there be more 
than one person for every twelve superficial 
feet on the main deck and below it. The 
size, number, and construction of the berths 
are regulated, and the captain is required to 
issue food as follows to each person twice a 
week : — 

Bread 2J lbs. 

Wheat Flour 1 " 

Oatmeal 5 " 

Rice 2 " 

Tea 2 07,. 

Sugar ^ lb. 

Molasses i " 

A surgeon must be carried where there 
are one hundred or more passengers, and 
many other regulations that experience has 
pointed out as necessary, are enforced upon 
the carriers. The food is to be furnished 
entirely ii'respective of the price of the pas- 
sage, which iluctuates almost daily between 
^16 and §24 each adult, and half price for 
children. The starving and destitute race 
each year sends foi'th crowds from all parts 
of Ireland to embark at Liverpool. The 
means are mostly furnished by Irish in 
America, who consider it their duty to 
appropriate their first earnings in their new 
homes to the rescue of their relatives, and 
small remittances, aggregating millions in a 
year, find the way into every cabin and 
workhouse as messengers of life to the des- 
pairing. Those poor people, once started 
on their travels, encounter numerous perils 
before reaching their destination. As soon 
as a party of emigrants arrives in Liverpool, 
they are beset liy a tribe of people, both 
male and female, who are known by the 
name of " man-catchei's" and " runners." 
The business of these people is, in common 
parlance, to " fleece" the emigrant, and to 
draw from his pocket, by fair means or by 
foul, as much of his cash as lie can be per- 
suaded, inveigled, or bullied into parting 
with. The first division of the man-catching 
fraternity are those who trade in commissions 



EUROPEAN MIGRATION. 



237 



on the passage money, and call themselves 
the " runners" or agents of the passenger 
brokers. The business of the passenger 
broker is a legitimate and necessary one. 
Under the passenger act of the 12th and 
13th Victoria cap. 3, the licenses of all the 
passenger brokers expired on the 1st of 
February, 1850, subject to renewal after 
their being approved of by the government 
emigration agent, and to their entering into 
bonds, with two sureties, in the sum of 
$1,000, for the due fulfilment of all the re- 
quirements of the act of Parliament relating 
to the comfort and security of emigrants. 
The passenger brokers at Liverpool, in com- 
mon with the unwary and unsuspecting emi- 
grants, have sutfered greatly from the mal- 
practices of the " runners," who pretend to 
be their agents. These man-catchers pro- 
cure whatever suras they can from emigrants 
as passage money — perhaps $25 or $30, or 
even more — and pay as little as they can to 
the passenger broker, whose business they 
thus assume — often as little as £3, or £3 5s. 
In addition to these large and knavish prof- 
its, they demand a commission of seven and 
a half per cent, from the passenger broker, 
and they have been often known to obtain 
and enforce this commission, although their 
whole concern in the matter may have been 
to watch the number of emigrants going 
into or coming out of the brokery office, 
and to put in a claim for having brought or 
" caught" them. 

To form an idea of the sums paid in any 
one year as commission to the man-catchers, 
in the item of passage money, we have but 
to take the total steerage emigration of that 
year and multiply it by £3 10s., or seven- 
teen dollars — the average amount of passage 
money — and calculate what a per-centage of 
seven and a half per cent, would amount to. 
The total steerage emigration of 1859 was 
one hundred and forty-six thousand one 
hundred and sixty-two souls, which, at seven- 
teen dollars a head, would amount to no 
less than two million four hundred and eighty- 
four thousand seven hundred and fifty-four 
dollars, on which, taking the commission at 
the low rate of six per cent., they draw one 
hundred and forty-nine thousand and forty 
dollars, which is generally stated to be about 
the sum actually paid to this particular class 
of people, on the average of the last three 
years, by the passengeff-brokers of Liverpool. 
But these are not the only class of the man- 
catching fraternity, nor do they confine their 



operations to an exorbitant profit upon pas- 
sage money. The man-catchers keep lodging- 
houses for emigrants — wretched cellars and 
rooms, destitute of comfort and convenience, 
in which they cram them as thickly as the 
place can hold. The extra profits they draw 
from this source cannot be inferior in amount 
to their previously mentioned gains, and the 
cherished hoards of the poor pay a large per- 
centage to their unscrupulous rapacity. 

In addition to this trade, some of them 
deal in the various articles composing the 
outfit of emigrants, such as bedding, clothes, 
food, cooking utensils, and the nick-nacks 
of all kinds which they can persuade them 
to purchase. Some of the store-keepers in 
this line of business pay their "runners" or 
" man-catchers " as much as ten per cent, com- 
mission on the purchases eftected by the 
emigrants, from which the reader may form 
some estimate of the enormous plunder that 
must be drained from the poor ignorant peo- 
ple. As every emigrant must provide his 
own bedding, the sale of mattresses, blankets, 
and counterpanes, enters largely into this 
trade. After the bedding is provided, the 
man-catchers, who are principally Irishmen 
themselves, and know both the strength and 
weakness of the Irish character, fasten upon 
their countrymen — many of whom, poor and 
miserable as they look, have sovereigns se- 
curely stitched amid the patches of their 
tattered garments — and persuade them into 
the purchase of various articles, both useful 
and useless. Among these may be mentioned 
clothes of all kinds — shirts, trowsers, waist- 
coats, shawls, petticoats, south-westers, caps, 
boots and shoes, slippers, cooking utensils, 
cans for the daily allowance of water, and 
tins to hold their meal, rice, and sugar. Pro- 
visions, such as bacon, herrings, salt beef, and 
other articles not found them on board, and 
luxuries, in which whiskey and tobacco are 
generally included, come next on the list, 
after reiterated assurances from the man- 
catchers that no emigrant will be taken on 
board without them. These being provided, 
and an Irishman being easily squeezeable 
when a friend and a countryman is the man- 
catcher who has him in hand, and when he 
fears that his passage-money will be lost for 
non-compliance with the regulations, his 
attention is next directed to such articles as 
pocket-mirrors, razors, bowie-knives, pistols, 
telescopes, etc. 

The stranger in Liverpool, who takes a 
walk in the immediate vicinity of the Water- 



238 



IMMIGRATION. 



loo Dock, whence the greater number of 
emigrant vessels take their departure, will 
see a profuse display of the various articles 
upon which the man-catcher makes his 
gains — articles generally of the most inferior 
quality, and sold at the most extravagant and 
ridiculous prices. The man-catching busi- 
ness, in all its various departments, has been 
reduced to a regular system, and no London 
sharper can be more sharp than the Liverpool 
runners. Perhaps the most complicated and 
ingenious trick is the following : When a 
steam-vessel laden with emigrants leaves an 
Irish port for Liverpool, one of the Liverpool 
fraternity, dressed up as a raw Irishman, with 
the usual long-tailed, ragged, and patched 
gray frieze coat, the battered and napless hat, 
the dirty unbuttoned knee-breeches, the black 
stockings, the shillelah, and the short pipe, 
takes his place among them, and pretends to 
be an emigrant. Before the vessel arrives at 
Liverpool he manages to make acquaintance 
with the greater portion of them, learns the 
parish they came from and the names of the 
relatives whom they have left behind, not 
forgetting those of the parish priest and the 
principal people of tlie neighborhood. He 
also ascertains the names of the friends in 
America whom they are going to join. He 
tells them of the rogueiy of Liverpool, and 
warns them against thieves and man-catchers, 
bidding them take especial care of their 
money. On arriving at the quay, in Liver- 
pool, he jumps ashore among the first, where 
a gang of his co-partners are waiting to re- 
ceive him. He speedily communicates to 
them all the information he has gained, and 
the poor people on stepping ashore are beset 
by affectionate inquiries about their friends 
in Ireland, and that good old man the parish 
priest. They imagine that they have fortu- 
nately dropped among old acquaintances, 
and their friend of the steamboat takes care 
to inform them that he is not going to be 
" done " by the man-catchers, but will lodge 
while at Liverpool at such and such a place, 
which he recommends. They cannot imagine 
that men who know all about the priest and 
their friends and relatives can mean them 
any harm, and numbers of them are usually 
led off in triumph to the most wretched but 
most expensive lodging-houses. Once in the 
power of the man-catchers, a regular siege 
of their pockets is made, and the poor emi- 
grant is victimized in a thousand ways for 
his passage money, for his clothes and uten- 
eils, and for his food. Even after they have 



drained him as dry as they can, they are loth 
to part with him entirely, and they write out 
per next steamer a full, true, and particular 
account of him — his parish, his relations, his 
priest, and his estimated stock of money — to 
a similar gang in New York. Paddy — simple 
fellow — arrives in New York in due time, 
and is greeted on landing by the same aft'ec- 
tionate inquiries. If his eyes have not been 
opened by woeful experience, he thinks once 
more that he has fallen among friends, and 
is led oft" by the " smart" man-catchers of the 
New York gang, to be robbed of the last 
farthing that he can be persuaded to part 
with ; and he is possibly induced to spend 
the savings of years in the purchase of land, 
supposed to be in the far west, but having 
no other existence but such as paper and lies 
can give it. 

It must not be supposed, from the state- 
ments in reference to the rogueries practised 
by runners and man-catchers upon the 
simple, emigrants themselves do not occa- 
sionally endeavor to commit frauds, both 
upon each other and upon the owners and 
captains of ships. The Irish emigrant, with 
the passion for hoarding which is so common 
among his countiymen, often hides money 
in his rags, and tells a piteous tale of utter 
destitution, in order to get a passage at a 
cheaper rate. The shameless beggary, which 
is perhaps the greatest vice of the lower 
classes of Irish, does not always forsake them, 
even when they have determined to bid fare- 
well to the old country ; and I have several 
times been accosted by men and women, on 
board emigrant ships in dock, and asked for 
contributions to help them when they got to 
New York. " Suie, yer honor, and may the 
Lord spare you to a long life ; I've paid my 
last fardcn for my passage," said a sturdy 
Irish woman, with a child in her arms, when 
accosted on the quarter-deck of a fine ship, 
in the Waterloo Dock, " and when I get to 
New York I shall have to beg in the strates, 
unless yer honor will take pity on me." On 
being asked to show me her ticket, she said 
her husband had it ; and her husband — a 
wretched-looking old man — making his ap- 
pearance and repeating the same story, was 
pressed to show the document. He did so 
at last, when it was apparent that he had 
paid upwards of seventeen pounds — eighty- 
two dollars and twenty-five cents — for the 
passage of himself and wife and his family of 
five children. "And do you mean to say 
that you have no money left ?" was inquired 



EUROPEAN MIGRATION. 



239 



of him. " Not one blessed penny," said the 
man. *' No, nor a fardin," said the woman, 
" and God knows what'll become of us." 
" Do you know nobody in New York ?" " Not 
a living sowle, yer honor." " Have you no 
luo"o-ao-e ?" " Not a stick or a stitch, but the 
clothes we wear." As the good ship was 
detained two days beyond her advertised 
time of sailing, all the emigrants, as usual, 
had liberty to pass to and from the ship to 
the streets, as caprice or convenience dicta- 
ted. On the following day, this sturdy 
woman and her husband were seen entering 
the Waterloo Dock gates with a donkey-cart, 
tolerably well piled with boxes, bedding, and 
cooking utensils. When they were down in 
the steerage, and she was asked whether that 
was her luggage, she replied it was. " You said 
yesterday, however, when you were begging, 
that you had no luggage." " Sure, it's a hard 
world, yer honor, and we're poor people — 
God help us." 

An incident of a kind not very dissimilar 
occurred on board of another American liner. 
When the passenger roll was called over, 
it was found that one man, from the county 
of Tipperary, had only paid an instalment 
upon his passage money, and that the sum 
of #6 each for three persons, or $18, was 
still due from him. On being called upon 
to pay the difference, he asserted vehemently 
that he had been told in the broker's office 
that there was no more to pay, and that to 
ask him for more was to attempt a robbery. 
The clerk insisted upon the money, and 
showed him the tickets of other passengers 
to prove the correctness of the charge. The 
man then changed his tone, and declared 
that he had not a single farthing left in the 
world, and that it was quite impossible he 
could pay any more. " Then you and your 
family will be put on shore," said the clerk, 
" and lose the money you have already paid." 
The intending emigrant swore lustily at the 
injustice, and declared that if put on shore 
he would " get an act of Parliament" to put 
an end to such a system of robbery. The 
clerk, however, was obdurate, and the man 
disappeared, muttering as he went that he 
would have his " act of Parliament to pun- 
ish the broker, the clerk, and the captain." 
He returned in a few minutes from below, 
and, without saying a word of what had 
happened, and looking as unconcerned as a 
stranger, coolly presented a £5 note, or 
$24 25, and asked for his change. Such is 
a specimen of the rogueries attempted by 



those who have money. Those who really have 
none at all, or who possibly have not suffi- 
cient to pay their passage, resort to other 
schemes for crossing the Atlantic at a re- 
duced rate, or free of charge altogether, and 
"stow away." This is a practice which is 
carried on to a great and increasing extent. 

After encountering these perils of poverty 
and cheating, the crowd becomes finally 
located on board of ship, and assigned their 
quarters for the voyage. It is a strange 
place for the new-comers, and their admiration 
of the new life they have entered upon be- 
gins with the first day's issue of regulation 
food. The experience of most of them in 
the edible way, has hitherto been confined 
to "murphys" or, at most, Indian meal, 
which they heartily detest as " starvation 
porridge." Tliey now come to the allow- 
ances, as above, handed them by law. The 
meal, the tea, the rice, the sugar, and molas- 
ses prove frequently a puzzler — tea in par- 
ticular — and it is not unfrequently the case 
that a brawny Pat, who could do a good 
turn at Donnybrook fair, but whose knowl- 
edge of drinkables is confined to whisky, 
will, after gravely surveying the tea for a 
while, deliberately fill his pipe with a por- 
tion, and smoke it with much satisfac- 
tion. Others, with more expansive ideas, 
will at times mix the whole in a mass, and 
boil it into a thick soup or pudding, well 
specked with the expanded tea leaves. In- 
formation comes with experience, however, 
and the first serious experience is sea-sick- 
ness, which utterly prostrates them, mind 
and body, aggravating every dirty habit 
they may have formed. Then is ex- 
erted the utmost power of the captain to 
enforce cleanliness ; he usually selects a 
dozen or two of the more intelligent, and 
investing them with authority, a general 
turn-out, and a thorough cleaning every 
morning, and in all weathers, is compelled. 

By the rigid observance of this rule, much 
of the former sickness and mortality has 
been avoided. A voyage of some thirty 
days usually brings the human freight with- 
in sight of New York harbor. It almost in- 
variably occurs that in the first delight of 
arrival every utensil and article of bedding 
is pitched overboard. No matter how poor 
are the people, or how hardly the things 
may have been come by, over they go ; and 
cleaning for the landing takes place. How 
full of anxieties is that landing ! 



240 



IMMIGRATION, 



CHAPTER III. 

LANDING IN NEW- YORK— FUTURE HOMES. 
The Castle Garden, at New York, is allot- 
ted for the reception of the passengers under 
the Commission of Emigration, which was 
organized by law in 1847, and which 
charges a tax of two dollars per head on 
each immigrant, applying the proceeds to 
the support of the needy and destitute 
among them. The operations of this com- 
mission have become very extensive. It has 
charge of the Quarantine. Since its organ- 
ization it has raised large hospitals on 
Ward's Island, where the sick are cared for. 
They are also sent to the Marine Hospital 
and the New York Hospital, and they re- 
imburse the towns and counties of the state 
for the charges they incur for support of 
poor aliens, and advance money to immigrants 
on pledge of baggage, without interest. In 
the year 1859 |2,180 was so advanced to 162 
families, and $2,031 was paid back. The 
operations of the commission in 1 859 were : — 

Receipts for commutation $159,112 

Other receipts 23,454 



Total receipts 182,566 

Balance iu hand, January, 1859 5,656 



Office $16,486 

Hospitals 6,380 

Counties for support 23,555 

Castle Garden 34,727 

Agent at Rochester 1,087 

" Albany 2,160 

" Buffalo 2,601 

KtMBER OF PASSENGERS THAT ARRIVED IN 
SCOTLAND, GREAT BRITAIN, AND 



$188,222 



Ward's Island 54,890 

Marine Hospital 18,360 

Floatin}; " 4,647 

Forwarding Immigrants, &c., Ac. 32,130 

Incidental 721 



$197,744 

This account gives a general idea of the 
operations of the commission. The whole 
amount disbursed by the commission, May 
5, 1847, to Jan. 1, 1860, was $834,786. The 
proportion who go into hospital appears to 
be about six per cent, of the arrivals. 

A large majority of those who here land 
have their friends awaiting them to guide 
them to their future homes. Numbers have 
to seek their way amid numberless perils. But 
nearly all those have come provided with in- 
structions more or less minute, derived from 
the numerous agents in Europe of the Ameri- 
can land companies, who hold out induce- 
ments to settlers. The Germans are mostly 
inclined to agriculture, and they soon find 
their way, by the emigrant trains of the great 
trunk lines of railroads. Those lines have all 
exerted themselves to profit by the movement. 
The following table, from official sources, 
gives the number of Germans and British 
under each head, and also the aggregate of 
all the aliens arrived since the returns have 
been regularly kept. Some of the passengers 
report themselves from Great Britain, with- 
out stating which portion. These are under 
the head "Great Britain." Thus, the total 
from Great Britain to 1859, is 2,670,059, of 
which, 1,416.399 are reported from Great 
Britain, 289,654 from England, 918,729 from 
Ireland, 46,277 from Scotland. 

EACH YEAK IN THE UNITED STATES FKOM ENGLAND, IRELAJJD, 
GERMANY, WITH THE TOTAL FKOM ALL COUNTRIES. 





England. 


Ireland. 


Scotland. 


Gt. BriUin. 


Germany. 


Switzerland 


Prussia. 


Total. 


1820, 


1,782 


1,725 


268 


2,249 


948 


31 


20 


8,385 


1821, 


1,036 


1,518 


293 


1,881 


365 


93 


18 


9,127 


1822, 


856 


1,346 


198 


1,088 


139 


110 


9 


6,911 


1823, 


851 


1,051 


180 


926 


179 


47 


4 


6,354 


1824, 


713 


1,575 


257 


1,064 


224 


253 


6 


7,912 


1825, 


1,002 


4,157 


113 


1,711 


448 


166 


2 


10,199 


1826, 


1,459 


3,333 


230 


2,705 


495 


245 


16 


10,837 


1827, 


2,521 


3,282 


460 


7,689 


435 


297 


7 


18,875 


1828, 


2,735 


5,266 


1,041 


8,798 


1,806 


1,592 


45 


27,382 


1829, 


2,149 


3,106 


111 


5,228 


582 


314 


15 


22,520 


1830, 


733 


747 


29 


2,365 


1,972 


109 


4 


23,322 


1831, 


251 


1,647 


226 


6,123 


2,395 


63 


18 


22,633 


1832, 


944 


5,120 


158 


11,545 


10,168 


129 


26 


53,179 


1833, 


2,906 


4,511 


1,921 


4,166 


6,823 


634 


155 


58,640 


1834, 


1,129 


6,772 


110 


26,953 


17,654 


1,389 


32 


65,365 


1835, 


468 


5,148 


63 


24,218 


8,245 


548 


66 


45,374 


1836, 


420 


2,152 


106 


41,006 


20,139 


445 


568 


76,242 


1837, 


890 


737 


14 


39,079 


23,036 


383 


704 


79,3*0 


1838, 


157 


1,225 


48 


16,635 


11,369 


123 


314 


38,714 


1839, 


62 


1,199 




32,973 


19,794 


607 


1,234 


68,069 


1840, 


318 


677 


21 


41,027 


88,581 


500 


1,123 


84,066 


1841, 


147 


3,291 


35 


50,487 


13,727 


751 


1,564 


80,289 



|p,ii||ip^--55^|iil ,|,„„|||„[ m ^^^'f^^^ 



III I 




miSH EMIGRANTS JUST ARRIVED IN NE1V YORK. 




IRISHMEN' IX THE COMMOX POrNr'TI,, XEW YORK. 



LANDING IN NEW YORK FUTURE HOMES. 



241 





Enjrland. 


Ireland. 


Scotland, 


Gt. Britain. 


Germany. Switzerlan 


d. Prussia. 


Total. 


1842, 


1,743 


4,844 


24 


66,736 


18.287 


483 


2,083 


104,565 


184:?, 


3,517 


1,173 


41 


23,369 


11,432 


553 


3,009 


52,496 


1844, 


1,357 


5,491 


23 


40,972 


19,226 


839 


1,505 


78,615 


1845, 


1,710 


8,641 


368 


53,312 


33,138 


471 


1,217 


114,371 


1846, 


2,854 


12,949 


305 


57,824 


57,010 


698 


551 


154,416 


1847, 


3,476 


29,640 


337 


95,385 


73,444 


192 


837 


234,968 


1848, 


4,445 


24,802 


659 


118,277 


58,014 


319 


451 


226,527 


1849, 


6,036 


31,321 


■ 1,060 


175,841 


60,062 


13 


173 


297,024 


1850, 


6,797 


40,180 


860 


167,242 


78,137 


375 


759 


369,980 


1851, 


5,306 


55,874 


966 


210,594 


71,322 


427 


1,160 


379,466 


1852, 


30,007 


159,548 


8,148 


2,544 


143,575 


2,788 


2,343 


371,603 


1853, 


28,867 


162,649 


6,006 


2,703 


140,653 


2,748 


1,293 


368,645 


1854, 


48,901 


101,606 


4,605 


5,141 


206,054 


2,953 


8,955 


427.883 


1855, 


38,871 


49,627 


5,275 


1,176 


66,219 


4,433 


5,699 


200,877 


1856, 


25,904 


54,349 


3,297 


15,457 


63,807 


1,780 


7.221 


200,436 


1857, 


27,804 


54,361 


4,182 


26,493 


83,798 


2,080 


7,983 


251,306 


1858, 


14,638 


26,873 


1,946 


12,372 


42,291 


1,056 


3,019 


12.3,126 


1859, 


13,826 


35,216 


2,293 


10,045 


39,315 


833 


2,469 


121,282 , 


1860, 


13,001 


48,637 


1,613 


15,123 


511,746 


913 


3,745 


153,640 


1861, 


8,970 


23,797 


767 


9,938 


30,189 


1,007 


1,472 


91,920 


1862, 


10,947 


23,351 


657 


13,035 


24,985 


643 


2,544 


91 ,987 


1863, 


24,065 


55,916 


1,940 


40,S78 


31,989 


690 


1,173 


176,282 


1864, 


26,096 


63,523 


3,476 


23 856 


54,379 


1,896 


2,897 


193,416 


1865, 


15,038 


29,772 


3,0:57 


64,390 


80,797 


2,859 


2,627 


249,061 


1866, 


2,770 


32 312 


672 


95,866 


110,440 


3,823 


5,452 


318,494 


1867, 




69,977 




55,543 


121,240 


1,168 


12,186 


298,358 


1868, 


11,107 


42,747 


1,949 


51,779 


111,503 


3 261 


11,567 


297,215 


1869, 


55,046 


51,290 


12,415 


28,965 


124,766 


3,488 


22 


395,922 


1870, 


59,488 
792,846 


56,628 


11,820 
128,900 


23,153 


91,168 
3,723,493 


2,474 
92,609 


111 


376.314 




2,288,198 


3,230,880 


155,191 


7,551,383 



We give the following table, compiled 
from the immigration returns and the C( nsus 
of 186ii, because the census bureau has not 
yet (Jan. 1872) tabulated its returns of this 
character for the census of 1870. It will be 
understood that the net difference, 925,329, 
between the arrivals for forty years, and the 
residents represents those who have died 
and those who have returned to their native 
countries. It is evident that there must have 
been a very considerable number who came 
into the country across thn; lines from British 
America and Mexico without being reported 
to the Bureau of Emigration, since the dates 
of emigrants in forty years should alone 
amount to more than two-elevenths of the 
whole number, and it has been ascertained 
that in those forty years, full 300,000 return- 
ed to Europe. We may then with confidence 
state the entire immigration into this coun- 
ti-y from 1820 to the close of 1870, as not 
less than 8,000,000. The deficiency column 
in the tab!e below, is partly due to the im- 
perfection of the census returns, and partly 
to the unwillingness of many emigrants to 
reveal on their first arrival their native 
country. It is noticeable that about one 
fourth of the whole number of arrivals re- 
ported in the table, were from Great Britain 
and Ireland. 

15* 



STATEMrNT OP THE NUMBER OF ALIENS ARRIVED IN THE UNITED 
FROM 1820 TO 18(30, BOTH INCLUSIVE, AND THE NUMBER OP 
EACH NATION RESIDENT IN THE UNION BY THE CtNSUS OF 1E60. 



Countries. 



1820 



to IHfiO. Census. LsfiO. 

England 302,665 431,692 

Ireland 967,366 1,611,304 

Sro'land 47,990 108,518 

Wales 7,935 45,763 

Gt. Britain & Ireland. .1,425,018 1,802 



Res't ,1860. Excess of Deficiency 



rivals, of arrivals. 



Total 

France 

.Spain 

Portugal 

lielgium 

Prussia 

Germanv 

Holland". 

Denmark 

Norway and Sweden.. . 

Poland 

Russia 

Turliey 

Switzerland 

Italy 

Greece 

Sardinia 

Europe 

l!riti.«h America 

South America 

Central America 

Mexico 

AV'cst Indies 

China 

.Asia 



Africa 

Azores 

Canary Islands 

Sandwich Islands 

Australia 

South Sea Islands 

1 8 nations not specified , 
Not stated 



2,750,874 

208.063 ' 

16,248 

2,614 

9,802 

60,432 

1,486,044 

21,579 

5,540 

36,129 

1,659 

1,374 

170 

37,733 

11,202 

116 

2,0.30 

521) 

117,142 

6,201 

968 

17,766 

4-" ,487 

41,443 

27 

289 

8,242 

28i; 

79 

109 

79 

1,256 

180,854 



2,199,079 

' 109,870 

4,244 

4,116 

9,072 

227,661 

1,074,475 

28,281 

9.962 

62,620 

7,298 

3,160 

128 

53,327 

10,518 

328 

1,159 

1,403 

249,970 

3.263 

233 

27.466 

7,853 

35,565 

1,231 

526 

"'iSBl 

435 

1,419 

286 



551,795 




98,193 




12,004 






1,502 


790 






167,2i;9 


411,569 






6,702 




4,4^2 




26,491 




5,6£9 




1,786 


42 






15, ,•,94 


684 






212 


1,559 


"'877 
132,818 




2,938 




785 






9,700 


83.134 




5,878 






1,062 




194 


2,5i6 






S49 




1,810 




2(3 


179 488 





Total aliens 5,062,414 4,136,175 1,801,419 376,090 

Excess of arrivals 925,329 



242 



IMMIGRATION. 



Let u^ next see where these emigrants 
make their homes on this side the ocean. 
Here again we must take the census of 18(30 
for the details, as the Census Bureau is not 
likely to furnish those of 1870 for a year 
or two to come. The larger part of the Irish 
it will be seen, settled in the New fi^ngland 
and Middle States, over 1,100,000 of the 



1,600,000 remaining in these States. Of the 
Germans a large proportion migrated west- 
ward and have established themselves in the 
Mississippi and Missouri valleys, and con- 
siderable numbers have gone to the Pacific 
coast. The Scandinavians have settled large- 
ly in the northwest. The " total " column 
includes emigrants of all nationalities : — 



states and Territories. England. 

Alabama 1,174 

Arkansas 375 

California 12,227 

Connecticut 8,875 

Delaware 1,581 

Florula 320 

Georjria 1,122 

Illinois 41,745 

Indiana 9,304 

Iowa 11,522 

Kansas 1,400 

Kentucky 4,503 

IjOuisiaiui 3,989 

Maine 2,677 

Maryland 4,235 

Massachusetts 23,848 

Michigan 25,743 

Minnesota 3,462 

Mississippi 844 

Missouri 10,009 

New Hampshire 2,291 

New Jersey 15,852 

New York 106,011 

North Carolina 729 

Ohio 32,700 

Oregon 690 

Pennsylvania 46,546 

Khode Island 6,356 

South Carolina 757 

Tennessee 2,001 

Texas 1,695 

Vermont 1 ,632 

Virginia 4,104 

AVisconsin 30,543 

Colorado Territory 352 

Dakota Territory 35 

District of Columbia 1,030 

Nebraska Territory 1,471 

Nevada Territory 294 

New Mexico Territory. ... 145 

Utah Territory 7,084 

Washington Territory. .. . 419 

Total 431,692 



Ireland . 

5,664 

1,312 

33,147 

55,445 

5,832 

827 

6 586 

87,573 

24,495 

28,072 

3,888 

22,249 

28,207 

15,290 

24,872 

185,434 

30,049 

12,831 

3,893 

43,464 

12,737 

62,006 

498,072 

889 

76,826 

1,266 

201 ,939 

25,285 

4,906 

12,498 

3,480 

13,480 

16,501 

49,961 

624 

42 

7,258 

1,431 

651 

827 

278 

1,217 



Great Britain 

not speciSed. Germany. 

5 2,209 

8 989 

17,002 

7,311 

997 

404 

2,017 

106,257 

54,638 

30,758 

3,788 

24,263 

21,875 

307 

41,057 

8,479 

29,152 

12,423 

1,691 

64,795 

322 

30,881 

227,226 

696 

151,093 

856 

123,801 

728 

2,595 

3,515 

14,318 

205 

9,561 

70,896 

522 



3,025 
1,346 
388 
445 
139 
483 



103 
50 



669 

21 

23 

7 

2 

1 

37 

294 

11 

4 

1 

114 
2 
1 

131 

'148 

5 

14 

.... 

3 
27 
42 
32 
24 



5 
10 



Prussia. 

392 

1.54 

4,644 

1,214 

266 

74 

4.55 

24,.5J7 

12 007 

7,797 

530 

2,964 

2,739 

77 

2,827 

1,482 

9,635 

5,977 

317 

23,692 

90 

2,891 

29,036 

69 

17,117 

222 

14,443 

87 

352 

354 

6,235 

14 

564 

52,983 

54 

229 

396 

66 

124 

19 

89 



Sweden & 
Switzerland. Norway. 



138 

42 

1,714 

275 

34 

13 

62 

5,748 

3,813 

2,519 

260 

753 

878 

13 

177 

335 

1,269 

1 ,085 

138 

4,585 

12 

1,144 

6,166 

10 

11,078 

71 

4,404 

37 

33 

566 

453 

4 

267 

4,722 

25 

1 

97 

228 

19 

27 

78 

34 



206 

30 

2,120 

64 

8 

42 

50 

11,361 

367 

7,153 

345 

53 

2o6 

101 

55 

856 

706 

11,603 

36 

385 

25 

1.53 

2,217 

13 

136 

99 

533 

71 

42 

46 

479 

1 

65 

22,115 

39 

129 

17 

173 

57 

5 

355 

55 



Total 

Foreign. 

12,352 

3,741 

146,528 

80,696 

9,165 

3,309 

11,671 

324,643 

118,184 

106,081 

12,691 

59,799 

81,029 

37,453 

77,536 

260,114 

149,092 

58,728 

8,558 

160,541 

20,938 

122,790 

998,640 

3,299 

328,254 

5,122 

430,505 

37,394 

9,986 

21,226 

43,422 

32,743 

35,058 

276,927 

2,666 

1,774 

12,484 

6,351 

2,064 

6,723 

12,754 

3,144 



1,611,304 1,802 1,073,475 227,661 53,327 62,620 4,136,175 



The census of 1870 makes the whole num- 
ber of persons of foreign birth in the United 
States in June, 1870, 5,566,546, being an 
increase of 1,427,849, in the ten years, while 
the actual immigration of that ten years was 
about 2,350,(){)(). 

The statement of the number of persons 
of foreign birth in the ditFerent states and 
territories in 1870, reveals some interesting 
facts. Of the territories Idaho has the larg- 



est population of foreigners, over one-half, 
while Montana and Utah have each about 
two-fifths ; of the states, Nevada has three- 
sevenths, Minnesota four-elevenths. Califor- 
nia five-fourteenths, Wisconsin a little more 
than a third, and New York about three- 
elevenths. Several other states range be- 
tween one-fourth and one-fifth foreigners. 
The Southern states, though increasing their 
foreign population, have not a large share. 



LANDING IN NEW YORK —FUTURE HOMES. 



213 



The amount ©f money or capital drawn 
from Europe by the emigrants is a question 
of much importance. The cost of prepara- 
tion for the voyage in Europe, the co-t of 
the passage, and the expenses incurred after 
arriving until the new home is finally reach- 
ed, cannot, together, fall short of one hundred 
dollars each ; and many have a small capital 
in addition, with which to begin the world. 
The sums transported are often much larger. 
In 1854 the migration from the Palatinate, 
as stated in a Bremen report, was 8,908, and 
they carried $ 1 ,024,000. The reports of the 
New York commissioners of emigration as 
the result of their investigation, show that the 
average of money brought is very near one 
hundred dollars per head — an amount which 
becomes formidable when taken in connec- 
tion with the aggregate numbers arriving. 
This is exhibited in the following summary 
of arrivals : — 



Whole Number Sums at 

No. of of $100 

Arrivals. Aliens. per head. 

Ten years to Sept. 30, 1829, 151,636 128,502 12,850,200 

" " 1839, 672,716 5.33,381 53,83'l,100 

" " 1849 1.479,478 1,427,337 142,7.33,7ftO 

Dec. 31, 18.59, 3,075,900 2,814,.5o4 281,455,400 

Eleven y'rs to Dec. 31, 1870, 2,856,311 2,451,701 245,170,100 



Total 8,136,071 7,360,475 736,047,500 

This is an immense sum, and poured forth 
even in small streams, has had an important 
etfect upon the prosperity of the country at 
large, independent of the larger suras invested 
in land, stock, and utensils. On the other 
hand, very considerable sums are sent out of 
the country in aid of the emigrants, by their 
friends here, who luive earned the money at 
service and otherwise. Qn this point, in- 
formation has from time to time been gath- 
ered, o! the houses through which remittances 
are made. These remittances are mostly 
small drafts, purcha>;ed in New York, for 
sums varying from five to one hundred dol- 
lars. The latter sum is seldom reached, 
however. The remittances of five of these 
houses, in one year, were as follows : — 









Ayerage 








amount. 


House A, number of drafts, 


1,934 


$32,125 


$16 5-8 


" B, 


6,198 


123,290 


19 7-8 


" C, '• » 


13,425 


266,395 


19 7-8 


" D, " 


18,175 


363,140 


19 9-10 


" E, 


40,542 


810,835 


20 


Total 5 houses 1 year, 


80,274 $1,595,785 





These do not include the large banking- 
houses, of which there are no returns, but it 
is said the Baring Brothers alone send 



$2,500,000. The British emigrant commis- 
sioners reported in thirteen years endino- 
with 1860, !i?56,191,733 sent to the United 
Kingdom alone, and this increasing amount 
continued till 1857. 

With the renewal, on a large scale, of em- 
igration after the war, the amounts sent 
largely increased, and amounted to more 
than $2i),OiiO,000 per annum. This is not 
now returned to this country as passage 
money, for nearly all the emigrant ships are 
owned in Great Britain or in Germany. 
The United States gold coin exported to 
England and Germany is bought up to some 
extent by emigrants, but not as much as for- 
merly. The aggregate amount of money 
brought here by immigrants in the fifty-one 
years ending Dec. 31, 1870, was, as we have 
seen, $736,000,000. Deducting at lea.-^t. 
$236,000,000 for remittances made from 
this side to the families of emigrants, there 
still remains the large sum of $500,000,000 
brought here by immigrants, besides their 
productive labor after their arrival. 

The legal rights of the emigrants, after 
they become naturalized, are the same in 
all respects as those of the native born citi- 
zens, with the single exception that they are 
not eligible to the office of president or 
vice-president of the United States. No 
law can be passed to abridge the freedom of 
their speech, or the free exerci.se of their re- 
ligion, whatever they may be — even the en- 
joyment of Mormonism has been an attrac- 
tion to some. Their right to hold real es- 
tate is perfect, as is the security afforded to 
persons, property, and papers, and they may 
be elected, or may elect to any office except 
those named. 

Another very interesting feature of the 
passenger movement, although not strictly 
embraced within the emigration, is the num- 
ber of United States citizens who annually 
arrive from abroad. It is not until within 
a few years that a record has been kept of 
the number of citizens who go abroad each 
year, but the arrivals of passengers, not im- 
migrants, is an interesting item. 



NUMBER OF NATIVE CITIZENS AND FOREIGN VIS- 
ITORS (not immigrants) arriving 

FROM ABROAD. 



Males. 
1820-1830, 19,542 
1830-1840, 23,036 
1840-1850, 38,952 
1850-1860, 224,410 
1869-1871, 99,373 



Females. Not stated. Ta»al. 

3,529 62 «3,134 

7,288 31 34,345 

12,999 190 52,141 

36,924 ... 261,348 

52,030 ... 151,403 



2U 



IMMIGRATION. 



The number of departures for Europe is, 
however, much greater tliau the arrivals of 
passengers not emigrants. For the year 
ending June 30, 187(1, it was : Males, 60,505, 
Females, 21,408, Total, 81,913. This was 
about an average year — the departures in 

1869 being somewhat fewer, and those of 
1871 considerably larger. It would be a 
very moderate estimate of the amount ex- 
pended or carried with these outgoing pas- 
sengers to fix it at $1,200' per head, and yet 
this would give $98,295,600 as the amount 
of money taken out of the country in a sin- 
gle year by European voyagers. 

The numbers of former emigrants who 
returned home with accumulated means, ad- 
ded to the sums expended abroad by Amer- 
icans, will probably at least cancel the 
amounts actually brought into the country 
by emigrants. But the vast amount of pro- 
ductive skill and labor that is brought into 
the country, and applied to the vast waste of 
land, develops more capital in a ratio which 
astonishes the observer. The number of 
persons who arrive in the United States in a 
single year, equals the population of a whole 
state. Thus the number that arrived in 

1870 were 436,496 ; the total white popula- 
tion of the state of Minnesota was, in 1870, 



439,706, and there were nine states which 
contained a smaller number of population. 
From 1859, the tide of immigration, which 
for two or three years pi'evious had ebbed, 
began to flow again in something like its old 
abundance, and, though checked in 1861 and 
1862 by the war and the presence of rebel 
privateers in the Atlantic, it soon increased 
again, and from 1863 to 1871 has been very 
large. In 1860, the whole number of alien 
emigrants was 153,640. In 1861, it was 
only 91,920; in 1862, 91,987; in 1863, 
176,282; in 1864, 193,416; in 1865, 249,- 
061; in 1866, 318,494; in 1867, 298,358; 
in 1868, 297.215; in 1869, 395,922; in 
1870, 436,496; in 1871, 386,271. It is a 
noteworthy fact that the later immigrants, 
those of the last six or seven years, are, 
socially and ^jecuniarily, of a much higher 
class than those of former years. A very 
large proportion of them are well, or at least 
tolerably educated, and many of them pos- 
sess sufficient means to enable them to go 
to the West and procure farms, or engage 
in other employments. Of the immigrants 
in 1871, 82,554 were from Germany, 57,439 
from Ireland, 56,530 from England, 28,925 
from Great Britain, not specified, and 160,823 
from other countries. 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 



INTRODUCTORY. 

Threk quarters of a century ago, there 
were in the whole United States only about 
as many people as there are now in the state 
of New York ; and now we have grown from 
less than four millions to thirty millions — 
having increased nearly eight-fold. 

These large numbers will indistinctly rep- 
resent the general progress of the nation ; 
and the average social prosperity of each 
citizen has increased in a ratio materially 
larger. The actual amount of this increase 
in intelligence, wealth, and comfort, cannot 
be set down in figures, but will be under- 
stood as well as the case will permit, from 
an enumeration of details of improvements 
in social and domestic life. 

There were sufficient reasons for a some- 
what uncommonly low average of comfort 
at the end of the Revolution. The seven 
years' war had, of course, almost destroyed 
all industry, except farming and a few indis- 
pensable manufactures and trades. It had 
also drained all the specie out of the country, 
or frightened it into secret hoards ; in con- 
sequence of which the currency was entirely 
disorganized. Government credit was at 
such a low ebb, that the bills of the Unit- 
ed States (known as " continental money") 
would not purchase even such articles of 
comfort or luxury as existed, except at enor- 
mous nominal rates ; nor was the paper 
money of the separate states in much better 
reputf.tion. Thus, a hundred dollars in these 
depreciated bills was paid for a mug of ci- 
der ; five hundred dollars for a bowl of 
punch; a thousand dollars for a pair of 
shoes ; twenty-seven thousand dollars for an 
ordinary horse ; and " part of an old shirt" 
was set in an inventory at fifteen dollars. 
The worthlessness of this money rendered 
it necessary to make payments, to a great 
extent, in barter — a mode of trading which 
always keeps the average qf comfort and 
luxury down at a standard little above that 
of the better class of savages. 



But even if this paper currency had been 
worth its face, or if specie had been plenty, 
it would have been possible to buy only a 
small share of comforts or luxuries compared 
with those now attainable, for the plain rea- 
son that they did not exist. 

Beginning at this low period of average 
prosperity, we shall now rapidly sketch the 
progress of the country, up to the present 
time, under the general heads of 

1. Domestic Architecture. 

2. Furniture. 

3. Food. 

4. Dress. 

5. Mental culture, intercourse, etc. 



CHAPTER I. 

DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE. 

Eighty years ago, houses were much more 
evenly distributed over the country than is 
now the case. There has ever since been a 
continual tendency to draw together into 
towns ; and this tendency has been much 
assisted by the increased ease of travelling 
and transportation. At that time, therefore, 
there was much less dificrence between a 
country house and a city house than at 
present. 

In the older parts of the northern states, 
the houses then built were often of the style 
called "lean-to," or "linter;" that is, with 
one side of the roof carried down so far as 
to cover an additional tier of rooms on the 
ground floor, or a wide shed. Another com- 
mon style, rather later in use, was the "gam- 
bril roofed," where the roof rose at a very 
steep pitch from the eaves, about half the 
length of the rafters, and then fell in to the 
ridge-pole at a much flatter angle. This 
gave a very roomy garret. Dormer win- 
dows were very common, to light rooms fin- 
ished off in the garrets. 

Timber was plenty, and houses were built 



246 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 



almost exclusively of wood, and often with 
beams and rafters of dimensions that would 
now seem truly enormous. Brick was com- 
paratively little used, until lumber grew 
scarcer in the older parts of the country, 
and "brick machines," first invented by 
Kinsley a little before 1800, had rendered 
the prdduction of brick more rapid and 
cheaper than could be afforded by hand la- 
bor. Stone was scarcely used at all, except 
by a very few wealthy persons. Sometimes 
the spaces between the timbers of a frame 
house were filled in with brick, so as to 
make a sort of brick body to the house, with 
wooden bones, and with the clapboards put 
on over these. 

A beam was very often left running across 
the ceiling of a room, six or eight inches be- 
low the plaster, and was a convenient place 
for driving nails or pegs on which to hang 
dried apples, seed-corn, peppers, hams, bas- 
kets, rope, etc., etc. In like manner the 
uprights often projected into the corner of 
the room, giving it a kind of coarse cornice. 
The centre of the house was usually occu- 
pied by the chimney stack — an immense 
pile of brick or stone, sometimes occupying 
almost a quarter of the ground plan. In the 
different sides of this huge mass opened the 
great old-fashioned fire-places, in many of 
which one could sit in the corner while the 
fire burned, and see the sky through the 
chimney-top. Half a cord of wood might 
burn at once in some of tliese great fire- 
places, and yet, in the bitter cold of a north- 
ern winter, water would freeze at the other 
side of the room. This was by reason of 
the thinness of the walls, the imperfect fit- 
ting of doors and windows, and above all, 
the great proportion of heat that went off 
up chimney, and of cold that came down. 
Hinged to staples at the chimney-back was 
a crane, with its pot-hooks and hangers, or 
trammels, to accommodate the machinery 
of the cook. At one side of the fire-place 
was the oven — a cave in the masonry of the 
chimney-stack — and, usually, with an ash- 
hole underneath it. A great shovel, or 
" slice," with a handle five or six feet long, 
and a big pair of tongs to match, were for 
oven use ; and to heat this affair thoroughly 
enough to bake bread, usually occupied an 
hour or an hour and a half, and consumed 
two or three good armfuls of dry wood. 

Houses were commonly low " between 
joints," to economize heat. Roofs were 
shingled, with split shingles ; the sawed 



shingles being little used until a little after 
1800, from which time many patents for 
shingle sawing were taken out. A machine 
for getting out shingles was patented, how- 
ever, as early as 1797. Slate roofs were not 
much used, and tiles scarcely at all. Cy- 
press wood is used for shingles at the south, 
instead of pine ; exposure to the weather 
turns it to a distinct, but disagreeable black. 
Sheet tin has been extensively used for roof- 
ing, but very often leaks badly from the 
rusting, expansion, and contraction of the 
tin. Since 1840, oiled or tarred canvas^ 
asphalt, asbestos, mineral paint, tarred felt 
or paper, heavily coateil with gravel, etc., 
have been used in place of shingles, or tin, 
and some of them with good success. Since 
the introduction of the Mansard or French 
roofs, slate is more used, and recently enam- 
eled sheet iron, imitating slate, has become 
quite common. 

A modern invention in domestic architec- 
ture is the plan of building what are called 
"gravel walls," by moulding gravel and 
loose stone with mortar, into a kind of con- 
crete wall on the spot, lifting up the mould- 
ing cases when the contents are firmly set, 
and moulding another section. This results 
in a house which may be said to be of one 
stone, for if the materials are good, and 
well put together, they harden into an arti- 
ficial breccia. This plan has not, however, 
been sufficiently proved ; and a wrong choice 
of sand, gravel, or lime has often caused 
the crumbling and ruin of the whole fabric. 

Walls were usually finished inside with 
whitewash, paper, or paint ; the use of stucco, 
or " hard finish," being rare until within the 
past thirty years. All house iron-work and 
trimmings of a better kind were imported 
from England, until within the present cen- 
tury. Wrought nails were u-ed ; cut nails 
having been hivented, and their manufiicture 
variously perfected by several Americans, 
from about 1791, when the earliest patent 
on the subject was issued, down to the pres- 
ent time. Jacob Perkins, of Newburyport, 
and Byington, of Connecticut, were two of 
the most prominent inventors in this line. 
Such latches, hinges, etc., as were then 
made in tliis country, were wrought iron, 
and clumsy and inconvenient. All these 
trimmings are, bow'ever, now manufactured 
to great perfection in our own workshops. 
Among the improvements of the last forty 
years in house trimmings, a convenient one 
is the introduction of weights running over 



DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURK. 



24*7 



pullies, to facilitate opening and shutting 
windows. Before these were used, the prac- 
tice was to use various kinds of catches, all 
of which made it necessary to lift the whole 
weight of the sash ; and instead of which 
were often found merely a wooden button 
to turn under, and hold the sash open, or 
even nothing but a stick to hold it up. 

The invention of the planing machine, 
first successfully introduced by William 
Woodworth in 1837, though many patents 
had preceded his, and of the circular saw, 
first patented by Cox, of Georgia, in 1795, 
were important improvements in dressing 
lumber, and cutting it ; as the former could 
turn out boards smoothed, tongued and 
grooved, and fit for flooring, and the latter 
could cut thin work much more cheaply 
than a common saw movement. Another 
machine has been introduced since the year 
1840, for boring auger holes, and others 
for cutting wooden mouldings, which save 
much time and labor in framing and in 
finishing respectively. During the last 
twenty-five years, also, various new paints 
have been introduced, none of which, how- 
ever, have entirely superseded the old-fash- 
ioned oil vehicle and ordinary mineral 
colors. Of these, the principal are prepara- 
tions of zinc, to be used instead of lead, and 
also for a variety of browns and grays ; and 
several "mineral paints," usually finely 
pulverized stone, which are recommended as 
good defences against fire. 

The improvement of the last twenty years 
in architectural designs has been great. Up 
to that time, dwelling houses were built in 
the north most frequently on a plain paral- 
lelogram plan with the common ridge-pole 
roof. A style at that time quite frequently 
adopted for houses of a somewhat preten- 
tious character was that of a Greek temple, 
usually with a row of pillars across one end. 
This absurd misapplication did not flourish 
long, and was succeeded by the Gothic 
cottage style ; and this again, and with ex- 
tensive and well deserved success, by the 
various modifications of the Italian villa style. 
In cities where land is very expensive, two 
styles largely prevail ; the English basement 
house in which the ground floor is occupied 
by a library or reception room, and a dining 
room ; the kitchen, store-room, and cellar, be- 
ing in the basement, and the parlors and bed- 
rooms on the second and third floors ; and the 
" high stoop basement," almost wholly above 
ground, containing the dining room, kitchen, 



&c., with cellar beneath. The first floor is 
occupied with the parlors and boudoir, and 
the bedrooms are above. The latter is 
the better of the two, but both require as- 
cending and descending too many flights of 
stairs, unless Bridget is allowed to reign 
supreme in all parts of the house. Vesti- 
bules or recessed entrances are almost uni- 
versal in these houses. 

A very common arrangement of old-fash- 
ioned houses was to set the house with the 
side toward the street, with the front door 
in the middle, opening into a little vestibule. 
From this the stairs passed up, often turning 
round three sides of the vestibule ; and at 
each side a door led to two front rooms. 
These, often occupying all the ground floor 
of the two-story part, were parlors, or a par- 
lor and a bed-room. Behind these, under 
the "lean-to" roof, was very probably one 
long room, used as kitchen, nursery, and 
sitting-room ; for the parlor was used only 
for great occasions. The second floor was 
laid off" as might be convenient. 

The better houses of the southern states 
were built to suit the different demands of 
the climate — more airily, and usually with 
much piazza room, and not much provision 
for warmth. Early settlers in the south and 
west invariably put up log houses, whose 
chimneys were built outside against one end, 
of sticks laid in clay. A mode often used 
was to build two separate square rooms of 
logs, and then to throw one roof over both 
and the space between, thus securing an out- 
door shelter. These log houses were floored 
with " puncheons," that is, small logs split 
once and hewed even. A standing table of 
puncheons, some three-legged stools, a rude 
bedstead, with a bed o^ leaves or corn- 
husks covered with buflfalo-hide or bear-skins 
instead of sheet, blanket, and coverlet ; a 
shelf, and a variety of pegs driven into the 
wall, completed almost the entire outside 
and inside of these rugged, but comfort- 
able homes, the nurseries of so many brave 
and great men. In such houses were born 
and brought up Andrew Jackson, Henry 
Clay, and the numberless heroic Indian 
fighters and mighty hunters of the west. 
Ai^ such houses are still the homes of 
thousands of the bold pioneers who are ad- 
vancing westward, carrying forward the 
limits of civilized society toward the Pacific 
ocean. As the newer states increase in 
population and wealth, the domestic architec- 
ture of the older ones is copied, and dwell- 



248 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 



ing houses of the same general character are 
now commonly used in city and country. 

Among the chief improvements in domes- 
tic architecture are those which have been 
applied to modes of warming houses. The 
earliest improvement on the ancient fire- 
place was the Franklin stove, invented by 
the great philosopher whose name it bears, 
and which was in use before the revolution- 
ary war. These were only shallow iron fire- 
places, with a draft which could be modified 
by a sort of valve, and were used only for 
■wood. Large box-stoves, also for wood, 
were the first means used for warming 
churches. Even these were not introduced 
until within the memory of many persons 
now living, and, as is well known, were vio- 
lently resisted by the conservatives, who 
fought hard to retain the privilege of morti- 
fying the flesh by freezing fingers and toes 
all day Sunday. 

The introduction of anthracite coal was 
the next step in this department. This had 
been known for years to the hunters and 
trappers of the wild interior of Pennsylva- 
nia, as a black stone sometimes found on the 
mountains, but was not thought combustible, 
any more than granite. 

Some successful attempts had, however, 
been made to burn anthracite ; one by Dr. 
C. T. James, in 1804 ; and one by Judge 
Jesse Fell, of WilkesbaiTC, who burned it in 
a grate, in 1808. This brought it gradually 
into use in that vicinity. In 1814, White 
& Hazard, iron-masters in Carbon county, 
bituminous coal becoming scarce, resolved 
to try anthracite in their rolling mill. They 
got a cart-load, at a dollar a bushel, and 
wasted it all in vain endeavors to kindle it- 
Procuring another load, they tried again ; 
but after fruitless endeavors for a whole 
night, the hands shut the furnace door in 
despair and left the mill. Half an hour 
afterward, one of them came back after his 
jacket, and to his surprise found the fur- 
nace door red-hot, and the inside at a strong 
white heat. The discovery was made ; and 
with the use of a similar let-alone policy in 
kindling, anthracite was afterward used in 
furnaces with entire success, an improve- 
ment in quality of product, and a large 
saving of expense. 

Thus introduced, the use of the new fuel 
gradually spread, although so slowly that in 
1820, three hundred and sixty-five tons com- 
pletely stocked the Philadelphia market 
for a year. Many patents were now taken 



out for grates, blowers, cooking-stoves, par- 
lor and hall stoves, ranges, and hot-air fur- 
naces. R. Trexler, of Berks county, manu- 
factured stoves for anthracite in 1815 ; and 
the earliest patent for furnaces seems to have 
been that of Thomas Gregg, of Connells- 
ville. Pa., in 1814. Three or four years 
now brought the new fuel into extensive 
use, and from the three hundred and sixty- 
five tons, which was all that was mined in 
1820, the amount had risen in 1849, in 
thirty years, to 3,250,000 Ions, and to 12,- 
211,313 tons in 1870, together with nearly 
an equal quantity of bituminous coal. 

Nott's stoves were early much used for 
warming houses with anthracite ; Olmsted's 
stove and Bushnell's were in fashion next ; 
the first invented by a college president, the 
second by a college professor, and the third 
by an eminent clergyman. These have 
been superseded by the base-burning stoves 
and furnaces, of which there is a variety. 
About the year 1836, Isaac Orr, a man of 
great inventive talent, patented the air-tiglit 
stove for wood, which was for a time so 
extensively used as to cause a sort of inter- 
regnum in the reign of anthracite, and 
which is yet frequently seen. Grates, long 
used in England to burn the bituminous 
coal there, were early adapted to anthracite, 
and their cheerful open appearance has kept 
them to some extent in vogue. Hot-air 
furnaces were also invented, as early, at 
least, as 1813 ; but various faults, from the 
too great fierceness and dryness of the heat, 
imperfect defence against fire, etc., rendered 
them on the whole quite unsatisfactory, un- 
til about 1840, when great improvements 
began to be made ; and many of the fur- 
naces now employed afford a bountiful sup- 
ply of air, almost fresh from out-doors, and 
not too warm and dry for health. 

Apparatuses have also been devised for 
heating buildings by systems of hot-water 
pipes, and by systems of steam pipes ; of 
which the latter, especially in manufacturing 
establishments, offices, public roums, etc., 
succeed very well, though the heat would 
sometimes be somewhat too slowly diffused 
for private residences. 

Until within twenty years, scarcely any 
care had been given to the ventilation of any 
buildings, whether public or private. At 
earlier periods, an abundant circulation of 
air was secured by the open chimney, 
through which a strong current of warm air 
continually rushed up, taking, as has been 




MOT)ERX STYLES OF FURXITCRE. 



FURNITURE — FURNISHING GOODS, ETC. 



249 



computed, at least nine-tenths of all the lieat 
with it. With the introduction of stoves 
and furnaces, this ventilator was closed, and 
the air of warm rooms became unhealthily 
dry and hot, or vitiated by use, especially in 
schools, ball-rooms, court-rooms, public as- 
semblies, etc. Many disorders were aggra- 
vated or made more common by this state 
of things ; such as headaches, nervous affec- 
tions, and lung complaints. Various plans 
of ventilation have been adopted to remedy 
these evils, but the principles of the science 
of pneumatics are even yet so imperfectly 
understood that no entirely satisfactory sys- 
tem of ventilation has yet been devised. 
The modes formerly used for large public 
buildings, such as churches : an opening at 
the ceiling, with a device outside for form- 
ing an upward curre-nt by the help of the 
wind ; in private houses, openings at the 
sides of rooms, communicating indirectlj' 
with the external air ; and where hot-air 
furnaces were used, a pipe supplying air 
from without, which is warmed by the 
furnace, and passed on into the apart- 
ments, are now to a considerable extent 
giving place to a forced and downward ven- 
tilation, which more effectually removes the 
foul air, and avoids a curuent of cold air 
near the floor. 

The use of gas for lighting streets and 
Louses was first invented by an Englishman 
named Murdoch, and tried at Redruth, in 
Cornwall, in 1792. It was first introduced 
in the city of New York by the old New 
York Gas Company, chartered in 1823. It 
is now used in most of our cities, and its 
deprivation would be thought a very serious 
misfortune. 

An equally, and indeed much more labor- 
saving and convenient improvement in our 
modern domestic architectural arrangements, 
is the introduction of water from water 
works. Water works were commenced in 
New York before the Revolution, in 1774 ; 
but none were erected there until 1797, 
when the Manhattan Company put up a res- 
ervoir on what is now Chambers street. 
These small works were superseded by the 
Croton aqueduct, opened in 1842. Phila- 
delphia was first supplied by a steam engine 
in 1799 ; and this was replaced by the 
celebrated Fairmount works, commenced in 
1811. Almost all our larger or more enter- 
prising cities are now provided with aque- 
ducts. 

The fountains thus set flowiner in our 



houses save all water-carrying, for bathing 
or cleaning purposes, either up or down 
stairs ; for a proper connection with a sew- 
erage system will admit of a sink as well as 
a water pipe in every story. The burden- 
some daily details of housework are thus 
very greatly lightened, and health, and time, 
and exertion very much economized by the 
various appliances of the modern city bath- 
room. 

Within fifteen years, there have been in- 
troduced into many of the more luxurious 
city houses, hoistways, somewhat like those 
used in stores, but upholstered, and, in fact, 
fitted up like little rooms ; these are raised 
and lowered so as to save the exertion of 
using the stairs, and are exceedingly con- 
venient for the old and feeble. 

This brief enumeration of improvements 
in domestic architecture could not properly 
include what may, however, in conclusion, 
be merely mentioned ; that is, those large 
and splendidly finished houses which are 
erected by the great millionaires of the pres- 
ent day. The costly frescoes, the statues, 
the extravagant splendor of their fitting, 
the picture-galleries, conservatories, libra- 
ries, etc., etc., though good and beautiful 
in themselves, are exceptions, but have been 
greatly multijjlied within the past fifteen or 
twenty years. 



CHAPTER II. 

FURNITURE— FURNISHING- GOODS, ETC. 

The furniture of country dwellings during 
the latter part of the last century was scantier 
than now, and, on the whole, of much 
cheaper quality and poorer make, although 
that of the wealthy was often handsomely 
designed, well and massively made, and 
heavily and tastefully ornamented. Little ■ 
machinery was used in manufacturing fur- 
niture, which had, therefore, to be made 
by hand labor. This made patterns more 
numerous, as one design usually served for a 
single side-board, set of chairs, etc., and for 
those made by one workman only ; while 
now, one pattern may serve for thousands of 
sets. There was, therefore, greater variety, 
and often remarkably fine workmanship, and 
even artistic skill. The greater cheapness 
of wood, and the little use made of veneer- 
ing, occasioned much furniture to be made 
of solid wood. Many pieces of this ancient, 



250 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 



solid furniture now bring extravagant prices 
at auction, or from a second-hand store, 
where chance supplies a buyer with taste 
and means. As much as forty, or even six- 
ty dolhirs each have been given for old- 
fashioned, carved, mahogany chairs ; from 
twenty-five to fifty dollars for a tall clock, 
etc., etc. 

The increase in the supply of money, the 
decrease of any distinction between classes 
of society, and the general diffusion of 
wealth and comfort, render the difference 
between the furniture of the rich, and that 
of the poor, much less at the present day 
than formerly. Comparatively few luxuries 
of any kind are now accessible to the rich, 
which are not so to the farmer and the me- 
chanic. This is not, of course, to be under- 
stood of the very poor, nor the very rich ; 
nor of the most expensive luxuries ; for 
Gobelin carpets an inch thick, marble stat- 
ues, and pictures by great artists, Johannis- 
berg wine, Stiasbui-g pies, and the like, can 
never be possessed except by very few. 

The bedsteads of our grandparents and 
great-grandparents were very commonly 
"four-posters;" that is, they consisted of 
four tall posts, into which were framed the 
side and end pieces. These posts often sup- 
ported a wooden frame covered with cloth, 
somewhat like a roof, and called a "tester," 
from whose four sides hung down the cur- 
tains. Feather beds were universally used. 
Sheets were of linen ; and coverlets of patch- 
work, marseilles, chintz, etc. 

Carpets were comparatively little used ; 
most people contenting themselves with a 
floor, washed clean, sanded, or, at most, 
painted. The carpets used eighty years ago 
were mostly English or Scotch ingrain, though 
a good many home-made rag-carpets were 
also used ; and the price per yard was, per- 
haps, $1.50 to $1.75; not varying very much 
from the present price of a fair article, though 
the same sum represented more value then. 
There is a well-known anecdote of an honest 
old farmer who was one day introduced, for 
the first time, to a carpeted room. The car- 
pet, as was usual in those days, was a sort 
of patch in the middle of the room, sur- 
rounded with a wide margin of bare floor. 
The visitor skirted cautiously along the sides 
of the room, and when invited by the lady 
of the house to walk across, excused himself 
with rustic politeness, because, he said, " his 
boots were too dirty to walk on the " kiver- 



Chairs were of hard wood — maple, oak, 
cherry, or mahogany — with seats of wood, 
basket-work, or cushion, covered with cloth, 
haircloth, or leather. Much skill and taste 
was expended on many of the costly solid 
mahogany parlor chairs, and they are even 
now much more stately than most of their 
modern successors. The rocking-chair — a 
truly American invention — dates back to a 
point not ascertained, but certainly not less 
than seventy or eighty years ago. No rock- 
ing-chairs of so antique a pattern as common 
chairs can, however, be found. An early 
improvement upon the old-fashioned wooden 
or wicker chair-seat was the straw-seat, of 
straw or rushes, woven together in four com- 
partments, which converged to the middle 
of the seat. The cane-seat, woven like fine 
basket-work of slender strips of ratan, came 
afterward, and is still much used ; it is 
strong, neat, light, and convenient. Many 
business and study chairs are now made 
with the seat pivoted on a stout iron pin — a 
very convenient invention, rendering it very 
easy to turn round from writing-desk to cus- 
tomer or client. 

Tables were made of oak, pine, cher- 
r}^, black walnut, and mahogany. In old- 
fashioned houses may sometimes still be 
seen a small table hinged to the wall at one 
side, so as to turn up flat against it, secured, 
when not in use, by a button. A leg hinged 
on beneath hung flat to the table when thus 
raised, and swung to its right place when 
lowered. Some old tables were enormously 
heavy, framed almost as strongly as a house, 
and with curiously complicatecl swinging legs 
to hold up the leaves. Such tables were of- 
ten heirlooms, as was much household furni- 
ture. The substantial strength and solid 
materials used rendered it much more fit to 
serve generation after generation than the 
lighter and cheaper articles now made. The 
present "extension tables," which are fre- 
quently used in dining-rooms, were first 
patented in 1843; they draw out within 
certain limits to any length, when additional 
boards supply the top. Thus the same ta- 
ble accommodates either a large party or a 
small one. 

The sideboard was an indispensable arti- 
cle in dining-rooms where it could be afford- 
ed, being used instead of a closet, to hold 
plate, wine, table-linen, cake, etc. 

Bureaus, or chests of drawers, were made 
on a larger scale than now, sometimes tow- 
ering far toward the ceiling, containing a 



FURNITURE FURNISHING GOODS, ETC. 



251 



great number of drawers, large and small, 
and often ornamented in a peculiar and 
striking manner at the handles and keyholes, 
with brass escutcheons elaborately and fanci- 
fully pierced or carved. 

'J he movable wash-stands, though still in 
use, have been replaced iu many city houses, 
where aqueduct water in pipes is used, by 
fixed stands, usually fitted with elegant mar- 
ble tops, having fixed basins sunk in them, 
faucets for water, and connecting by waste 
water pipes with sewer. A '* water-back," 
or boiler, attached to the kitchen range or 
stove, is so arranged as to supply hot water 
through pipes, from which another faucet 
supplies hot water as desired — a most com- 
fortable provision in cold weather, 

China and gla>s ware were much more 
costly than at present; pressed glass, now 
so extensively used, having been introduced 
only within the present century. Pewter 
platters and plates were frequently the only 
dishes on a country table. Table crockery 
was of white stoneware, usually blue-edged, 
or of the " willow pattern," though some 
heavy china was imported. There was lit- 
tle silver ware, but what there was, was 
more solidly manufactured than that now in 
use. Block tin was much used until finally 
superseded by Britannia metal, which came 
into use about forty years since ; " albata," 
a sort of white metal, introduced within 
about twenty-five years, and German silver, 
an invention dating back, in this country, 
about twice as far. A still later substitute 
for the precious metals is " oreide," a sort 
of brass, very closely resembling gold ; and 
another, discovered within the last fifteen 
years by a French chemist, is aluminimi, a 
light, strong metal, resembling silver in ap- 
pearance, which can be extracted from com- 
mon clay, and other aluminous earths. 
This last metal, with its alloys, has already 
come into very extensive use, for household 
as well as other purposes. 

Silver forks were first brought into gen- 
eral use about thirty-five or forty years 
since. Those previously used were the 
common three-pronged steel forks, or two- 
pronged ones, either of them sufficiently 
inconvenient for carrying loose food to the 
mouth. Another .improvement, about as 
old, in table furniture, is the invention of 
balanced knife handles, the weight in the 
handle keeping the blade off the table cloth 
when laid down ; a little thing, but very 
promotive of cleanliness. 



Instead of the modern Yankee clock, the 
first patent for which was taken out by Eli 
Terry, of Plymouth, Conn., in 1797, were 
used either small Dutch clocks, stuck up on 
the wall, like a swallow's nest, or the old- 
fashioned tall clocks, in cases seven feet 
high, which were sometimes very hand- 
somely ornamented with carving, brass dec- 
orations, and richly painted dials. On the 
broad faces of these old clocks were some- 
times given, besides the hour and the min- 
ute, a whole almanac of indications : the 
time of high tide, moon's age, day of the 
week and month, name of month, year, 
etc., etc. Occasionally, a wooden bird 
came out and was supposed to sing, or a 
tune was played when the hour struck. 
A considerable number of these old clocks, 
most of the best of which were made during 
the first quarter of this century, are still iu 
use, and they are often excellent time-keep- 
ers. 

These observations do not include the 
Mississippi valley, which was just beginning 
to be settled by Anglo-American pioneers 
at the close of the revolutionary war. In 
all that extensive region, the rudest substi- 
tutes for all the supposed indispensable in- 
struments of civilized life were used. Fur- 
niture, indeed, scared}^ existed. A bedstead 
and a table, rudely hewn out by the sharp 
axe of the master of the house, some stools 
of the same manufiicture, a shelf, a row of 
pegs in the log wall, an iron kettle, which 
often served in its own proper person the 
various purposes of wash-basin, cooking- 
kettle, soup-tureen, slop-dish, dish-pan, 
swill-pail, and hog-trough ; a few tins, or a 
little crockery, a chest or two, a stump hol- 
lowed at the top for a mortar to pound corn, 
and a stick for a pestle — such was the 
scanty furnishing of that day in that region. 
As the population has increased, it has 
brought with it from the older states all 
their improvements, and now no distinc- 
tion can be found between the two sections — 
at least, so far as concerns those of moderate 
or liberal means. 

Lamps, for oil, or candles of tallow, 
sperm, or wax, were the only means of 
lighting either rooms or streets, eighty years 
ago. A great amount of ingenuity has been 
expended on lamps ; a hundred and thirty- 
seven patents for them having been issued 
from 1798 to 1847, and quite as many more 
since that date. The variety of these, and 
of the substances to the use of which they 



252 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 



are adapted, is remarkable. There are yet 
some families which make their own mould 
or dip tallow candles ; but only a few. 
'i'hose who still use candles, mostly, either 
indulge in the costly luxury of wax or 
sperm, or use some of the various lately 
invented substitutes, introduced within twen- 
ty or thirty years, such as the so-called 
" margarine," " stearine," etc.. made from 
lard, or the more recent " paraffine " can- 
dles, of a material extracted from coal or 
petroleum. The first innovation upon the 
old-fashioned custom of using oil lamps — 
not, however, including in this term the 
Ai'gand and similar modifications of it — was 
the introduction of lamps for the use of 
burning-fluid and of camphene, which were 
preparations of oil of turpentine and alco- 
hol, and though neat and convenient to use, 
and giving a pleasant light, were, in careless 
hands, the occasion of a terrible number of 
deaths and maimings by burning. These 
fluids were in general use during more than 
twenty years. Not long after the introduction 
of camphene, a large number of lamps were 
invented for burning lard oil, then just be- 
ginning to be manufactured, and also lard, 
tallow, and other gross animal fats. About 
thirty patents were issued for lard lamps 
alone, during 1842 and 1843, including 
lamps of the common standard style, argand 
and solar patterns, etc. These lamps, in 
some cases, gave a very good light, but it 
proved troublesome to light them during 
cold weather, and they required much greasy 
work in cleaning, etc. 

Daring the last twenty years, another 
class of illuminators has come into use, and 
are now almost universally used where there 
is no gas. These are the various oils known 
as coal oil, kerosene, astral oil, etc., etc., 
distilled or purified fi'om the crude petrole- 
um of Western Pennsylvania, West Vir- 
ginia, Ohio, and Canada ; the heavy oils 
from these wells, and from the shales and 
fatty coals being used for lubricating pur- 
poses. They require a chimney for burn- 
ing, and are apt to smoke. The odor of 
the oil when exposed to the air is unjdeas- 
ant, bat when burning is not generally oflfen- 
sive ; but many of them are explosive, not 
being properly prepared, and thousands of 
deaths have been caused by their careless 
use. 

Improvements in furniture are gradually 
introduced, and in a manner vv^hich renders 
it pectdiarly difficult to fix precise dates. It 



may be said in general, that the uniform 
tendency has been toward lightness and con- 
venience of form. The artistic beauty of 
the designs has also of late years greatly 
improved. 



CHAPTER in. 
FOOD— COOKING, ETC. 

The general character of the food, drink, 
and cooking of three quarters of a century 
ago, was not very different from that of 
to-day. Meats were the same, but less fresh 
meat was eaten ; salt beef, salt {)ork, and 
bacon being the ordinary meat, and the beef 
and pork barrel being almost as universal 
and necessary in the household as the flour 
barrel. The common vegetables were pota- 
toes, turnips, cabbages, and onions, with a 
few beets and paisnips. Carrots were 
scarcely used at all. At the south, sweet ' 
potatoes were, as at present, used in place of 
Irish potatoes, and okra, rice, etc., were also 
cultivated as at present. Tomatoes were 
scarcely known at the north, until about 
1830 or 1835, when they were occasionally 
brought from the south, and gradually began 
to be cultivated, under the name of "love- 
apples." The egg-plant, spinach, cauliflower, 
broccoli, and other kitchen-garden plants, 
have also been introduced since the begin- 
ning of the century, from abroad. 

Bread of rye, " rye-and-Indian," or In- 
dian meal alone, and Indian puddings, 
johnny-cake, and the like, were more used 
than at present ; for most grinding was done 
at the small country mills ; transportation 
was slow, difficult, and costly ; neither the 
great wheat fields of the east, nor the great- 
er ones of the west, were yielding their in- 
crease ; and the great flouring mills that are 
supported by them had not grown up. 
Every ftirmer's family, therefore, commonly 
used breadstuff of its own i-aising ; and but 
a very small share of that used in the towns 
was brought from any other than the imme- 
diate neighborhood. 

All the labor of preparing the raw mate- 
rial for food was performed in the family. 
All the coffee had to be burnt and ground, 
spices pulverized, salt powdered, yeast made, 
soap manufactured, meat pickled, etc., etc., 
by each housekeeper for herself, or under 
her immediate supervision. 

Througliout the extensive western forest 
frontier, a large proportion of the inhabi- 




KITCHEN- OP 1770. 




KITCHEX IX 1870. 




177G. 



EVENING DRESS. 



1780. 



1780. 



1785. 




EVENING DRESS. 



1795. EVENING DRESS. 1797 



1800. 



1805. 




1805. 



1812. 



1812. 







1812. 




1815. 



1818. 



1820. 



1825. 





:828. 



WINTER DRESS. 1833. 



1833. 



1833. 




1833. 



1840. 



1844. 



1850. 




FASHIONS FROM 1850 TO 1860. 



;1irTlTlfpi -. 




ri-AlN DKKSS OF VAHIOUS I'EKIOUS. KXTHKMK FASHIONS OF 18C8-9. 



DRESS. 



253 



tants lived in great part upon game ; but 
this was, from the difficulty of transportation, 
even less accessible in the older settlements 
than now, when it must be brought from 
the distant lakes, and streams, and woods of 
Canada or Maine. 

The use of spirituous and malt liquors was 
universal. It was thought no improprietj'^ 
for distinguished clergj-men to own a share 
in a distillery ; and the meetings of ministers 
on religious business were made occasions of 
jollity, often even to such an extent that the 
reverend companions went home quite tipsy. 
Cider was drank in the country, and cider, 
rum, brandy, or wine in town, at every 
meal. Spirits were expected to be offered 
to every visitor, and if not, the host was 
thought mean and stingy. 

Cooking was performed over an open 
wood fire ; a mode in many respects more 
laborious and less convenient than the pres- 
ent use of stoves and ranges ; but which, if 
skilfully conducted, gives the food a flavor 
more perfect and delicate than can be attain- 
ed in any other manner. 

As has been implied, the changes in food 
have thus been more in the treatment than 
in the materials of it. The chief of these 
changes, like those in warming houses, have 
arisen from the introduction of anthracite 
coal into use, which has caused the employ- 
ment of cooking-stoves and ranges, instead 
of the open fire. Nearly four hundred 
patents for cooking-stoves and ranges were 
issued from 1812 to 1847, and a much great- 
er number have been granted since ; the 
total number of such patents may safely be 
estimated at more than twelve hundred. 

An early style of cooking-stove, and quite 
a favorite one in its day, was the rotary, 
whose top could be swivelled round by a 
crank and cog-wheel geai'ed to a ratchet 
underneath its edge, so as to bring any 
sauce pan or kettle forward to the cook. 
This variety is, however, now nearly obso- 
lete, and innumerable later inventions have 
succeeded, each enjoying a brief reputation, 
usually conferred rather by diligent adver- 
tisement than by any real peculiar merits in 
the stove itself. 

The cooking range may be described as a 
modified stove bricked into a fireplace, in- 
stead of standing out in the room. Its oven, 
' instead of being back of the fireplace, as in 
a stove, is above it, or at the sides. Some- 
times there are two, besides a plate warmer, 
and generally they are much more capacious 



than a stove oven. They are now, where- 
ever there are water works, usually con- 
structed with a water back and boiler of 
cojtper, or galvanized iron. The use of stoves 
and ranges has rendered cooking more con- 
venient, but has, in a great measure, substi- 
tuted the baking of meats in the oven for 
the old fashion of roasting. They are far 
cheaper and easier in management than an 
open fire ; and in all the older portions of 
the country are necessary, because wood 
could not be furnished to supply the kitch- 
ens. 



CHAPTER IV. 

DRESS. 

In discussing the changes of costume since 
the revolutionary war, it will be more con- 
venient to divide it with reference to female 
than to male costume. On this principle, 
the period from 1783 or thereabouts may be 
divided into five, thus : — 

1. 1783 to French Revolution, 

2. French Revolution to 1815. 

3. 1815 to 1830. 

4. 1830 to 1845. 

6. 1845 to present time. 

Speaking generally, the changes thus suc- 
ceeding each other have been improvements; 
although almost all of them have been suffi- 
ciently absurd in themselves. These fash- 
ions have always come from England or 
France; since about 1815, almost entirely 
from France. 

1. Period first, 1783 to French Revolu- 
tion. At the close of the Revolution in 1783, 
the costume of gentlemen was in the Eng- 
lish style of the day, viz. : a single-breasted 
low-collared coat of broadcloth, commonly 
of some gay color, often scarlet, bright blue, 
claret color, peach-blossom, with full skirts, 
and ample pocket-flaps, sleeves, and cuff's ; 
a waistcoat, with long flaps; knee-breeches, 
often also of gay colors, fastened at the outer 
side of the knee with a buckle ; long stock- 
ings, black, white, or colored ; shoes with 
the well-known showy buckles, or boots with 
a broad piece of white or unstained leather 
turned down around the tops, and therefore 
called top-boots ; a ruffled shirt, a lace cra- 
vat, powdered hair, a queue, not unfrequent- 
ly a wig, and a three-cornered cocked hat. 
A very few aged men still wear or have worn 
this costume within the last ten years, even 
to the queue and the shirt-frill. The cocked 



254 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 



hat did not maintain its place so longj, 
though quite often to be seen during the 
first quarter of the present century. 

The formal stateliness of this old costume 
suited well the more careful manners and 
stiff politeness of the day; for even in our re- 
publican country, the distinctions of social 
rank and station prevailed to an extent wliich 
few people now realize. Old persons now 
living can remember when " Mr." was a title 
considered exclusively proper for the " gen- 
try ;" when a "gentleman's" son would have 
been reproved by his father for calling a far- 
mer " Mr." A farmer or mechanic was call- 
ed "goodman," and his wife not "Mrs." or 
"mistress," but "goody." 

Female costume was on the whole, per- 
haps, less strikingly different from that now 
in vogue, except in head-dress. Its other 
most distinguishing characteristics were 
high-heeled shoes, often of bright red or 
other strong colors ; sleeves to the elbows, 
■with heavy lace ruffles ; a tight, close, long 
waist, and a skirt stiffened out by hoops 
very nearly as much as by the " skeleton 
skirts " recently in use. 

The head-dresses, then fashionable, were 
however, most monstrous, and furnished an 
endless theme for satire and jest. The hair 
was greased, and powdered, and "craped," as 
it was called — that is, combed up over artificial 
hair, a mass of tow, or a cushion ; artificial 
flowers were worked into it, broad ribbons 
hung around it, feathers three feet high 
stuck into it, all sorts of vegetable-looking 
leaves and even fruit and vegetables them- 
selves (imitated) were piled on, and a mass 
constructed which it seemed totally impossi- 
ble for a lady's neck to uphold or endure ; 
which was often, literally and truly, quite as 
large as a bushel basket. A caricature of 
those days represents a lady sitting in a chair 
during her head-dressing, while one barber, 
mounted on a tall pair of steps, is frizzling a 
curl, and another stands off at one side, tak- 
ing the altitude of the edifice he has helped 
to build, with a quadrant. Calashes, whose 
gig-top appearance almost every one may 
remember to have seen, were invented long 
before this time, as early as 1765, as the 
only contrivance in the nature of a bonnet 
which would cover these vast machines. 
Such head-dresses required great skill in 
preparation and adjustment, and could, of 
course, not be made up by the owner herself. 
It was the business of the barber, and often 
occupied two or three tedious hours. The 



idea of going through such an operation 
daily was out of the question, and these 
"heads," as they were called, were made to 
last sometimes for weeks together. Indeed, 
they were CDUtinually corrupting, even so 
that worms bred in them, among the flour 
used for hair-powder and the pomatum ; and 
numerous recipes were in use for poisons to 
prevent vermin from breeding in them. 
Sleeping in the natural posture was, of 
course, impossible ; ladies slept sitting up or 
with a cai'efully arranged support for the 
neck and head, adapted to the precious mass 
of absurdities that crowned it. 

Period second, French Revolution to 
1815. The French Revolution may be 
called the conclusion of the era of those 
strange fashions. The freedom of that period, 
so licentious in politics, was equally so in 
dress, and in this department, as in the other, 
caused many and great changes both at 
home and abroad. In this country, which 
had before that time followed the English 
fashions almost exclusively, those of France 
now began to take the lead, and the ancient 
caprices of dress to be replaced by others 
more modern, hut not less absurd. 

From about 1780, down to about 1800, 
women's skirts grew more and more scanty 
in circumference, until they were " gored," 
and cut so close as to almost impede walk- 
ing. The waist was also carried up some- 
times to one inch below the arm-pit, and the 
neck at the same time cut indecently low. 
The skirt was fitted closely to the figure, no 
wrinkles being admissible, and the fewest 
possible underclothes were worn ; a fashion 
both abominably ugly and very unhealthy. 
These ungainly waists excited much deserved 
ridicule. A well-known song beginning — 

" Shepherds, I have lost my love — 
Have you seeu uiy Anua ?" 

was parodied so as to apply to them, com- 
mencing with — 

" Shepherds, I have lost my waist — 
Have you seen my body?" 

The variations in bonnets and head- 
dresses during this same period were many 
and wonderful. In 1786, women wore their 
hair frizzed and powdered; and for riding 
costume, a man's jacket with broad lapels, 
and a broad-brimmed hat. In 1789, the 
hair was frizzled out into an enormous bush, 
sometimes with a quantity of dangling curls 
besides ; and bonnets, to hold this affair, 



25Y 



"were made like an upright bag stiifened out. 
In 1794 a fashion carue in of finishing up 
the head-dress with feathers half a yard high. 
About 1795 these styles of expansive head- 
dress disappeared, and small bonnets came 
into use all at once, like a helmet or a straw 
cap, with a vizor, very much like those now 
worn. 

From 1805 to 1810, bare arms were much 
in fashion with women, and a singular mode 
of wearing gloves prevailed. The glove 
was worn with a long armlet attached, 
which was drawn on smoothly up to the 
elbow, and then pushed down again so as to 
lie in im'egular wrinkles on the arm, which 
was reckoned remarkably pretty. These 
were termed " rucked gloves." About 18u8 
was introduced the "gunboat" style of 
bonnet, which consisted of a moderate-sized 
crown, and a wide expanse of brim, spread- 
ing out around the face, in a form fancied to 
resemble the peculiar shape of a gunboat, 
which is very wide toward the bows. 

About 1810 appeared the plaid cloaks, 
ased both by men and women, which may 
atill sometimes be found hung up in an old 
closet ; very wide and long, and for women 
having a great clumsy hood hanging at the 
back of the neck. In 1814 the bonnets all 
at once spread out into an immense crown, 
leaving very little brim. 

Men's costume varied during this time no 
less. The reign of powder and pigtails may 
be said to have ended about 1793, imme- 
diately after the French Revolution ; and 
about the same time the round hat took the 
place of the three-cornered cocked hat. A 
little later, perhaps about 1800, people began 
to leave otf wearing wigs when they had 
hair of their own. It is hard to comprehend 
how people could submit so long to a cus- 
tom so disfiguring, inconvenient, and cum- 
brous — for every wig-wearer had to have his 
whole head shaved every few days, and 
lived in constant peril of making a fantastic 
appearance if his clumsy and unsafe head- 
gear should be knocked off. Yet the mode 
prevailed for two hundred years ; nearly from 
1600 to 18U0. 

One of the early costumes which replaced 
the ante-revolutionary fashions for men, and 
which was the height of the ton in 1786, 
consisted of a very broad-brimmed hat ; a 
powdered wig with a pig-tail ; a coat with a 
very short waist, broad lapels, and tremen- 
dous swallow-tails ; buckskin breeches, and 
top-boots. 



During this period, and, indeed, down to 
about 1830, gentlemen's necks were often 
swathed with an enormous thickness of 
cravat ; a fashion said to have been intro- 
duced by George IV., while a leader of 
ftishion, to hide the scrofulous swelling of 
his neck. Two or three handkerchiefs, 
each a full yard square, were thus worn; 
giving the neck an appearance which now 
seems excessively dowdy and uncomfortable. 

During the closing years of the last cen- 
tury, knee-breeches began to yield to the 
pantaloon, which came from France; and 
shoe-buckles disappeared to give place to a 
mere string or ribbon. The prince-regent 
of England, afterward George IV., first led 
this fashion, although he resumed buckles 
at the petition of the buckle-makers, who 
represented that the ruin of their trade 
would starve them. It was ruined, however, 
in spite of them and him, and notwithstand- 
ing that he was the inventor of a shoe-buckle. 

This introduction of the pantaloon and 
the shoe-string, and the disuse of wigs, marks 
the era of the modern costume. The dress- 
coat, however, or a garment much like it, 
was worn at intervals, as early as 1'750; 
although it did not definitely occupy the 
place of the old-fashioned broad skirts until 
about 1800. It should be observed that 
" pantaloon" means, in its first strict sense, 
a garment fitting quite tightly to the shape 
of the leg, and buttoning close around the 
ankles, as if a prolongation of the knee- 
breeches. The present pantaloons are in 
strictness " trowsers," having been intro- 
duced as such, and by that name, under the 
auspices of the Duke of Wellington, after 
the battle of Waterloo. 

High-heeled shoes, for women, went out 
of use about 1789, and were replaced by 
something very like the present graceful, 
low-quartered shoe. Round toes, for men's 
shoes and boots, came in about the same 
time, and prevailed until about 18(J4 or 
1 806, when the first beginnings appeared of 
square toes. 

Period third, 1815 to 1830. The last 
period may be characterized as that of tight, 
scant dresses. The present one may be de- 
scribed as that of big bonnets, puffed hair, 
and leg-of-mutton sleeves, which last, how- 
ever, appeared only toward its end. 

Knee breeches, which had continued to be 
"full dress," were now quite out of date. 
Frock-coats had been introduced by the 
Duke of Wellington and his otficers after the 



258 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 



peninsular war, toi2:etber with the boot called 
after him. In 1815 trowsers began to be 
worn, being also introduced under his aus- 
pices ; although the original pantaloon, with 
its tight, close fit and ankle-buttons, main- 
tained itself for ten j^ears or more before 
quite disappearing. In 1815, also, bonnets 
underwent a great revolution, shrinking to 
small dimensions in the crown, and spread- 
ing into a portentous brim. 

"Not far from 1820 began what may be 
called the modern era of tight lacing, which 
was adopted as the short waists began to be 
replaced by longer ones, and the recent 
type of female dress, viz., a long waist, 
bulging with a sudden angle into a volumi- 
nous skirt, became established. About 1825 
was adopted a method of wearing the hair 
in great puffs at the sides and on the top of 
the head, dressed, also, with large bows of 
ribbon. To hold this array, an enormous 
bonnet was required, and was used. Skirts 
now began to be a very little fuller ; two or 
three plaits at the waist being all that were 
at first admitted, and more being introduced 
from time to time. About 1828 began the 
" leg-of-mutton sleeves," which grew at once 
to enormous proportions. These ridiculous 
and most inconvenient appendages were 
stuffed out with down, or held out with reed, 
raillinet, or whalebone ; but they were con- 
tinually becoming crushed, and were very 
troublesome. They had a certain absurd 
harmony with the big bonnets and puffed 
hair of the day, as well as with the broad- 
shouldered, stilfly-cut capes that were worn 
with them. 

Period fourth, 1830 to 1845. The be- 
ginning of this period is marked by the 
introduction of the costume of the days 
of Jackson — the bell-crowned hat, long, 
swallow-tailed coat, with high collar and 
" bishop" sleeves, and loose trowsers. The 
bishop sleeves were distinguished by rising 
into a ridge where they were set in at 
the shoulder, as do the sleeves of the 
episcopal vestments; this ridge being in 
1830-35, stuffed with cotton to hold them 
up. The big bonnets and puffed hair, 
wide capes and leg-of-muttons still prevailed. 
Boots and shoes were worn with very broad, 
square toes until about 1 840, when narrow 
toes took their place ; and the calash, invent- 
ed almost a hundred years before, was still 
employed to cover the elaborate head-dress. 
The decrease in the size of women's sleeves 
is the chief feature of this period ; the minor 



details of the successive changes of style 
were innumerable, as usual- 

Period fifth, 1-^45 to 1872. This period, 
also, may be dismissed with brief considera- 
tion. Its first years were marked by the 
introduction of ihe sack coat, or, as it is 
called in France, the paletot. This easy, 
commodious, and cheap garment is infinitely 
more becoming than a dress-coat, and very 
much more convenient than either that or a 
frock coat. Though introduced in the pres- 
ent century later than either the dress or 
frock coat, the paletot may be traced to a fa-r 
greater antiquity ; a very similar garment 
having been worn at tlie courts of France 
and England about the year 1450. At 
about the same time was introducfid that 
most preposterous of all feminine fashions, 
the hustle, which was a sort of pad tied 
on behind to make the skirts stand out 
with the desirable degree of fulness. This 
was made of various materials : cloth stuffed 
with bran, hair, cotton, rags, old newspapers, 
etc., and sometimes of India-rubber, inflated 
with air. The bustle marked the beginning 
of the recent fashion of expanded skirts. As 
this machine d.d not sufficiently spread out 
these garments, various other means were re- 
sorted to ; the use of an enormous number ot 
skirts — a habit most pernicious to health — 
and skirts fewer in number, of stitfiy-starched 
cloth with cords sown on, or of grass cloth, 
or hair cloth, or stiffened out with many 
cords of new manilla rope or common 
clothes-line, or with whalebone or coils of 
brass wire. All these having been tried 
and failed, the next invention came up, of 
" skeleton-skirts," made of strips of iron 
somewhat similar to a watch-spring. These 
were pronounced quite adequate to their 
purpose ; although what the real reason of 
that purpose was, it wou4d be impossible to 
say. Why women's skirts should consti- 
tute a great stiff, hollow cone about their 
lower limbs, within which they must wear 
an entire second suit of clothes for warmth 
and protection, was an unanswerable riddle. 
After an absolute reign of sixteen years, the 
" hoop skirt " fell into disgrace, and scantier, 
gored skirts, with pannier, and bouffant 
over-skirts have taken its place. 

Another fashion introduced during this 
period was that of wearing soft felt hats, in- 
stead of the round hats, which last are so 
often described as " hard-shells," or " stove- 
pipe" hats; nick-names well applied, but 
which did not succeed in driving out this un- 




WHAT OUR GKAMlMu^HhK^ l,r>.\l(.\hli WIIILK YOUNG. 




WHAT OUR SISTKRS AND DAUGHTERS NOW I^KARV. 



SOCIAL AND MENTAL CULTURE — INTERCOURSE HEALTH ART, ETC. 



2j9 



comfortable and uni-easonable fashion. The 
felt hat was not often seen among us until 
the enthusiasm which attended Kossuth's 
visit to the United States in 1851 and 
1852 ; after which it was brought out, at 
first with a feather, in close imitation of the 
national hat of the Hungarian hero, and 
called a " Kossuth hat." The feather was 
soon left off, but the soft hat being found 
both CO nfortable and graceful, was retained. 

The most remarkable of the many changes 
of the last twenty five years in the style of 
woman's dress, and certainly one of the 
most unwise, has been in the mode of dress- 
ing the hair. In 184 >, and for perhaps ten 
years later the natural hair was worn almo-t 
exclusively, with soma artificial puffings, and 
ringlets, perhaps, but generally without 
other foreign additions ; but toward 1860, 
there came in first the fashion of the " wa- 
terfall," a considerable ma^s of padding, 
over which the natural back hair was spread, 
the ends passed up underneath, and the 
whole confined in a depending and not wholly 
ungraceful net. But this soon gave place 
to coils and large masses or wads of false, 
or artificial hair, attached to the posterior 
portion of the crown, frequently almost as 
large as the head itself, forming a hideous 
protuberance on the back of the head, and 
giving the lady the appearance of being 
two-headed. This shocking style has been 
modified so as to be a degree less ungrace- 
ful ; but with all its accessories of cuils, 
love-locks, and pendant-?, the chignon is not 
only a violation of all the laws of beauty 
and good taste, but exceedingly injurious to 
heaith, having increased more than ten fold 
diseases of the brain, spne, and scalp. This 
fashion of wearing the hair necessitated a 
material change in the bonnet, reducing its 
size, (till it became almost infinitesim d at 
one time) abolishing the cape and perching 
it on the top of the head, and on the fore- 
head, instead of on the back of the head, as 
before. Within the past twelve or fifteen 
years, the round hat in some form (and 
there has been an almost infinite variety), has 
largely superseded the bonnet, not only with 
young ladies, but with those of middle age. 

In reviewing the whole series of fashions 
as thus briefly presented, it will appear that, 
on the whole, there has been a decided im- 
provement. There are, doubtless, a suifi- 
cient number of not very wise fashions in 
dress now prevailing ; but the preposterous, 
filthy head dress of 1783, the indecent, 
16* 



scanty costume of 1800, the pudding-like 
cravat of the same period, the broad shadow 
of the gunboat bonnet, the balloon-like 
appendage of the leg-of-mutton sleeve, have 
each, in tuin, been superseded by something, 
on the whole, less tbolish ; and it may be 
claimed with safety, tiiat at this present 
writing, the fashions, both for men and 
women, are in general based upon more 
like common-sense principles, and admit 
more fi'eedom in adaptation, and, therefore, 
greater convenience and grace, than has 
ever before been the case It is matter of con- 
gratulation, however, that an American taste 
is being developed, and our ladies becoming 
less dejiendent on fashions from abroad; 
and every year is yielding a larger liberty to 
our female population, in adopting such 
forms and colors as s-uit the peculiarities of 
each individual, and this is still more the 
case with men. 



CHAPTER V. 

SOCIAL AKD MENTAL CULTURE — IN- 
TERCOURSE— HEALTH— ART, ETC. 

Nearly all the increase in comfort and 
happiness which is the pride of modern 
civilization is traceable to scientific discov- 
ery and to mechanical in\ention. These 
causes have supplied the means of the labor- 
saving machines and processes of the last 
three-qujirters of a century. The use of 
these machines and processes has brought 
it to pass that men can earn their living by 
the labor of a less projiortion of their time 
than formerly. And this power enables 
them to devote a correspondingly larger 
share of effort to the task of gaining knowl- 
edge, and of pressing forward in the path 
of moral and mental improvement. The 
amount of mental activity which has been 
devoted to these material processes is aston- 
ishing. The inventive genius of the Ameri- 
can people, is without parallel in the world. 
More than one hundred thousand patents 
have been issued during the present century, 
and every year now adds thirteen thousand 
or fourteen thousand to the number. 

The readiest way to sketch the general 
progress of society at present sought to be 
described, will be to set forth briefly, in 
chronological succession, the periods oi 
occurrences which have marked the com- 
mencement or maturity of any importani 
influence upon the prosperity of the com- 



260 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFK. 



munity, without attempting to classify them 
particularly. 

In 1796 was taken out the first American 
patent for a pianoforte, by J. S. McLean, 
of New Jersey. The manufacture of these 
instruments has become very extensive ; the 
larger manufactories sometimes turning out 
thousands a year. So great and important 
have been the improvements, both in these 
and in reed instruments (cabinet organs and 
the like), that in both, we have the highest 
reputation in the ^vorld. 

In 1799 Dr. Waterhouse, of Harvard Uni- 
versity, first introduced Jenner's discovery of 
vaccine inoculation ; a measure which has 
substantially freed our community from the 
fear, the pain, and the disfigurement of the 
small-pox. This single discovery has had 
no inconsiderable intluence in lengthening 
life, and increasing its happiness by dispelling 
the apprehensions, always felt before, of suf- 
fering and death. 

The importance of regular, rapid, and 
cheap modes of travel and transportation, to 
the general improvement of society in wealth 
and intelligence, is exceedingly great. Dis- 
tance of residence, difficulty of travelling, 
difficulty of carrying, has, through all the 
history of the world, been a chief means of 
keeping nations poor, because thus they 
could not exchange what they had for what 
they had not ; and thus, however much they 
possessed of one thing, they were poor. For 
wealth does not consist in mass of posses- 
sions. Not mountains, even of gold, if un- 
exchangeable, are wealth. Wealth is mass 
and variety of possessions together, and 
must therefore be produced by exchange, 
that is, travel and transportation. The sea- 
coast nations, commanding water-carriage, 
have in the past, been tlie rich ones ; but 
the introduction of steam railways, dating 
from about 18o0, has made our inland States 
rich. There were in 1^72, over sixty thous- 
and miles of railways in operation in the 
United States. 

This also tends to promote exchange of 
mental wealth, by corresi)ondence, visiting, 
etc. ; maintains a sense of nationality, and 
keeps up acquaintance and good feeling. 
Were it not for ease of travel, there would 
but f-light hopes of keeping Maine and 
Georgia in the same republic with Califor- 
nia and Oregon. As it is they will remain. 

In 1811, commenced a movement of a 
very different character from that of the 
inventor Fulton, but which has exerted an 



influence upon the health and morals of our 
nation, even more important than the bene- 
fits of cheap and rapid locomotion. This 
was the temperance reform. 

The laxity of manners and morals which 
must attend war, had greatly increased the 
use of intoxicating liquor during the Revolu- 
tion, and it continued to spread after the 
peace. Dr. Rush had published his " In- 
quiry into the Etfects of Ardent Spirits," in 
1 80-t ; but no decided movement against 
their use was made until 1811, when the 
Presbyterian General Assembly appointed 
a committee on the subject. That and other 
ecclesiastical bodies, at various times, passed 
different resolutions and recommendations 
intended to limit the use of liquor, but with 
no very great success. The first total absti- 
nence society was formed in Boston in 1 826, 
and during the following ten years, others 
multiplied with great rapidity, liquor-selling 
became disreputable, and the common use 
of ardent spirits was to a very great extent 
broken up. Like most great reforms, how- 
ever, the temperance movement has had its 
seasons of advance and retrogression, and 
while taking the half century together since 
its inauguration, it has made wonderful pro- 
gress it has been rather by repeated leaps 
forward, than by a steady march. In 1839, 
the Washingtonian movement, originating 
among intemperate men, was a great ad- 
vance ; the attempts at legislation on the 
subject from 1(S42 to the present time, have 
done some good, and probably some evil ; 
the absolute necessity for an enlightened 
public opinion to enforce them, not being 
always understood. The great prevalence 
of beer drinking, and the appetite for in- 
toxicating liquors, stimulated by the late 
war, have been serious obstacles to its suc- 
cess. The organization of Temperance 
orders, and the Father Matthew and other 
class movements have done much to make 
liquor selling obnoxious, and tippling dis- 
reputable. 

In 1832 the study of phrenology was in- 
troduced into this country by Spurzheim. 
This system, whatever the correctness of its 
doctrines as to indications by the shape and 
size of the head, which are certainly believ- 
ed by many intelligent persons, is at any rate 
entitled to the merit of having furnished a 
new and very clear classification of the men- 
tal faculties, which has become the means of 
a great improvement in mental philosophy. 

Two years later, viz., in 1834, the horaoeo- 



SOCIAL AND MENTAL CULTURE INTERCOURSE HEALTH ART, ETC. 



261 



pathic system of medicine was introduced, 
which has since become very extensively be- 
lieved. As in regard to phrenology, it may 
be said of this system, that whether all its 
peculiar doctrines are true or false, it has at 
least done good indirectly, by operating to 
reduce the quantity of medicines given by 
the old-fashioned practitioners, and to direct 
their attention more than before to the very 
important points of regimen, ventilation, 
and the other collateral departments of gen- 
eral hygiene. 

About 1840 was introduced into this 
country the greatest improvement in picto- 
rial art since the discovery of painting in 
oils by John Van Eyck in the fifteenth cen- 
tury ; the greatest discovery ever made in 
that department of human knowledge; viz., 
the art of taking pictures by the chemical 
action of light, named, from its discoverer, 
daguerreotyping ; and various modifications 
of which are known as the talbotype, am- 
brotype, crystalotype, photograph, etc. These 
methods render it both easy and cheap to 
procure an absolutely and necessarily per- 
fect representation of a person or a thing. 
Besides the pleasure of thus being enabled, 
at a trifling cost, to possess a who.'e gallery 
of perfect portraits of friends, this art has 
already been made useful in securing dia- 
grams of lunar and other astronomical phe- 
nomena, and in taking pictures of buildings, 
landscapes, etc. ; it has been applied to pur- 
poses of scientific and medical discovery ; 
and is now the basis of several processes of 
printing, and is largely used in the illustra- 
tion of books, etc., etc. 

Not far from the same time, other sys- 
tems of medical treatment were introduced 
— the " water-cure," or " hydropathic " sys- 
tem, which has proved very useful in certain 
classes of diseases ; the " Swedish move- 
ment " cure ; the use of electricity and 
magnetism, and later the " Lifting cure," 
and " The Oxygen treatment." 'I he first 
named, besides a very simple mode of life, 
consists only in the application of water, at 
various temperatures and in various ways ; 
and it is successfully practised in many es- 
tablishments devoted to it. All these new 
systems, though incomplete as modes of 
treatment for all classes of diseases, have 
exerted a modifying infiuence upon the 
regular practice. 

In 1845 the principle of cheap postage 
was established in this country by a law of 



Congress, and another step thus taken to- 
ward the entire release from tax or encum- 
brance of the intercourse of one mind with 
another. Cheap postage is one of the latest 
signs of a high civilization ; it is one of the 
most promising indications of our own ; 
future. 

Still one year later was discovered the 
medical process, since termed " ansesthesia," 
which consists in rendering persons insensi- 
ble by the inhalation of certain gases (ni- 
trous oxide, ether, or chloroform), thus af- 
fording an opportunity of performing surgi- 
cal operations quite without the knowledge 
of the patient. The agonies suffered in the 
dentist's chair, or under the hands of the 
surgeon, and the not less tormenting pain 
of many nervous diseases, have thus been 
much alleviated, and even entirely relieved. 

In the same year was issued the first pat- 
ent for sewing machines, to Elias Huwe, jr. 
It is only necessary to allude to the very 
great saving of time, and strength, and 
health which these machines have eff'ected ; 
their eftects are before the eyes of all. They 
are performing in a day the work of weeks, 
and doing very much to relieve women of a 
species of labor which was principally con- 
fined to them, but which consumed, in tlie 
merest petty drudgery, a wretchedly great 
proportion of their time, and often ruined 
health and destroyed life. 

An important outgrowth of one of the 
departments of improvement which have 
been described, is the modern hotel. The 
American first-class hotel is an institution 
quite peculiar to this country, and in- 
cludes within itself many of the various 
inventions which have just been cata- 
logued : splendid furniture, elaborate food, 
economical and yet liberal housekeeping, 
labor-saving machinery ; in short, an unri- 
valled combination of the applications of 
human ingenuity to the improvement of do- 
mestic life. 

To recapitulate : It has thus been 
shown, though briefly and with many im- 
perfections, that the course of our nation 
during the ninety-seven years since the 
Revolution, has been one of steadfast, es- 
sential, and constant improvement in things 
material and immaterial, physical and men- 
tal, practical and ornamental ; in busine-s, 
travel, dress, homes and home comfoits, 
wealth, morals, intellect — in short, in every 
department of human activity. 



BOOKS. 



CHAPTER I. 

BOOK TRADE — PUBLISHING — JOBBING- 
RETAILING. 

" Yankee curiosity" is frequently a sub- 
ject of remark with the flippant writers and 
travellers of the old world, and if not always 
urged as a reproach, it is not seldom re- 
ferred to in a deprecating sense by those who 
do not appreciate the immense activity of 
intellect of which it is one manifestation. 
There is no doubt either of the existence of 
the alleged curiosity, or that it sometimes 
exhibits itself in a ludicrous light ; but it 
also manifests itself in the indefatigable in- 
vestigations to wliich nature and art are con- 
tinually subjected by the ever inquiring 
American mind. There result from those 
investigations, not the dreary metaphysical 
theories that are evolved from German con- 
templation, but those countless inventions, 
improvements, and applications of mechani- 
cal principles that are every year recorded in 
the patent office, and the effects of which are 
seen in every department of industry. The 
religious and political assemblies ; the amu- 
sing, instructive, and scientific addresses of 
the lecture-room ; and the marvellous circu- 
lation of the public press, all reflect that thirst 
for knowledge which is a part of Yankee cu- 
riosity. This, however, gives a still stronger 
evidence of its vigor in the book trade, which, 
in the United States, shows an extent of 
sales that no other country can hope to ap- 
prcjach. It is based on the universal ability 
of the people to read, and on that " curi- 
osity," or thirst for knowledge, which induces 
them to do so, accompanied by means to 
purchase books. The word "moans" compre- 
hends not only greater wealth on the part 
of the purchaser, but reduced prices for the 
books. The existence of 30,000,000 of 
people who can all read, supposes an im- 
mense market for books, that must be sup- 
plied ; and happily busy intellects have writ- 
ten, while the mechanical processes of -pub 
lishing have been developed in a marnue 



to supply the demand. In order to compare 
the book market of tlie United States with 
that of Europe, we may refer to the census re- 
turns of 1870. That informs us that in that 
Vi-ar there were 33,586,1)89 white persons in 
he country. Of these, 1 G,000,0(i() were over 
io years of age, and of these, 1,035,000 could 
leither read nor write, of whom 425,' DO 
vure aliens. We now turn to France, and 
.ve find that there were 19,000,000 persons 
iver 20 years of age ; and of these, 5,700,- 
100 only could read and write, and the re- 
mainder, 13,300,0u0, could not. In other 
words, there were, in the United States, 
1 4,650,000 readers of boqks, against 5,700,- 
000 in France. But there were, also, in the 
United States, 6,977. 9!)3 person^ between 10 
and 20. Of these, nearly 6,UUU,OU0 were in 
school, and, as a consequence, bought and 
read school-books. The ratio of these scholars 
to the whole number who can read and 
write must be the same in France. Hence 
there are, in fact, three times as many read- 
ers in the United States as in France. 

The making of books has kept pace with 
the increasing demand for them. If we 
look back to the librarj" of King Alfred, we 
find that he gave 8 hydes of land for a book 
on cosmography, brought from Italy by 
Bishop Biscop. At such rates, none but a 
king could afford to buy a book ; but, on the 
other hand, there were few, even among 
nobles, who could read if they had them ! 
There was no market, and no manufacture. 
As the art of reading became so far progres- 
sive that the old barons could sign their 
names, instead of punching the seals of in- 
struments with their sword pummels, some 
little demand for books sprung up, but at 
enormous rates. The state of the book 
market, when literature began to dawn in 
those iron ages, Scott makes old Douglas de- 
scribe in terse phrase : — 

" Tliaiiks be to God ! no son of mine, 
Save Gawain, e'er could pen a line." 

A modern canvasser would not have gotten 



BOOK TRADE PUBLISHING JOBBINO RETAILING. 



263 



kis name in advance for numbers to be left. 
Louis XL, of France, in 1471, was obliged 
to give security and a responsible endorser 
to the Paris faculty of medicine, in order to 
obtain the loan of the works of an Arabian 
physician. The art of printing, which was 
introduced into England in 1474, had an 
important influence upon the production of 
books, and this, probably, was the cause of 
a greater spread of learning, that reacted upon 
the demand. The Bible was the most com- 
monly used, and these, in noble houses, with 
heavy covers and clasps, were chained to 
shelves and reading-desks. In the sixteenth 
and seventeenth centuries, books were mostly 
folio and quarto. But the dimensions of 
books decreased as they became popularized, 
and this was in proportion to the spread of 
learning among the people. This went on 
gradually, until both the market and supply 
were considerable, up to the eighteenth cen- 
tury. With the colonies of America — 
among whom both religious and political 
views were based upon general education — 
schools became an institution, and in New 
England the use of them an obligation. 
From that time the market for books in- 
creased with the numbers of the people. 
The first bookseller mentioned is Hezekiah 
Usher, of Boston, in 1652 ; and his son, 
John Usher, is mentioned by a writer in 
1686, as very rich, and as having "got his 
estate by bookselling." That books, in the 
early part of the century, were by no means 
abundant, or easy to be got at, is evident 
from what Franklin tells us of the difficulties 
he encountered, and the great advantage he 
enjoyed, in having access to the library of a 
merchant. The most of them were imported 
at, no doubt, such expense as confined their 
general use to the better classes. Some 
years after, viz., in 1732, at the time Franklin 
commenced the publication of " Poor Rich- 
ard's Almanac," in Philadelphia, a Boston 
bookseller advertised as follows : — 

"Whereas it has been the common method 
of the most curious merchants of Boston to 
procure their books from London, this is to 
acquaint those gentlemen that I, the said Fry, 
will sell all sorts of account books, done after 
the most acute manner, for 20 per cent. 
cheaper than they can have them from 
London. 

" For the pleasing entertainment of the 
polite parts of mankind, I have printed the 
most beautiful poems of Mr. Stephen Duck, 
the famous Wiltshire poet. It is a full 



demonstration to me that the people of New 
England have a fine taste for good sense and 
polite learning, having already sold 1,200 of 
those poems." 

This was pretty well for Richard Fry, and 
we hope he had not then introduced the art 
of magnifying his sales on paper. That 
there were a number of booksellers then 
doing well, is evident from the fact that Mr. 
John Usher had made his fortune at it 50 
years before; and in 1724 there was held a 
convention of Boston booksellers, to regulate 
the trade, and raise the price of some de- 
scriptions of books. The publication and 
sale of books increased slowly, until the 
events of the war began to excite the minds 
of the public, and works on those subjects 
were eagerly taken up. The practice was, to 
some extent, to sell books in sheets, to be 
bound as the purchaser might fancy — per- 
haps to be uniform with his library. This 
is now done only where the work is sold in 
numbers by subscription. There was then 
less capital in the trade, and few were dis- 
posed to risk the amount required to get 
out large works of a standard character. 
The cost was then more than it now is, and 
the time required much longer to complete 
and dispose of it. There was then formed, 
in 1801, the American company of booksell- 
ers, and these generally subscribed together 
in the publication of a work, to guarantee 
the outlay. There was a sort of union, that 
regulated the principles of publication, and 
those who did not conform to these regula- 
tions Avere repudiated. School-books were, 
as a matter of course, as having the largest 
and steadiest market, the first that were ex- 
tensively published. A type of this class of 
books is Webster's Spelling-Book, which has 
grown with the country in a remarkable 
manner. In 1783, with the advent of the 
peace, Mr. Noah Webster published his 
American spelling-book. The work became 
a manual for all schools, and its influence 
has been immense, in giving uniformity to 
the language throughout the whole country. 
The " Yankee schoolmaster," who was raised 
upon that book, has gone forth into every 
section of the Union, spreading the fruits of 
that seed of knowledge, as writes Fitz-Grcene 
Halleck : — 

'' Wandering through the southern countries, teaching 
The A, B, C, from Webster's spelling-book." 

When it was first published, there were 
3,000,000 people in the United States ; there 



2G1 



BOOKS. 



are now 39,000,000, and there have been 
sold 54,000,000 copies of the work, or five 
for every four souls in the Union. The 
spelling-book was enlarged into a dictionary 
in 180G, and immediately Dr. Webster went 
on with preparations for a still larger work. 
This occupied him 20 years of unremitting 
research, during which the sales of his spell- 
ing-book supported his fomily ; in 1828 the 
dictionary appeared in two quarto volumes. 
Twelve years after, viz., in 1840, a new edi- 
tion made its a])pearance, greatly improved ; 
and since Dr. Webster's death, there have 
been two complete revisions of his great 
dictionary, now known as Webster's Un- 
abritlged, viz., in 1847 and 1864, beside sev- 
eral partial revisions. Of this Unabridged 
Dictionary, now a ponderous quarto of 1,840 
pages, about 3.30,0U0 copies have been sold, 
aud a va4ly greater number of the smaller 
dictionaries, ot which there are seven of dif- 
ferent sizes. The sales of the spelling-book 
are now about 1,500,000 copies annually. 
These works have exerted a powerful in- 
tlueiice in giving uniformity and precision 
to the use of the language in all parts of the 
country, and as a result, there are fewer 
dialects here than in England. 

Tiie publication of religious works was 
greatly promoted by the societies formed, 
particularly the American Bible Society, 
which was formed in 1816; the Bible So- 
ciety of Philadelphia in 1 808 ; one in Con- 
necticut in 1809 ; and also one in Massachu- 
setts. The American Society in New York 
published, in its first year, 6,410 volumes, 
mostly Bibles and Testaments. In 1871, 
the issues were 1,19'j,797, and the whole 
number during 56 years, was 28,001,489 vol- 
umes of the Bil)le. A good copy of the Bi- 
ble is sold for G>J cents, and a cheaper edition 
at 35 cents ; Testaments as low as 10 cents. 
Contrast this with the Bible copied in 22 
years by Alcuin for Charlemagne about 800, 
and which was sold in modern times to the 
British Museum for S?3,750, and the prog- 
ress we have made appears great. 

The American Bible Union was organized 
fn 1850, and it has since issued 259,748,804 
pages ol matter, including Bibles. The pub- 
lications by other societies have been con- 
siderable. 

These societies were not a portion of the 
regular book trade, which continued to be 
mostly under the association, until the ap- 
pearance of the Waverly Novels in 1820 to 



1830. The competition to which the large 
demand for these works gave rise, broke 
down old arrangements of the trade. The 
publishers thenceforth acted independently. 
At the same time, the supply of desirable 
books from abroad, upon which there was no 
charge for copyright, was much increased ; 
and as all the publishers were upon the same 
footing in i-espect to those books, the com- 
petition extended only to the mechanical 
process, reducing its cost to the lowest rates. 
The capitals of the publishing houses grad- 
ually increased, but there was still great diffi- 
culty in getting an American book printed. 
Cooper tells us, in the preface to his Pilot, 
that so great was the difficulty he encoun- 
tered in getting a printer to undertake it, that 
he was obliged to write the last page of the 
story first, and have it set up and paged, to 
insure the extent to which the matter would 
run. 

The publication of books is a business 
which has undergone many changes within 
the past hundred years. There has at all 
times been a limited amount of publishing 
of works by American authors, partly be- 
cause it was so much more profitable to re • 
l)rint foreign works on which there was no 
copyright, and which had already same repu- 
tation ; and partly l)ccause in the early 
struggle for national existence among a new 
and not homogeneous people there was not 
the opportunity for that profound culture 
and leisurely study which could alone make 
American works ]ioj)ular and successful to 
the publisher. There were, of course, ex- 
ceptions to this general rule; but for a long 
period, publishers were shy of undertaking 
a work whose author had not already at- 
tained a reputation abroad. The great bulk 
of publishing was therefore limited to the 
reprinting of foreign Avorks, sometimes with 
introductions, appendices or notes added here, 
but the reputation of the foreign author was 
the inducement to the publication. Matters 
have changed in this respect, and American 
copyright works now largely predominate 
among the publishers' issues. The reprints 
in 1871 were nominally less than one-fifth, 
though really probably about one-fourth of 
the whole number of books published that 
year. 

For the first fifty or sixty years of our 
national existence very few important origi- 
nal works were published except by " sub- 
scription ;" the author or publisher issuing 



BOOKS. 



265 



a prospectus describing the work and by so- 
licitation in person or by letter, obtaining 
a sufficient number of subscribers to war- 
rant its publication. Usually a subscription 
of from 1,200 to 2.000 was deemed sufficient 
to guaranty the success of the work, and if 
a larger number were printed they were dis- 
posed of at auction or to chance purchasers. 
There was, during the period of which we 
are speaking, no stereotyping ; that process 
was then unknown, and all copies were 
printed direct from the types, while in books 
which required to be often reprinted, such 
as Bibles, Prayer and Psalm books, &c., the 
type was kept standing, involving a very 
heavy expense for the publisher. Under 
these circumstances there was little encour- 
agement for the publisher to take any doubt- 
fid risk?, and it is not surprising that so late 
as 1820 the whole number of books manu- 
factured and published in a single year 
throughout the whole country should not 
have exceeded the value of $2,500,000, of 
which school books formed nearly one-third. 
Stereotyping, electrotyping, and wood en- 
graving have effected great changes in these 
particulars, in the publishing trade. More 
than $40,000,000 worth of books are now 
issued in a single year. The large publish- 
ing houses employ a " reader " and some- 
times more than one, whose business it is to 
decide upon the merits of manuscripts of- 
fered for publication, as well as to examine 
any foreign works which it may be thought 
desirable to reprint. These " readers " of 
course reject four or five manuscripts, and 
sometimes more, for every one they recom- 
mend ; sometimes deciding unwisely, as 
when five or six of the ablest of them de- 
clined the manuscript of " Uncle Tom's 
Cabin," in the belief that it would not sell ; 
but generally with a judicious regard to the 
interests of their employers. 

If the book is accepted, the terms on 
which it shall be published are next to be 
considered. The publishing house may re- 
quire the author to share the risk with them, 
by furnishing the cost of stereotyping, or 
possibly of manufacturing a first edition, to 
be reimbursed in whole or in part by a per- 
centage on the sales ; — a plan which though 
safe for the publisher, hardly leaves much 
margin of profit for the author ; — they may 
require the author to make over to them all 
copyright till the cost of stereotyping is 
made up, and thereafter, allow them five, 
seven and one-half or ten per cent, on the 



wholesale or retail price of the book, as 
they can agree ; or if they are confident of 
the success of the work they may pay ten 
per cent., or in the case of a popular author 
even more on the selling price of all copies 
sold. There is the greatest possible diver- 
sity in these copyright contracts. In some 
instances the publisher pays a fixed sum, 
and then holds the copyright, taking his 
risk of reimbursement from the sales. This 
is generally the method pursued by the sub- 
scription-book publishers, of whom we shall 
say more by and by. If they pay copy- 
right at all, they usually pay not more than 
from three to five per cent, on the retail price, 
though from the greater extent of their sales, 
this pays the author much better than the 
large percentage of the "regular trade." 
Sometimes, again, a publisher has a work 
prepared, employing several writers and pay- 
ing them so much a page for their labor. 

Whichever of these plans may be adopted, 
the manuscript is handed over to the printer 
to be set up. The " composition," or setting 
up th3 types, is conducted with more or less 
expedition according to the character of the 
matter. Wiien set up, proofs are taken — 
usually called " galley proofs," because they 
are imf)ressions from the matter which is 
set up the width of the page or column, and 
of indefinite length, technically called " gal- 
leys." The proofs are carefully read by 
a professional proof-reader, and usually also 
by the author, after a first revision, and 
when corrected, the matter is made up into 
pages with the requisite running titles and 
paging, and if any large sale is expected, the 
pages are either stereotyped or electrotyped. 
The plates, as these stereotypes or electrotypes 
are called, are next sent to the press-room, 
where paper of the proper size having been 
provided and prepared, the book is prmted 
and goes to the binder, who, having folded, 
stitched, covered, stamped, and gilded it, de- 
livers it at the publisher's warehouse, ready 
for market. If it is illustrated, the engra- 
vings are generally made while the work is 
going through the press. They considerably 
enhance the cost, but add also to the sala- 
bleness of the work. At the time of put- 
ting the book on the market from one hun- 
dred to three hundred and fifty copies are 
sent to the members of the press, and two 
copies are sent to the Librarian of Congress, 
who is ex-ojfficio the Register of copyrights. 
A considerable, often a large, sum is expen- 
ded in advertising the book. Most of th€ 



2jG 



BOOKS. 



larger publishers have one or more periodi- 
cals of their own, of large circulation, in 
which a part of their advertising is done, 
but all pay heavy tribute to the great dai- 
lies and weeklies also. The leading publi- 
cations have what are called " standing or- 
ders " from their correspondents all over the 
Union, for so many copies of every IGmo 
or 12mo book, or a smaller quantity of 
every 8vo volume which they publish, im- 
mediately on its publication. These stand- 
ing orders are, in many cases, sufficient to 
insure thetn against loss in whatever they 
publish, and thus make all further sales 
largely profitable. A few years ago books 
were sent out on commission, to be returned 
if not sold, but this was attended with so 
much loss, that it has now been given up ex- 
cept in a few instances, in school books. 

The school book trade, though sometimes 
carried on by pubhshers who are also in the 
general trade, is becoming more and more 
distinctive in its character every year. The 
method of publication and of putting the 
books on the market differs materially from 
that of miscellaneous books. They are 
usually published in series, of Readers, Arith- 
metics, Geographies, and other text-books, 
tlie authors receiving but a small percentage 
on each book, but their immense sales mak- 
ing this very profitable. They are intro- 
duced into schools, or approved and ordered 
by Boards of Education, or School Superin- 
tendents, on the urgent solicitation of agents, 
and often a'ter a long and exciting contest, 
and are furnished usually at first at a very 
low price for introduction. The sales are 
enormous, constituting fully one-half the ag- 
gregate sales of books in the United States. 
Another distinct branch of the publishing 
trade is the " subscription book business." 
Books are not now subscribed for, to insure 
the publisher against loss in their manufac- 
ture, as they were fifty or sixty years ago, 
but the business of publishing books, to be 
sold only by subscription, has attained a 
great magnitude. A book published for sale 
by booksellers, is duly announced, advertised 
and exposed upon the couutei's of the book- 
sellers, usually has its run of six months or 
so, sells to the extent of 2,000, 3,000, or 
5,000 copies, rarely more, and sometimes not 
over 1,000 or 1,500, and then usually be- 
comes an old book not often inquired for. 
The subscription book, on the other hand, 
is not intended for the book stores, and is 



not usually found there. It is generally an 
octavo volume, largely illustrated and selling 
at from two and a half to five or six dollars, 
cheaper books not proving so successful. It 
is well known by those familiar with the 
business, that this is the only way by which 
large and expensively illustrated books can 
be made to pay. The most valuable works 
in this country and England are sold in this 
way ; while the expense of selling is greater, 
the sales are so much larger, that not more 
than a tenth part as much for original out- 
lay has to be added to the price — the pub- 
lisher selling so many more, receives a much 
less percentage. This explains why books 
can be, and are delivered at the homes of 
the purchasers, all over the country, cheapeb 
than over the counters of book stores. The 
net profit per volume to subscription pub- 
lishers is very small. On most books a sale 
of 10,000 copies would not pay for the 
trouble and expense, — the cost of engrav- 
ing being enormous — one of 50,000 even 
is but moderate, while sales of a hundred 
thousand or more, which are not uncommon, 
jiay very handsomely, ^^'e might give many 
instances of enormous sales of these books. 
Goodrich's Univer,-al Traveller, one of the 
earliest of this class, sold largely. The Cot- 
tage Bible in two volumes, over 200,000 
sets. Of the histories of the late war, four 
considerably exceeded one hundred thousand 
copies each — one reaching 175,000 — Kitto's 
History of the Bible, 200,000 ; Richardson's 
"Field, Dungeon and Escape," 80,000, 
and his " Beyond the Mississippi," 100,000 ; 
Stephens' "■ War Between the States, " 
62,000; "Life and Death in Rebel Pris- 
ons," 95,000 ; " Smith's Bible Dictionary," 
1 vol.. Royal 8vo, 150,000 ; Matthew Hale 
Smith's " Sunshine and Shadow," 100,000; 
Raymond's Life of Lincoln, 70,000 ; Rev. 
Dr. March's " Night Scenes of the Bible," 
over 100,000 ; one edition of Fleetwood's 
" Life of Christ," (there are five or six in 
the market) 150,000 ; " Bunyan's Pilgrim's 
Progress," one edition, 110,000 ; Mark 
Twain's "Innocents Abroad," 100,000; 
"Roughing It," 100,000. 

Subscription book publishers have been 
accused of foisting worthless books upon 
the market, but a fair examination will show 
that, in proportion to the number of differ- 
ent books published, the percentage of 
worthless ones is far less than of those pub- 
lished by the regular trade ; and very many 




-^7/^fe^ 



BOOKS. 



267 



of their books are really of the highest 
character. 

The practice of selling subscription books 
by numbers, once greatly in vogue, is now 
confined to a few houses, mostly English. 
Some of these have been very successful, 
but the greater part have abandoned it in 
consequence of the dissatisfaction which it 
occasioned. The numbers will sometimes 
far exceed wliat was announced, to complete 
the work ; they are delivered at uncertain 
times, and when completed the cost is usu- 
ally much greater than the subscriber had 
expected. If they are all preserved they 
have still to be bound at a heavy expense. It 
not unfrequently happens that the subscribers 
drop off so fast from disappointment and 
dissatisfaction that the publisher is compelled 
to abandon the work unfinished. 

There are other subdivisions of the book- 
trade, such as publishers of Medical books. 
Law books. Military and Scientific books. 
Masonic books, and Religious books, which 
are again divided into Sunday School books, 
and Theological works. 

About l.'iSO, a system of semi-annual 
trade sales was inaugurated, for the purpose 
of diffusing more widely the publications of 
the publishing houses and bringing buyers 
and sellers into more frequent contact. 
These sales, though greatly modified from 
their first j^lau, are still maintained, but 
with the abundant facilities for transporta- 
tion and transmitting orders, have mostly 
outlived their usefulness, and many of the 
leading publishers do not now contribute to 
them. The number of publishers in the 
United States is nearly four hundred, but of 
those extensively engaged in the business 
the number is less than one hundred. 

The sale of old or second-hand books is 
also a very extensive branch of business in 
the great cities. It is obvious, that where 
book-buying and book-reading are so preva- 
lent, as is the case among almost all classes 
of the people in the United States, there 
must exist a large number both of public and 
private libraries, and that these, through 
death, and the continual vicissitudes that 
attend families, are being constantly broken 
up. If every family has a library of greater 
or less magnitude, sooner or later there is a 
sale, and it generally comes to the hammer 
in one or more of the large book auctions 
that are held almost nightly. These auctions 
are attended by the public, but mostly by 



the second-hand booksellers. Of these there 
are numbers in those parts of the city fre- 
quented most by strangers. They are the 
same as the "bookstalls," so familiar a 
feature in the literature of England and the 
countries of western Europe, as they are in 
fact a necessity everywhere. In New York, 
the stall-keeper generally procures, for a 
rent of $50 to SloO per annum, according 
to circumstances, the privilege of putting up 
a set of shelves against the outside of some 
store corner. These shelves shut up at 
night, like a large window, and the shutters 
are fastened by iron bars that have padlocks. 
These shelves contain a small stock, from 
$300 to $400 value, of the most saleable 
books that can be picked up cheap at the 
auctions of books, or of household furniture 
of families breaking up, or pui'chased of 
needy persons who offer them. It follows 
that the stalls, or stands, become the re- 
ceptacles of all old books, and sometimes 
very rare and valuable ones that have gone 
out of print, and can be found nowhere else. 
A great many viduable foreign books are 
found here, having been disposed of by 
immigrants who become necessitous. A 
large number of books are sold from these 
stalls, which also keep much of the current 
new literature. The keepers — some of them 
— soon become possessed of sufficient cap- 
ital to open whole stores ; and there are 
now in New York, and most cities some 
very large stores that have rare collections 
of old books. This business has also ex- 
tended across the water, so that persons of 
more scholarly tastes have, through these 
agencies, access to the reservoirs of old 
books to be found in the cities of Europe. 

In the period from 1848 to 1857, works of 
fiction, both from known and unknown au- 
thors, had an immense sale. Mrs. H. B. 
Stowe led the way in this matter, her "Uncle 
Tom's Cabin " selling to the extent of 
310,000 copies here, and nearly a million and 
a half copies in England ; of " The Lamp- 
lighter," by Miss Cummiugs, 90,000 copies 
were sold ; of " Fern Leaves," 70,000 ; 
"Alone," by " Marion Harland," over 50,000 ; 
" Fashion and Famine," by Mrs. Ann S. Ste- 
phens, 30,000 ; " Wide, Wide World," and 
" Queechy," by Miss Warner, nearly 100,000 
each, etc., etc. 

The circulation attained at times by ster- 
ling and standard works is very large, as 
follows : — 



268 



BOOKS. 



Irving's Works, 1,100,000 copies. 

Irving's SkeU-h Book, 98,000 " 

Longfellow's Hiawatha, 43,000 " 

Hugh Millers Works, 50,000 " 

Grace Aguilars Works, 157,000 " 

New Am. CyclopiBdia, Dana& llipley, 16 Tols., 45,000 sets. 

Benton's Thirty Years' View, 2 vols., 8vo, 98 ,500 copies. 

Kane's Arctic Voyages, 2 vols., Svo 65,000 " 

Harper's Pictorial liible, §20, 25,000 " 

Goodrich's History of all Nations, $7, 30,000 " 

Dana"s Household Book of Poetry, 75,000 " 

Kane's Voyages paid $65,000 copyright. 
The sale of Prescott's Histories was very 
large, giving, it is said, 50 cts. copyright. 
The sales of school books surpasses in quan- 
tity those of all other books. 

We have referred to the very large sales 
of Webster's Spelling-Books and Dictiona- 
ries. The aggregate of these to the close 
of 1871 exceeds sixty millions of volumes. 
For several years before Messrs. Cooledge 
& Brother relinquished the business (in 
1857), their sales of Webster's Speller were 
very nearly one million copies per annnm. 
Messrs. Appletou became the publishers in 
1857, and though for several reasons their 
sales have, a portion of the time, been smaller 
than Cooledge's, yet their aggregate sales, to 
the close of 1871, were 13,300,000 copies, 
and their present rate of issue is about 
1,030,000 per annum. This house have also 
sold about two and a half millions of Cor- 
nell's Geographies, and more than 1,000,000 
copies of Quackenbos' Series of Text books. 
They are also the publishers of the " iSew 
American," and the "Annual Cyclopredia" 
of which about 1,200,000 Super l?oyal 8vo 
volumes have been sold. They publish five 
or six periodicals, most of them of very large 
circulation, and a Miscellaneous list second 
in extent only to INIessrs. Harper & Bros. 

Messrs. E. H. Butler & Co., of Phila- 
delphia, the present publishers of JMitchell's 
Geographies, sell about 350,000 copies an- 
nually, and the aggregate sale in the thirty- 
two years since their first publication has 
been about 9,500,000 copies. Smith's Gram- 
mar, also published by this house, sells at 
the rate of 100,000 copies a year. Over 
three millions of copies of it have been sold. 

Messrs. Ivison, Phinney, Blakeman & Co., 
one of the largest houses in the school-book 
trade, sell annually of their Sanders' Read- 
ers and Spellers over 1,000,000 copies, and 
of their other text-books about 4,000,000 
more. The Sanders' Spellers and Readers 
had been sold up to the close of 1871 to the 
extent of more than 26,000,000 of copies ; 
Robinson's Mathematics, 4,000,000 of copies; 
Fasquelle's French, and Woodbury's Ger- 



man Series, 500,000 copies ; Speiicerian 
Penmanship, 1,750,000 ; Swinton's History, 
30,000 copies in six months. 

Messrs. A. S. Barnes «fc Co , also largely 
engaged in the school-book trade, have sold 
in the aggregate of Davies' ]\Iatliematical 
works about 7,000,000 volumes, and are now 
selling about 350,000 of them per annum. 
Of Mrs. Willard's Histories their total sale 
has been about 350,000 ; of Clark's Gram- 
mars, 800,000 ; of Parker & Watson's Se- 
ries of Readers (completed 1859) a total of 
about 7,500,000, and an annual sale of about 
700,000; Monteith & McNally's Geogra- 
phies, total about 4,750,000 ; annual sales 
about 400,000. Steele's Fourteen Weeks 
Series in Sciences, annual sale of about 
50,000. Of Cleveland's Compendiums and 
Wood's Botanies, each a total sale of about 
150,000. Their Teachers Library has sold 
about 100,000 volumes. Their total annual 
sales of the " National Series " of textbooks 
are about 4,000,000 volumes. 

Messrs. Sargent, Wilson & Hinkle, of Cin- 
cinnati, the publishers of McGufFey's Read- 
ers and the Eclectic Educational Series, sell 
annually about 3,500,000 volumes of these 
books. 

Messrs. Sheldon & Co., publish Stoddard's 
Mathematical series of which over 6,000,000 
copies have been sold ; Colton's Geogra- 
phies, over 2,000,000; Comstock's text-books 
in Philosophy, Chemistry, etc., 2,000,000 ; 
Bullion's Series of Grammars and Classics, 
whose sale has been very large, and Loss- 
ing's School Histories, also very popular. 

Messrs. Harper & Brothers have combined 
with the largest list of Miscellaneous pub- 
lications in the country a very extensive issue 
of school text-books, of all kinds, to which 
they are constantly making additions. They 
also publish three of the most widely-circu- 
lating periodicals in the United States. 
They employ an active capital of about two 
million dollars in stock and machinery, ex- 
pending more than $800,000 per annum for 
paper alone. They run over fifty power 
presses, thirty-five of them Adams' presses, 
and many of them night and day. They 
have published 2,600 works, in over thirty- 
five hundred volumes, about equally divided 
between original works and reprints. Their 
issues of bound books amount to more than 
three and a half millions of volumes per an- 
num. 

Messrs. Lippincott & Co., of Philadelphia, 



BOOKS. 



269 



publish a large list of books, but their most 
important business is the jobbing of books 
to booksellers throughout the country. Their 
business in favorable years amounts to from 
five to nine millions of dollars. 

Messrs. Cowperthwait & Co., and Messrs. 
Claxton, Remsen & Haffeltinger are also 
leading houses in the school-book and job- 
bing trade. 

The sale of music books is very large. 
Some of the smaller music books for schools 
and Sunday-|chools have sold to the extent 
of more than two millions of copies, and the 
" Carmina Sacra," a popular collection of 
church music, has had a sale of over 500,- 
000 copies. Messrs. O. Ditson & Co., of 
Boston, and C. 11. Ditson & Co., Bigelow 
& Main, T. E. Perkins, F. J. Huntington 
& Co., Philip Phillips, A. S. Barnes & Co., 
Horace Waters, and W. A. Pond & Co., of 
New York, Root & Cady of Chicago, E. H. 
Butler & Co., and Lee & Walker of Phila- 
delphia are the largest music book publish- 
ers. 

The publication of agricultural books has 
been made a specialty by one or two houses, 
and one of these, Messrs. Orange Judd & 
Co., who are also the publishers of the agri- 

1820. 

School Books, $750,000 

Classical Test-Books, 250,000 

Theological and ReUgious, 150,000 

Law, 200,000 

Medical 150,000 

All others, 1 ,0i iO,000 



cultural paper of largest circulation, sell 
very large quantities. 

The following table gives the number of 
works of the different classes specified, pub- 
lished in each year or period mentioned : 



1855. 
Works. 

Educational, 139 

Natural History, Agricul- 
ture and Science, 65 

Biography, 124 

Essays, Poetry , and Fiction, 776 
Theology and Religion,. . . . 531 

History, 76 

Juveniles, 92 

Music and Fine Arts, 42 

Voyages and Travels, 29 

Medicine and Law, 29 

Drama, 29 

Classics, 13 

Mechanical Sciences, 23 

Miscellaneous, 94 



Of which were" Reprints 



2 1!j2 
. '649 



Jan.,lSr.i 
to Mar. , 

1858. 
Works. 

748 

160 
213 
1,667 
842 
231 
117 
154 
157 
138 

28 

61 

80 
290 

4,883 
1,492 



1865. 1871. 
Works. Works. 
67 288 



189 

150 

465 

129 

191 

312 

37 

25 

55 

io 

42 
116 

1,802 
276 



327 

144 

629 

383 

93 

803 

145 

117 

342 

18 

67 

48 



3,297 
622 



Mr. S. G. Goodrich (Peter Parley), in his 
" Recollections of a Life-time," gave a table 
of the value of books manufiictured and sold 
at different periods in the United States. 
We add to that table an estimate of the 
values of each class of books sold in 1870, 
based upon the census returns for that year : 



18.30. 


1840. 


18.50. 


18.56. 


1,100,000 


2,000,000 


5,500,000 


7,.500,000 


350,000 


5.50,000 


1,000,000 


1,600,000 


2.50,000 


300,000 


600,000 


650,000 


300,000 


400 ,00' > 


700,0t0 


800,000 


200,000 


250,000 


400,000 


550,000 


1.300,000 


2,000,000 


4,400,000 


4,900,000 



i8no. 


1870. 


10,100,000 


20,300,000 


2,000,000 


3,400,000 


1,000,000 


4,150,000 


900,000 


1,200,000 


700,000 


9.50,000 


6, .51 10,000 


10,700,000 



2,5jO,000 3,500,000 5,500,000 12,500,000 16,000.000 21,200,000 40,700,000 



A part of this great inci'ease from 1860 
to 1870 is due to the enhanced price of 
books since the war, but the greater part is 
the result of the new impulse given to edu- 
cation and intelligence in the nation. More 
than thirty millions of our people are read- 
ers and require books as regularly as they 
require food. It is computed that nearly 
two millions of the Freedmen have learned 
to read since 1863. The establishment of 
an efficient public school system in nearly 



every State in the Union, the organization 
of a National Bureau of education, the Pea- 
body Educational Fund, the establishment 
of schools of all grades for the Freedmen 
and their children, and the liberal endow- 
ment of so many institutions of higher edu- 
cation have all tended to make tlie decade 
from 1860 to 1870 one remarkable for in- 
tellectual progress, and hence of necessity 
an era favorable to the wide diffusion of 
literature. 



PENS. 



The use of some implement for writing 
was a necessity immediately on the reduc- 
tion of the first language to writing, and 
very various are the instruments which have 
been used for this purpose as, indeed, it was 



necessary they should be, from the great va- 
riety of materials on which the writing was 
to be inscribed. The rock inscriptions found 
in the Caucasus, in Arabia, in Petra,in Egypt, 
in India, Burmah, Siam, and China and else- 



270 



PENS. 



where, must have been engraved by pointed 
instruments of the hardest steel ; the mscrip- 
tious on the softer Hmestones, steatites or 
talcose skites of Assyria and Babylon were 
obviously made with a sharp cutting instru- 
ment, and the arrow-headed writing on their 
bricks was impressed with a punch or die. 
The tablets of lead, copper, or soft brass, 
required a steel pointed stylus. The waxen 
tablets required a stylus of ivory or bone, 
with a fiat blade for making necessary era- 
sures, and when parchment and paper was 
used for writing purposes, the sharp pointed 
stick, or later the reed pen was employed to 
inscribe upon these surfoces the matters 
which needed to be written. The Chinese 
used and still use, a Camel's hair pencil 
charged with the semi-liquid paste, known 
as India Ink, for the same purpose. The 
leaves of various species of palm are still 
used in the East for writing, and a pointed 
stick and the juice of some berries serve for 
pen and ink. With the introduction of pa- 
per into Eastern Europe in the seventh and 
eighth centuries, came the employment of 
the gray goose quill which for a thousand 
years and more, was the implement for wri- 
ters and scribblers of all sorts. Yet there 
were serious objections to the quill pen. Its 
point was only hard before it had been long 
soaked in ink, and it was for from being 
permanent. It is said, indeed, that Dr. John 
Gill, the famous commentator and theologian, 
wrote all his thirty or forty ponderous folios 
with one quill pen, and that an old one when 
he began ; but it does not surprise us to be 
told by the same authority, that the printer 
of his works complained that he had been 
made blind by the effort to decipher Dr. 
Gill's manuscript. It resulted from this in- 
equality and rapid deterioration of quill 
pens that when the inventive genius of mod- 
ern nations was aroused, one of the first 
things in which improvement was sought 
was the implement of the ready writer. 
The points required for a good pen were a 
firm, indestructible point, great flexibility, 
non-corrosion of either pen or jioint, capacity 
to retain a sufficient quantity of ink to pre- 
vent the necessity of constant replenishing, 
and adaptability to the various tastes of wri- 
ters. Metals seemed to possess most of these 
qualities, but the early experiments with 
them proved failures. 

As early as 1803, attempts were made in 
Great Britain to make pens of steel. They 
had but a single slit, and were poor affairs, 



though quite costly. Silver was tried with 
a little better success, but the points were 
too soft and the pen bent very easily. It 
was, moreover, too costly for general use. 
The improvements in steel pens made by 
Mason, Gillott, Perry, Levy, and other man- 
ufacturers between 1820 and 1830 and since 
that time, have rendered these useful little 
articles of great service to the world. By 
the use of machinery and the division of 
labor, their production was so greatly cheap- 
ened that they were put within the reach of 
all. In Birmingham, England alone, nearly 
1,500 millions of steel j^ens are annually 
made. Large numbers are also manufactured 
on the continent of Europe. Many attempts 
have been made to manufacture steel pens 
in the United States, but without great suc- 
cess. One or two manufacturers have, how- 
ever, persevered in spite of all opposition 
and discouragements, and have succeeded in 
producing by the aid of machinery, a good 
pen at a fair price. The Washington Me- 
dallion pen has attained such a reputation 
as to be largely counterfeited in Germany 
and England. But the steel pen, popular 
and cheap as it has been and still is, does 
not answer :ill the requirements of a good 
pen. It is in its best estate wanting some- 
what in the jiliancy of the quill ; it deterior- 
ates rapidly on use. so that the handwriting 
can never be preci^-ely the same on two suc- 
cessive days, and it soon corrodes and be- 
comes entirely worthless. Permanency and 
uniformity in execution are the indispensa- 
ble requisites for a perfect pen. 

It is not surprising then that attention 
should early have been turned to gold as 
most likely to fulfil these requisites. The 
first attempts were like those in steel, fail- 
ures. The first gold pens were made by 
John Isaac Hawkins, an American residing 
in England, al)Out 182o. Mordan, the Eng- 
lish pencil case maker, also attempted to 
make them not long after, but his pens were 
inelastic and poorer than Hawkins'. The 
use of iridium and osmium points to these 
jiens is due to Mr. Hawkins, who soldered 
them on to the ])oints of the pens he made. 
Rev. Mr. Cleveland, an American clergy- 
man, visiting England, purchased of Haw- 
kins his right to make gold pens in 183'), 
and on his return induced Levi Brown, a 
watchmaker in Detroit, to undertake their 
manufacture. At first Brown met with lit- 
tle success, but in 1840, he removed to New 
York and there the business grew in im- 



BOOK-BINDING. 



271 



portance. The pens made were, however, 
very uasatisfactory, and would be now con- 
sidered worthless except for old gold. About 
1844, Mr. John Uendell, aa employe of 
Brown, commenced making maiihinery for 
the manufacture of pens, which up to that 
time had been made almost entirely by 
hand. A. G. Bagley aid a Mr. Barney, Mr. 
-Leroy W. Fairchild, Mr. Spencer and Mr. 
Dixon, both of wham were subsequntly asso- 
ciated with M: Raalell, engaged in the 
manufacture between this periol and 185 >, 
and soon after several others commenced 
operations in a small way. Very many in- 
ferior pens we;"e thrown upon th:3 market, 
but those made by the machin:^ry of Rt;n- 
dell, improved by Fairchild, had a very good 
reputation. Oae of Faircliild's improve- 
ments consisted in bedding the iridium points 
in the gold instead of soldering them as had 
been done at first. In l8o9, there were in 
tiie United States thirteen gold pen fectories, 
eight of Wiiich were in New York, and one 
in Brooklyn. There we-e also two in Con 
necticut, one in Massachusetts, and one in 
Cincinnati. Five or six of these made pens 
of very fiiir quality, thfi rest produced only 
inferior goods, and most of them wortliless 
trash. 

In 1851, Alexander Mort m, who had pre- 
viously been in the employ of Mr. Bagley, 
commenced the manufacture of gold pens 
on his own account in New York City, and 
very soon by his inventions for tempering 
and finishing them wirh perfect imiformity, 
took the position which he and his successors 
have maintained to this day. For the first 
time in the history of the manufacture, gold 



pen making was reduced to an exact science. 
Previously even the best makers could not 
duplicate a pen. Its exact temper and elas- 
ticity, and its perfect writing qualities were 
beyond their control, and hence the selection 
of a pen was a matter which must be at- 
tended to in person. Mr. Morton brought 
his machinery to such perfection, and was 
so exact and thorough in every department 
of the manufacture, that he could at once 
decide by a glance at the handwriting of a 
customer what grade of pen would best suit 
him, and introduced the practice of filling 
individual orders by mail, and in the ten 
years, 1860-1870, forwarded some millions 
of pens in that way. There are now a very 
considerable number of manufacturers of 
gold pens in this country, some of them for- 
merly employes of Mr. Morton, but while 
some of them make very good pens, there is 
no uniformity about their manufacture, and 
most of them lack that permanent temper 
and elasticity which are the result of Mr. 
Morton's processes. This peculiar excellence 
of Morton's pens has been recognized by 
English bankers and clerks, among whoin 
these pens have the highest reputation. We 
desire to be understood in regard to this 
matter. The oth -r pen manufacturers may, 
and we presume do, make occasionally, pens 
as good as those made by the IMorton pro- 
cess, but they cannot do it unif :)rmly by any 
other method. We have no means of know- 
ing what has been the comparative success 
of the different manufacturers, nor is it a 
matter of any consequence in this work. It 
is only the perfection of the product which 
concerns us. 



BOOK-BINDING. 



CHAPTER I. 

BOOK-BINDING. 

The binding of books is an art probably 
older than the art of book printing itself, 
since there existed a necessity for confining 
the manuscripts and scrolls that were the 
medium of preserving thought in ancient 
days. Even that was a progress, however ; 
since the slabs of stone that bore the divine 



commandments could not have needed bind- 
ing, nor could the rocks and bricks, on which 
the Babylonians traced their ideas, have well 
been bound. The different modes of con- 
veying and preserving ideas, that were adopt- 
ed in different ages and nations, caused re- 
course to be had to almost all materials ac- 
cording to exigencies, and these were pre- 
served according to the exigency. 

The books of wood, or metal, were bound 



112 



BOOK-BINDING. 



by fastening the sheets of whicli they were 
composed at the backs by hinges. When 
parchment and paper succeeded, the backs 
of the sheets were sewed together, and the 
covering varied as the arts progressed and 
materials were adopted. The art itself has 
made material progress only of recent years. 
It came to be a separate art only when the 
discovery of printing, by multiplying books, 
made the binding of them too laborious for 
those Avho did it when years were spent in 
copying one book. In 778, Alcuin, a monk, 
native of England, commenced to copy the 
Bible, and finished it 800, for the Emperor 
Charlemagne. When twenty-two years was 
required to make one copy, there was not 
much business for the binder, whose labors 
commenced witli those of the printing press. 
While books were still comparatively dear, 
the binding bore a small proportion to the 
cost. Of late years, the tendency has been 
toward neatness and durability. The req- 
uisites of a well-bound book are solidity, 
elasticity, and elegance. Among the nations 
of Europe, the French take the lead in ar- 
tistic taste, but the English excel in the ex- 
pensive finish of the more costly editions. 
In the United States, machinery is employed, 
more than elsewhere, to attain the desirable 
result at less cost. ' 

Books are printed upon paper of various 
sizes, which formerly were three, called royal, 
demy, and crown. The book took the size 
indicated by the paper used. The demy 
size was mostly used, and the sheets were 
folded a greater or less number of times. 
Thus, folded once in the middle, gives two 
leaves, or four pages, and is called folio. 
When the sheet is again folded, it gives four 
leaves, or eight pages, and is called quarto ; 
folded again, the result is eight leaves, or 
sixteen pages, and is octavo. By folding 
into twelve leaves, or twenty-four pages, we 
make a duodecimo ; and if into eighteen 
leaves, or thirty -six pages, it forms octo- 
decimo. Of a size less than this, the books 
are pocket editions. The sizes of books thus 
formed are generally designated as 4to, 8vo, 
12mo, 18mo, 24mo, 32mo, 48mo, etc. The 
size of the printed page corresponds with the 
size of this fold. Thus, the size of this 
volume is royal octavo, being printed on 
paper a size larger than demy, or ordinary 
octavo. Each sheet of paper contains eight 
leaves, or sixteen pages ; and there are fifty 
of these sheets in the book. Thus, the type 
is composed of sixteen pages in one " form," 



and one side of a double sheet receives the 
impression of those sixteen pages by one 
movement of the press, and then, being re- 
versed, receives an impression on the other 
side from the same type. As the sheets leave 
the press they are hung up to dry, when they 
are placed under a hydraulic press of great 
power. They are then counted out into 
quires of twenty -four sheets each, and sent to 
the binders. There, in the folding room, the 
sheets are folded hy girls. The object is to 
fold down the pages, so as to fall one upon 
the other with perfect accuracy, since upon 
this the proper binding of the book depends. 
The whole edition of sheets is folded with 
great rapidity by one girl. Some of these 
will fold 400 in an hour, but the average 
may be 300. A folding machine has lately 
been introduced, by which, it is said, two 
girls will do as much as eighteen by hand. 
Each sheet folded is a signature, and gen- 
erally these are designated by some figure 
at the bottom of the first page of each sheet. 
The folded sheets are laid in piles, in the 
order of these signatures. The " gatherer" 
then, with the right hand, takes them, one 
by one, and places them in the left, until a 
complete set, or full book, is collected. This 
is performed so rapidly, that it is said an 
active girl will gather 25,000 in a day. 
After this, the sheets are "knocked up" 
evenly, and pressed in a hydraulic press; 
but recently, a machine has been introduced, 
by whicli time is economized. The en- 
graving, on auotlier page, shows the figure 
of that by lloe <k, Company, which is the 
favorite for embossing, as well as compress- 
ing. The machine runs slower for smashing. 
The size, 15 by 17, weighs half a ton, and is 
sold at 8400. The book is now examined 
by the collector, in order to detect any error 
of arrangement in the signatures. The books 
then go to the sawing machine, where, being 
properly arranged, fine circular saws cut fine 
indentations in the books, to admit as many 
pieces of twine, to each of which each sheet 
is sewed. This is performed by girls, at a 
table appropriated for that purpose. When 
the sewing is complete, the "endpapers" 
are pasted on the book. 

The books next are trimmed by having 
the edges cut by a machine. To effect this 
they are })iled upon a platform, under a large 
knife, which, being worked by a crank, 
descends, like a guillotine, cutting a large 
number at once. The figure of the trimming 
machine is given on another page. The 



PROCESS OP BOOK-BINDING. 
-f ^ 




LAYING O.V GOLD LEAP. 




EMBOSSING PRESS. 




\vi:..; iiACi:!::. 




^ ^^■S'.ii'^—^-t''^'^-'^^ 



j'Mmiim; i;i)'j_m. 



BOOK-BINDING. 



273 



knife used in this machine is 21 inches long, 
and has a short, vibratory movement ; thus 
combining the advantages of the long sta- 
tionary knife with those of the ordinary 
plough. The work to be trimmed is placed 
against the adjustable guide on the bed of 
the press, in front of the knife, and is com- 
pressed by the wheel and screw. The table, 
on which the press stands, is adjustable in 
all directions, and is also self-acting, so that, 
when thrown into gear, it rises to the re- 
quired height and disengages itself — thus 
preventing injury to the knife — and then 
drops down to its original position. Three 
sides of the work can be successively pre- 
sented to the action of the knife, by simply 
turning the press to the quarter and half- 
turn stops. The machine can be worked 
either by hand or steam power, and can be 
easily adjusted to cut any size from 3 to 18 
inches long, and from 1 to 15 inches wide. 
This machine has been in operation some 
twenty-five years. The backs now receive 
a coat of glue, to impart firmness. They 
are then, by the " backing machine" — which 
is an improvement of some ten years' stand- 
ing — rounded on the back, and receive a 
groove for the boards. They are then cut 
on the ends. A piece of muslin, nearly as 
long as the book, and extending an inch 
over the sides, is then pasted on, and the 
book is ready to receive the boards, or cases. 
These consist of mill-boards cut a little larger 
than the book, and cloth cut large enough 
to turn over all. The cloth is glued, and 
one board is placed upon it. The corners 
of the cloth are then cut, and the edges 
turned down and rolled smooth. It is then 
dressed, when it goes into the hands of the 
stamper. The stamping, or embossing, is 
done in a press, from dies previously pre- 
pared. When the sides are lettered, the 
letters are engraved in metal, and impressed 
upon the cloth. Gold leaf is placed upon 
the cloth, and the heat of the stamp causes 
it to adhere in the desired places. The 
book is then pasted on the sides, placed in 
the covers, and pressed, when it is a book 
bound in cloth. The stamping, or, as it is 
sometimes called, the arming press, Avill per- 
form, almost instantaneously, what formerly 
would have required a week. This has been 
brought about by a combination of the arts 
— designing, die-sinking, and application of 
machinery. When a particular design is 
required upon a book, the artist draws it 



upon paper; it is then cut in brass, or steel, 
and this block in the press embosses a great 
many covers at a blow. 

With books bound in leather, the process 
is not so expeditious. In order to insure 
solidity, the books were formerly beaten 
upon a stone with a broad-faced liammer. 
They are now squeezed between steel rollers, 
to effect the same object. The engraving 
of the rolling machine, in another column, 
will give a good idea of the one that is now 
used by bookbinders, in place of screw and 
hydraulic presses, for pressing folded sheets. 
The work is placed on an iron table in front 
of the rollers, between jjlates of iron, paste- 
board, or leather, and passed through the 
machine as often as necessary. The adjust- 
ing screws are geared together, so that the 
rollers are always parallel to each other. It 
is strongly geared, and may be run by either 
hand or steam power. The sewing is done 
in a more substantial manner. The volume, 
placed in the laying press, has its back ham- 
mered very carefully, so as to spread the 
sheets on each side of the boards without 
wrinkling the inside, and the work pi'oceeds 
until it leaves the hands of the finisher a 
perfect model. It opens easily, and lies flat 
out without any strain, and its hinges are 
without crease. 

In gilding the edges of a book, they are 
scraped smooth and covered with a pi-epara- 
tion of red chalk, as a groundwork for the 
size, which is formed of one egg to half a 
pint of water. The gold is laid on the size, 
and then burnished with a bloodstone. 

The embellishment of book covers is called 
" tooling," and, when plain, blind tooling. 
By this latter, sometimes glossy black in- 
dentations are made to contrast tastefully 
with the rich color of the morocco. This 
is performed by wetting the morocco, and 
applying the tool in a heated state. 

There has been a method invented by 
which the leaves of a book are fixed together 
with India-rubber instead of sewing. The 
sheets being cut evenly, receive a solution 
of the material ; as each leaf is held only 
by the rubber, the book is made to lie very 
flat. This does not appear to have come 
into much favor. The fashion of imitating 
antique styles of binding has led to the use 
of wood instead of pasteboard, in some fancy 
styles of costly books. It is only a passing 
caprice, since wood cannot supplant the 
pasteboard. 



WRITERS OF AMERICA. 



CHAPTER I. 

THEOLOGIANS— STATESMEN— NOVELISTS 
—HISTORIANS. 

With the settlement of the colonies, there 
were necessarily but few attempts at literary 
productions. The Pil<:;rim Fathers hrouojht 
with them many hooks from their native 
land, but these were mostly bibles and theo- 
logical works. They were persons whose 
minds bore the strongest religious impres- 
sions. In them the sentiment of piety ap- 
proached austerity ; and they were not un- 
frequently charged with fanaticism. The 
time they had to devote to literature was 
wholly absorbed in the perusal of those de- 
votional works that sustained and illustrated 
that faith which they had made their rule 
of action under all circumstances, and which 
they lived up to with all the sternness of 
their bold and decided characters. They 
had encountered the perils of the Avilder- 
ness to rear free homes ; and they were de- 
termined, also, to make them temples to the 
Lord. It is not to be inferred that literature 
and the finer arts of life were, even at that 
remote period, foreign to the people of the 
countr}'. The founders of all the colonies 
were among the most elegant writers and 
accomplished scholars of the time. Such 
men as Raleigh, Baltimore, Penn, Ogle- 
thorpe, Smith, Winthrop, and a crowd of 
others, would have been ornaments to the 
most brilliant circles of any country : with 
them and their successors, education and re- 
ligion were the foremost objects of atten- 
tion. But among men so busy with the 
work in hand, as to declare " that the laws 
of God should govern until they had time to 
make others," much general literature could 
not find cultivation. Theological works were 
the staple, and these were produced with an 
independence of thought and a vigor of ar- 
gument which enchained their adherents and 
astonished the opponents they had left at 
home. As the laws of God were the models 



of government, so were the inspired writers 
the only guides for the faith of that stead- 
fiist people. Those original and strong 
thinkers were also powerful and prolific 
writers; and some of them won the first 
place, in the estimation of the learned, as 
theologians. Cotton Mather, who had no 
equal as a scholar, wrote 382 works, of one 
of which, " Essays to do Good," Dr. Frank- 
lin remarks : " It perhaps gave me a tone of 
thinking that had an influence upon some 
of the principal future events of my life." 
Thus was one of the most poAverful minds 
of the eighteenth, or, indeed, any century, 
impressed with the vigorous style of a colo- 
nial author. The simple missionary, Jona- 
than Edwards, a large portion of whose use- 
ful life was spent on the confines of civiliza- 
tion, produced works which, according to 
Dr. Chalmers, a century afterward, stamped 
him as " the greatest of theologians," and 
called from Sir James Mackintosh the remark 
that, " in power of subtle reasoning he was, 
perhaps, unmatched among men." Mr. Ed- 
wards succeeded to the presidency of the 
New Jersey College, and died in 1'758. He 
was the type of the theological age of the 
country. His work became the standard 
of orthodoxy for enlightened Protestant Eu- 
rope. That voice, which M'as indeed " one 
crying in the wildei'ness," became the text- 
book of the most learned divines of the old 
world. 

As the colonies advanced in Avealth and 
numbers, more diversified views naturally 
sprung up, but the books of amusement and 
instruction were mostly imported from Eng- 
land. There was little in the rude struggle 
with the wilderness to fostei- an independent 
school of literature, which flourished much 
better in England, where existed all the re- 
sources of libraries and information. That 
bold and strong natural intellects, like that 
of Dr. Franklin, should grow up, was almost 
a necessity of the vigorous race that pro- 
duced him ; and his works were at once ap- 



THEOLOGIANS STATESMEN NOVELISTS HISTORIANS, 



275 



preciated, because tliey reflected the genius 
of the people. The clear, strong; sense of 
" Poor Richard "struck a responsive chord 
in every heart, and there was little reason to 
be surprised that the almanac reached a cir- 
culation of 10,000 in 1735. The school 
system that had been early established by 
the colonists, laid a broad foundation for 
future literature. To make all classes of 
persons readers, was to create a demand for 
books that must sooner or later be gratified ; 
and writers and speakers were sure to find 
the avenue to the public mind when the oc- 
casion offered. This presented itself when 
the disputes with the mother country began 
to take a serious form. Those events stirred 
the depths of feeling in all ranks and classes, 
and an army of orators rose into public 
view at once, to fan the flames of discontent 
into a conflagration that ultimately consumed 
the loyalty of the colonists, and left their 
original sturdy independence of character to 
assert itself in political separation. The 
eloquence of Otis, of John Adams, Patrick 
Henry, Samuel Adams, of Pinckney, of Rut- 
ledge, and others, live for us only in the ef- 
fects they produced, and of which our insti- 
tutions are the manifestation. Unhappily 
there were then no means of reporting by 
which those soul-stirring speeches could be 
preserved, and we have but a few sketches 
of Fisher Ames and Patrick Henry. While 
those illustrious men roused the nation with 
their voices, numbers aided with their pens ; 
among these, Thomas Paine' s pamphlet, 
" Common Sense," and his sei'ies of tracts 
entitled "The Crisis," produced a marvellous 
eff"ect. The papers in themselves, at the pres- 
ent day, give no evidence of great ability, but 
they were fitted to the epoch with extraordi- 
nary aptness ; and tradition assures us that 
each, on its appearance, produced a furore 
difficult to conceive. The epoch was one of 
intense excitement ; and those papers held up 
clearly the dark side of kingcraft to a people 
in whose minds republicanism was making 
rapid growth. The pamphlets and papers 
that circulated at that period were, some of 
them, marked with great learning and power. 
The correspondence then carried on among 
public men, and which has since been col- 
lected and given to the public, surpasses in 
learning, political sagacity, grace of diction, 
vigor of thought, and power of expression, 
any thing of the kind that ever before ap- 
peared in any country. We, that read those 
papers by the light of seventy years of sub- 
17 * 



sequent history, are better able to appreciate 
the extraordinary ability they evince. The 
letters of Franklin, Jefferson, Jay, Adams, 
Washington, Morris, and others, will, Avhilc 
the nation lasts, be preserved as models of 
literary excellence. The publication of the 
" Federalist " was an era in political willing ; 
the work was the joint production of Alexan- 
der Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. 
The papers were signed " I^ublius," and their 
object was to urge the importance of union 
in the adoption of the constitution. The 
statesmen of Europe regarded the work with 
admiration ; and the Edinburgh Review re- 
marked : " It exhibits an extent and pre- 
cision of information, a profundity of re- 
search, and an acutencss of understanding 
which would have done honor to the most 
illustrious statesmen of ancient or modern 
times." In his work on " Democracy in 
America," De Tocqueville remarks that " it 
ought to be familiar to the statesmen cf 
every nation." If the reader of the present 
day is struck with the clear-sighted sagacity 
that the papers evince, how much greater 
is our admiration when we reflect that those 
statesmen were reared in our colonial state, 
without any of that experience which has 
shed its light upon us. The wisdom they 
displayed was the result of their own pro- 
found deliberation. The writings were an 
interchange of views between a race of in- 
tellectual giants who were giving birth to a 
nation. The works of James IMadison com- 
prise fifteen octavo volumes of 600 pages 
each, and are distinguished for sound- 
ness of reasoning, and great sagacity. The 
report of Hamilton, as secretary of the 
treasury, on banks and manufactures, was of 
great celebrity ; and, as far as it described 
the existing state of affairs,; was valuable. 
It is to be borne in mind that he was one of 
a race of Titans who were organizing a na- 
tion of a kind that never before existed ; and 
if the views he advocated have not been 
justified by the experience that the nation 
has wrought out in the last seventy years, it 
is not surprising ; nor can his great wisdom 
be taxed on that account any more than the 
vast ability of Patrick Henry be questioned 
because he opposed the new constitution. 
The writings of Jefferson, the statesman and 
patriot, were of a nature more durable and 
statesmanlike than the effusions of Hamilton, 
which were more the products of a subor- 
dinate executive officer than a directing 
head. The pen which wrote the Declaration 



276 



WRITERS OF AMERICA. 



of Independence and the state papers, wrote, 
also, the " Notes on A'irginia," the autobiog- 
raphy, correspondence, and Anas, included 
in the four volumes of his works published 
after his death by Mr. Kandolph. Of the same 
age as these eminent statesmen, was John Mar- 
shall, the celebrated chief justice of the Uni- 
ted States. Judge Marshall appeared as an 
author in 1805, when he published his "Life 
of Washington." The introductory volume, 
being a " History of the Colonies planted by 
the English on the Continent of Nortli Amer- 
ica," was published separately in 1824. In 
1832 an abridgment of his " Life of Wash- 
ington" appeared. Mr. Marshall occupied the 
posts of minister to France and secretary of 
state, and his state papers commanded admi- 
ration as of the very highest order. His ap- 
pointment and career as chief justice seems to 
have been one of those special providences 
that have so often manifested themselves on 
behalf of the United States as a nation. The 
powers of the Supreme Court are such as 
were never before, by any people, confided to 
a judicial tribunal. It determines, without 
appeal, its own jurisdiction, and that of the 
legislature and the executive. It is not mere- 
ly the highest court in the whole country, but 
the constitution of the country is in its hands. 
This tribunal was to decide upon every 
question that should arise under the new 
constitution, in relation to all the rights and 
powers of each department of government, 
and also those of all the states. A want of 
ability or of integrity upon the part of the 
court, possessed of such power, might, 
by vicious interpretation, have destroyed 
the whole fair fabric that had been raised 
with so much care and wisdom. This im- 
mense responsibility devolved upon John 
Marshall, and nobly did his great capacity 
and sterling integrity meet the occasion. 
During thirty-four years, that great man de- 
cided every question that arose ; and, so to 
speak, fairly launched the constitution and 
government upon the stream of time. 

Cotemporary with Judge j\larshall, upon 
the supreme bench, was Joseph Story, who, 
born in Massachusetts in 1779, was appoint- 
ed in 1811, and held the office until his death 
in 1845, a period of thirty-four years, during 
twenty-four of which he was associated with 
Judge Marshall, and displayed talents worthy 
of such a colleague. His literary writings 
were published in 1835, comprising sketches 
of eminent men, and other papers. 

The eminent statesmen who have adorned 



the literature of their country, have been 
many. Henry A\ heaton, Esq., who was born 
in 17 85, served the country in many capacities. 
He published the most complete work on 
international law, in 1835. John Quincy 
Adams, one of the most remarkable men of 
the country, was born in Braintree, July, 
1767, while his great-grandfather, who was 
born in the reign of Charles II, yet lived. Mr. 
Adams graduated at Harvard Collesre in 
1787, just 100 years after the birth of his 
great-grandfather. He chose the law as a 
profession, and began to write for publication 
over the signature of " Publicola." He re- 
plied to some portions of I'aine's "Rights of 
Man." Washington appointed him minister 
to the Netherlands from 1794 to 1801. He 
had, also, appointed him to Portugal, but 
while on his way, his destination was 
changed to Berlin by the accession of his 
father to the presidential chair. While in 
Berlin, Mr. Adams became acquainted with 
German literature. A series of letters at 
this period to his brother in Philadelphia, 
was afterward published. They were of 
high interest. Subsequently, he was a 
member of the Massachusetts legislature, 
and professor of oratory at Harvard Univer- 
sity. He w-as appointed minister to Russia 
by President Madison. From thence he was 
transferred to Ghent, to negotiate peace in 
company with Messrs. Bayard, Clay, and 
Gallatin. Afterward, he was appointed min- 
ister to St. James. He was eight years in 
the cabinet, and four years president. In 
1831, he was sent to the House of Repre- 
sentatives, where he remained until his 
death, in 1848. He filled more of the high 
offices of government, than any other man 
in the country. The largest portion of his 
published writings consists of orations and 
miscellaneous discourses of a high charac- 
ter. He gave to the world some essays 
upon Shakspeare ; also, translations from 
the German of Wieland. In 1832 he pub- 
lished " Dermot Mac Morrogh ; A Tale of the 
Twelfth Century," with some shorter poems, 
chiefly lyrical. All the writings of Mr. 
Adams display the most mature scholarship, 
but the statesman seems to have overshad- 
owed the man, since it is probable that from 
a less eminent person they would have been 
more highly considered. 

William Wirt was born in 1772, at Bla- 
densburg, Mar} land, and became a lawyer 
in 1792, in which profession he was emi- 
nently successful. In 1802, he wTote the 



THEOLOGIANS STATESMEN NOVELISTS HISTORIANS. 



277 



"Britisli Spy," which had a great success. In 
1807, he earned a great reputation by his 
famous speech in favor of Blennerhasset. 
He produced many works before he gave to 
the world his extraordinary "Life of Patrick 
Henry" in 1817. That work has an endur- 
ing reputation. 

Daniel Webster, that type of New England 
intellect, was born in 1782, in the same year 
with Audubon, the great American naturalist. 
He was a New England farmer's son, of 
Salisbury, N. H., and pursued learning with 
the indomitable energy of his race — teach- 
ing school as he himself acquired learning — 
forcing his way to notice, until he acquired 
a world-wide reputation. His earliest liter- 
ary performance was in 1806, when 24 years 
of age, being a Fourth of July oration. He 
was a contributor to the North American 
Review, and his orations on different occa- 
sions were eagerly read in every section of 
the country. No speeches were more 
fraught with wisdom and eloquence, or had 
greater influence upon the public mind, 
since, being models of their kind, many are 
daily read in the public schools. He is so 
thoroughly American, and so in earnest in his 
expositions of the constitution, that his name, 
to use his own expression, must ever have an 
*' odor of nationality." He speaks always to 
the understanding, and always with effect. 

In the same year in which Webster 
was born. South Carolina gave birth to her 
great statesman, John C Calhoun. He was 
born in Abbeville district, in March, 17S2. 
He graduated at Yale College in 1804, 
and began the study of law, in which he 
attained great success. In 1809, he was 
elected to the state legislature. In 1811, 
he was elected to the House of Representa- 
tives, immediately taking a foremost post, 
until 1817, when he became secretary of 
war under Mr. Madison, and so continued 
eight years. Subsequently, he was twice 
elected vice-president, the last time in 
1828. He soon resigned for the Senate, 
where he continued until his death, in 1 850. 
Mr. Calhoun was one of the most extraor- 
dinary men of the country, and one of 
those whose works will live far into poster- 
ity. His eloquence was of a most refined 
cast, and distinguished for its compact rea- 
soning. He was possessed of that quick- 
ness of perception and subtleness of argu- 
ment, which made Jonathan Edwards the 
first of theologians. His works have been 
collected since his death, in six volumes. 



Cotemporary with Webster and Calhoun, 
were the great orators. Clay, Mangum, and 
others, whose speeches belong to the stand- 
ard literature of the country, but who have 
not contributed to it directly by writing. 
Thomas II. Benton, the great Missouri sena- 
tor, was born in North Carolina in 1782, and 
pursued the study of law. In his " Thirty 
Years' View" of the American government, 
he has contributed a work of great value to 
the historical literature of the country. That 
great work is not only a faithful record of 
the political history of the country for the 
thirty years, but the clear Saxon style in 
which it is composed, gives it a charm sel- 
dom found in similar productions. When 
this work was completed, he commenced the 
task of condensing, reviewing, and abridg- 
ing the debates of Congress, from the foun- 
dation of the government, which he lived to 
bring down to the compromise measures of 
1850. With a strong intellect and bold 
character, Col. Benton was well calculated to 
dominate in the western states. In Mis- 
souri, at one time, his power was boundless. 

The brothers Everett have deservedly oc- 
cupied a high place among the literary men 
of the country. The elder, Alexander, was 
born in 1790, in Boston. He graduated at 
Harvard in 1806, and pursued the profes-. 
sion of law, but filled many offices of public 
trust, being minister to China at the time of 
his death, in 1847. During his life, his at- 
tention was never long diverted from litera- 
ture, and his writings were numerous in the 
North American Review, of which his 
brother, Edward, was editor, and elsewhere. 
Edward Everett was born in 1794, and grad- 
uated at Harvard in 1811. He began the 
study of law, but adopted theology, and at 
19 years was called to the Brattle street 
church, Boston, to fill the vacancy caused 
by the death of Mr. Buckminster, one of 
the most remarkable orators of modern 
times. He was soon after elected Greek 
professor at Harvard. While filling that 
office, he published some school books. 
In 1820, he became the editor of the 
North American Review, to which he large- 
ly contributed. He became member of 
Congress, and afterward governor of Massa- 
chusetts. He was minister to England, 
president of Harvard College, and United 
States senator. Like his brother of opposite 
politics, he has enjoyed a succession of offices, 
and was, in 1860, the candidate of a large 
party for the vice-presidency. When Lord 



278 



WRITERS OF AMERICA. 



Macaulay, from over occupation, declined to 
add a memoir of Washington to the many- 
brilliant biographical papers he prepared for 
the new edition of the "EncyclopicdiaBrit- 
annica," he suggested to the publishers of 
that work, that his friend Edward Everett 
would be the very man to execute the task. 
He prepared the paper, which was subse- 
quently republished here. Mr. Everett died 
in 186."), in the height of his fame. 

John P, Kennedy, was born in Balti- 
more, Md., Oct. 25, 1795. He pursued the 
law as a profession ; was a member of Con- 
gress 1837-9, and 1841-5, and Secretary of 
the Navy in 1852. lie was one of the most 
genial and popular of writers. He was, 
perhaps, best known as the author of the 
"• Memoirs of William Wirt," publ'shed in 
1819, a " Defence of the Whigs" 1841, 
"•Plorse Shoe Kobinson," 18')5, and " Rob of 
the Bowl," published in 183s, followed by 
"Annals of Quodlibet," in 1810. His de- 
lineations of nature were truthful, and his 
character-drawing marked with great del- 
icacy and freedom. He died in 1870. 

Hugh S. Legare was born in South Cor- 
olina, in 1797, and graduated at the South 
Carolina College, following the law as a pro- 
fession. He died in 1843. In 1820, he was 
sent to the state legislature, and subsequently 
was appointed attorney-general of the state, 
was made charge d'affaires at Brussels, and 
chosen to Congress in 1836. His contribu- 
tions to the New York Revieio gave him a 
high literary reputation. In 1846, a collec- 
tion of his writings was published in 
Charleston, establishing his high reputation 
as of the first class of intellects. 

There are a number of others ofour states- 
men and political men, who have contribu- 
ted by their writings to the literary capital 
of the country, but we have here selected 
only the most prominent of them. 

Of those who have made literature a pro- 
fession, Charles B. Brown seems to have 
been the first, lie was born in 1771, in 
Philadelphia, and was of very early promise. 
In New York, in 1793, he was introduced to 
a literary society, which numbered among its 
members James Kent, afterward chancellor, 
Dr. Mitchill, Dunlap, Bleeckcr, and others. 
In 1797, he published a work on the rights 
of women, which then found loss favor than 
some writers on the same subject have more 
recently experienced. He published, subse- 
quently, a number of works that met with 
no very great success. 



A year younger than Daniel Webster 
was Washington Irving, born in N. Y. City, 
April 3, 1783, died in I )S59. Mr. Irving, " the 
prince of story tellers," is the admitted leader 
of American literature. His first publicaiions 
were in 1802, over the signature of Jona- 
than Oldstyle, Gent., in the Mornhu/ Chroni- 
cle, of which his brother was editor. In 
1806, in connection with James K. Paul- 
ding, he began writing "Salmagundi." This 
created a great sensation. It attacked, with 
amusing ridicule, the ignorance, presumption, 
and vulgarity of the British tourists, and sat- 
irized pretenders at home and abroad in a 
most efiective manner. He soon after com- 
menced the "History of New York, by Died- 
rich Knickerbocker," which must ever remain 
the finest monument of his genius. He 
was connected in business with his brothers, 
and upon the failure of the firm, he was, 
happily for the public, forced to depend up- 
on literature for support. His next produc- 
tion was the " Sketch Book," published in 
New York and in London, in 1819-20. Its 
success was great at home and abroad, fully 
establishing the fame of the author. From 
that date, his works appeared at pretty reg- 
ular intervals, although he was absent from 
the country seventeen years, up to 1832. 
Soon after, he purchased the old mansion of 
the Van Tassels, on the Hudson, near 
"Sleepy Hollow." He then resumed his lit- 
erary labors until his appointment as minis- 
ter to Spain,, in 1841. He returned, in 
1846, to his residence, and remained there 
until his death, still continuing, at times, to 
add to the list of his productions, the last 
of which Avas the "Life of Washington," 
which has had a sale probably as extensive 
as all the rest of his works, and the aggre- 
gate of which will exceed half a million vol- 
umes. It may be said that he has been one 
of the most successful of authors. 

James K. Paulding, the colleague of Ir- 
ving in " Salmagundi," was four years his sen- 
ior, having been born in 1779, in the town 
of Pawling, on the Hudson. Notwith- 
standing the great success of " Salmagundi," 
the publisher refused to remunerate the 
writers, and it was brought suddenly to a 
close. In 1813, Mr. Paulding published a 
satirical poem, called " The Lay of a Scotch 
Fiddle," and in 1816 the most humorous of 
his satires, "The Diverting History of John 
Bull and Brother Jonathan," was published. 
His works were numerous up to 1831, when 
the "Dutchman's Fireside" appeared, meeting 



THEOLOGIANS STATESMEN NOVELISTS HISTORIANS. 



279 



with great success. It is called the best of 
Lis novels. This was followed by " West- 
ward, IIo !" in which his characters are 
drawn with great truth and vigor. His 
sketch of the Kentucky hunter in 'his com- 
edy of "Niinrod Wildfire," has met with great 
popularity. In 1837, Mr. Paulding became 
secretary of the navy under Mr. Van Bu- 
ren. On his retirement he resumed his pen, 
and some of his later productions were con- 
tributions to the Dentocratic Heviav. All 
the works of Mr. Paulding would probably 
reach some thirty volumes. His works 
evince great descriptive power, skill in char- 
acter drawing, with much humor and a 
strong natural feeling running through them 
alL Mr. Paulding died in 1H60. 

James Fcnimore Cooper, the most widely 
known of American novelists, as well as the 
most distinguished, was born in 1789, at 
Burlington, New Jersey. He became a stu- 
dent in Yale College in 1802, in the same 
year with John C. Calhoun. On quitting 
college, in 1805, he entered the navy as a 
midshipman, for which position his daring 
and open-hearted nature seemed to fit him. 
He was very popular in the service, and a 
most promising officer, when, after six years 
of sea service — more than many old officers 
see in a whole life-time — he resigned, mar- 
ried, and finally retired to Cooperstown, N. Y. 
His first work was " Precaution," Avhich had 
success, but not that eminent success that 
attended his subsequent works. His next 
work was the " Spy." This was decidedly 
the best historical romance ever written by 
an American, and its success was immense. 
Notwithstanding many attempts of the press 
to speak slightly of it, it created a furore in 
the public mind, and imparted an immense 
impulse to literature. The work was imme- 
diately republished in all parts of Europe, 
and it demonstrated the fact that everybody 
read " an American book," since even in 
England it rivalled the Waverley Novels in 
popularity. A few years before his death, 
Mr. Cooper received information that it had 
been translated into the Persian, Arabic, 
and some other oriental languages. When 
it is remembered that this story was a life 
picture of the struggle for independence, the 
effect of such a wide-spread circulation 
among readers under every form of govern- 
ment, may be estimated. 

In 1823, the "Pioneers" made its appear- 
ance, commencing that series of Leather- 
stocking tales that will last while the coun- 



try stands. The next work of Mr. Coop- 
er's opened the series of his sea tales, in 
which he stands confessedly without a 
rival. Those two lines of romance, the 
American forest and the domain of Nep- 
tune, Mr. Cooper made peculiarly liis own, 
and they both illustrate scenes peculiarly 
American. The "Pilot," it is said, originated 
in the fact that the " Pirate" of Sir VV^ alter 
Scott having recently appeared, the conver- 
sation turned upon the faultiness of the sea 
delineation, and Cooper undertook to write 
a sea story in which the seamanship could 
not be criticised, and the " Pilot" resulted. 
Its success was unbounded. The next work 
was "Lionel Lincoln," a story of the war dur- 
ing the British occupation of Boston, and 
although it was quite equal to the "Spy," yet 
for some reason did not take with the public 
in so great a degree. In 1826, the "Last of 
the Mohicans" was produced, and it had a 
success from the first, greater than any novel 
had ever before had. It was purely orig- 
inal, introducing for the first time upon the 
field of literature, that race of men of whom 
but a few years will leave only the tradi- 
tion. In the " Pilot,"a real seaman for the 
first time came upon the stage, in the person 
of Paul Jones ; and in the "Mohicans," the 
red man made his dtbnt in the person of 
Uncas. I\Ir. Cooper immediately took rank 
in England as one of the first romance writ- 
ers of this, or any other age. Like the 
"Spy," it was reproduced in every language of 
Europe. The "Prairie" appeared next, while 
Mr. Cooper was in Europe, and it carried 
the reputation of the writer to a still higher 
point. That work was succeeded by the 
" Red Rover," which was followed by the 
" Water Witch." The labors of Mr. Coop- 
er continued up to 1839, when his "History 
of the American Navy" appeared. It had a 
great and deserved success. It is a noble 
monument to the gallant service which, 
springing from the bosom of a newly formed 
country, successfully grappled with the ty- 
rant of the seas, and demonstrated to the 
world that a new power had arisen to re- 
dress the balance of the old upon the ocean. 
There followed this work a continuation of 
the Leather-stocking tales, in the "Pathfinder" 
and the "Deerslayer," both of which sustained 
the high reputation of the series. The com- 
plete works of Mr. Cooper embrace a great 
number of volumes. Not all of thern are 
of the high grade of those which have given 
him a world-wide character. There is not 



280 



WKITlKS OF AMERICA. 



a language in Europe into which they were 
not all translated as soon as they appeared 
in London. The readers of books in South 
America, in India, throughout England, and 
in Ru-;sia, are familiar with the name of 
Cooper, even where America is only known 
as his home. 

James Hall, born in Philadelphia in 1793, 
died in 1868, made many contributions to 
our literature. He was the author of " Le- 
gends of the West," "A History of the In- 
dian Tribes of North America," "The Wil- 
derness and the War Path." 

The years 1804 to 1810 were prolific in 
the production of authors. Not less than ten 
distinguished writers were born in those 
years : Theodore S. Fay, Geo. B. Cheever, 
Chas. F. Hoffman, C. M. Kirkland, Nathan- 
iel Hawthorne, N. P. Willis, H. W. Long- 
fellow, W. G. Simms, Joseph C. Neal, S. M. 
Fuller. Mr. Fay was educated for the 
New York bar, and published first, in 1832, 
" Dreams and Reveries of a Quiet Man," 
and essays written for the New York Mirror, 
in which lie was associated with Willis, Gen. 
Morris, Rufus Dawes, etc. His novel of 
"Norman Leslie" is better known. In 1837 
he produ(;ed the " Countess Ida ;" subse- 
quently, " Hoboken ; a Tale of New York." 
He has spent most of his life abroad, under 
government appointments. 

Rev. Dr. Cheever was born in Maine, in 
1807, educated at Bowdoin College and An- 
dover Seminary. He preached first at Sa- 
lem and afterwards in N. Y. City, but has 
for some time past been without a charge. 
He travelled extensively in Europe and has 
written several interesting volumes of trav- 
els, and a number of religious and controver- 
sial works. He now resides in New Jersey. 

Cliarles F. Hoffman was born in New 
York in 1806, graduated at Columbia Col- 
lege, and commenced the study of the law. 
He began his literary career as editor of the 
New York American, associated with Charles 
Bang, Esq., since president of Columbia 
College ; and in 1835 published " A Win 
ter in the West," which met with great suc- 
cess both in London and in New York. This 
was followed by "Wild Scenes in the For- 
est and the Prairie," and subsequently by 
" Greyslaer." Mr. Hoffman established the 
Knickerbocker Magazine in 1838. In 1843 
he published "The Vigil of Faith ;" and 
later several songs and essays. Since 1850 
he has been hopelessly insane. 



Nathaniel ILiwthoine \v;is Lura i;i hultiui 
in 1804, and graduated from Bowdoin Col- 
lege, in Maine, in 1H25. In 1837 he pub- 
lished " Twice Told Tales," that had previ- 
ously appeared in periodicals, in book form. 
In 1846 a new collection of his magazine 
papers was published, under the name of 
" Mosses from an Old Manse." He had a 
custom-house appointment in Boston, under 
Collector Bancroft, and subsequently joined 
the Fourierite community at " Brook Farm," 
Roxbury. Afterward ajipeared " The Scar- 
let Letter," and "The House of Seven Ga- 
bles," which confiimed his rank as one of 
the great masters of romance. He was one 
of the most distinguished of American wri- 
ters ; and was appointed consul to Liverpool 
by President Pieice. In 1851 he published 
" True Stories from History and Biogi aphy ;" 
in 1852, "The Snow Image;" in 1853, 
"The Wonder Book;" in 185'J, "The Mar- 
ble Faun." Mr. Hawthorne died in 1864. 

N. P. Willis was a native of Portland, but 
went early to Boston ; whence he entered 
Yale College, whei-e he graduated in 1827. 
He was then engaged by S. G. Goodrich, 
since known as " Peter Parley," to edit 
"The Token." About the year 1830 he 
was appointed attache of the American le- 
gation at Paris ; in which capacity ho col- 
lected the materials for " Pencillings by the 
Way," which was first published in the New 
York Mirror. In 1839 he was one of the 
editors of the Corsair, which was short- 
lived. In 1840 an illustrated edition of his 
poems was published, and his " Letters from 
under a Bridge." In 1843, in connection 
with Geo. P. Morris, he revived the Mirror, 
which lived but a few months. In 1846, the 
two authors commenced the Home Journal, 
which continues to flourish. Mr. Willis had 
a wide reputation at home and abroad. 
While he won the admiration of the most 
refined taste, he enjoyed a wide popularity 
as a writer of light literature. Mr. Willis 
died in 1867 at Idlewild on the Hudson. 

Henry W. Longfellow was born in Port- 
land, Me., in 1807. He graduated at Bow- 
doin College, and commenced the study of the 
law ; but abandoned it for a professorship of 
modern languages in Bowdoin College, 
which office he assumed in 1829. He 
speedily won the reputation of a most grace- 
ful poet, as well as of an accomplished 
scholar. In 1836 he was called to the pro- 
fessorship of modern languages at Harvard 



THEOLOGIANS — STATESMEN NOVELISTS HISTORIANS. 



281 



College, wlaich he lias since retained. In 
1833 he published his translation from the 
Spanish of the Coplas of Don Jorge Man- 
rique. In 1835 he published " Outre-Mer," 
and in 1838 "Hyperion ; a Romance," fol- 
lowed by other poems. The merits of Mr. 
Longfellow as a poet are of the highest order. 
Some of his poems have had an unusual suc- 
cess. " Hiawatha " circulated to the extent 
of 45,000 copies, and the "Courtship of 
Miles Standish " acquired great popularity. 

W. Gilmore Simms was a native of 
Charleston, South Carolina, and became a 
lawyer in that city. When only eighteen 
years of age, he published his first poems, 
lyrical and others. These were followed, 
sxiccessively, by " Early Lays," " The Vision 
of Cortes," and, in 1 830, by the " Tri color." 
In 1832, while traveling at the north, he 
wrote, at Hingham, Mass., his cliief poem — 
"Atalantis ; a Story of the Sea." This was 
followed by the stories of "Martin Faber;" 
" Guy Rivers : A Tale of Georgia ;" " The 
Yemassee : A Tale of South Carolina; " and 
these by a great number of poems, historical 
romances, revolutionary stories, histories and 
biographies, essays, and reviews — making in 
all fifty volumes. Mr. Simms died in 1870. 

John Greenleaf Whittier was born in 
Haverhill, Mass., in 1807. His parents were 
members of the Society of Friends. Re- 
ceiving a very thorough English education, 
at the age of twenty-two he became editor 
of the American Manufacturer at Boston, 
and in 1830 succeeded George D. Prentice 
in the New England Weekly Review at 
Hartford. In 1831 he published " Legends 
of New England," and in 1833 returned to 
his early home, where he published an essay 
entitled "Justice and Expediency; or. Sla- 
very Considered with a View to its Aboli- 
tion." In 1836, he became secretary of the 
American Anti-Slavery Society, and soon 
after removed to Philadelphia, where he 
edited for some years the Pennsi/lvania 
Freeman. Meantime he had been writing 
some stirring poems, afterward collected 
under the title of " Voices of Freedom." In 
1840 he settled at Amesbury, Mass., and 
since that time has been a prolific writer 
of both prose and poetry. His poems have 
been collected in several forms, and entitle 
him to rank among the foremost of American 
poets. 

Joseph C. Neal, born in Greenland, N. H., 
in 1807, became editor of the Philadelphia 
Pennsylvanian in 1831, and, after ten years' 



conection with it, started the Saturday Ga- 
zette. He is best known by a humorous vol- 
ume — " Charcoal Sketches." He died in 
1848. 

Fitz-Greene Halleck (born 1785) be- 
longed rather to the period of Cooper and 
Irving than to the more recent class of po- 
etical writers. He wrote sparingly, but his 
"Marco Bozzaris" and "Alnwick Castle" 
will live. He died in 1867. 

Edgar A. Poe (born 1811— died 1849) 
was both a poet and prose writer, a man of 
extraordinary genius. 

James Russell Lowell (born 1819), editor 
of Atlantic Monthly, and later of the North 
American Review, is, perhaps, the ablest of 
our younger poets, possessing both humor 
and pathos. His " IJiglow Papers" and his 
more serious poems have great merit. His 
prose writings are admirable. 

Oliver Wendell Holmes (born 1809) has 
distinguished himself both in prose and po- 
etry. His humor is both delicate and pun- 
gent, and his pathetic pieces full of feeling. 
J. G. Saxe (born 1816) has a high reputa- 
tion as a humorous poet. Alfred B. Street 
(born 1811) is a poet of great descriptive 
power. Of the younger literary men. Bay- 
ard Taylor, as traveler, poet, and novelist, 
occupies a very high rank. R. II. Stoddard, 
T. B. Aldrich, J. R. Thompson, G. IL Boker, 
T. B. Reed, W. Allen Butler, and E. C. 
Stedman, have all won a high reputation. 

Among the clerical contributors to general 
literature. Rev. Timothy Dwight, D. D. (born 
1753 — died 1817), deserves the first place. 
In 1774 he published an epic poem, "The 
Conquest of Canaan," which was followed by 
numerous lyric pieces. After his accession 
to the presidency of Yale College in 1795, 
he published " Travels in New England and 
New York " in four volumes, the best picture 
of the life and manners of those times now 
extant. 

Timothy Flint was born in Reading, Mass., 
in 1780, and graduated at Harvard College, 
after which he was settled as a minister, but 
soon, departed for the west, where he col- 
lected the materials for his " Recollections 
of Ten Years in the Valley of the Missis- 
sippi," which were published in 1826. The 
success of this work was so great as to in- 
duce him to make literature his profession. 
His next work was " Francis Berrian ; or, The 
Mexican Patriot," followed by the " Geo- 
graphy and History of the Mississippi," in 
1827. These works were followed by many 



282 



WRITERS OF AMERICA. 



others, and, in 1833, Mr. Flint had charo;e of 
the Knickerbocker Macjazine for some time, 
after which he removed to Cincinnati, and 
continued there until his death. 

William E. Channing was born at New- 
port in 1780. He graduated at Harvard in 
1798, Judge Story being his classmate. 
On leaving college, he became a tutor in a 
family of Virginia. He was ordained pastor 
of the Federal street church in Boston in 
1803, and he continued there until his death 
in 1842. His earliest publications were 
theological, particularly one on the " Uni- 
tarian Belief," in 1819, which excited great 
attention. In 1823, he published an essay 
upon " National Literature." This was fol- 
lowed by " Remarks on the Life and Charac- 
ter of Napoleon P>onaparte." The address de- 
livered in Boston, on "Self-Culture," in 1838, 
was regarded as one of his best efforts. His 
later work-; were religious and reformatory. 

Jo-oph S. Buckminster was born at Ports- 
mouth fa 1 784, graduated from Harvard Col- 
lege in 1800, became jm^torof Brattle street 
church in 1805, and died in 1812, with a 
great reputation for eloquence and literary 
genius, though he had published but little. 

Andrews Norton was born in Ilingham in 
1786, graduated from Harvard in 1804, and 
was prof ssor of sacred literature, &c. there 
from 1813 to 1830. He wrote many valu- 
able works, chiefly controversial, and some 
poems of great beauty. 

Horace Bushnell was born in Connecticut 
in 1802, and graduated at Yale College in 
1824. At one time, he wms literary editor 
of tlie N. Y. Journal of Commerce ; from 
1833 to 18.") 6 lie was pastor of a Congrega- 
tional church in Hartford. His first tlieologi- 
cal work was published in 1847, and he has 
since written largely on various topics. 

Orville Dewey was born in 179 I, in Shef- 
field, Mass. He graduated at Williams Col- 
lege in 1814. He supplied the puli)itof Dr. 
Chanuingwhen that gentleman went to P^ng 
land. After being settled ten years in New 
Bedford, he became pastor of the Church of 
tlie Messiah in New York, but from 1858 to 
18G2 was again pastor in Ho>ton. He has 
published inany volumes at diflerent times on 
various subjects; among others, in 1836, 
"The Old World and the New;" in 1838, 
" INIorid Views of Commerce, Society, and 
Politics." He has been one of the most 
j)Oj)ular pulpit orators that the country has 
produced. 

Among the other clergymen who have at- 



tained a high reputation for scholarship and 
literary ability, we should name George 
Bush, a critical Hebrew scholar, Moses Stu- 
art, Thomas J. Conant, Horatio B. Hackett, 
all eminent Hebraists ; Bennet Tyler, Na- 
thaniel W^. Taylor, Lyman Beecher, Edward 
Beecher, Mark Hopkins, Leonard Woods, 
George P. Fisher, theological writers ; T. C. 
Upham, J. Torrey, W. G. T. Shedd, Leonard 
Bacon, Henry B. Smith, Bishop C. P. 
McHvaine, W. B. Sprague, J. W. and J. A. 
Alexander, G. W. Bethune, S. H. Tyng, Francis 
Wayland and Barnas Sears as religious 
and ecclesiastical writers ; and Nehemiah 
and Wm. Adams, Richard S. vStorrs, Jr , 
Geo. B. Clieever, Joseph P. Thompson, R. 
D. Hitcbcork, H. W. Beecher, A. L. Stone, 
Bishops Potter, Burgess, Coxe, Doane, and 
Kip, Richard Fuller, William R. AVilliams, 
WUliam Hague, Robert Turnbull, Abel 
Stevens, J. P. Durbin. W. P. Strickland, 
Daniel Curry, Stephen OHu, and James Floy, 
as eloquent preachers and writers. The two 
Roman Ciitholic Archbishops Kenrick, Arch- 
bishop Hughes, Archbishop Spalding, and 
Bishops Fitzpatrick and Rosecians, have all 
acquired distinction as preachers and authors, 
mostly on controversial topics. 

Francis Wayland was born in the city of 
New York in 1796, and graduated at Union 
College. He was first settled over a Baptist 
church in Boston, but ultimately succeeded 
to the presidency of Brown University, in 
1827. His publications have been numerous 
on moral and scientific subjects, and he has 
contributed largely to the periodical press. 
The editions of some of his works have been 
very large : 12,000 were sold of his " Politi- 
cal Economy," and nearly 30,000 of his 
" Moral Science." 

W^illiam Ware was born in 1797, at Hing- 
ham, Mass., and graduated at Harvard ia 
1816. He was soon after settled in a Uni- 
tarian church in New York. He commenced, 
in the Knickerbocker Mar/azine, in 1836, a 
scries of papers, which were subsequently 
published together, as "Zenobia; or, The 
Fall of Palmyra : an historical romance." 
Then followed " Probus ; or, Rome in the 
Third Century;" "Julian; or. Scenes in 
Judea," appeared in 1.S41. The writings of 
Mr. Ware are graceful, pure, and brilliant m 
style. 

Herman Hooker was born in Poultney, Vt., 
in 1807. Graduating at Middlebury College, 
he tO(^k orders in the Episcopal church, but, 
leaving the pulpit soon, removed to Phila- 




GENTLEMEN AUTHORS. 




LADY AUTHORS. 



THEOLOGIANS STATESMEN NOVELISTS HISTORIANS. 



283 



phia, where he died in 186"). His books which 
were all religion-!, po-sessed great merit 

Orestes A. Brownsou w;is born in Ver- 
mont in 1802. The early life of Mr. Brown- 
son was obscure. He seems, however, to 
h'lve been yevy erratiL-, but published several 
works, until, in 1838, he began the Boston 
Quarterly, and in 1 840 published a meta- 
jihysical novel called " Charles Ellwood." 
He continued to write for many reviews, 
until, in 1844, he begm Brownsons Quaterly 
Review, after having united with the iiomaa 
Catholic church. Since then he has achieved 
a high reputation as a controversialist. 

John James Audubon, the great ornitholo- 
gist, was born in Louisiana in 1782. He 
was educated in Paris. On his return he 
immediately commenced the series of draw- 
ings, which, with the lapse of time, grew 
into " The Birds of America" — of which 
work Baron Cuvier remarked : " If ever it be 
completed it will have to be confessed that, in 
magnificence of execution, the old world is 
surpassed by the new." After encountering 
many vexations and disappointments, he suc- 
ceeded in publishing, in 1830, his first vol- 
ume, containing one hundred plates, repre- 
senting ninety-nine species of birds ; every 
figure of the size and color of life. The 
kings of France and England headed the 
subscription list ; he was made a member of 
the Royal Societies of London, Edinburgh, 
and Paris, and the scientific world were en- 
thusiastic in his praise. The second volume 
was published in 1834; in 1840 the fourth 
and last volume was completed. The whole 
comprises 435 plates, containing 1065 figures, 
from the bird of Washington to the hum- 
ming-bird, of the size of life, and a great va- 
riety of land and marine views, carefully 
drawn and colored from nature. He had 
spent half a century in completing this mar- 
vellous work, and well might he say : " I 
look up with gratitude to the Supreme 
Being, and feel that I am happy." 

After the completion of this work, he be- 
gan the "Quadrupeds of America," which 
was also a marvellous production. His draw- 
ings exhibit a perfection never before at- 
tempted, and his pen is scarcely inferior to 
his pencil. When Buff"on had completed 
the ornithological portion of his history, he 
supposed that he had described all the birds in 
the world, and remarked that the list " would 
admit of no material augmentation !" Yet his 
list comprised but one-sixteenth of those now 
known to exist. Mr. Audubon died in 1 851. 



Gulian C. Verplanck was born in 1785, in 
New York— a true representative ^f the 
Knickerbocker race. He graduated at Co- 
lumbia College, and soon after obtained ad- 
mission to the bar. Li 1818 he came before 
the public in a literary character, in an ad- 
dress before the New York Historical So- 
ciety. He became professor of the evi- 
dences of Chi'istianity in the theological 
seminary of the Episcopal church, in 1820. 
Subsequently Mr. Verplanck, in connection 
with Mr. Bryant and others, formed a liter- 
ary confederacy, contributing to the literary 
magazines and daily journals. At this time 
was published " The Talisman," mostly by 
Mr. Verplanck. He was a member of Con- 
gress 182.'3-1833. Li 1844-46, he edited 
a fine edition of Shakspeare, which has a 
high reputation. Mr. Verplanck died in 1870. 

Henry R. Schoolcraft was born in 1793, 
near Albany, and was early distinguished for 
his literary and scientific acquirements. He 
contributed largely to the preservation of 
the history of the red races of the continent, 
and was a high authority on all that concerns 
their customs. He died in 1864. 

In the range of history, American writers 
have won the foremost position among his- 
torians of the present century ; and Euro- 
pean critics admit the high reputation of 
American histories. 

Jared Sparks (1 789-1 8G6) was born in 
Willington, Conn., graduated from Harvard 
University in 181o, was a tutor there and 
subsequently pastor of a Unitarian Church 
in Baltimore, editor and proprietor of the 
North American Review, 1823 to 1830, 
and already distinguished for his historical 
researches. He |)ublished a life of "John 
Ledyard, the American Traveler," " Diplo- 
matic Correspondence of tliH American Rev- 
olution" in 12 volumes, '-Life of Gouverneur 
Morris," '• Life and Writings of Washington" 
in twelve 8vo volumes, the '■ Comjlete Works 
of Franklin " in ten volumes, two series of 
Historical Biographies, one in ten, the other 
in fiftef-n volumes, and " Correspondence of 
the American Revolution " in four volumes. 
He was very careful, painstaking, and accu- 
rate as a historian. He was President of 
Harvard University from 1849 to 1853. 

John Gorham Palfrey, born in Boston in 
1796 a cla-smate of Sparks, graduating from 
Harvard University in 1815, whs a Unita- 
rian minister in Boston from 1818 to 1830. 
professor of sacred literature in Harvard, 
from 1831 to 1839; editor North American 



284 



■WRITERS OF AMERICA. 



Review 1835 to 1843; Secretary of State 
of Massachusetts 1844 to 1848; member of 
Congress 1847 to 1849; lecturer at the 
Lowell Institute 1839 and 1842 ; and be- 
side numerous theological and reformatory 
works jiublished " Progress of the Slave 
Power," " History of Brattle St. Church," 
" Life of Col. William Palfrey," " Review 
of Lord Mahon's History of England," and 
a "History of New England to 1G88," in 
three volumes, a work of great research. 

William XL Prescott was born in 1796, at 
Salem. He was grand on of Gen. Prescott 
who command d at Hunker Hill. In 1814, 
he graduated at Harvard College, and entered 
upon the study of the law. At college, by 
an accident, one of his eyes was destroyed, 
and the sight of the other much injured. 
He possessed a handsome income, $12,000 
per annum, and devoted himself to the 
study of the languages and literature of 
Europe, and contri^iuted largely to the 
North American Review, Ten years thus 
passed in a kind of preparation for historical 
studies ; ten years more were occupied with 
investigation, and then his '' Ferdinand and 
Isabella " was published. The materials for 
this h id been sent him by Alexander Everett, 
when minister to Spain. The work of acquir- 
ing the contents of books and writing with 
out the use of eyes was a severe labor, but 
was overcome by ingenuity and patience. 
The work was everywhere hailed with enthu- 
siasm. Mr. Prescott was made a member of 
the Royal Academy of Madrid, and its rich 
collections, wih those of the archives of 
Seville, placed at his disposal, and every res- 
ervoir of Spanish history laid open to him. 
The " History of the Conquest of Mexico " 
followed, and was succeeded by the " Con- 
quest of Peru," and the " History of Philip 
the Second," which added to the fame of Mr. 
Prescott. He died in 1S59. 

George Bancroft was born in Worcester in 
1800, and graduated at Harvard in 1817. 
He commenced the study of divinity, but 
adopted literature as a profession. In 1834, 
he published the first volume of the " History 
of Colonization in the United States. He 
was subsequently appointed collector of Bos- 
ton, and in 1844 secretary of the navy, 
which post he resigned to represent this 
country at the Court of St. James. During 
more than thirty years his great " History 
of the United States" has been in progress, 
reaching its tenth volume in 1867. He has 
been U. S. Minister at Berlin since 1869. 



William C. Bryant was born in Massa- 
chusetts in 1794. He contributed lines to 
the county Gaz'^'e when ten years old, and 
four years later published two poems ; at 19 
he wrote hi-; " 1 hanatopsis. He was for 
two years in Williams College, and afterwards 
studied law. In 1825 he edited the New 
York Revieio, and in 1826 became editor of 
the Evening Post, with which he is still con- 
nected. He has written much both in poetry 
and prose. His prose is remarkable for its 
purity and elegance. 

John Lothrop JMotley, who at once took 
rank with Prescott and Bancroft as a histo- 
rian, was born in Dorchester, Mass., in 1814, 
educated at Harvard University, and subse- 
quently at Gottingen and Berlin, studied 
law, and was admitted to the bar in 1836, 
but did not jn'actice. He wrote two histori- 
cal novels, published in 1.S39 and 1849, was 
secretary of leiration to Russia in 1840, be- 
came interested in the history of Holland in 
1845, and after collecting material for a his- 
tory here, went to Europe in 18.')1, and spent 
live years at Berlin, Dresden, a:id the Hague 
in the composit'on of his '' Rise of the Dutch 
Republic," ]iubli-hed in 1856. This was fol- 
lowed, in IS GO, by three volumes of a history 
of "The United Netherlands," and in 1866, 
he published two more volumes of this his- 
tory ; minister to Austria in 1^61, recalled 
1867 ; minister to England 1869, 1870. 

Richard Ilildreth (1807-18(35) was an 
able political writer, novelist and historian. 
He will be longest remembered for his val- 
uable " Histoiy of the United States," in 
six volumes. He was also author of a work 
on Japan. He was, at the time of liis death, 
U. S. Consul at Trieste. 

Benson J. Lossing { born in Beekman, N. 
Y., in 1813) has attained a high reputation 
as a historian and historical biographer. His 
" Pictorial Field Book of tlie Revolution," 
his works on AVa-^hington and Mount Ver- 
non, Life of '• Philip Schuvler," '* Histories 
of the United States," '> War of 1812," and 
" Pictorial History of the Rebellion," are all 
works of interest and value, and their illus- 
trations are from his own skillful pencil. 

James T. Headley, Jacob and John S. C. 
Abbott, John Foster Kirk, Francis Parkniau, 
J. Romeyn Broadhead, E. B. O'Callaglian, 
Parke Godwin, Charles Gayarre, Francis L. 
"Hawks, and Amos Dean have all publi^hed 
historical works of some reputation. 

Many of the female writers of America 
have achieved distinction. Mrs. Emma Wil- 



THEOLOGIANS STATESMEN NOVELISTS — HISTORIANS. 



285 



lard wrote extensively on history and educa- 
tional topics, and her sister, Mrs. Almira H 
Phelps, has not only contributed several 
text-books to physical science, but has a fair 
reputation, as a novelist, Hannah Adams, 
the pioneer of female writers in Americ i, 
born 175(5, wrote a "History of New Eng- 
land," " Vienna," «&;c. Mrs. Eliza Leslie 
(1787-18.57) wrote several excellent novels, 
and some works of great value, in the do- 
main of the culinary at. Mrs. Lydia H 
Sigourney (179 1-1 8 Go) was alike remark 
ble for her poetical and her prose works ; 
many of the latter were prepared for the 
young. Miss Catharine M. Sedgwick (1789- 
1867) was the author of "The Linwoods," 
" Redwood," " Hope Leslie," &c., novels of 
great merit. Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe 
(born in 1812) has been the most successful 
of novelists. Her " Uncle Tom's Cabin " 
sold to the extent of about 350,000 copies 
in the United States, and over 1,500,000 
in Great Britain, and her subsequent nov- 
els, " Dred," " The Minister's Wooing," 
"Agnes of Sorrento," " The Pearl of Orr's 
Island," "Old Town Folks," "Old Town 
Stories," " Pink and White Tyrany," 
" Harry Henderson's History," etc., etc., 
have had a large sale. She has also written 
descriptive, biograjihical, and other works, 
and occasional poems of great merit. Her 
si-^ter, Miss Catharine E. Beecher, has written 
numerous works, educational and controver- 
sial. Miss Susan Warner has achieved a 
high reputation (^under her nom de plume 
of Elizabeth Wetherell) by her novels, 
"The Wide, Wide World," " Queechy," 
" The Hills of the Shaterauc," and " Say 
and Seal," etc. Mrs. S. P. W. Parton 
(Fanny Fern) has been very successful, not 
only as a novelist, in her " Ruth Hall," but 
as a light essayist, in her " Fern Leaves," 
&c. Miss M. J. Mackintosh, the author of 
" Charms and Counter-Charms," and numer- 
ous other novels, has a high reputation. 
Mrs.E. D. E. N. Southworth (born in 181«) 
commenced her career as an author in 1843, 
and since that time has published over one 
hundred novels, all of them of considerable 
merit. Mrs. Ann S. Stephens (born in 1813) 
has attained distinction as a novelist, as a 
writer of historical and practical works, and 
as editor of a ladies' magazine. Mrs. E. 
Oakes Smith has written largely and well 
on the most diverse subjects — metaphysics, 
literature, household matters, criticism, the 
drama, poetry, and fiction. 



Mrs. Lydia Maria Child (born 1802) has 
been a very popular writer. Her " Uobo- 
mok " and " Tlie Rebels " were her earlier 
efforts, and brought her reputation which 
was increased by her subsequent works. 
Mrs. Caroline M. Kirkland (1801-1864) 
was a graceful and elegant writer. Her 
"New Home — Wha'll FoIIdw?" first intro- 
duced her to the public, and her subsequent 
works enhanced her reputation. Mrs Alice 
B. (Neal) Haven (1828-1863) edited the 
Saturday Gazette after the dea^h of her hus- 
band, (Joseph C. Neal) and subsequently 
published a volume of poems and a number 
of admirable juvenile books. 

Mrs. Mary J. Holmes, JNL-s. M. Virginia 
Terhune (Marion Ilarland), Mrs. Anna C. 
(Mowatt) Ritchie, Mi~s A. J. Evans, Misses 
Alice and Phcebe Cary, Mrs. E. F. Ellet, 
Mrs. E. C. Embury, Miss Maria Cummins, 
Miss Caroline Chesebro, Mrs. II. Prescott 
SpofFord, Mrs. E. Robinson (Talvi), Mrs. 
Catharine A. Warfield, Mrs. Harriet Stuart 
Phelps, and her daughter. Miss E. Stuart 
Phelps, Mrs. Elizabeth Stoddard, IMrs. IMary 
A. Denison, Mrs. M. A. Sadlier, Mrs. Mar- 
garet C. Lawrence, Mrs. Madeline Leslie, 
Miss Caroline Kelly, ]\Irs. LI. E. Hewitt, 
Miss Virginia F. Towusend, IMrs. L. C. 
Tuthill, Mrs. P:mily C. JuJson (Fanny For- 
rester, 1817-1854), Mrs. Helen C. Knight, 
Mrs. G. Prentiss, Mrs. A. D. T. Wlvitney, 
Miss Helen C. Weeks, Mrs. .L D. Chaplin, 
Mrs. Mary D. Chellis, have all written popu- 
lar works of fiction, or light literature, which 
have had a very large sale. 

Mrs. S. Margaret Fuller, afterwards Coun- 
tess D'Ossoli, one of the most vigorous and 
thoughtful writers of any age, (1810-1850) 
was for some years in charge of the literary 
deptirtment of the N. Y. IVibune, and pub- 
lished beside some translations and many 
essays, and a work entitled " Woman in the 
Nineteenth Century." 

Several of the ladies named above have 
distinguished themselves as poets, particu- 
larly Mrs. Sigourney, whose religious and 
elegiac poems have given her a high repu- 
tation ; Mrs. Stowe, Mrs. E. Oakes Smith, 
Mrs. Alice B. Haven, Mrs. Emily C. Judson, 
Miss Alice Cary, and her sister, Miss Phoebe 
Cary. But there are other American female 
writers, whose poetry alone has won them 
high distinction. Among these we may 
name Mrs. Maria Brooks (Maria del Occi- 
dent, 1795-1845), whose principal poem, 
" Zophiel," attracted attention in Europe 



286 



PRITING-PRESS. 



from its remarkable curative power; the 
Davidson sisters, remarkable instances of 
precocious talent ; Mrs. Frances Sargent Os- 
good (IS 12-1850), remarkable for her play- 
fulness of fancy and felicity of expression ; 
Miss Hannah F. Gould, (1789-1865) a poet 
of rare ability and vigor ; Mrs. Julia AVai d 
Howe, perhaps the most gifted of our living 
female po'^ts ; INIrs. Frances Anne Kemble 
(1811-1871); Mrs. Caroline Oilman ; Mrs. 
Sarah J. Lippincott, (Grace Greenwood), 
whose '"Ariadne a Naxos " attracted great 



attention from its intensity of passion ; Mrs. 
Amelia B. Welby, rernarkal)Ie for the exquis- 
ite rhythm of her poetry ; Mrs. Sarah Helen 
Whitman, Mrs. Anne C. (Lynch) Botta,Mrs. 
Estelle Anna Lewis, Mrs. Sarali J. Hale, 
IMiss Caroline May. INlrs. Maria Lowell, Mrs. 
Mary H. C. Booth, Miss Edna Dean Proctor, 
]\Irs. Rosa V. Johnson, Miss Rose Terry, i\Irs. 
M. S. B. Dana, and Miss Anna Diinker 
(Kdith May). There are others perhaps who 
deserve a place in this record, but these have 
all gained a promment position as poets. 



PRINTING-PRESS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PRINTING PRESS— HANDPOWER— 
LIGHTNING. 

If a middle-aged man now visits the press- 
room of a " crack " daily, and observes a 
huge machine, some twenty feet high, driven 
by a steam engine, delivci'ing seven large 
newspapers, nicely printed, at every tick of a 
clock, and watches the piles of paper grow- 
ing at the rate of 420 per minute, or at 
that of 25,200 per hour, weighing over one 
ton, and reflects that the utmost power of 
the best machines of his youth would require 
an active man and a boy two long hours 
to do what this whizzing monster does hi 
a minute, he will form some idea of the pro- 
gress made in paper printing, and also of 
what is required to meet a daily demand. 
In the days of Franklin, the press-work of a 
paper was a very laboi'ious affair. The ma- 
chines of that day were very imperfect, and, 
if reference is had to the illustration on an- 
other page, contrasting the actual machine 
which Franklin used, and which is still pre- 
served in the patent office at Washington, 
with the fast press now in use, a good idea 
will be formed of the progress in press- 
building. In that press, it will be observed, 
the bed is a platform about three feet high, 
between two uprights. In the cross-piece at 
the top is a female screw in which works 
the screw attached to the wooden platen. 
This screw being turned by the pressman, 
causes the platen to ascend and descend. 



There is, in front, a table, which slides over 
the platform at the will of the operator, who, 
to effect this, turns a crank. On this table 
was laid the type. Over the type was a 
frame, which encircled the type, or form, and 
crossed it in those places where the white 
margin appears in a printed paper. On this 
frame the paper of proper size was laid, after 
being " wet down ;" another fold of the 
frame confined the paper ; the whole was 
then slid on to the platform. The screw 
being turned, caused the platen to descend, 
and the i'mpression was made. The screw 
was then raised, the form slid back, the frame 
raised, and the paper lifted and examined by 
the pressman to see if his impression was 
"good." If it satisfied him, he proceeded 
to ink his types for a new impression. The 
ink employed in printing is very different 
from that employed for writing, and much 
skill is required in the manufacture. It 
must be soft, adhesive, and easily trans- 
ferred ; it must dry quickly, and be durable, 
and not liable to spread. The usual mate- 
rials are linseed oil, rosin, and coloring mat- 
ters, lamp-black being used for black ink. 
The peculiar mode of the best makers is 
somewhat of a secret. The old mode of ap- 
plying it was by two ink balls, about the 
size of a man's hat, made of soft leather, and 
stuffed with cotton, the leather being nailed 
round a wooden handle. The pressman, 
taking one in each hand, daubed them with 
ink, and worked them together until he had 
spread the ink. He then applied them to 




irATLE OF BEXJAMI.V FUANKLI.X l.V I'Ul.NTI.NU ilOCSE SQUAKK, SEW YORK. 



PRINTING-PRESS HAND POWER LIGHTNING. 



287 



the types as evenly as possible ; tlien, laying 
them aside, lie proceeded, as before, to lay 
bis paper evenly upon the frames, slide it 
up, work the screw, etc. By this process, 
an active man could work fifty sheets in an 
hour ; by ten hours steady industry, he 
could get off an edition of 500 copies for 
the carriers in the morning. There was lit- 
tle room for much expansion , under such a 
state of printing. The first great advance in 
the direction of speed, was when the lever 
was substituted for the screw in making the 
impression. This was introduced by Mr. John 
Clymer, and called the Columbian, or Clymer 
press, in which there was no screw, but the 
head itself was a large and powerful lever, 
acted on by proportionate levers, thus bring- 
ing to perfection, for presses of a large size, 
certain principles of leverage which had pre- 
viously been patented in England, and used 
in presses of a small size, such as foolscap. 
The platen was, in fact, a fulcrum for the 
head, or great lever. Thus the fulcrum and 
lever superseded the inclined plane, or screw. 
Mr. Clymer went to England in 1817, and, 
at that time, the famous " Cobbett's Regis- 
ter" was printed on an " American press," a 
circumstance that was regarded as a great 
joke at the time. By this invention, two 
levers, one affixed at the cross-piece above, 
and one to the platen, were brought together 
by a joint, like the bent knee of a man's 
leg. At this joint was applied a lever, by 
which the pressman, with one pull, brought 
the joint into a perpendicular line, by so do- 
ing giving an instantaneous and powerful 
impression. The platen being suspended 
by spiral springs, instantly rose when the 
lever was released. The saving in time was 
immense, one pull of the workman being 
sufficient for all the old screv/ing and un- 
screwing. Improvements in the Clymer 
press were made by Peter Smith and Sam- 
uel Rust, and these improvements are com- 
bined in Iloe's Washington press, of which 
a cut will be found on another page. Inven- 
tions of a similar character were made by 
Mr. John Wells, of Connecticut. The prin- 
ciple of the lever has been applied in various 
ways, and contains the chief feature in press 
power. The form of lever now generally 
used, will be seen in the engraving of Hoe 
and Smith's printing press, which is the fa- 
vorite for all work Avhere power presses are 
not required. Next to the introduction of 
the lever, was the substitution of the inking 
machine for the old ink balls. This was 



constructed of a cylinder which revolved, by 
hand, against an ink trough, and, by ^b do- 
ing, received evenly over its surface the ink. 
The smaller rollers were constructed on a 
light frame, to which a handle was attached. 
These, laid upon the ink roller, received from 
it the ink, and then being pushed forward 
over the type, imparted it to them with one 
movement of the hand. This, worked by a 
boy, is seen in the engraving. The pressman 
was now relieved of the inking, and, work- 
ing with a lever, he could print, with active 
industry, 250 sheets in an hour. The next 
movement was to make this inking machine 
self-acting, by attaching it to the press in 
such a manner that lifting the paper frame 
would cause it to act. 

The Ruggles Job jiress, introduced in 1839, 
and the Combination press patented in 1841, 
both enjoyed a large measure of ])opularity, 
but have been of late superceded by other 
styles, especially those manufactured by 
R. Hoe & Co., who have been instrumental 
in making most of the early improvements 
of late years upon the printing press. 

The next important improvement in the 
machines, was the introduction of the cylin- 
der, or Napier press. In this machine, of 
which an engraving is presented in another 
column, the form of type is locked upon a 
strong iron table, which moves forward and 
backward, passing in its course under a cyl- 
inder, which, made of iron, is covered with 
a soft blanket, and provided with a set of 
fingers to seize the sheet as it is presented. 
Against this is inclined the feeding bench, on 
which is laid the paper. On the bench is a 
small brass peg, or pointer, against which 
the feeder brings the paper accurately, in or- 
der that the sheets may " register" — that is, 
each receive the type at the same distance 
from the margin. When the cylinder re- 
volves, it raises with its fingers the edge 
of the paper, draws it round itself, and 
presses it against the type, which, at the 
same instant, passes under it. The paper 
then released by the cylinder, is carried by 
ribbons to the rear, while the type vibrates 
back, to return as soon as the cylinder has 
again drawn forward a sheet of paper. At 
first, a boy was required to fly the papers, or 
catch them as they were thrown back from 
the cylinder, and pile them up. This, by the 
self-acting flyer, as seen in the engraving, is 
now dispensed with. This machine raised 
the numberi that might be printed to be- 
tween 2,000 and 3,000 per hour. The bed 



288 



PRINTING-PRESS. 



is made of a size to take a paper from 25x33 
inches, to one 4()xG0 inches, Very soon au 
improvement suggested itself to the ingenious 
and thoughtful inventor. As at first con- 
structed, the type, in moving forward and 
backward, made only one impression. It 
was easy to introduce another cylinder, in 
order to take an impression from the type 
on its return. This was the double cylinder, 
which delivers a paper at each end. The 
cost of these i^, for the large size, $6,850 ; 
increased capacity, 3,500 to 6,400 impressions 
per hour. In this operation, the vibration 
of the type bed was the great difficulty. 
The type and bed will weigh over 1,000 lbs. 
This mass, moving backward and forward 
with great momentum, produced a great 
concussion, although it was met by strong 
springs which stopped its progress and aided 
its return. Many improvements Avere made 
in these springs. The noise and annoyance 
occasioned by the concussion of the bed 
against the springs, which are placed at each 
end of the machine to overcome the momen- 
tum of the bed, was removed by means of 
adjustable India-i-ubber buffers placed at the 
points of contact, which in no way interfere 
with the lively and certain action of the spi- 
ral springs. The same object is also effected 
by air springs, by which the head of the 
bed, plunging into a receiver, condenses the 
air, causing it to act as a spring. 

It was obvious, however, that the weight 
and concussion of this bed were a bar to 
further progress in this direction, and it was 
felt that greater speed could be attained only 
by causing the type itself to revolve. This 
was no new idea. It had been patented in 
England in 1790, but the inventor could 
not succeed in holding the types, since the 
rapid revolution of such a weight gives a 
powerful centrifugal motion. What they 
could not do in England, Richard M. Hoe 
did in New York, in 1847, after many at- 
tempts had been made to accomplish the de- 
sired result. In this machine, as will be 
seen in the illustration, the form of type is 
placed on the surface of a horizontal revolv- 
ing cylinder of about four and a half feet in 
diameter. The form occupies a segment of 
only about one-fourth of the surface of the 
cylinder, and the remainder is used as an 
ink-distributing surface. Around this main 
cylinder, and parallel Avith it, are placed 
smaller impression cylinders, varying in num- 
ber from four to ten, according to the size 
of the machine. The engraving represents 



three. The large cylinder being put in mo- 
tion, the form of types is carried successively 
to all the impression cylinders, at each of 
which a sheet is introduced, and receives the 
impression of the types as the form passes. 
Thus, as many sheets are printed at ea^h rev- 
olution of the main cylinder, as there are 
impression cylinders around it. One person 
is required ift each impression' cylinder to 
supply the sheets of paper, which are taken 
at the proper moment by fingers or grippers, 
and, after being printed, are conveyed out by 
tapes and laid in heaps by means of self-act- 
ing flyers, thereby dispensing with the 
hands required in ordinary machines to re- 
ceive and pile the sheets. The grippers 
hold the sheet securely, so that the thinnest 
newspaper may be printed without waste. 

The ink is contained in a fountain placed 
beneath the main cylinder, and is conveyed 
by means of distributing rollers to the dis- 
tributing surface on the main cylinder. This 
surface being lower, or less in diameter than 
the form of types, passes by the impression 
cylinder without touching. For each im- 
pression, there are two inking rollers, which 
receive their supply of ink from the distrib- 
uting surface of the main cylinder, which 
rise and ink the form as it passes under 
them, after which, they again fall to the dis- 
tributing sui'face. 

Each page of the paper is locked up on a 
detached segment of the large cylinder which 
constitutes its bed and chase. The column 
rules run parallel with the shaft of the cylin- 
der, and are, consequently, straight, Avhile 
the head, advertising, and dash rules, 
are in the form of segments of a circle. 
The column rules are in the form of a 
wedge, with the thin part directed toward 
the axis of the cylinder, so as to bind the 
types securely. These wedge-shaped column 
rules are held down to the bed by tongues 
projecting at intervals along their length, 
which slide in rebated grooves cut crosswise 
in the face of the bed. The spaces m the 
grooves between the column rules are accu- 
rately fitted Avith sliding blocks of metal 
even Avith the surface of the bed, the ends 
of Avhich blocks are cut away underneath to 
receive a projection on the sides of the 
tongues of the column rules. The form of 
type is locked up in the bed by means of 
screws at the foot and sides, by Avhicli the 
type is held as securely as in the ordinary 
manner upon a flat bed — if not even more 
so. The speed of these machines is limited 



PRINTING-PKESS HAND POWER LIGHTNING. 



297 



only by the ability of the feeders to supply 
the sheets. The four-cylinder machine is 
run at a speed of over 10,000 per hour; the 
six-cylinder machine, 15,000 an hour; the 
eight-cylinder machine, 20,000 ; and the ten- 
cylinder machine, 25,000. This system com- 
bines the greatest speed in printing, durabil- 
ity of the machinery, and economy of labor. 
As we have said, this great machine deliv- 
ers seven sheets per second, or 420 per min- 
ute. It does in one minute what Franklin 
required ten hours to do, and the papers 
contain ten times as much matter, and are 
eight times as large. Thus, to print as much 
reading would have required 100 hours in 
the last century, against one minute now. 
In other words, 6,000 men with 6,000 press- 
es, would have done very badly what this 
machine does very well. 

The next attempted improvement in the 
speed of machines has been, to do for the re- 
volving cylinder what was done before with 
the Napier press. In the case of the latter, 
another cylinder was introduced to take the 
type on its return vibration, thus getting two 
impressions from one movement. In the 
case of the revolving type, something simi- 
lar has been attempted. It has been stated 
that the form of type occupies but a seg- 
ment of the cylinder. It was conceived 
that by placing the other form on the va- 
cant space of the cylinder, that both would 
be printed with one revolution, thus doub- 
ling the amount of work done by the same 
number of revolutions. The mechanical 
part the ^lessrs. Hoe succeeded in perfecting, 
but the difficulty encountered was in the pa- 
per. It will be conceived that when the pa- 
per is printed with such inconceivable rapid- 
ity, that the ink has no time to " set," and 
to impress it on the other side in almost the 
same instant of time is more ilun the nature 
of the operation will permit, and the type 
" takes ott"," so to speak, or will not pro- 
duce a perfect impression. Some other per- 
sons made the same attempt, with similar re- 
sults. Progress in that direction has, there- 
fore, been suspended, bi.t llie clibrts of gen- 
ius are being directed anew, and the expe- 
rience of the i^ast has warned us not to be 
Surprised at what may yet be done. There 
l.'ave been attempts made to simplify the 
process by fitting stereotype plates to cylin- 
ders, and with some success ; but under the 
old plaster jjrocess too long a time was re- 
quired lor drying and finishing to permit their 
use by the daily press. The introduction of 



the paper process, (making the dies or mat- 
rices in which the stereotype ])lates ard'cast, 
of paper pulp) has effected a complete revo- 
lution, and all the dailies of large circulation 
stereotype their fomns. 

The weeklies of large circulation, are usu- 
ally printed on Hoe's large sincle cylinder 
press. In these cases, where time is not so 
much an object, the forms are multiplied by 
the electrot} pes and worked on a large num- 
ber of presses. In some cases, the circula- 
tion running up to 400,000 weekly, a press 
running 1 5( per hour, or 20.000 in a day, 
will require ten presses four days to perfect 
the edition on both sides, and for this pur- 
pose, ten separate furms will be required. 
These mach.nes will take a form 19x23-| 
inches, and up to 40x57 inches. The cost 
of the former is 1,800, and of the latter 
size, $3,900. 

The press most U'-ed for book work differs 
in principle from either the Napier or the 
revolving tyjie. It was the invention of 
Isaac Adams, of Massachusetts, and it bears 
his name. The type in the press has no 
movement except slightly up and down. It 
receives the ink from a self-acting machine, 
and the paper is fed to it from an inclined 
plane, when, the impression being made, it 
is lifted off by the fly and deposited in the 
rear. It is one of the most perfect of presses. 
The prices of these vary from f 1,050 to $6,- 
250 according to size. The engraving on 
another page will give a good idea of this 
machine, of which the patent is secured by 
the INlessrs. Iloe. 

For the best qualities of book, wood-cut, 
and color printing, where the wood cuts are 
printed in the same page with letter-press, 
the Messrs. Iloe (to whom all the most im- 
portant of I he late improvements in printing 
presses are due) have produced a " stop-cyl- 
inder wood-cut press," which by its numer- 
ous rollers and its perfect adjustment, secures 
the finest possible impressions of the best 
wood engravings. It has from two to ten 
form rollers, and from three to twelve dis- 
ributors, according to size, and by an at- 
tachm nt the rollers may be made to pass 
over the form two or four times between 
each impression. There is no jarring of the 
bed, and by an ingenious device a perfect 
re;:ister is obtained. A " Type Revolving 
Book rerfecting Press " of their construc- 
tion is also an admirable machine lor the 
finest book work, but is very expensive. 
Among other book and newspaper presses of 



298 



TYPES. 



considerable merit, introduced within the 
past ten year?;, are the Cottrell and Babcock, 
the A. B. Taylor, the A. Campbell, and the 
C. Potter, Jr. & Co. presses. Messrs. Van- 
deburgh & Wells, dealers in printing presses 



and printers' materials, express a preference 
for the lirst two. but all have their good qual- 
ities. There are also several new jol>bing 
presses, including; two of Hoe's, Gordon's, 
the Universal, and the Globe. 



TYPES. 



CHAPTER I. 

TYPE FOUNDING— STEREOTYPING — ELEC- 
TROTYPING. 

There has been little change in the gene- 
ral form of metal types used in printing, but 
much improvement in the quality of the 
metal used, in the style of the letters, and in 
the process of casting. There are many 
sizes of type used, but the ten following arc 
those most used in books and newspapers. 
They are mentioned in the order of the sizes, 
the smallest being first : — Diamond ; Pearl ; 
Agate; Nonpareil; Minion; Bre\ier; Bour- 
geois; Long Primer; Small Pica; Pica. 
The size of the type employed in this page 
is Long Primer. 

There are some combinations of these 
sizes ; but these are the leading ones most 
in use. These have not varied much for a 
long period of time, although the compe- 
tition among the type founders has led to 
the introduction of many styles. 

In 1812, on the publication of *'The Co- 
lumbiad," by Joel Barlow, a size of type, 
known as Columbian, was cut for the work, 
which was designed to be very perfect. It 
war, embellished by Robert Fulton ; and it 
was the first ever printed upon Clymer's 
newly invented press, which press took the 
nam ^ of the Columbian in consequence. 

The casting of the type was, until within 
fifteen years, done by hand for each separate 
letter. The matrix of the type is of cop- 
per, 1^ inches long, ^ of an inch deep, and 
of the breadth of the type to be cast. The 
form of the letter is made in the end of the 
copper matrix by a steel die. The copper 
matrix is then inclosed in a wooden box, 
which has a hopper to admit the melted 
metal. There is a spring attached, by which 
the matrix may be opened to release the let- 
ter when cast. The caster, holding this in 
his left hand, takes from the furnace, with a 
very small iron ladle or spoon, about as 



much of the metal as will form one letter. 
This he pours in, and at the same time gives 
the matrix a smart upward jerk, which set- 
tles the metal into the finest cuts of the let- 
ter, lie then presses the spring, hooks out 
the letter, closes the matrix, and proceeds as 
before. A skilful man will in this way cast 
500 types in an hour. In 1811, Mr. David 
Bruce received a patent for an improvement 
in the mould, by which 25 per cent, more 
work was done. This system has changed 
since the introduction of machinery. 

About 1 5 years since, Mr. Geo. Bruce, Jr., 
of New York, invented a very beautiful ma- 
chine for casting type, and it is the best in 
the world. The patent has been renewed at 
the last session of Congress for seven years, 
and the right, title, and interest, have been 
purchased by Messrs. J. Conner & Sons. By 
this machine a man can cast three times as 
much in a day as by the old plan. The 
wages are less than half, per thousand, what 
they were before, but the caster, neverthe- 
less, earns more. In these machines the 
type metal — which is a mixture of lead, tin, 
and antimony — is contained in a state of 
fusion in a small iron reservoir, about 5 
inches square, and into which it is forced 
with great power. This is tapped by a 
nipple, which holds as much melted metal 
as will cast a type. The mould is of steel, in 
a small machine which is worked by a crank. 
It is simply for the body of the type, and is 
so placed that the lower end, by a move- 
ment of the machine, will fit exactly over the 
orifice of the nipple. Against the other end 
is applied a copper matrix of the letter, and 
firmly held by a spring. The operator then 
causes the metal to jet into the mould. Then, 
as soon as it is " set," he releases it, opens 
the mould, and allows the type to drop into 
a box. In this process, the matrix of the 
letter is separated from the body of the 
type. It is formed on a steel die, and i)n- 
pressed into the copper previously prepared, 




FRANKLIN PRESS. 




PATENT WASHINGTON PRINTING PRESS. 




PATENT HAND-PRESS STEAM INKIXG MACHINB. 




IMPBOVBD INKING APPARATUS FOR THE HAND-PRESS 




PATENT RAILROAD TICKET MACHINE. 



I„ thl. .machine the fo™, are placed on a cylinder whid, «-"« j^J^JJ^ -i'V^r-^SeVS 

?jif[r" r^iSc'^^pt^ir r^i ^^^:'i£^;r z:;:is^i . sp.cc or aU 

two feet square. 



TYPE-FOUNDING STEREOTYPING ELECTROTYPING. 



299 



witli great force. The adjustment of this 
matrix to the mould is a work of great care 
and nicety. After the t3-pe is cast, by 
whatever process — whether by machinery or 
the ancient spoon method — it has to under- 
go a smoothing operation. This is performed 
by young people, principally girls ; three 
or four sitting around tables surmounted 
with properly prepared stone slabs, and 
by the fingers rubbing the roughness oft" 
each individual type. At this work they 
earn from $5 to $7 per week. The type 
goes then into the hands of the dresser. lie 
cuts out what is called the jet end, by which 
process all the types are made of the exact 
height. On the nicety of this operation de- 
pends the ability to use the type. It may 
be here remarked that American type comes 
nearly always perfect into the hands of the 
dresser, wlule in England nearly one-fourth 
is rejected as imperfect. 

The types have upon one side a " nick." 
As the types are perfected, a boy sets them 
on a " galley," with all the nicks out. They 
are then assorted into small "fonts," and 
are then ready for the printer. The propor- 
tions in which the dift'erent letters are cast 
to a font of type, and in which they occur 
in print, are as follows: Letter e, 1500; 
t, 900 ; a, 850 ; n, o, s, i, 800 ; h, 640 ; r, 620 ; 
d, 440 ; 1, 400 ; u, 340 ; c, m, 300 ; f, 250 ; 
w, y, 200; g, p, IVO ; b, 160 ;_v, 120 ; k, 80 ; 
q, 60 ; j, X, 40 ; z, 20, Besides these, are 
the combined letters: fi, 50; ff, 40; fl, 20; 
fB, 15; fil, 10; ae, 10; oe, 5. The propor- 
tion for capitals and small capitals differs 
from the small letters. In those, I takes the 
first place, then T, then A and E, etc. The 
" cases" in which the types are put for use, are 
arranged in the manner seen in the engraving 
on another page. The little square boxes 
in which the type is laid are not arranged in 
the regular order of the alphabet, but in the 
order which experience has shown is the 
most convenient for the compositor. Those 
letters which occur the oftenest — as e, for 
instance — occupy the largest squares nearest 
his hand, and the others in the order of their 
relative importance ; the capitals, small 
capitals, and marks, each in its proper place, 
in the upper case. The workman docs not 
look at the type. lie reads his copy only, 
and that frequently tasks his ingenuity to 
make out. He knows the types from the 
boxes they occupy, and the " nick" enables 
him to place them right side up by sense of 
feeling only. He is paid by the thousand 
18* 



ems when working by the piece. An em is 
about the space of a letter M, and 2*200 
ems go to one of the pages of this book. A 
good workman will set 5,000 to 6,000 ems 
in a day. Sometimes they arc paid by the 
week, $12 per week, which is about the 
amount that an expert workman will earn 
by the thousand. The type he places in a 
small iron frame, held in his left hand, and 
called a "• stick," which is adjusted to the 
breadth of the column or page. When this 
is full, it is deposited on a "galley," in a 
long column. From this galley a proof im- 
pression is taken to be read by the author 
and proof-reader. The inaccuracies are' 
marked on this, and when corrected in the 
type, the foreman " makes up his form." If 
for a daily paper, this is done by screwing 
the columns into the " turtle," which is fas- 
tened upon the revolving cylinder of the 
press. When the type has been printed 
from or worked oft, it is immediately washed 
in a strong alkali, to clear it from the ink. 
If this is not done thoroughly, it will not 
print clear. Formerly this washing was 
done with urine, but of late an alkali is 
substituted. The clean type has now to be 
" distributed," or put back into the cases. 
For this purpose the compositor takes the 
" matter" in his left hand, reads a line, and 
drops each letter into its appropriate place. 
This occupies a good deal of time. 

Most of this type setting and distributing 
is still done by hand up to the jjresent time, 
although the greatest efforts have been 
made to introduce machinery. A number of 
type-setting machines have been invented, 
and many of them work well iu'the setting of 
the type — the operator working upon keys, 
like those of a piano, with the copy before 
him. The arrangement is such that, by 
touching the proper key, the appropriate 
letter falls into line, and the work goes on 
rapidly and well, even to the punctuation. 
The difiiculty not yet overcome, and which 
is an obstacle to its usefulness, is that no 
means of "justifying" have been discov- 
ered — that is, of breaking the lines into 
the suitable length, and " spacing" them out 
so that each line shall have the exact length 
of all the rest. This is done by the hand 
compositor, with great nicety, in his iron 
stick, as his work progresses. As this must 
still be done by hand, after the machine has 
set up the type, no great advantage is de- 
rived from its action. In type distributing 
more success has been obtained. The ma- 



300 



chine is so constructed that it will distribute 
12,000 ems per hour with unerring accuracy, 
and one man may tend three machines ; 
hence he will distribute, by its aid, 30,000 
ems per hour, while a good workman by 
hand will only distribute 3,000 ems. This 
seems very desirable, but a new difficulty 
presents itself. The machine cannot read, 
so as to distinguish one letter from another, 
and it is guided in its selection by the 
" nicks." It follows, that no two of the 
twenty-four letters of the alphabet should 
have the same " nicks ;" consequently, a 
special kind of type must be cast for the 
machine. They are then put into it in 
a mass, and present themselves alternately 
until the proper " nick" goes through. The 
advantages of the machine do not overcome 
its disadvantages. 

In book work the type is not hurried from 
the compositor to the pressman, as in the 
case of the daily papers. There is more time, 
and the type itself is, therefore, not usually 
printed from, but it is stereotyped. This 
was introduced in America about the year 
1817, by Mr. G. Bruce, the f^ither of the in- 
ventor of the type-casting machine. 

In this process, the type being locked 
up in the form, which usually contains 2 to 6 
pages, and carefully revised and corrected, is 
sent to the stereotyper. 

Stereotyping is the mode of casting per- 
fect fac-similes, in metal, of the face of 
movable types. The plan is simple. After 
arranging the type in pages, and getting it 
perfectly smooth and clean, it is placed in a 
frame, the surface being thoroughly oiled, 
to prevent the mould from adhering, when 
liquid gypsum, or plaster-of-Paris, is poured 
over the page. The mould, thus taken, if 
found perfect, is dressed with a sharp in- 
strument, and is then ready to receive the 
metal. It is then put into an iron cast- 
ing-box, and the whole immersed in liquid 
type metak Twenty to thirty miiuites usu- 
ally suffice fur casting. The box is then 
swung out of the molten mass into a cool- 
ing-trough, in which the under side is ex- 
posed to the water. When hard, the caster 
breaks off the superfluous metal, and sepa- 
rates the plaster mould from the plate. It is 
then picked, the edges trimmed, the back 
shaved to a proper thickness, and made 
ready for the press. 

Tlie process of eleetrotyping lias, of late, 
become an important element, and is in many 
cases preferred to the old system of stereo- 



typing. It results from the disposition of 
copper, held in solution, to deposit itself on 
a metal surface, when under the influence of 
magnetism. 

Steret-.typing by the Electrotype process 
is conducted as follows : An impression is 
taken from tlie corrected forms or engraved 
block upon a plate of wax, and finely pul- 
verized plumbago is then dusted thinly over 
the surface of the wax. The excess is blown 
away in a machine contrived for this pur- 
pose, and the tine dust remains uniformly in 
contact with the wax in every little depres- 
sion and line, without filling these up. The 
object of the pliunhago is to act as the con- 
ducting medium for the galvanic current, 
until a film of copper is deposited. But by 
a recent modification of the pi'ocess, this 
film is also produced before the article is 
put into the trough, by the application of 
a wash of sulphate of copper, (solution of 
blue vitriol,) and dusting over it fine iron 
filings. The solution is decomposed by the 
iron, and metallic cop})er is immediately 
precipitated, forming a delicate film which 
uniformly covers the whole surface. The 
wax j)late retaining this film is well washed, 
and is then ready for the galvanic trough. 
In this it is left over night under the influ- 
ence of the electric current, and in the 
morning when taken out, the coating of cop- 
per is found to be sufficiently thick for hand- 
ling. The wax is removed, and the copper 
sheet, first tinned on the back, is placed face 
down in an apparatus in which it is covered 
with melted type metal. Thus backed a 
plate is obtained, which, after being dressed 
by planing and squaring, is screwed down 
upon a mahogany block, the height of the 
whole being tiie same as that of type. 

Plates for use upon the cylinders of print- 
ing machines are made with the curve of tlie 
cylinders, the forms themselves in which the 
type are paged having a convex surface, 
which gives them the name of '' turtles." 

In making cojjper faced type, ordinary 
types are set in a fi arae so arranged as to 
let only the letter end in the copper solution 
of the battery. The deposit of copper ad- 
heres to this end, which it completely covers- 
Such type are now extensively used in large 
establishment?, and are very durable. 

Within the past twelve years, several pro- 
cesses have been invented, for copying print- 
ed books, steel and wood engravings, maps, 
etc., by photography upon stone or hardened 
wax or metallic surfaces and by etching, or 



NEWSPAPERS — DAILIES — WEEKLIES PERIODICALS. 



301 



the use of acids, transforming these copies 
into matrices from which plates could be 
cast analogous to stereotype or electrotype 
plates. These processes, of which Osborne's 
Photolithographic, the Heliotype, the Alber- 
type, and Jewett's and Morse's Cerographic 
processes are those best known, have reached 
various stages of perfection, but are undoubt- 



edly destined to be of great service in some 
departments of the printing art. One of 
the finest specimens of this kind of work, 
was the fac-simile edition of Albert Durer's 
" Little Passion," copied from William C. 
Prime, Esq., by Mr. Julius Bien, a New 
York Artist." 



NEWSPAPERS. 



CHAPTER I. 

NEWSPAPERS— DAILIES— WEEKLIES— PE- 
RIODICALS. 

The power and circulation of the daily 
press are among tlie marvels of tlie present 
day, and tliey are features peculiarly Ameri- 
can. No country presents sucli a number 
of news publications, and none sucli a uni- 
versal popular demand for them. This re- 
sult has been obtained mostly in the last 
twenty-five years, by a combina.tion of 
causes. The two leading ones, are the intro- 
duction of the cheap press and the inven- 
tion of the means of so multiplying num- 
bers, that much interesting matter can be 
sold for a little money. Take a leading- 
morning daily. This is equal to a book of 
more than 100 solid octavo pages, sold to 
the retailer for one and a half cents every 
morning, no profit being derived from the 
sale. This has become possible only through 
the ability to produce a vast number on 
one hand, and through tlie immense re- 
ceipts for advertising on the other. By the 
introduction of a cheap press, is not to be 
understood the mere printing of a mass of 
matter for a small price, but the introduction 
of such matter as attracts the attention of 
persons not previously habitual readers, and 
exciting in them so strong an interest as to 
make papers for the future a necessity. It is 
this which has been done by the cheap press. 

The first newspapers of the country were 
hardly worth the name. In the colonies 
there was little of interest to draw public 
attention, and such papers as the Spectator 
and Tattler came across the water to meet 
the literary taste of the more wealthy, while 
the jealous care of the mother country 
watched over the colonial papers, lest they 



should breed sedition. Dr. Franklin informs 
us that the first start he got in life was 
through the misfortune of his brother, who 
owned the paper on w hich he was an appren- 
tice, in incurring the displeasure of the gov- 
ernment for disrespectful remarks. The pa- 
per was suspended, as Paris papers are at the 
present day, and ISenjamin's indentures were 
cancelled in order that he might become the 
nominal owner. The editor of the Boston 
Courant, in l732, made his valedictory to 
the public, because he found it too vexatious 
to be running with his proof in his pocket 
to the government house, and the new editor 
promised to do the best he could under the 
circumstances. There were few subjects 
then to interest the general reader, and the 
restricted state of industry allowed but little 
range for advertising. The paper was poor, 
and mostly imported at a high price from 
England, while the laborious work of a man 
through the live-long night on the presses of 
the day, gave but a few hundred to circulate 
in the morning, and these few were to be 
sold at a rate that must cover all the expen- 
ses — that is to say, for more than they were 
worth. 

The first daily paper published in the 
United States, was the Pennsylvania Packet 
or General Advertiser, started as a weekly, by 
John Dunlap, in 1771, and merged into a 
daily in 1784, at the peace. To one of the 
conductors of the paper. Washington gavo 
the manuscript of his " Farewell Address," 
and which, at a sale made in 1«.35, was })ur- 
chased by Mr. Lennox, of New York, f )r 
82,000. The first form in which printed 
news appeared in England was that of dog- 
gerel ballads, which were issued as early as 
the reign of Queen Mary. These were fol- 
lowed by occasional sheets, or pamphlets, of 



302 



NEWSPAPERS. 



news ; but the first approach to a reu'ular 
newspaper was the Weekly Nciccs from Italy, 
Oermanie, (f'c, May 23, 1622, whicli was con- 
tinued, with some variations of title and oc- 
casional intermissions, until ] 040. The ear- 
liest specimen of parliamentary reportini; is 
entitled, The Diurnal Occurrences or Daily 
Proceedings of Both Houses in this Great 
and Ilajipy Parliament, from dd Novonhcr, 
1640, to 'Ad November, 1641. More than 
one hundred newspapers, with different 
titles, appear to have been published between 
this date and the death of Charles I., and up- 
ward of eighty others bitween that event 
and the Restoration. Occasional papers 
were issued after the civil war began, limited 
to local or special occurrences, as News from 
Hull, Truths from York, Tidiwjs from Ire- 
land. The more regular newspapers were 
published weekly at first, then twice or thrice 
in a week. The impatience of the people 
soon led to the publication of daily papers ; 
and Spalding, the Aberdeen annalist, men- 
tions that in December, 1G42, daily papers 
came from London, called Diurnal Occur- 
rences, declaring what was done in Parliament. 
In the Scottish campaign of 1650, the army 
of Charles and that of Oliver Cromwell each 
carried its printer along with it to report 
progress, and, of course, to exaggerate suc- 
cesses. It is from this circumstance that the 
first introduction of newspapers into Scotland 
has been attributed to Oliver Cromwell. 

The stirring events of the American Revo- 
lution in like manner gave a great impulse to 
printing ; but that took the form of pamph- 
lets and circulars more than that of the peri- 
odical press. The event made the press free, 
and it began a new career ; but the habits of 
the people had not been overcome, nor were 
the means of popularizing the press yet in 
existence. Nevertheless, politics became the 
staple of newspapers, which were started in 
most sections as the organs of parties and to 
support candidates for office ; as a matter of 
course these were read mostly by those who 
were of the same way of thinking. The cir- 
culation could never reach a point that would 
make it profitable of itself, because the limit 
was the power of the press to work the papers, 
la the great cities the chief support of the 
press was the advertising patronage, bestow- 
ed in some degree in the light of political 
support. The foreign news and domestic 
items of intelligence made up the general 
interests, with ship news, that began after the 
war of 1812 to have a more extended char-, 



actcr. These papers, published at $10 per 
annum, did not much interest the mass of 
people, beyond wdiose reach the price for the 
most part placed them ; advertising patron- 
age and government "pap" were therefore 
the sources looked to for profit. These pa- 
pers were seldom left in families, but were 
carried home by those who took them at 
their places of business. The papers of the 
early part of the century were very meagre 
The oldest existing papers of New York are 
the Commercial Advertiser, founded in IVOV, 
and i\\Q Eveninfi Post, in 1801. The rival- 
ry among the papers of the day was not so 
much to interest the general reading public, 
as to conciliate those commercial interests on 
the patronage of which the means of the paper 
mostly depended. The Commercial Gazette, 
of New York, became a leading journal 
through the enterprise of its editor in col- 
lecting ship news. lie himself rowed a boat, 
boarding vessels coming up the bay, to col- 
lect reports with which he enriched his col- 
umns. Other papers soon followed his ex- 
ample. In 1827, the New York Journal of 
Commerce was started, chiefly by Arthur 
Ta})pan, Esq., of Boston, and David Hale, 
then an auctioneer in Boston, was made johit 
editor with INIr. Hallock, of New Haven. 
About the same time, two papers were uni- 
ted in the New York Courier and Enquirer, 
under James Watson Webb. These two 
papers enii)loyed news schooners to furnish 
ship news at great expense. This enterprise 
was jiromoted by the introduction of a Na- 
pier press, which allowed of an increased cir- 
culation of larger sized papers, and these 
became filled with advertising as the specu- 
lative years that exploded with 1837 came 
on. The success of these two rival papers, 
was fatal to the other old papers. Tiie Mer- 
cantile Advertiser, by Butler ; the Daily Ad- 
vertiser, by Dwight and Townsend, and the 
Commercial Gazette, by Lang, which had long 
flourished, died out. Several other papers 
followed, among which was the Neio York 
American, an evening paper, edited by Chas. 
King, Esq. At that period cheap news- 
papers, fast presses, telegraph and express 
companies made their a[)pearance all to- 
gether, to work out by mutual aid the mar- 
vels that we have since witnessed. The 
first penny paper was published by Benja- 
min H. Day, in 1833. It was about ten 
inches square, and sold for one cent, or to 
newsboys for sixty-two and a half cents per 
hundred. It was without editorials, but was 



NEWSPAPERS DAILIES WEEKLIES PERIODICALS. 



303 



filled with news items. It grew riipidly to 
a large circulation, and acquiring advertise- 
ments, swelled into a larger sheet, which got 
into the hands of Mr. Beacli. Mr. INI. Y. 
Beach and his son, Mr. M. S. Beach, con- 
ducted it almost entirely as a local paper, 
with no particular political character, but 
with a very large circulation (60,GOO to 
70,000) up to 1867. Mr. M. Y. Beach was 
famous for having " many irons in tlie fire " 
at the same time, and besides the San, had 
a manufactory, two banks, and sundry other 
enterprises on foot. During and after the 
war, the circulation of the Sun had decreased, 
(its price being advanced to two cents a- 
that of the other morning papei's had been 
to four) and in 1867 it had oidy about 48,000 
purchasers. A company of capitalists and 
literary men, among whom were Mr. Chas. 
A. Dana, previously of the Naio York Tri- 
bune and the Chicago Republican, IMr. M. 
S. Beach, Mr. Hitchcock, formerly of the 
New Jerusalem Messenger, IMr. I. W. Eng- 
land, and others, in 18(>7 purchased the Sun 
and the old Tammany Hoiel, and fitting up 
the latter in fine s yle, removed tlie paper 
to its new quarter-, and very greatly chang- 
ed its character. Its circulation fell off to 35,- 
000, and then began to rise till it exceeded 
one hundred thou and, and his maintained 
itself at about that point for more than a 
year past. It has now a large editorial 
corps, and in all its apnointments is perhaps 
the most complete newspaper otfice in the 
world. In our illustrations we have pre- 
sented some of the appliances by means of 
which the edition of a hundred thousand 
copies, admirably printed, are flung off, in 
the space of a little more than three hours 
each morning. 

But to return to our history of newspapers. 
In 1835, James (iordon Bennett, previously 
one of the editorial staff of the Courier and 
Enquirer, started the Neio York Herald, on 
a capital of $500, but with a most indom- 
itable energy. His first week's expenses 
were $56. At the end of thirty -seven years 
they are from $20,000 to $30,000 per week. 
The price of the paper at first was one cent 
per copy. It was advanced soon to two 
cents, and during the war to four, at which 
price it has since remained. The circulation 
of the paper increased rapidly but steadily, 
till it reached 70,000 to 80,000 copies, oc- 
casionally going even higher than this. The 
sheet has been repeatedly enlarged, and is 



now a very large double sheet with frequent 
supplements, making it triple or quadruple. 
It has never had any great political influ- 
ence, its aim being to keep on the popular 
side, whichever that might be, and its edito- 
rial columns have not indicated any remarka- 
ble ability ; but it has been very enterjjris- 
ing its market and financial reports, its va<t 
and varied correspondence from all parts of 
the world, and its very full and generally 
accurate reports of public meetings of all 
sorts, speeches, lectures, addresses, and ser- 
mons, have been features which have ensured 
it a great circulation. It would have been 
impossible, however, for it to have attained 
this, had not the improvements in printino- 
machines made it possible to multiply copies 
at the rate of 25,000 to 30,000 per hour. 
Soon after the war commenced, the Herald, 
followed speedily by the other morning pa- 
pers, resorted to the plan of stereotyping the 
pages of its daily issue, in order to multiply 
th(;m more easiiy. This could not have been 
done by the old stereotyping process with 
suHicient rapidity to be of any service, but 
a method of stereotyping by means oi papier 
mache, or a material analagous to it, then 
just invented, was rapid enough to answer 
all purposes, and with this and Hoe's ten 
cylinder printing machine, the proprietor of 
the Herald could pi int fast enough for his 
daily edition. Mr. Bennett died June 1,1872. 
The New York Tribune was issued for 
the first time in 1841. Horace Greeley, its 
editor and first proprietor had come to New 
York in 1 831 as a printer, and had developed 
remarkable talent as an editor, and political 
writer He had j^rojected several papers, 
some of them campaign papers of very large 
circulation ; for three or four years previous 
he had been editing the New Yorker, a very 
good but not a proli table jiajier. He started 
the Tribune with $1,000, mostly borrowed 
money. In the thirty-one yearo since that 
time, the paper has become a great power 
in the nation. It h;is always been edited 
with ability, and has been for about half 
that time owned by a joint stock association, 
but Mr. Greeley has been its chief editor 
and master spirit. Always an active politi- 
cian, first a Whig and afterwards a Republi- 
can, he has made it from first to last a po- 
litical paper ; and though at times differing 
decidedly in opinion from his associates in 
the party, its editor has always been rec- 
ognized as one of its most valued leaders. 



304 



NEWSPAPEUS DAILIES — AV E E IC L 1 1-; S MJITODICALS. 



He has recently (in May, 1872) been nom- 
inated for the Presidency by a convention 
held at Cincinnati, and the nomination ad- 
vocated by prominent men of both political 
parties, and has in consequence withdrawn 
for the present from the editorial manage- 
ment of his paper. The circulation of the 
Daily Tribune is not so large as that of the 
Sun or the Herald, though greater than that 
of any other morning paper ; but the cir- 
culation of the Weekly Tribune is vastly 
greater than that of any other jjolitical 
weekly in the United States — reaching in 
some years "J^OjOOO copies weekly. A semi- 
weekly edition is also printed. 

The Neio York Times was founded in 
1850, by Henry .J. Raymond, who had pre- 
viously been a writer on the staif of the 
Tribune and the Courier and Enquirer. It 
was some time in attaining to a profitable 
success, but for eighteen or nineteen years 
past has been one of the leading dailies of 
New York City. During Mr. Raymond's 
life time it was edited with marked ability, 
but since his death in 1801), has hardly main- 
tained its olil reputation. 

Tiie World, founded in 18G0, by an Asso- 
ciation wiili a large capital, as a liepublican 
and religious daily paper, met with several 
changes in the course of the next two years, 
and in 18GJ became a Democratic paj^er, in 
which faith it has since continued. It is 
very ably edited and has a circulation nearly 
as large as that of the Times — about iii3,U00 
of its daily edition. 

Of the later ventures in the way of morn- 
ing pa])ers, in New York City, only the 
S'ar has achieved any consideral)Ie success. 
It has taken rank with the older dailies, 
tliougii it would be dilllcul; to say why it 
should have done so. 

Several of the low priced evening papers 
have been successfid. IVie Telecjram, owned 
and controlled l:y the son of the proprietor 
of tiie Herald; the News, the Witness, a daily 
religious paper of det^ided ability, the Express, 
and the Eoening Mnil have each a circu- 
lation ranging from 10,')Ui) to 25,000. 

Of course none of these papers are sup- 
ported by their subscription lists or their 
circulation. In the case of tlni larger sheets 
this would hardly sulfice to pay for the pa- 
per on which th"y are printed, but these 
extended circulations make them very valu- 
able as advertising mediums, and they de- 
rive so princely a revenue from their adver- 



tisements, that in favorable years the net 
income from the Herald and the Tribune has 
reached $200,000 or $250,000 per annum, 
and that of the Times and the World has 
exceeded $100,000 each. The Staats Zei- 
tung, instate Gazette^ a German daily paper, 
has a circulation inferior 2")i"obably only to 
those of the Herald and Sun. The Evening 
Post, Commercial Advertisfr, etc., though 
pi-inted as folios, and not as quarto sheets, 
have a very large advertising jjatronage, 
mostly from the shipping and wholesale mer- 
chants, book publishers, etc. The adver- 
tisements in the morning papers are, to a 
large extent, fresh advertisements daily, re- 
ceived and paid f )r the jirevious day. Those 
of the evening papers are, many of them, 
less frequenily changed. The advertisements 
of the morning papers belong to the day on 
which they appear, and compo-e a part of 
the life and the news thereof, like any 
other matter in the paper — to many people 
more interesting and more imporant. No 
portion of a great metropolitan journal, then, 
is dead matter ; even the advertising col- 
umns, which many suppose to be dull and 
tedious, are full of life and interest, and fresh 
every day. It i-i amudng to contract such 
a ]ia])er with tlie Philadelphia Gazette of 
1750, then conducted by Benjamin Frank- 
lin. Its dimensions are about eight by ten. 
The news an 1 reading matter which it con- 
tains, could all be put into one of the pages 
of this book. It has not a single line of edi- 
torial. Its latest foreign news was about 
three or four months old. Its domestic news 
principally related to the Indians. Among 
its advertisements were several notices of 
the sale of negroes in Pennsylvania. The 
progress of the newspaper art is well illus- 
trated by cornj)aring tliis sheet with those 
issued in our large cities at the present day. 
At first the extension of this circulation 
of the city newspapers was greatly facilita- 
ted by the expresses which reieived the 
packag''S as they came from the pi-i-ss for 
the larger towns and cities, and hurried ihem 
out to the dealers. But veiy soon there was 
found a necessity of an intermediate ag'^ncy 
which could make for itself a vast bu-iness 
while at the same time it saved expense to 
the dealers in other cities, towns and villages, 
and the news companies came into existence. 
There had been several houses each with its 
considerable circle of customers, which dis- 
patched to their several customers a daily, 



NEWSPAPERS DAILIES WEEKLIES PERIODICALS. 



S05 



tri-weekly, or semi weekly package of the 
literary papers and periodicals, together with 
such Looks and stationery as might be sent 
in to them to pack. Most of these dealers 
in New York City united and formed the 
American News Company, which soon sup- 
plied its customers with all that they required 
from its own vast stock, and giving its or- 
ders daily for such quantities of the daily 
papers as it required for its customers, hur- 
ried tliese to its broad shelves, packed them 
with the other goods ordered, and sent them 
in quantities ofen of many tons by the morn- 
ing trains and expresses, with all of which 
it had arrangements, to its thousands of cus- 
tomers in all directions. Its business grew 
till it took from 250,000 to 3u0,000 copies 
of Bonner's Ledger and half as many of 
some of the other popular literary and illus- 
trated papers, 30,000 or 40,000 copies of 
the Independent, and enormous quantities of 
the Sunday papers, whole editions of popu- 
lar books and pamphlets, 90,oOO or 100,000 
of Harper's Monthly, etc., etc. In process 
of time, other news companies were organ- 
ized in New York, and a gigantic one at 
Chicago, and the business was divided to 
some extent, but the American News Co. 
has still a vast business. An attempt was 
made a few years ago to furnish the New 
York morning papers at the breakfast hour 
to all customers on railroad routes within a 
radius of two hundred miles or more around 
the city. This was accomplished by arrang- 
ing a special express train to start out on 
each road at about two o'clock each morn- 
ing, taking all the papers which were printed 
up to that time, driving with all speed to 
the railroad, throwing them on the ti*ain and 
making up the packages on board, throwing 
them out at each point to an agent as the 
train shot by, till the farthest limit of morn- 
ing distribution was reached. The plan 
proved practicable, but too expensive to pay 
at first, and it was dropped. 

The sale of papers at the steamboats and 
in the cars has become a large business, and 
the privilege of doing so is now farmed out 
by the companies. The privilege is paid 
for at rates sometimes as high as $5,000 per 
annum on good routes, say some of the best 
traveled in New York. The dealer employs 
boys who start with the out trains in the 
morning, supplying all who go. These trains 
meet others, in an hour's ride, coming in, 
filled not only with passengers from a dis- 



tance, but with persons who, doing business 
in the city, commute on the road, and come 
in every day ; all of them are anxious for the 
pai)ers, and they are sold at a large advance 
on the cost; the four cent papers usually at 
from five to ten cents ; the seven cent pa- 
pers at ten or twelve, and the two cent pa- 
pers at three to five cents, thus yielding the 
vendor a handsome profit. 

The Sunday press has become a feature in 
New York within twenty years. The first 
Sunday paper was the Sunday Morning 
News, published in 1835, by Samuel Jenks 
Smith. It had a considerable success, but 
stopped on the death of Mr. Smith. In 
1840, the Atlas was started by Herrick, 
Ropes & West. The last-named had been a 
reporter on the Herald. The paper had a 
great success, and is still flourishing. The 
Sunday Mercury was next started, and re- 
ceived a great impulse from the " Patent 
Sermons " of Dow, jr. Then followed the 
Sunday Times, the Dispatch, and others, 
which have attained much success. 

The circulation of the New York dailies 
is now (187 2 J more than 500,000 copies, 
against 10,000 in 1835. In 1865, there 
were 307 newspapers and periodicals pub- 
lished in the city of New York (673 in the 
state) of which 21 were dailies, with an ag- 
gregate circulation of 425,000 copies daily, 
8 semi-weekly with a reported circulation of 
about 75,000 ; 223 weekly of which 42 had 
an aggregate circulation of 1,587,500; 11 
semi-monthly and 118 monthly; 11 of the 
monthlies reported a circulation in the ag- 
gregate of 337,000. These returns are so 
incomplete as to be of very little value, and 
those of the census of 1870 which give the 
aggregate of the newspapers published in 
the state at 402,770,868 for the year are 
very far below the truth. It is certain that 
more than 375,000,000 newspapers are 
printed in New York City every year, aside 
from magazines, reviews, and quarterly pe- 
riodicals. 

The weekly papers are of several classes. 
Those devoted to light literature have the 
largest circulation. Bonner's New York 
Ledger leads in this class, maintaining a 
weekly circulation (mainly through the 
American News Co., and a large subscription 
list) of about 400,000 copies. Street ^ 
Smith's Weekly boasts of a circulation of 
about 300,000 ; Harpers' Illustrated Weekly 
from 130,000 to 150,000, and Harpers^ 



3u6 



NEWSPAPERS DAILIES WEEKLIES PERIODICALS. 



Bazar nearly 100,000 ; the Mercury, Frank 
Leslie's lilustratrd Paper, the Fireside Com- 
panion, the Chimnoj Corner, and Moore's 
Mural New Yorker, range from 75,000 to 
100,000, and the number of papers of this 
class, ranging from 40,000 to 70,000 is large. 

The religious papers have also attained a 
large circulation within a few years past. 
The Christian Union now lakes the lead 
with a circulation of about 100,000 ; the 
Independent comes next with nearly 75,000 ; 
while the Observer, Examiner and Chronicle, 
Evangelist, Advocate, Metropolitan Record, 
and Methodist, range between 25,0U0 and 
50,000 each. 

There are also several scientific and mis- 
cellaneous journals, such as the Scientific 
American, Hearth and Home, Railroad Jour- 
nal, etc., etc., which have a large clientage 
ranging from 25,000 to 50,000. 

lu other cities there are also some in- 
stances of great success. The Ledger of 
Philadelphia has! a daily circulat'on as large 
or larger than that of the Sun, but no other 
daily in that city exceeds 30,000. The Sat- 
urday Night, a weekly literary paper, has a 
circulation of over 2u0,000, but none of the 
other literary papers of that city exceed 
100,000. 

Of daily papers in other cities, the Tri- 
bune and the Times, both of Chicago, the 
Journal, the Traveller and the Transcript of 
Boston, the Commercial, the Gazette, the 
Chronicle, and the Enquirer of Cincinnati, 
the Republican and the Democrat of St. 
Louis, the American and the Gazette of Bal- 
timore, the Courier-Journal of Louisville, 
and the Republican of Springfield, Mass., 
are those of largest circulation. Some of 
the political weeklies of other cities have a 
very large circulation. The Toledo Blade, 
Toledo, Ohio, has a circulation ranging from 
80,000 to 100,000, and Pomroys Democrat, 
before its removal to New York, had about 
100,000. All the papers of large circulation 
which depend to any extent upon their sub- 
scription lists, use folding machines and di- 
recting machines which save a vast amount 
of hand labor. 

The following statistics of American Jour- 
nalism, drawn from the census of 1870, will 
interest all our readers. The whole number 
of newspapers and jieriodicals in the United 
States, is 5,815, to which are to be added 
73 for the Territories, 353 more are printed 
in the Dominion of Canada, and 29 in the 



other Briti-h Colonies, making a total for 
the United States and British America of 
6,300 periodicals. Of those published in 
the United States, there are : 



Daily, 574 

Tri-weekly, 107 

Semi-wi-ekly , 115 

Weekly, 4,270 



Semi-monthly, 96 

Monthly, 621 

Bi-monthly, 13 

Quarterly, 49 



Total, 5,845 

Of this immeu'^e aggregate, 79 papers, 
ranging from weekly to quarterly, are pub- 
lished only for advertising purposes. Sub- 
tracting these as not fairly to be counted 
among tlie publications which illustrate the 
journalistic enterprise of the nation, we have 
5,7 G6 newspapers and periodicals in the 
country — an average of one to about 0,500 
of the population. The whole number is 
distributed among various interests as fol- 
lows : 

Political, 4,.328 

Agriculture and Horticulture, 93 

Benevolent and Secret Societies, 81 

Commercial and Financial 122 

J llustrated, Literary, and Miscellaneous, 502 

Specially devoted to Nationality, 80 

Technical and Professional, 207 

Religious, 407 

Sporting, 6 

The political papers are divided into 
C,5G0 weekly, 552 daily, 101 tri-weekly, 100 
semi-weekly, 8 semi-monthly, and 6 monthly. 
The I'eligious papers are divided as follows : 
Weekly, 208 ; semi-monthly, 40 ; monthly, 
141 ; bi-monthly, 1 ; quarterly, 17. There 
are three daily scientific or professional 
newspapers ; the remainder, 204, range from 
weekly to quarterly, there being 130 month- 
ly. The literary and illustrated papers run 
the entire gamut, from 8 daily to 7 quarterly, 
with 303 weekly and 157 monthly. There 
are 8 daily commercial or financial papers, 
56 weekly and 40 monthly. Agricultural 
papers : weekly, 35 ; semi-monthly, 2 ; 
monthly, 56. Of the "sporting" papers, 5 
are weekly and 1 monthly. 

Turning to the vital question of circulation, 
we find the facts of special interest, and can 
best exhibit them, perhaps, by the following 
table, in which we give the number of each 
class with the aggregate and average circula- 
tion : 

No. Circulation. Arerage. 

rolitical 4,328 8,778.-320 2,028 

Agricultural, 93 710,752 8,072 

Societies,...! 81 257,080 3,173 

Financial 122 G90.200 5,657 

Literary,. 502 4,421,935 8,808 

National, 20 45,150 2,257 

Scientific or Professional, 207 744,531 3,596 

Reli''ious 407 4,7fi4..S53 11,706 

Spor^ting,: 6 73,500 12,269 



mTERIOR VIEW OP THE N. Y. SUN PRINTING ESTABLISHMENT. 




EDITORIAL ROOM. 





PRESS BOOM. 




/ / 'h^ : '' 



SIKK ton PINO KOOM 



KEWSPAPEKS — DAILIES WEEKLIES PERIODICALS. 



307 



The aggregate circulation of daily pa- 
pers in the United States is 2,606,547 ; 
average circulation, 4,541. The weekly 
papers circulate 10,591,743 copies, with an 
average of 2, \ 80. 

The total annual circulation of newspapers 
jn-inted in the State of New York is 492,- 
770,868 copies, being more than twice the 
number issued in any other State. The next 
greatest number of issues is in Pennsylva- 
nia, where 233,380,532 copies are annually 
printed. Massi.chusetts prints 107,601,952 
copies, Illinois 102,686,204, Ohio, 93,592,- 



448. Next comes California, with 45^869,- 
408 newspaper sheets per annum. 

The following table shows the average 
circulation of newspapers and periodicals in 
each S'ate and Territory, and the Colonies 
of British America ; the total annual circula- 
tion, and the average number of copies 
printed yearly for each inhabitant. This 
is not a sure indication of the relative num- 
ber of readers in each State, as the leading 
papers in large cities are largi-ly circulated 
outside the State where pi inted : 



states, Territories, &c. Average Circulation. 

Alabama, 1,070 

Arkansas, 650 

California 1,846 

Connecticut, 3,000 

Delaware 1,247 

District of Columbia, 4,323 

Florida 616 

Georgia, 1,270 

Illinois, 2,907 

Indiana, 1 ,490 

Iowa, 1,013 

Kansas, 1 ,828 

Kentucky, 1 ,968 

Louisiana, 1,220 

Maine, 2,257 

Maryland 2,077 

Massachusetts, 5,709 

Michigan, 1,654 

Minnesota, 1,121 

Mississippi, 753 

Missouri, 2,104 

Nebraska 913 

Nevada 516 

New Hampshire, 2,1 94 

New Jersey, 1,475 

New York 7,41 1 

North Carolina, 814 

Ohio, 3,154 

Oregon, 1 ,352 

Pennsylvania, 3,704 

llhode Island, 2^489 

South Carolina, 1,354 

Tennessee, 1,747 

Texas, 701 

Yei-mont, 2,528 

Virginia, 1,107 

West Virginia, 842 

Wisconsin, 1,317 

Territories 858 

New Brunswick, Dominion of Canada, 1,750 

Nova Scotia, Dominion of Canada, 1 ,334 

Ontario, Dominion of Canada, 1,897 

Quebec, Dominion of Canada, 1 ,409 

British Colonies, 640 

Total Average, 1 ,842 





Average No. of 


Total Annual 


copies printed yearly 


Circulation. 


for each Inhabitant. 


8,891,432 


9 


2,438,716 


5 


45,869,408 


82 


15,697,320 


29 


1,596,480 


13 


11,637,400 


89 


841,880 


5 


14,447,388 


12 


102,686,204 


41 


28,515,862 


17 


19,344,636 


16 


12,465,768 


35 


17,392,044 


13 


14,028,028 


20 


9,082,596 


14 


19,461,600 


25 


107,691,952 


74 


17,513,120 


15 


2,811,120 


7 


4,403,460 


5 


37,737,504 


22 


3,147,1 JO 


27 


1,714,960 


40 


5,711,720 


18 


19,766,104 


22 


492,770,868 


113 


4,220,676 


4 


93,592,443 


35 


3,658,304 


40 


233,380,532 


67 


io,048,048 


46 


5,804,136 


8 


15,712,236 


13 


5,813,432 


7 


4,486.9 14 


14 


13,790,788 


12 


3,372,668 


8 


20,577,395 


20 


3,829,121 


13 


3,961,808 


12 


3,858,784 


10 


33,757,528 


17 


21,812,560 


16 


1,499,922,219 


35 



TELEGRAPHS-THEm ORIGIN AND PROGRESS. 



CHAPTER I. 

TELEGRAPHS— THI':m ORIGIN AND PEOGRESS. 

" Canst thou send lightnings that they may go, and say 
unto thee, ' Here we are 'I " — Job. 

The invention and use of electric tele- 
graphs are among the most important of 
modern imjirovements ; and it is somewhat 
remarkable that the invention justifies the 
trite observation, that great inventions are 
made always at the moment they are wanted. 
Telegraphs have been used from the re- 
motest antiquity, by signals of various kinds ; 
and one by flags, to signal the arrival of 
vessels below, has been used during the pres- 
ent century in Boston ; and, in New York, 
one operating by arms has been used for 
the same purpose from the Narrows to the 
roof of the Merchants' Exchange in New 
York. The electric telegraph applied light- 
ning to intelligence as steam was applied to 
motion, and came into being to exceed, by 
its rapidity of intelligence, the means just 
invented to convey more rapidly by rail. 
Indeed its action is necessary to the latter, 
since it would be very difficult to operate 
long lines of railroad, like the New York 
Erie, and Central, without the aid of the 
electric telegraph. The patent of Morse, 
who invented the first practical recording 
telegraph, was taken out in the year 1840 ; 
since then, numerous modes of recording have 
been invented, and im[)rovements adojjted, 
and there are now many systems in use, 
although the Morse telegraph in its various 
modifications, is generally employed in all 
parts of the world for the general business 
of telegraphing. 

It is curious that just ninety years after 
Dr. Franklin identified lightning with elec- 
tricity, by means of his kite, Morse should 
have schooled electricity to send messages 
instantaneously over wire at great distances. 
We say instantaneously, because the ascer- 
tained speed of electricity over wires with- 
out resistance is 288,000 miles per second, 
which is scarcely perceptible, although at that 



rate it would take six minutes to send a 
despatch to the sun. 

This all-pervading element manifests it- 
self in countless ways — in the sparkling of 
animal hair ; in the rustling of silk, which 
" betrays your poor heart to woman ;" in 
the aurora that illumines the North ; in the 
meteor that startles the astonished obsei'ver ; 
it flashes in the lightning bolt that rives the 
oak, without, while it gently j^enetrates into 
the lady's parlor and fills her form, as she 
glides over her warm, thick carpet, until the 
metal tube of the gas burner will attract 
enough from her fingers to ignite the gas, or 
from her lips to startle a newly-entei*ed 
friend. It will also convey to her the thoughts 
of distant minds with more than the assiduity 
of Puck, by means of the invention of 
Morse. 

Professor Morse was not the discoverer of 
the analogy betAveen magnetism and elec- 
tricity, but he was the first who made prac- 
ticable all former discoveries and improve- 
ments in the production of a recording 
telegraph. The three leading i^roperties of 
electricity that make telegraphs possible, are, 
first, its constant desire to seek an equilib- 
rium, always going where there is less ; 
second, that the production of electricity is 
always in two fluids, called jiositive and 
negative, which possess a mutual attraction 
for each other ; third, that different substan- 
ces have very diflferent conducting powers — 
over some it passes with the utmost freedom, 
while over others it will scarcely pass at all. 
On this depends the possibility of telegraph- 
ing, since by it the current of electricity may 
be arrested or conveyed at the will of the 
operator. Mr. William Sturgeon of Lon- 
don, discovered in 1825 that when a bar 
of soft iron was placed within a coil of con- 
ducting wires it was rendered magnetic, and 
and would so remain as long as the current 
of electricity passed through the wires. The 
telegraph consists in connecting two of these 
magnets by a wire of any number of miles 



Jfl^.^ 





TELEGRAPHS THEIR ORIGIN AND PROGRESS. 



309 



in leagtii, mid directing through it a current 
from au electric battery, liy cutting off 
the current, ilie iron becomes alternately 
charged and at rest with great rapidity. To 
form the current, it is necessary that the 
wire should form a circuit, or that each end 
of the wire should communicate with the 
ground. The interruption is caused by 
stopping this communication. The first 
telegraph invented by Professor Morse con- 
sisted of an electro-mugnet, formed by bend- 
ing a small rod of iron in the form of a 
horse-shoe, upon which was wound a few 
yards of copper wire insulated with cotton 
thread. This magnet was then placed upon 
the middle of a painter's s' retching frame 
for canvass, the bottom of which was nailed 
to the edge of a common table. Across the 
lower part of the frame was constructed a 
narrow trough to hold three narrow cylin- 
der of wood. A wooden clock was placed 
at one end of this trough. The cylinder 
next to the clock had a small pulley-wheel 
fixed upon its prolonged axis, outside the 
trough ; a similar pulley-wheel was fixed 
upon the prolonged axis of one of the slower 
wheels of the train of wheels outside the 
clock ; these two pulleywheels were con- 
nected by an endless cord or band. Upon 
the cylinder farthest from the clock was 
wound a ribbon of paper, which, when the 
clock train was put in motion was gradually 
unrolled and passing over the middle cylin- 
der was rolled up upon the cylinder nearest 
the clock by means of the cord and pulleys. 
An A shaped pendulum was susjiended 
by its apex from the centre of the top of 
the frame, directly above the centre of the 
middle cylinder in the trough below. This 
lever was made of two thin rules of wood 
meeting at the top but opening downwards 
about one inch apart and joined at the bot- 
tom by a transverse bar (which was close to 
the paper as it moved over the middle cylin- 
der,) and another about one inch above it. 
Through the centre of these two bars a 
small tube was fixed through which a pencil 
loosely played. The pencil had a small 
weight upon its top to keep the point in con- 
stant contact with the paper ribbon. Upon 
the lever directly opposite to tlie poles of 
the electro-magnet was fiistened the arma- 
ture of the magnet or a small bar of soft 
iron. The movement of the lever was 
guided by stops on the frame at the sides 
of the lever, permitting it only a movement 
forward to and back from the magnet ; the 



pencil at the bottom of the lever was thus 
allowed to advance when the magnet Vas 
charged and to re reat when discharged, 
about one eighth of an inch. The lever ad- 
vanced by the attraction of the magnet and 
was retracted by a weight or spring. 

The voltaic battery or generator of elec- 
tricity was connected by one of its poles to 
one of the helices of the magnet while the 
other pole was connected with a mercury 
cup ; and a conjunctive wire connected a 
second mercury cup to the other helix of 
the magnet. The circuit was closed by dip- 
ping a forked wire into the two cups of mer- 
cury, when the magnet became charged, the 
armature was attracted, and the lever drawn 
toward the magnet. When the forked wire 
was removed the magnet w^as discharged 
and the spring brought back the lever to its 
normal position. When the clock work 
was put in motion the ribbon of paper was 
drawn over the middle cylinder and the 
pencil attached to the lever being in con- 
stant contact with the ribbon of paper traced 
a continuous line lengthwise with the ribbon. 

The pathway of the pencil point, when 
the lever was attracted towards and held by 
the magnet for a longer or shorter time, 
contains the three elements of points, spaces 
and lines, forming by their various combi- 
nations, the various conventional characters 
for numerals and letters. 

Professor Morse subsequently modified 
the form of his telegraph, although the prin- 
ciple upon which its action depended re- 
mained substantially the same. In place of 
the wooden cylinders operated by a wooden 
clock for carrying the paper band at a regu- 
lar rate, he employed small brass rollers 
moved by means of mechanism analagous to 
clock-work ; and instead of the armature 
being attached to a wooden pendulum 
which vibrated over the paper, he attached 
it to one end of a brass lever sustained in a 
horizontal position by two pivots, the other 
end of the lever being armed with a 
steel point. Under the soft iron armature 
at one end of the lever was placed an 
electro-magnet, while the steel point at 
the other end of the lever, was beneath the 
roller which carried the band of paper. 
Now when the circuit is closed — that is 
completed — the armature of the electro- 
magnet is attracted through the magnetism 
created in the helix by the passage of the 
electric current, and this attraction causes 
the point of the pen to touch the paper and 



310 



TELEGRAPHS — THEIR ORIGIN AND PROGRESS. 



to trace upon it a line the length of which 
depends upon the duration of time in which 
the circuit remains whole. If the circuit is 
opened the current ceases to flow, the mag- 
netism disappears instantly and a spring at- 
taclied to the lever draws it away from the 
paper and the line ceases. By opening and 
closing the circuit rapidly dots are produced 
upon the paper the number of which de- 
pends upon the number of times that the 
circuit is broken and closed. If the circuit 
is closed for a longer time a dash or a short 
line is made upon the paper. We have thus 
the combinations of an alphabet of dots and 
lines. Thus a is a dot and a dash, b a dash 
and three dots, &c. The alphabet is so ar- 
ranged that those letters occurring most fre- 
quently are more easily transmitted ; thus e 
is one dot ; t one dash. An expert operator 
can transmit from thirty to forty words a 
minute by this instrument on a land line of 
200 or 300 miles in length. 

The transmitting apparatus is very simple, 
being designed only for the opening and 
closing of the circuit in a manner more easy 
than by holding the ends of the wire in the 
hands, as is done where there is no appara- 
tus. The two ends of wire are separated 
by two pieces of metal, one of which is a 
brass lev,er surmounted by an ivory button, 
and the other is a brass anvil tipped with 
platinum. The brass lever is mounted upon 
pivots, in front of the axis of which is sol- 
dered a nipple of platinum, which by the 
depression of the lever comes in contact 
with the platinum tipped anvil, and thus 
closes the circuit. 

To the Morse system at a later period, 
was added the "• sounder," a simple contri- 
vance, by which signals are conveyed by 
sound. Up to 1850 the operator read the dis- 
patch from slips of paper to the copyist, who 
wrote it down. It was soon found, however, 
that the despatch could be read by the 
'• click " of the instruments, and the opera- 
tor now copies, himself, from sound. 

Several modifications of the Morse tele- 
graph have been made, the principal of 
which is to substitute ink marking for em- 
bossing. The Morse telegraph in its various 
modifications is now used almost exclusively 
tliroughout the world. 

The number of inventions connected with 
the electric telegraph is almost endless, and 
would engross a long series of volumes for 
their description ; but the only system at 
present in use for general telegraphic com- 



munication in the United States, besides the 
Morse, is the letter printing telegraph, in- 
vented by Mr. G. M. Phelps, and this in- 
strument is only used in four out of the six 
thousand telegrajJiic stations in the United 
States. 

Professor Morse had no sooner shown 
that a telegraph could be constructed through 
the aid of electricity than his attention was 
turned to the discovery of some insulating 
substance by means of which the wires 
could be enveloped and buried in the earth, 
it not being deemed practicable to place 
them in the open air. Tarred yarn satu- 
rated with a preparation of asphaltum, was 
among the first insulating materials used for 
this purpose, and the lines constructed in 
1843 were covered with this substance, and 
buried in the earth. This insulation proved 
so faulty, however, that it was at once aban- 
doned, and the wires were insulated with 
glass upon poles in the open air. Still if 
it was decided to relinquish the idea of 
building subterranean lines, the fact was 
apparent that some good insulating material 
must be found which would permit the sub- 
mergence of the wires across straits or navi- 
gable rivers. Various substances were tried 
to accomj^tlish this result, but nothing satis- 
factory was obtained until the discovery of 
gutta jiercha, which proved to be one of the 
most perfect insulators known, and admirably 
adapted by its plastic and flexible qualities 
for the insulation of submarine wires. 

In 1850 the first electric cable Avas laid 
in the open sea between England and France. 
This cable consisted of a solid copper wire, 
covered with gutta percha. The landing 
place in France was Cape Grissiez,from which 
place a few messages passed sutficient to test 
the accuracy of the jirinciple. The commu- 
nication thus established between the conti- 
nent and England vyas, after a few hours, 
abruptly stopped. A diligent fisherman, ply- 
ing his vocation, took up part of the cable in 
his trawl and cutofl^apiece which he brought 
in triumph to Boulogne, where he exhibited 
it as a si)ecimen of rare sea-weed, with its 
centre filled with gold. It is believed that 
this piscator ignobilis returned again and 
again to search for further specimens of this 
treasure of the deep. It is, at all events, 
perfectly certain that he succeeded in de- 
stroying the submarine cable. 

This accident caused the attention of 
scientific men to be directed to the discovery 
of some mode of preserving submarine cables 



TELEGRAPHS — THEIR ORIGIN AND PROGRESS. 



311 



from similar casualties, and it was decided, 
that the wire insulated by gutta percha 
should form a core or centre to a wire rope, 
so as to give px'otection to it during the pro- 
cess of paying out and laying down, as well 
as to guard it from rocks and the anchors 
of vessels. 

In 1851 a cable protected in this manner 
was laid between Dover and Calais, where 



Amongst the most important submarine 
lines are those which were laid across the 
Atlantic Ocean in 1865 and 1866. 

The conductor of these cables consists of 
a copper strand of seven wires, six laid round 
one, and weighing 300 lbs. per mile. 

The insulation consists of four layers of 
gutta percha laid in alternately with four 
thin layers of Chattertou's compound. 



E 





g, 1 is a side elevation of the instrument, showing a section through the galvanometer coils, and 
Fig. 2 a cross section showing the magnetic needle. The same letters refer to like parts in both fig- 
ures. A is the magnetic needle attached to thecircularmirror of silvered glass a, which is suspended 
by a thread of cocoon silk in the brass frame B} and adjusted by the screw 6. The frame slides into 
a vertical groove in the center of the coil which divides it into two parts. The coil and mirror are 
enclosed in a glass case D, in order to prevent the disturbance of the needle by cnrrents of air. The 
rays from the lamp E pass through the opening F, which is adjustable by the slide G, and passing 
through the lens M in the tube IS are reflected by the mirror back through the lens upon an ivory 
scale at / as shown by the dotted lines. The scale is horizontal, extending to the right and left of 
the center of the instrument, the zero point being exactly opposite the lens. The luminous rays of 
light are brought to a sharp focus upon the scale by a sliding adjustment of the lens. 

The operator reads the signals from a point just in the rear of the magnet and coils, the light of 
the lamp being cut off by the screen Y so that he only sees the small luminous slit through which 
the light enters the instrument, and a brilliantly defined image of the slit upon the white ivory scale 
iust above, which is kept in deep shadow by the screen Y. A very minute dis])lacement of the magnet 
gives a very large movement of the ray of light on the scale /, the angular displacement of the 
ray of light being double that of the needle. 



it has ever since remained in perfect order, 
constituting the great channel of electrical 
communication between England and the 
continent. The success of that form of 
cable having been thus completely estab- 
lished, lines of a similar character were sub- 
sequently laid in all quarters of the world. 



The external protection consists of ten 
steel wires, each wire surrounded separately 
with five strands of tarred Manilla hemp 
and the whole laid spirally round the core, 
which latter is padded with tanned jute 
yarn. Each cable would bear eleven knots 
of itself in water without breakincr. 



312 



TELEGRAPHS THEIR ORIGIN AND PROGRESS. 



The deepest water encountered was 2,400 
fathoms, and the distance between Valen- 
tia and Hearts Content 1 G70 knots. The 
length of the cables of 18G5 — 1896 knots; 
18GG — 1858 knots. 

Tlie battery employed iipon the Atlantic 
cables is a niodihcation of Daniell's. 12 
cells are suificient for signaling. The re- 
ceiving instrument is Thomson's Reflecting 
Galvanometer. This consists of a needle 
formed of a piece of watch spring three- 
eighths of an inch in length. The needle is 
suspended by a thread of cocoon-silk without 
torsion. The needle lies in the centre of 
an exceedingly delicate galvanometer coil. 
J^ circular mirror of silvered glass is fixed 
to the needle, and reflects at right angles to 
it in the plane of its motion. It is so curved 
that when the light of a lamp is thrown 
through a fine slit on it, the image of the 
slit is reflected on a scale about three feet 
off, placed a little above the front of the 
flame. Deflections to the extent of half an 
inch along any part of the scale are sufficient 
for one signal. In so delicate an instru- 
ment, the sluggish swing of the needle in 
finally settling into any })osition would de- 
stroy it susefulness. To rectify this, a strong 
magnet, about eight inches long, and bent 
concave to the instrument, is made to slide 
up and down a rod placed in the line of the 
suspenduig thread above the instrument. 
This magnet can be easily shifted as neces- 
sity may require. The oscillations of the 
needle due to itself are, by the aid of the 
strong magnet, made so sudden and short as 
only to broaden the spot of light. The 
delicacy of even this exceedingly delicate 
galvanometer can be immensely increased 
by using an astatic needle. 

The alphabet is made by opposite move- 
ments produced by one or other of two 
Morse keys. The signals need not be made 
from zero as a starting point. The eye 
can easily distinguish, at any point in the 
scale to which the spot of light may be de- 
flected, the beginning and the end of a sig- 
nal, and when its motion is caused by the 
proper action of the needle or by cun*ents. 
It is thus that the mirror galvanometer is 
adapted to cable signaling, not only by its 
extreme delicacy, but also by its quickness. 
The deflections of the spot of light have 
been aptly compared to a handwriting no 
one letter of which is distinctly formed, but 
yet is quite intelligible to the practised eye. 
Signals in this way follow each other with 



wonderful rapidity. A low speed — some 
eight words a minute — is adopted for public 
messages ; but when the clerks communicate 
with each other, as high a speed as eighteen 
or twenty words is attained. In fact, it is 
said, that the only limit is the power of 
reading, not transmitting signals. As it is 
the speed of signaling is equal to, if not 
greater than, that attained on any land line 
of the same length, an achievement indica- 
tive of the skill and genius that have been 
directed to Atlantic telegraphy. 

Telegraphic stations must be united by 
one insulated wire, either carried overland, 
or under the sea. The insulation of land 
lines is insured by attaching the wires to in- 
sulators fixed on posts some twenty feet 
high. The posts are placed at distances of 
about sixty yards apart. Insulators are of 
all shapes and many materials. The insu- 
lator most generally used in the United 
States is made of glass, and is supported by 
a wooden pin. The leakage in a long line, 
notwithstanding the best insulation, is con- 
siderable. The loss at each post is insignifi- 
cant, but when hundreds or thousands are 
taken into account it becomes decided ; so 
that in extremely wet weather in some cases 
merely a fraction of the total current that 
sets out reaches the earth at the distant 
station. 

The wire most employed for land lines in 
the United States is No. 9 galvanized iron 
wire, although there is considerable of No. 
8, and a few thousand miles of No. 7 and 
6 in use. 

But a little more than a quarter of a cen- 
tury has elapsed since the electric telegraph 
was introduced to the public as a practical 
means of communicating intelligence. The 
first line constructed in the United States 
was put in operation in the month of June, 
1844, between Washington and Baltimore. 
Up to this time the electric telegraph had 
been regai'ded only as a curious theoretical 
science without practical application. 

As far back as 1834, Messrs. Gauss and 
Weber constructed a line of telegraph over 
the houses and steeples of Gottingen, using 
galvanic electricity and the phenomenon of 
magnetic induction as a motor. The slow 
oscillations of magnetic bars, caused by the 
passage of electric currents, and observed 
through a telescope furnished the signals for 
corresponding, but the operation was com- 
plicated, slow and inefficient. In 1837, M. 
Steinheil established a line of telegraph be- 



TELEGRAPHS — THEIR ORIGIN AND PROGRESS. 



313 



tween Munich and Bogenhausen, a distance 
of twelve miles ; and in 1838, Professor 
Wheatstone constructed a line between 
London and Birmingham, but the apparatus 
employed by each was crude and unsatisfac- 
tory, and it was not until Professor Morse 
perfected his simple and reliable system, 
that the electric telegraph became of practi- 
cal utility. 



make them a present of a hundred dollars, 
but that he would not have his name asso- 
ciated as a stockholder in so wild and chime- 
rical a scheme. After the line was com- 
pleted, this incorrigible skeptic was amongst 
the first and best patrons of the company. 

As a natural consequence of the distrust 
of capitalists, and the great ditficulty of rais- 
ing funds for properly building the lines, 




STOCK REPOBTING AND PRIVATE LINE TELEGRAPH 



During the first few years after the intro- 
duction of the electric telegraph its progress 
was very slow. Capitalists were afraid to 
invest in an undertaking so novel and pre- 
carious. When one of the most distin- 
guished financiers of New York was asked 
by the projectors to subscribe towards the 
construction of the first line from Baltimore 
to New York, he replied that he would 



they were constructed in a very unreliable 
manner and breaks and interruptions was 
rather the normal condition of the wires 
than the exception. 

At the commencement of 1848, the length 
of telegraph wire in operation in this coun- 
try was about 3,000 miles. At the present 
time there are not less than 150,000 miles 
in successful operation within the limits of 



314 



TELEGRAPHS THEIR ORIGIN AND mOGRESS. 



the United States, having over 5,000 sta- 
tions and employing upwards of 10,000 
operators and clerks. The gross receipts 
of the various telegraph companies in this 
country amounts to upwards of $9,000,000 
per annum, while the aggregate capital em- 
ployed is more than $GU,'oOO,(»00. 

The various uses to which the telegraph 
has been ajoplied is almost innumerable. 
Amongst the most important of them may 
be mentioned its application to the running 
of trains on railroads ; the giving of alarms 
of fire in our principal cities ; its employ- 
ment in scientific and astronomical observa- 
tions, and the transmission of weather re- 
ports. Within the past few years a new 
field of usefulness has been opened and par- 
tially developed in the apj^lication of the 
telegraph to stock reporting and private line 
purposes, and in which it has already achieved 
a marked success, with promise of becoming 
in the future a still more important branch 
of the business. The instruments used for 
this purpose jirint the dispatches in plain 
Roman letters without the aid of an operator 
at the receiving station. Through the aid 
of this apparatus stock and market quota- 
tions are received at the Exchanges, Bank- 
ing-houses and other places of public resort 
in the chief commercial cities of the United 
States at all hours of the day. This new 
enterprise, which was inaugurated in 1868, 
has become one of the most important fea- 
tures of the telegraphic business. 

In December, 1870, a general sj'^stem of 
telegraphic money orders or transfers was 
jiut into ojieration in the Pacific States. 
The public demand for the use of facilities 
for telegraphic exchange had long been ap- 
parent, and had induced the authorization 
of a limited amount of business which was 
conducted with success and profit ; but the 
need was felt of a system which could be 
adopted generally, without bringing in at 
the same time new and serious risks. This 
object has now been attained, and arrange- 
ments have been made for opening money- 
order offices in all i)arts of the country. 

Congress having, by joint resolution, au- 
thorized the Secretary of War to provide 
for taking Meteorological observations at 
various points in the United States and Ter- 
ritories, and for their transmission by tele- 
graph to stations on the Northern Lakes 
and Eastern Seaboard, arrangements were 
made with the Western Union Telegraph 
Company for the performance of the tele- 



graphic service commencing on the first of 
November, 1870. Sixteen circuits are oc- 
cupied, embracing fifty-five stations, from 
which three daily reports are transmitted to 
Washington, copies being also dropped at 
intermediate stations on each circuit, mak- 
ing an aggregate daily transmission of 20,000 
words. 

The synchronous transmission, three times 
per day, of meteorological observations from 
fifty -five stations embracing a territory cover- 
ing 25 degrees of Latitufk; and 55 degrees 
of Longitude is unparalleled in the history 
of the telegraph ; and the eminently suc- 
cessful manner in which this great under- 
taking has been performed, affords good 
evidence of the superior condition and opera- 
tion of the telegraph lines in this country. 

On the first of October. 1869, the West- 
ern Union Telegraph Company, which 
operates lines in every State and Territory 
in the Union, adopted a new Air Line 
Tariff for the transmission of messages, caus- 
ing an average reduction of about 15 2;)er 
cent, and on the first of January, 1870, in- 
augurated a new feature in telegraphy 
whereby messages could be received at and 
for all stations in the United States for 
transmission during the night and delivery 
the next day at one half the usual tarifi" 
rates. 

In Europe the telegraphs, with the ex- 
ception of the submarine lines, are nearly all 
owned and controlled by the Governments, 
and in England, Belgium, and Switzerland, 
they are connected with the postal service. 
In continental Europe the annual expendi- 
tures for the telegra|)hic service exceed the 
receipts by about two millions of dollars. 
In England the telegraphs were purchased 
by the Government in January. 1870. 
Since then the Government has ex2:)ended 
about three million of dollars in excess of the 
receipts, but, as a portion of this expenditure 
is for new construction, it is uncertain how 
great the annual discrepancy will be. 

The progress of the electric telegraph 
within the ])ast six years has been very great 
in every quarter of the globe. Upon this con • 
tinent the electric wire extends from the Gulf 
of the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, 
and from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. 
Three cables span the Atlantic Oceai;, con- 
necting America with Europe, and another 
submerged in the Gulf Stream, imites us 
with the queen of the Antilles. Uidn'oken 
telegraphic communication exists between all 



TELEGRAPHS THEIE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS. 



315 



places in America and all parts of Europe ; 
Avith Tripoli and Algeirs in Afi-ica ; Cairo 
in Egypt ; Teheran in Persia ; Jerusalem 
in Syria; Bagdad and Nineveh, in Asiatic 
Turkey ; Bombay, Calcutta, and other im- 
portant cities in India; Hong-Kong and 
Shanghai in China; Irkoutsk, the capital 
of Eastern Siberia ; Kiakhta on the borders 
of Cliina ; Nagasaki in Japan ; Havana and 
all important towns in Cuba, and to New 
Westmmster in British Columhia. But, 
however rapid the extension of the tele- 
graph has been in the past, it is destined to 
show still greater advancement in the fu- 
ture. Neither the American nor the Euro- 
pean system has yet attained to its ultimate 
development. Submarine cables will shortly 
be laid connecting the United States with 
all the West India Islands and with Mexico 
jind South America. The telegraph is al- 
ready established in various parts of the lat- 
ter country, and in Brazil and Peru arrange- 
ments are now making for largely extending 
them. The project of connecting Vera Cruz 
and New Orleans by a submarine cable is 
lUiely to be soon realized, while a line is 
now comijleted between New Orleans and 
the city of Mexico. 

A direct line of telegraph under one con- 
trol and management has I'ecently been es- 
tablished between London and India with 
extensions to Singapore and China, which 
will soon be continued to Australia. 

Europe possesses 450,000 miles of tele- 
graphic wire and 13,000 stations; America 
180,000 miles of wire and 6,000 stations ; 
India 14,000 miles of wire and 200 stations ; 
and Australia 10,000 miles of wire and 270 
stations ; and the extension throughout the 
world is now at the rate of 100,000 miles of 
wire per annum. I'here are in addition 
30,000 miles of submarine telegraph wire 



now in successful oj^eration, extending be- 
neath the Atlantic and German Oceans ; 
the Baltic, North, Mediterranean, Red, 
Arabian, Japan and China Seas ; the Per- 
sian Gulf; the Bay of Biscay, the Strait of 
Gibralter, and the Gulfs of Mexico and St. 
Lawrence. 

More than twenty thousand cities and 
villages are now linked in one continuous 
chain of telegraphic stations. The mysteri- 
ous wire with its subtle and invisible influ- 
ence traverses all civilized lands, and passes 
beneath oceans, seas, and rivers, bearing 
messages of business, friendship, and love, 
and constantly, silently, but powerfully con- 
tributing to the peace, happiness, and pros- 
perity of all mankind. 

Professor Morse, who was already past 
middle age when he conceived the idea of 
the electric telegraph on board of the packet 
ship Sully on her ever memorable passage 
from Havre to New York, in 1832, and 
who was nearly three-score years of age 
when his first line was built, is still living 
with mind and body unimpaired, and enjoy- 
ing at the age of four score the rich fruits of 
a harvest more abundant than than has ever 
fallen to the lot of any other man. The in- 
vention of Professor Morse, which although 
yet in its infanc}^ has already conferred in- 
estimable benefits upon the people of more 
than half the globe without having occa- 
sioned a pang of sorrow to a single human 
being. If he is to be entitled to be esteemed 
a benefactor who makes two blades of grass 
to grow where but one grew before, with 
what honors should we regard him through 
whom wars have been postponed and short- 
ened, peace promoted and extended, time 
annihilated and distance abolished, and all 
the highest and noblest faculties of man 
multiplied, extended, and enlarged. 



19* 



WEATHER SIGNALS. 



THE WEATHER RECORD AND PROGNOSTICA- 
TIONS BY THE SIGNAL SERVICE OFFICE. 

In all ages and counti'ies, and alike among 
civilized and savage nations, there has ex- 
isted a strong desire to know and to predict 
with certainty, the condition of the weather 
for hours, days, weeks, or months in the fu- 
ture ; and in all countries there have been 
those who, from greater shrewdness in ob- 
servation, or from experience and observa- 
tion combined have been able to foretell 
with considerable certainty the near ajiproach 
of a storm, or the probability of fair weath- 
er. In many civilized countries, the results 
of these observations have been put into the 
form of weather proverbs. Among savage 
nations the office of the rain-maker or weath- 
er prophet is one of great profit and influ- 
ence, but also one of considerable danger, 
as if his predictions prove false, his indig- 
nant countrymen are very apt to manifest 
their displeasure by 2)utting him to death. 

The foretelling of the weather by the 
almanac-makers was an attempt to supply 
by the boldest empiricism this craving for 
knowledge of the future in a matter so com- 
paratively unimportant as the weather. 
These predictions were based on no laws, 
and followed no rule. They were only in- 
serted to fill up the vacant space, and when 
as sometimes, though rarely happened, they 
blundered into a prediction which was re- 
markably verified, they commanded an im- 
mense sale in consequence. 

All these observations and hap-hazard 
predictions, however, had evolved no laws 
or general principles, on which the approach 
or retreat of a storm could be predicated. 
They covered only small local areas, and 
often what was true of one town or limited 
district, would be false concerning the next. 
Careful scientific observers have been en- 
gaged since the latter part of the last cen- 
tury in the endeavor to work out from their 
manifold recorded observations of the course 
of the winds, of the rising and falling of 



the barometer, the changes in the sun's sur- 
face, and the temperature, some laws which 
could be relied upon as governing the weath- 
er and which could enable men to foresee 
approaching storms in time to prevent great 
injury from them. For many years their 
search seemed be in vain. No sooner had 
they deduced the existence of a cycle of re- 
curring storms, than their philosophy was 
put to the shame, by a succession of delight- 
ful days just when, according to their predic- 
tions, Old Boreas should have raged most 
pitilessly. It is not yet fifty years since 
Arago, the great French physicist declared 
in his vexation and disappointment, that " no 
scientific man could ever venture his repu- 
tation upon such a thing as weather prog- 
nostics." 

The failure of these eminent scientists to 
discover the laws which governed the changes 
of the weather was not due to any want of 
diligence or any lack of care in their ob- 
servations, but solely to their having over- 
looked the course of the wind in the storms 
and its importance as a prime factor in these 
changes. It was reserved for an able, though 
self-taught observer of our own country, Mr. 
William C. Redfield, a native of Middletown, 
Connecticut, but for many years a resident 
and active business man of New York City, 
to deduce the law of storms, and with it the 
other laws affecting weather changes, from 
an immense series of observations, gathered 
from numerous and widely separated sta- 
tions. Mr. Redfield's attention was first 
called to this subject after the destructive 
gale of September, 1821, but he did not 
make public liis conclusions until he had veri- 
fied them by extensive correspondence and 
examination of the logs of hundreds of ships 
which had been caught in cyclones or hurri- 
canes, or had passed through the outer edge 
of those destructive agencies. His first pub- 
lication of his observations was made in 
1831, in the American Journal of Science, 
and for many years thereafter he gave great 
[316] 



WEATHER SIGNALS. 



317 



attention to the subject, and yearly or often- 
er, published the results of his more ex- 
tended inquiries. In these he was greatly 
assisted by Lieut. Colonel, afterward Gen. 
Sir William Reid, Governor of Bermuda 
and afterwaid of Malta, whose careful and 
extended inquiries and valuable assistance 
entitle his name to be associated with Mr. 
Redfield in this great and beneficent work. 

Mr. Redfield's theory of storms, every 
particular of which was, during his lifetime, 
fully established by facts which he had gath- 
ered, was the following: That all violent 
gales or hurricanes are great whirlwinds, in 
which the wind blows in circuits around an 
axis either vertical or inclined ; that the 
winds do not move in horizontal circles, but 
rather in spirals towards the axis, a descend- 
ing spiral movement externally, an ascend- 
ing internally. 

That the direction of revolution is always 
\iniform, being from right to left, or against 
the sun, on the north side of the equator, 
and from left to right, or with the sun, on 
the south side. 

That the velocity of rotation increases 
from the margin towards the center of the 
storm. 

That the whole body of air subjected to 
this spiral rotation, is at the same time mov- 
ing forward in a path at a variable rate, but 
always with a velocity much less than its 
velocity of rotation, being at the minimum, 
hitherto observed as low as four miles, and 
at the maximum forty-three miles, but more 
commonly about thirty miles per hour, while 
the motion of rotation may be not less than 
from one hundred to three hundred miles 
per hour. 

That in storms of a particular region, as 
the gales of the Atlantic, or the typhoons of 
the China Seas, great uniformity exists in 
regard to the path pursued, those of the At- 
lantic, for example, usually issuing from the 
equatorial regions eastward of the West In- 
dia Islands, pursuing, at first, a course to- 
ward the northwest, as far as the latitude of 
30° and then gradually wheeling to the 
northeast, and following a path nearly paral- 
lel to the American coast, to the east of 
Newfoundland, until they are lost in mid- 
ocean ; the entire path when delineated, re- 
sembling a parabolic curve, whose apex is 
near the latitude of 30°. 

That their dimensions are sometimes very 
great, being not less than one thousand miles 



in diameter, while their path over the ocean 
can sometimes be traced for three thousand 
miles. 

That the barometer at any given place, 
falls with increai^ing rapidity as the center 
of the whirlwind approaches, but rises at a 
corresponding rate after the center has pas- 
sed by ; and finally, 

That the phenomena are more uniform in 
large than in small storms, and more uni- 
form on the ocean than on the land. 

The application of these principles to the 
ordinary changes of the weather was not 
arrived at for several years ; but when the 
electric telegraph was put in operation, Mr. 
Redfield was prompt to see the advantages 
it offered for extending the benefits of this 
discovery to the preservation of life and 
property, and early in 1846, he began to 
urge upon the attention of the scientists of 
the nation the possibility of using the elec- 
tric telegraph in connection with the daily 
study of the weather, for the purpose of 
forewarning endangered parts of the ap- 
proach and force of storms. 

In liis memorable jmper published that 
year in the " American Journal of Science" 
he said : In the Atlantic parts of the United 
States, the approach of a gale, when the 
storm is yet on the Gulf of Mexico, or in the 
Southern and Western States, may be made 
known by means of the electric telegraph, 
which, probably, will soon extend from Maine 
to the Mississippi." He significantly added : 
" This will enable the merchant to avoid ex- 
posing his vessel to a furious gale soon after 
leaving her port. By awaiting the arrival 
of a storm, and promptly putting to sea 
with its closing winds, a good offing and 
rapid progress will be secured by the voyag- 
er." It is now about twelve years since the 
late gifted and lamented Admiral Fitzroy 
put this original suggestion of Mr. Redfield 
into execution, and by the sagacious applica- 
tion of the laws of storms which we have 
already detailed, placed his country under 
such perfect meteorological surveillance, that 
after a single year's experiment it was offici- 
ally stated at a meeting of the shareholders 
of the Great Western Docks at Stonehouse, 
Plymouth, that " the deficiency (in revenue) 
was to be attributed chiefly to the absence 
of vessels requiring the use of the graving 
docks, for the purpose of repairing the dam- 
ages occasioned by storms and casualties at 
sea." In that movement England was fol- 



318 



SIGNAL ERVICE. 



lowed by France, Pi'ussia, Austria, Holland, 
Sweden, and Norway, Italy, and Russia. 

Meanwhile, observations on the hurricanes 
of the Atlantic had been prosecuted in this 
country with great care and thoroughness, 
since the death of Mr. Redtield in 1857, by 
his son, Mr. John H. Redfield of Philadel- 
phia, himself an experienced and skilful me- 
teorologist, and had resulted in important 
additions to our knowledge of the laws gov- 
erning Cyclones. In 1870, Congress, on the 
earnest recommendation of Gen. W. W. Bel- 
knap, Secretary of War, passed an act au- 
thorizing the establishment of a system of 
daily weather signals. The organization and 
management of this service was entrusted to 
Gen. A.J. Myer, Chief Signal Officer U. S. A., 
to whose skilful and well directed labors, its 
success is largely due. It now forms a sepa- 
rate division of the Signal Bureau, called the 
*' Division of Telegrams and Reports for the 
benefit of Commerce and Agriculture." 

We are, as yet, in the infancy of this 
great discovery, and are no more prej^ared 
to appreciate fully what will be its benefi- 
cial results to all nations and in all direc- 
tions, than was Morse to foresee the grand 
impulse which the electric telegraph would 
give to all communication between the fam- 
ilies of man, when in 1844, he rejoiced in 
the opening of the first telegraphic line be- 
tween Baltimore and Washington, or than 
Daguerre was when he made his first sun 
pictures. But an experience of less than 
three years has shown us that not only will 
it prove of great benefit in the pi-otection of 
our commerce from severe storms and gales, 
as well as ships at sea from the destructive 
cyclones, but that in all matters of business 
or pleasure, it will come to be as much a 
matter of course to consult the weather re- 
port as the time-piece ; that both our inland 
navigation by river and lake, and our rail- 
way travel will be protected and to some 
extent influenced by it; and tha farmer, 
the contractor, the brickmaker, the lime 
burner, the builder, and indeed all trades 
which are plied in the open air, as well as 
persons who are intending to journey for busi- 
ness or pleasure, or to receive visitors, will 
apply to the weather record to ascertain 
wiiat is to be on the morrow. These bene- 
fits Ave are already entitled to expect from it, 
for they have already been realized. What 
more is to come when observations are taken 
simultaneously in all parts of the world, we 
know not yet, but we shall by and bye. 



Let us now give our readers an account 
of the processes by which these weather pre- 
dictions, whose accuracy has already aston- 
ished the world, are worked out. 

In pursuance of the duty im])osed upon 
the Secretary of War by the law of Con- 
gress requiring of him the announcement, 
by telegraph and signal of the appi-oach and 
force of storms the office of the Chief Signal 
Office at the War Department causes mete- 
orological observations and telegraphic re-i 
ports to be made three times in each twenty- 
four hours at about eighty stations.* These 
observations, which are of the most exact 
kind, are taken by trained ob-erver ser- 
geants of the Signal Service at the identical 
moments, 7.35, a. m., 4.35, p. m., and 
11.35, p. M., Washington time, in each sta- 
tion, and immediately transmitted over the 
wires in cypher to the office of the Chief 
Signal Officer at Washington. By a care- 
fully arranged system of telegraphic circuits, 
copies of the full reports of all stations are 
sent at the same time to the signal service 
stations in most of the principal cities and 
towns, and at each station so receiving, a 
tabular report or bulletin is immediately dis- 
played for general use and information. In 
most of these offices, there is a small printing 
press and the type for the report is kej)t 
standing except the moderate amount of al- 
teration necessary. The corrections are put 
in instantly on the reception of the rej^ort 
from Washington, and copies struck off and 
sent to the Newspapers, Exchanges, Cham- 
bers of Commerce, and other imjiortant pub- 
lic 2^1ivees, where they are posted for general 
information. This is generally accomplished 
between 9 and 11 a. m., 6 and 8 p. m., and 
1 and 3 A. M. These bulletins are known 
as the " morning report," " afternoon report," 
and " midnight report," and give, in the offi- 
cial signal service report, beside the general 
synopsis of the weather at the time, and the 
probabilities for the coming twenty-four 
hours, the following particulars : the height 
of the barometer and its oscillations since 
the last report, in the principal stations 
throughout the country, the thermometric 
range and variation at the same points dur- 
ing the previous twenty-four hours, the 
relative humidity of the air, the direction of 
the wind, the velocity of the wind in miles 



* On the first of October, 1872, there were 76 stations, the 
names of which are given in this article, but new stations are 
constantly called for and established as fast as suitable ob- 
servers and plates can be found. Probably not less than a 
hundred will be in operation by the close of 1S73. 



SIGNAL SERVICE. 



319 



per hour, the pressure of the wind in pounds 
per square foot, the force of the wind re- 
duced to the Beaufort or Marine scale, the 
amount and character of the clouds, the 
rain fall since the last report in inches and 
hundredths, and the general state of the 
weather, with any noteworthy particulars. 
If a storm is approaching and it is found 
necessary to order cautionary signals hoisted 
at any given point or points, that fact is 
clearly stated at the close of the report. At 
first the newspapers, to which all these re- 
ports are furnished without cost, printed 
them nearly or quite complete ; but for the 



past year those in the larger cities have con- 
tented themselves with printing the general 
synopsis of the weather, the probabilities, 
and the cautionary signals when these were 
required. 

The following is a list of the stations oc- 
cupied by observer sergeants on the 1st of 
October, 1872. It is to be observed that the 
stations in the Dominion of Canada though 
working isochronously and in harmony with 
those of our Signal Service Bureau, are 
under the control of the Dominion Meteor- 
ological Bureau, and are supported by the 
Dominion Government : 



Plaister Cove, Nova Scotia. 
St. John, New Brunswick. 
Portland, Me. 
Boston, Mass. 
New London, Conn. 
New York City, N. Y. 
Albany, N. Y. 
Philadelphia, Penn. 
Baltimore, Md. 
Washington, D. C. 
Wilmington, N C. 
Charleston, S. C. 
Savannah, Ga. 
Augusta, Ga. 
Lake City, Florida. 
Key West, Florida. 
Montgomery, Ala. 
Mobile, Ala. 
New Orleans, La. 



San Francisco, CaL 
Norfolk, Va. 
Oswego, N. Y. 
Kochester, N. Y. 
Buffalo, N. Y. 
Cleveland, Ohio. 
Toledo, Ohio. 
Detroit, Mich. 
Chicago, 111. 
Milwaukee, Wis. 
Saint Paul, Min. 
Duitlth, Min. 
Pittsburgh, Penn. 
Knoxville, Tenn. 
Indianapolis, Ind. 
Lynchburg, Va. 
Burlington, Vt. 
Mt. Washington, N. H. 
Keokuk, Iowa. 



Grand Haven, Mich. 
Escanaba, Mich. 
Marquette, Mich. 
Davenport, Iowa. 
Leavenworth, Kansas. 
Cairo, 111. 
Cape May, N. J. 
Galveston, Texas. 
Montreal, Canada. 
Quebec, Canada. 
Toronto, Canada. 
Punta Rassa, Florida. 
Vicksburg, Miss. 
Memphis, Tenn. 
Nashville, Tenn. 
Louisville, Ky. 
Cincinnati, Ohio. 
St. Louis, Mo. 
Omaha, Nebraska. 



Two observer sergeants were also sent 
out, one with the North Polar Expedition 
under command of Captain C. F. Hall, the 
other to the Island of St. Paul, Alaska, 
where a station is to be established. More 
than one hundred other applications were 
made for the establishment of stations in 
every part ot the country, which were ne- 
cessarily declined for the time from the want 
of both means and men. The different parts 
of the country are designated as follows in 
the " Synopsis and Probabilites " of the Sig- 
nal Service otRce : 

The six New England States are alluded 
to as New England, the Northeast, or the 
Eastern States. New York, New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, Maryland, District of Colum- 
bia, and Virginia, as the Middle States, or 
sometimes as the Middle Atlantic States. 
North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, 
and Northern and Eastern Florida, as the 
South Atlantic States. Western Florida, 
Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, 
as the Gulf States. Sometimes the Gulf 
States, the South Atlantic, West Virginia, 
Tennessee, Kentucky, and Arkansas, are 
grouped together as the Southern States. 
The Lower or Eastern Lakes, when used, 
mean Lakes Erie and Ontario. The Up- 



Cheyenne, Wyoming Ter. 
Santa Fe, New Mexico. 
Corinne, Utah. 
Fort Benton, Montana Ter. 
Shreveport, La. 
Jacksonville, Florida. 
Portland, Oregon. 
San Diego, Cal. 
Denver, Colorado. 
Virginia City, Montana Ter. 
Port Stanley, Canada. 
Port Dover, Canada. 
Kingston, Canada. 
Saugeen, Canada. 
Breckenridge, Min. 
Fort Sully, Dakota Ter. 
Indianola, Texas. 
Alpena, Mich. 
La Crosse, Wis. 



per or Western Lakes, are Lakes Superior, 
Huron, and Michigan. The Northwest, 
popularly means the country lying between 
the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. The 
Southwest means Texas, the Indian Ter- 
ritory, and New Mexico. The Pacific Coast 
or Pacific States, includes California, Ore- 
gon, and Washington Territoi-y. The Ohio 
Valley includes the belt of country about 
two hundred miles broad, between Pittsburg 
and Cairo. The Mississippi Valley includes 
a belt of somewhat greater width from be- 
low Vicksburg to DavenJ)ort, Iowa. The 
" Extensions " from one State to another, 
refers to areas reaching to the central por- 
tion of the State mentioned. In Coast is 
included the land between the water edge 
and the Coast hills or mountains which skirt 
them. 

Winds are said to blow from the North- 
east when they are included within the quad- 
rant from north to ea>t, and similarly for 
other directions. There are certain princi- 
ples or laws deduced from observation in re- 
gard to the direction which the wind will 
take in an approaching storm, the relative 
amount of humidity found in advance of a 
storm and in its rear, the path which the 
central area of low pressure will pursue, and 



320 



SIGNAL SERVICE. 



the velocity which the storm will acquire in 
its progress, which very much aid the me- 
teorologists in predicting the character of a 
given storm, but the main points can be 
learned by looking at the map on the oppo- 
site page. 

We have said that the observer sergeants, 
and we might add, their assistants also, were 
trained men. Their training is very thorough, 
and requires a considerable time and prac- 
tice to make them perfect. The cost of fit- 
ting up each station is considerable, requiring 
a room near and readily accessible to the 
telegraph office from Avhich the reports are 
to be sent, and if practicable also a table or 
desk at that office for the preparation of the 
reports and the translation and transcription 
of those received from the principal office, a 
roof strong enough for the erection of the 
apparatus for determining the velocity, di- 
rection, and force of the wind, and if practi- 
cable the transmission of these particulars 
to a self-registering apparatus in his room. 
The instruments supplied to each station are, 
one standard barometer (Green's, Signal 
Service, U. S. A.) ; one standard thermom- 
eter (Green's, Signal Service, U. S. A.) ; 
one standard hygrometer (Glaisher's Model); 
one maximum thermometer (Signal Service 
U. S. A.) ; one minimum thermometer (Sig- 
nal Service, U. S. A.) ; one anemometer 
(Robinson's) ; one large wind vane (Signal 
Service, U. S. A.), and one smaller wind vane 
(Signal Service, U.S.A.); one rain gauge ; 
one clock of excellent quality and carefully 
adjusted to the local time. The observers are 
required to correct each of the barometrical 
observations for instrumental error, for tem- 
perature, and for elevation, before sending 
them to Washington. They are required 
to follow their instructions, which are very 
carefully prepared, in regard to the place 
and circumstances, and the reading of the 
thermometers and the hygrometer, and to see 
that the self-registering apparatus of the 
anemometer is in perfect order. They are 
also instructed in regard to the observations 
of the wind vane, and the rain gauge. They 
are further supplied with the necessary tools 
for cleaning and repairing their instruments 
and at the river stations Avith water gauges, 
or instructions how to make them, and at 
points where cautionary signals are to be 
displayed, with these, which we shall describe 
further on. They have also a full supply 
of the different forms, thirteen in number, 



required in their duties, and with seven blank 
books in which they are required to make 
their entries daily or weekly. They are 
furnished with ten or twelve books of refer- 
ence, needed for the better understanding of 
their duties. The reports to the Signal Ser- 
vice Bureau are made in a prescribed cypher, 
very carefully and ingeniously arranged to 
give the maximum of information in the 
minimum of words. The table of cyphers 
have their separate word for each variation 
of a tenth or hundredth of a degree in ther- 
mometer or barometer, in the velocity of the 
wind, the character of the clouds, the rain- 
fall, etc., etc. This will be best illustrated 
by an example. The report from the Mount 
Washington, N. H. station at a given date, 
is as follows : 



Mount 
Caspian 


Cake 
ReUc 


Florid 
Hidden 


Throng 
Three 


Beast 
Abase 



Turning to the Key to the cyphers we 
find the translation to be, reading from left 
to right, horizontally : 

Station, Mount Washington, N. H., date 
2d October. Time, Morning Rejjort, Bar- 
ometer 30.07 ; Thermometer 19° ; Humidity 
35 ; Weather, Cloudy ; Direction of Wind, 
Northwest ; Velocity of Wind, 47 miles per 
hour ; Upper Clouds, Hidden ; Lower 
Clouds, Foggy; Rainftill, .01. The date 
and time in the upper line, and the weather 
and direction of the wind in the lower, 
being each expressed by a single word. If 
the station is a river port the afternoon 
report consists of fioelve words arranged in 
two lines of six words eacli, the last word 
in the first line being Rirer, and tlie last 
word in tlie second line indic^iling the change 
in the de])th of water which has taken place 
in the previous twenty-four hours. These 
reports of the depth of water have proved 
of great value to the navigation of the West- 
ern rivers, often shortening the upward pas- 
sage twelve or twenty-four hours. The fol- 
lowing is an example of a River report : 



Orleans 
Burns 


Gay 
Ranchc 


Folks 
Hidden 


Trial 
Ten 


By 
Append 


r.iver 
Hang 



Translation. — Station, New Orleans; 
Date, 12th; Time, Afternoon Report; Bar- 
ometer, 30.19 ; Thermometer, 74° ; Humid- 



SIGNAL SEUVIUK. 



321 



ity, 100 ; Weather, Heavy Rain ; Direction 
of Wind, Southeast ; Velocity of Wind, 8 
miles ; Upper Clouds, Hidden ; Lower 
Clouds, Sky Covered ; Rainfall, 83 ; River, 
9 inches rise. 

The seventy or eighty reports having 
come into the Signal Service Office at 
Washington by 8 a. m., 5 p. m., and 1 2 p. m., 
let us next see how the weather map is filled 
up, and the " synopsis and probabilities" de- 
duced from it. 

As the reports come in every particular is 
accurately and neatly entered, first in the 
blank map for the particular district to which 
the station belongs, as Eastern States, Mid- 
dle States, Lower Lake Region, etc., and 
then in a blank map of the United States 
like the one we have inserted. It will be 
noticed that certain simple characters are 
employed to express the character of the 
clouds, the presence of rain, snow, or fair 
weather, and arrows to denote the direction 
of the wind, while the height of the ther- 
mometer and barometer, and the velocity of 
the wind are expressed in figures, in the or- 
der here stated. When these particulars 
have been entered, either for the whole coun- 
try or a particular section, the meteorologists 
proceed to connect by lines made by a soft 
blunt red lead pencil, all places in which the 
barometer stands at 30.00 (its average height 
at the level of the sea, though on the West- 
ern plains the average is about 30.20). These 
will always be continuous lines, curved in- 
deed, and sometimes forming a ])art of an 
ellipse ; next they proceed to connect the 
other 23oints in which the height of barom- 
eter is the same, whether above or below 
30.00, and these too always form continuous 
lines, those above 3').00 being on one side 
of the line of 30.00 and tliose below it on 
the opposite side. Where there is a dif- 
ference of ten-hundredths between two places 
not very distant, as for instance, where at 
one the barometer stands at 29.85 and at the 
other at 2£.05,the line is run midway between 
the two places, and that line is noted as 
the line of the mean or 29.00, or simply 90 
as on the map. Where there is excessive 
heat or excessive depression of the mercury 
in the barometer, there is almost uniformly 
a tendency in these lines to enclose in an 
elliptical form a considerable area, and this 
area thus enclosed, is one where a storm 
with high winds, a hurricane, or cyclone pre- 
vails. These are called areas of high or 



low barometer. The connecting lines drawn 
between places where the height of the 
barometer is the same are called iso-baro- 
metrical lines, i. e., lines of equal barometer, 
or for convenience, isobars. These isobars 
having been drawn, the existence of a storm 
in any part of the United States is readily 
made manifest, and the prevailing direction 
of the wind, its velocity, the rainfall, and 
the relative humidity of the atmosphere, the 
character and course of the clouds, and the 
temperature being taken into the account, it 
is not difficult to predict with reasonable 
certainty the weather for the coming twenty- 
four hours. If a cyclone is on its way north- 
ward along the coast, or in the region of the 
great lakes, cautionary signals are ordered 
at the ports most exposed to danger from 
the storm and the prudent navigator will 
delay his voyage, or if he braves the tem- 
pest, take ample precautions against its 
fury. These cautionary signals, a red jlay 
with black square in the center by day, and 
a red light from a lantern hoisted on a lofty 
pole by night, when displayed at the signal 
office, and other prominent places through- 
out any city, signify, according to the official 
statement from the Signal Service Office, as 
follows : 

1. That from the information had at the 
central office in Washington, a probability of 
stormy or dangerous weather has been de- 
duced for the port or place at wdiich the 
cautionary signal is displayed or in that vi- 
cinity. 

2. That the danger appears to be so great as 
to demand precaution on the part of navi- 
gators and others interested, such as an ex- 
amination of vessels or other structures liable 
to be endangered by a storm, the inspection 
of crews, rigging, etc., and general prepara- 
tion for rough weather. 

3. It calls for frequent examination of 
local barometers and other instruments by 
ship captains or others interested, and the 
study of local signs of the weather, as cloud-j, 
etc. By this means those who are expert 
may often be confirmed as to the need of the 
precaution to which the cautionary signal 
calls attention, or may determine that the 
danger is overestimated or past. 

These cautionary signals have within the 
past three years, saved from shipwreck and 
destruction many scores of vessels, and are 
regarded by all navigators both on the ocean 
and on our inland seas, as of very great im- 



322 



SIGNAL SI.UVICE. 



portance and value. While discussing this 
subject of cyclones and hurricanes, it is im- 
portant to notice that they come in most 
cases from the ocean in the vicinity of the 
tropics. They are probably due to the con- 
flict of the ti-ade winds in the neighborhood 
of th3 eqviator. So far as our country east 
of the Alleghany Mountains is concerned, 
they originate in the West Indies, and in early 
summer, describing a parabolic curve, follow 
the course of the Gulf stream and the sea 
of Sargasso, and very seldom touch our 
coasts. In August and Septembtr, the re- 
gion where they commence is farther South 
and the sweep of the cyclone brings it upon 
the coasts of Florida, Georgia, and the 
Carolinas. In October they are generated 

NORTHERN 



still nearer the equator, and moving West- 
wardly over the warm waters of the great 
equatorial currents, they enter the Gulf of 
Mexico and invade the Mississippi valley, 
which is a natural highway for storms. The 
New York Herald Almanac for 1873, pub- 
lished a '• Hurricane and Cyclone Chart for 
the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, 
compiled from the Signal Service Reports 
and the observations of the Coast Survey." 
Believing this may be of service to our ship 
captains and other officers of the Mercantile 
Marine, we give its directions and instruc- 
tions. It is hardly necessary to say that 
they are but a very slight amplification of 
Mr. Redfield's instructions as adopted by 
Admiral Fitzroy : 

HEMISPHERE. 



I 


Direction of 
Wind at Com- 
mencement of 
Cyclone. 


Bearing of Cen- 
tre of Cyclone 
from Ship. 


Change of Wind from 


Course to be 
Steered. 


Change of Wind from 


Course 

to be 

Adopted. 


I 


N W 


N E 


N W towards W 


S E 

SEby S 

S S E 


o 

o 
c 

E 
•5" 

o 
o 

p 

i 

>s 


N W towardsN 




2.. 


N W by N 

N N W 


N Eby E 

EN E 


N Wby N towards W.... 
N N W towards \V 


N W by IS towards N 

N N AV towards N 

N by W towards N 




4 


N by W 


E by N 


N by W towards W 


S by E 




6 


N 


E 

Eby S 


1 


6 


N by E 


N by E towards N 

N N E towards N 


3 by AV 

S S w 


N by E towards E 

NNE towards E 

N E by N towards E 

N E towards E 


7 


N N E 


ESE 


s 


8.. 
9 


NEbyN 

N E 


SEby E 

S E . .. 


N Eby N towards N 


S \V by S 

S W 




10.. 
11 


N E by E 

E N E 


SEby S. ........ 

S S E 


N E by E towards N 

ENE towardsN 

E by N towards N 


S W by W. . . . 

■\Y S \Y 

^Vby S 

\Y 


NEby E towards E 

ENE towards E 


O 


T> 


E by N 


Sby B 


Bby N towards E 




13 


E 

E by S 


S 

S by W 




14 


E by S towards E 

ESE towards E 

S E by E towards E 

S E towards E 


Wby N 

W N W 

N W by W. . . . 
\ W 


E by S towards S 

ESE towards S 


p 


16 


E S E 


S S W 


1 


16.. 
17 


SE by E 

S E 


S W by S 

s W 


S E by E towards S 

S E towards S 


18.. 
19 


SEby S 

8 S E 


S W by W 

w s w .... 


S E by S towards E 

S S E towards E 


N Wby N.... 

N N W 

ShyYY 

N 


S E by S towards S 

S S E towards S 


?,0 


S by E 


Wby S 


S by S towards E 


S by E towards S 

S towards W 


g 


21 


8..:.........:.. 

Sby W 

SS W 

S W by S 

S W 


W 


P" 


99 


Wby N 


S by W towards S 

S S W towards S 

S W by S towards S 

S W towiirds S 


N by E 

NNE 

NE by N 

N E 


S by W towards W 

S S W towards W 

S W by S towards W 

S W towards W 


i 


<>(^ 


W N W 


w- 


24.. 
25.. 


N W by W 

N W 





SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE. 



9. 
10. 
11. 
12. 
13. 
14. 
16. 
16. 
17. 
IS. 
19. 
20. 
21 



Direction of 
Wind at Com- 
mencement of 
Cyclone. 



Bearing of Cen- 
tre of Cyclone 
from Ship. 



S 

Sby E.... 

SS E 

S E by S.. 

S E 

SEbyE.. 

ESE 

Eby S.... 

E 

E by N . . . 
EN E. . . . 
N E by E. 

N E 

N E by N. 
N N E. . . . 
N by E . . . 
N 



N by W . . 
N N W... 
N Wby N. 
N W 



E 

E by N 

ENE 

N E by E. . . 

NE 

N E by N. . . 

N NE 

N by E 

N 

N by W 

NN W 

N W by N. . 

N W 

N W by W. . 

W N W 

Wby N 

N by S 

w s w 

w 

S W by W. 
S W 



Change of Wind from 



S towards W 

S by E towards S 

S 8 E towards S 

S E by S towards S 

S E towards S 

S E by E towards S 

ESE towards S 

E by S towards S 

E towards S 

E by N towards E 

ENE towards E 

N E by E towards E... 

N E towards R 

N E bv N towards E... 

NNE towards E 

N by E towards E 

N towards E 

N bv W towards N . . . , 

N N ^V towards N 

N W by N towards N. . 
N \V towards N. , , , , . , 



Course to be 
Steered. 



N 

Nby W 

N N W 

N W by N . . . 

N W 

N Wby W .. 

WN \Y 

Wby N 

W. 

Wbv S 

W S"W 

S W by AV. . . 

S w 

S W by S.... 

S S w 

Sby W 

S 

Sbv E 

3 S E , 

SEby S.... 
S. E 



Change of Wind from 



Course 

to be 

Adopted. 



S towards E 

S by E towards E 

S S E towards E 

S E by S towards E... 

S E towards E 

S E by E towards E.. 

ESE towards E 

E by S towards E 

K towards N 

E by N towards N. . . . 

ENE towards N 

N E by E towards N . . 

N E towards N 

N E by N towards N.. 

IN N E towards N 

N by E towards N. . . , 

N towards W 

N by \Y towards W... 
N N W towards W... 
N W bv N towards W 
N AV towards W 



SIGNAL SERVICE. 



323 



How TO Ascertain when a Hurricane or Cyclone is at 
Hand and Uow to Avoid it. — The indications of a hurricane 
or cyclone are four fold, and they are all easy of recognition. 
They consist of 

1. A rapidly falling barometer. 

2. Threatening aspect of the weather and the appearance 
of the heavens. 

3. A heavy swell of the sea, far heavier than could be ac- 
counted for by the existing wind or by that which has even 
recently existed in the neighborhood of the ship. 

4. A wind increasing in violence. 

Whenever or wherever all these indications are found to 
occur simultaneously one may well take it for granted that a 
storm of tlxis sort — a cyclone — is impending, and that, in fiict, 
the ship is already in contact with its outer margin, and that 
it is time for the captain to immediately prepare and direct 
his vessel accordingly. 

If in the Northern Hemisphere, the first thing to be done is 
to bring the ship by the wind on the starboard tack, to short- 
en sail and deaden her way as much as possible ; then deter- 
mine carefully by the compass how the wind veers, or wheth- 
er it veers at all. The wind of a hurricane being always gyrat- 
ing, an hour or so at the most will in all probability be quite 
long enough to indicate its course and the change of wind. 

If the wind be found to veer by compass, from left to right, 
or to haul, then keep the ship by the wind, or a little free, on 
the starboard tack, and under as much canvas as would or- 
dinarily be carried at any other time with tlie same force of 
wind, and continue to keep her by the wind, or a little free, 
however much the wind may change to the right, until the 
barometer begins to rise and the wind itself cease in violence. 
There need be no apprehension of the wind shifting in any 
other direction than to the right, with the ship situated and 
acting like the one in point. 

If the wind be found by compass to veer from right to left 
or to back, then run the ship off at once, with the wind on 
the starboard quarter ; note immediately the course that has 
to be steered to do so, and stick to that course, no matter how 
much the winds may change to the left, as long as needs be 
or as long as you can safely , owing to the vicinity of the land , 
or until the barometer begins to rise and the wind cease in 
violence. A ship situated and acting upon these directions 
will always find the wind to back. 

If the wind be found by compass not to veer at all, but to 
remain steady at one particular quarter, then run the ship off at 
once (vicinity of land permitting), with the wind well aft, on 
the starboard quartar, say so as to bring the wiud within be- 
ing two points dead aft. Note immediately a course to be 
steered to do so, and stick to that course, no matter how 
much the wind may change to the left, until the barometer 
begins to rise and the wind to cease in violence. A ship situ- 
ated and acting like this will always find the wind to back 
and may, Uke the one alluded to in the preceding paragraph, 
by doing as directed, readily run herself into a gloriously fair 
wind, and thus turn the storm to a great advantage. 

In each of the before mentioned (three) cases the ship, after 
following out the directions prescribed, on finding the barom- 
eter to rise and the wind to cease in violence, may then bo 
kept with the wiud abeam on the starboard tack for the 
Northern Hemisphere and the port tack for the Southern 
Hemisphere!, irrespective of the direction from which it may 
blow. No great while will now elapse before the center or 
Tortex will have passed entirely by you, and at a comparatively 
harmless distance, and thus all danger of any moment will 
have completely ended ; and in each of these cases, too, by 
adhering closely to these directions, a fair wind and fine weatheV 
may be confidently expected in a large majority of cases. 

Always adhere to the rules so distinctly laid down. 

In the Southern Hemisphere the port tack is the preferable 
one, and bearing up with the wind on the port quarter or 
beam should be resorted to. 

Remember the wind of a cyclone in the Southern Hemis 
phere whirL. exactly in the opposite direction to those winds 
of the cyclone on the Northern Hemisphere. 

Now, keep in mind this opposite whirling motion, and man- 
age your ship accordingly. 

Remember also, in the Northern Hemisphere the right hand 
semicircle contains the heaviest winds, while in the Southern 
Hemisphere the heaviest winds are in the left hand semicircle. 

Two laws, deduced from long and careful 
observation and mathematical demonstration, 
have been proved to govern tlie course of 
the winds, and thus afford to meteorologists 
some of the data for determining the probable 
weather of the following twenty-four hours. 



The first, known as Ferrel's Law from its 
discoverer, Mr. William Ferrel of 'Cam- 
bridge, Mass., though adopted as a general- 
ization by Mr. Redfield from the first, is : 
that in any area of high pressure, tlie winds 
in the Northern Hemisphere move from the 
centre outward, but are constantly deflected 
toward the right hand in an angle of from 
30 to 60 degrees as they move forward ; 
that in areas of low pressure, the winds blow 
toward the centre (inward) of the area, bnt 
are constantly deflected in an angle of from 
30 to 60 degrees toward the right ; and that 
in the Southern Hemisphere this motion is 
reversed, the currents being deflected in 
both cases toward the left. This is due to 
the influence of the earth's diurnal rotation. 

The second law, first enunciated by Prof. 
Buys-Ballot, Director of the Meteorological 
Observatory at Utrecht in Holland, in 1860, 
is as follows : " If any morning there be a 
difference between the barometrical readings 
at any two stations, a wiud will blow on that 
day in the neighborhood of the line joining 
those stations, which will be inclined to that 
line at an angle of 90 degrees or thereabouts, 
and will have the station where the reading 
is lowest on its left hand side. 

The time cannot be far distant when the 
observations thus daily recorded, as well as 
those which accumulate from the weekly and 
monthly i-eports, fi-om the occupancy of sta- 
tions in Alaska, in the Arctic regions and 
from the logs of our met chant and passen- 
ger ships, shall be utilized in the construc- 
tion of an Isometeoric Atlas of our own coun- 
try, and eventually of such an Atlas which 
would cover in its deductions the whole sur- 
face of the globe. The discovery of atmos- 
pheric waves of cold, sweeping over vast 
areas, and of magnetic waves accompanied 
by magnificent auroral displays, both defi- 
nitely ascertained during the autumn of 
1872, give great encouragement to the hope 
that such an Atlas would be of inconceivable 
advantage not only to physical geography 
but to agriculture, sanitary science, the route 
of epidemics, and the vast and varied inter- 
ests of commerce. In Solomon's time it was 
a proverb, that " he that observeth the wind 
shall not sow ; and he that regardeth the 
clouds shall not reap ;" but the time has al- 
ready come when the prudent agriculturist 
will observe both the winds and the clouds, 
or the weather estimates deduced from them, 
alike in his sowing and reaping. 



THE ARTS OF DESIGN IN AMERICA, 

FROM 1780 TO THE PRESENT TIME. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAINTING, SCULPTURE, AND ENGRAVING. 

Horace Walpolk says, in his "Anec- 
dotes of Painting in England" (writing in 
1762): " As our disputes and politics have 
travelled to America, is it not probable that 
poetry and painting, too, will revive amidst 
those extensive tracts, as they increase in 
opulence and empire, and where the stores 
of nature are so various, so magnificent, and 
so new?" 

These lines were penned, perchance, in 
grave prophetic faith, but it may be that 
they were only idle speculations — a play of 
fancy, meaning nothing. , Certain it is, that 
were the critic ever so much in earnest, very 
little could he have expected the full and 
noble response which so short a period would 
make to his query. 

Little could he or any one have foreseen 
the rapid growth of these " extensive tracts" 
in population and in every phase of material 
life ; still less the wonderful strides which 
they have made in all branches of mechani- 
cal and industrial art ; and least of all, their 
achievements in the higher and aesthetic arts 
of design. Little could he have dreamed 
that within a period seemingly insufficient 
for the construction even of the rude foun- 
dations of empire, our country would have 
reached that point of refinement and intellect- 
ual development which gives it, in ample store, 
its own literature and its own arts — both 
with a strong and peculiar individuality of 
character and life. 

The only artists in America in Walpole's 
time were a few strangers — Englishmen for 
the most part — who had wandered hither in 
quest of a fortune which their very humble 
talents had failed to win at home. They did 
little or nothing toward the development of 
the public taste, and left no works to honor 
the future ; though they may, perhaps, have 
served, in some measure, to open the path 
for the distinguished group of native paint- 



ers who, quickly succeeding them, fairly and 
surely lighted the lamp of art which now 
burns with such pure and ever-growing 
brightness. 

The earliest of these pioneers, whose name 
has been preserved, was John Watson, a 
native of Scotland. He crossed the seaa 
and set up his easel in Perth Amboy, in New 
Jersey, in the year 1715. In this little port, 
which was then thought destined to be what 
the city of New York is now — the commer- 
cial emporium of the country — Watson 
painted portraits, such as they were, through 
a long life. He appears to have had plenty 
of " sitters," and to have grown rich upon 
the fruits of well-employed industry; but 
we can gather no intimations of the state of 
the popular taste at that time through the 
medium of his works, inasmuch as none of 
them now remain for our inspection. Wat- 
son was buried about the 22d of August, 
1768, in the old church-yard of his adopted 
village, at the venerable age of eighty-three 
years. 

Our next pioneer was John Smybert, a 
stronger man, much, than Watson, and one 
who, though he painted no pictures to be 
treasured in our galleries, yet left foot- 
prints of good incentive and example, 
which we may clearly trace beneath the sub- 
sequent march of greater gifts. Copley, 
though but thirteen years of age at the 
time of Smybert's death, confesses indebted- 
ness to him and his works. So also does 
Trumbull, who at one time painted in the 
apartments he had occupied, and in which 
many of his pictures still remained ; while 
Allston is thankful for the advantage he en- 
joyed in the permission to copy a head 
which Smybert had executed after Vandyke. 
Smybert accompanied Bishop Berkeley to 
America in the year 1728, at the age of 
forty-two. Like Watson, he was a Scotch- 
man, and like him, again, he pursued his 
craft in the colonies with gratifying financial 
success. He lived in Boston in high public 



PAINTING, SCULPTURE, AND ENGRAVING. 



325 



favor until 1751, leaving behind him many 
portraits of the distinguished characters of 
his time. 

Nathaniel Smybert, a son of John Smybert, 
followed his father's profession worthily in 
Boston for a short time, and, according to 
the opinion of cotemporary critics, gave 
promise of more than ordinary talents. No 
record of him remains beyond the meagre 
facts here mentioned, and the additional one 
that he died early. 

While the Smyberts were planting the 
seeds of art in Boston, there was in Phila- 
delphia a Mr. Williams, an Englishman, re- 
membered gratefully by West as the man 
who awakened his love of pictures by lend- 
ing him books and by showing him the first 
works in oil which he had ever looked upon. 
During the same period, Woolaston and 
Taylor were also in Philadelphia ; a Mr. 
Hesselius was at Annapolis in Maryland ; a 
Mr. Theus in Charleston, and other laborers 
were in Virginia. 

Besides the foreign adventurers here 
spoken of, there were a few native artists 
scattered over the country during the ante- 
revolutionary period of our history. It is 
hardly desirable to recall even their names, 
or to add to our list of the yet earlier 
strangers ; since, despite the service their 
little light may have done, in the then deep 
darkness, not one of thera all possessed 
more than the most moderate talent, and 
not one will be remembered excepting in the 
way in which they are now so briefly re- 
ferred to — that is, in consideration of the 
initial times in which they chanced to live. 

The birth of American art was not in any 
portion of our colonial epoch, but singularly 
and felicitously enough, was in that day of 
happy augury when our country itself sprang 
into life, and started upon its conquering 
course of national development and power ; 
and with equal strangeness and equal felicity, 
the very beginning of our* individual exis- 
tence as a people produced, on a sudden, full- 
grown artists of first-rate genius, as it did 
Minerva-born statesmen, soldiers, and phil- 
osophers. 

During the progress of our great revo- 
lutionary struggle with the mother land, and 
at the time of our successful emergence from 
that trial, Benjamin West, born in the forests 
of Pennsylvania, was reaching the highest 
honors in the art world of London, sur- 
passing all native competitors, becoming the 
successor of Reynolds in the presidental 



chair of the English Academy, and enjoy- 
ing the most distinguished consideration, 
the patronage, and the personal friendship of 
the very monarch against whom his country- 
men were waging angry war. 

It is, then, with Benjamin West, and with 
the birth of our country as an independent 
nation — about a hundred years since, in 
1772 — that our story of American art pi'op- 
erly and prosperously begins. We shall, 
however, say but little of West, since the 
space that has been allotted to this subject 
does not aff"ord room for an extended notice 
of any one. Though we may rightfully honor 
him as the father of American painters, and 
may write his name first on the long cata- 
logue of eminent laborers in the noble field 
of art which we now possess, yet, the fact 
that the greater part of his professional life 
was spent in England, and that his chief 
success was won there, places him, in one 
sense, among the painters of that country, 
rather than of this ; just as the life-long 
residence among us of a foreign-born artist 
may make him ours, instead of his own 
countrymen's. 

West was born in 1738, in Pennsylvania, 
as we have already said, near Springfield, 
Chester county. His parents were Quakers, 
and their habits of life, together with all 
surrounding circumstances, were such as to 
discourage rather than foster a predisposi- 
tion toward the study of art. The bent of 
the boy's mind was, nevertheless, early and 
powerfully manifested. The sight of Wil- 
liams' pictures inflamed his youthful pre- 
dilections to such a degree that, in want of 
better pencils, he manufactured a supply 
from the stolen fur of his mother's favorite 
cat ; in want of subjects, he, while yet a 
child, seized upon his infant sister sleeping, 
all unconscious, in her cradle ; and in want 
of pigments, he borrowed ochres of the Del- 
aware and Mohawk Indians, and indigo 
from the maternal laundry ! He studied 
after a while in Philadelphia, and subse- 
quently painted portraits in New York. At 
the age of twenty-one he went abroad, and 
after a tour through the art cities of the 
continent, he established himself in London, 
where he afterward chiefly resided, rising 
rapidly into popular favor, until, upon the 
death of Sir Joshua Reynolds, the first 
president of the Royal Academy, his posi- 
tion as the head of the English school was 
affirmed by the high honor of his election to 
the vacant chair. This distinguished position 



326 



THE ARTS OF DESIGN IN AMERICA. 



he filled with ijreat dignity until his death, 
on the 11th of Mcarch, 1820, at the advanced 
age of nearly eighty-two years. 

West's fame was won chiefly in the noble 
field of historical painting — a department 
which his brother artists of America have 
not continued fittingly to cultivate ; though 
one in wliich they cannot, in due time, yet 
fail to distinguish themselves no less honor- 
ably than they have already done in hmd- 
scape and portraiture ; so rich and bound- 
less are tlie themes at their command, and 
growing with every passing year yet more 
beautitul and noble in aspect. 

Among the chief productions of liis skil- 
ful and most industrious pencil, we may men- 
tion the Battles of the Hague and the 
Boyne ; the Death of General AVolfe ; the 
Return of Regulus to Carthage ; Agrippina 
Bearing the Ashes of Germanicus; the Young 
Hannibal Swearing Eternal Enmity to the 
Romans ; the Death of Epaminondas ; the 
Death of Chevalier Bayard ; Penn's Treaty 
with the Indians ; Death on the Pale Horse ; 
and Christ Healing the Sick. Many of his 
works are now in America; among others. 
Death on the Pale Horse, which is in the 
galleries of the Pennsylvania Academy of 
Fine Arts in Philadelphia; and Christ Heal- 
ing tlie Sick, also in Philadelphia, in the 
Pennsylvania Hospital, to wliich it was given 
with noble generosity by the artist himself. 

In the same year in which West was born 
in Pennsylvania, John Singleton Copley, an- 
other distinguished man in the earlier days 
of American art, appeared in the city of 
Boston. The one, like the other, after follow- 
ing his profession at home for some time, 
went to London, and there continued to live 
and labor for the rest of his days. The simul- 
taneous appearance of these two gifted men, 
at this early period of our country's progress, 
and in sections of the Union then so far sep- 
arated, was, as Cunningham says, when al- 
luding to the circumstance — most " note- 
worthy." Copley was occupied for the most 
part with portraits, though he made success- 
ful incursions at intervals into the domains 
of history. One of his best works in this 
department of the art, and that to which he 
first owed his fame, was the large canvas 
representing the Death of the Earl of Chat- 
ham. Copley died in 1815, five years earlier 
than his confrere^ Benjamin West. Many 
of his pictures are now treasured in the gal- 
leries and in the private collections of Boston, 
and in other parts of the Union. Lord 



Lyndhurst, of England, was a son of this 
artist. 

In 1754, just sixteen years after the birth 
of West and Copley, Gilbert Stuart, of 
Rhode Island, came upon the stage, the ear- 
liest of that gifted line of portrait painters 
whose works have placed this branch of the 
art as high in America as in any part of the 
old world. Stuart, Avith Trumbull as a 
companion, studied under West in London, 
where he afterward painted successfully, and 
in due time rose to great eminence. Unlike 
his distinguished predecessors. West and 
Coplev, he returned after a time, to his na- 
tive land, and after some years practice of 
his art in Philadelphia, Washington, and 
Boston, he died in the latter city in July, 
1828, in his seventy-fifth year. His name is 
familiar to the public at large, through his 
great picture of Washington, which he re- 
peated for various societies and state legisla- 
tures, and which is spread over our land in 
every style of the graver's art. He painted 
noble portraits of many other of the distin- 
guished people of his time — from presidents 
to private gentlemen. His works are cher- 
ished among us as master-pieces and models, 
exerting still, as they have ever done, a mark- 
ed influence upon the character of American 
portraiture. The especial characteristics of 
liis style were a marvellous freedom and bold- 
ness of touch, a wonderful freshness and ful- 
ness of color, and a truth of character wliich 
placed the very soul of his sitter before you 
in the most striking individuality. " He 
seemed," says a cotemporary writer, " to 
dive into the thoughts of men — for they are 
made to rise and speak on the surface ;" 
and Sully is reported to have remarked of 
one of his portraits : " It is a living man 
looking directly at you .'" 

Stuart was a man of eminent social dis- 
position and abilities, a famous wag and hu- 
morist, fond of a jest, and overflowing with 
anecdote!' Innumerable amusing illustra- 
tions of this trait in his character, sprinkle 
and enliven the recorded and remembered 
records of his life. 

Another pupil of West's, at this period, 
was Robert Fulton, who was born in Little 
Britain, in the county of Lancaster, Pa., in 
1765. Fulton commenced the practice of 
art in 1782, at the age of seventeen, but 
contimied it only a few years, being more 
powerfully led toward those scientific studies 
to which his genius was, as the end proved, 
better adapted ; and from which sprang that 



PAINTING, SCULPTURE, AND ENGRAVING. 



327 



glory of our time, the practical and perma- 
nent application of steam to navigation. 
Fulton's short career as an artist left no 
legible mark ; what might have been his 
achievements had he continued in the guild, 
we cannot say, and are, indeed, careless 
to inquire, in view of his immortal labors 
otherwise. American art is willing to spare 
him, as it has since spared the illustrious 
Morse, to its graver sister, Science ; and is 
no less proud of the practical blessings he 
has bestowed upon his country, than it 
would be of the highest sesthetic success. 
Fulton died upon the 24th of February, 
1815. 

Next among the men of service and influence 
in the cause of art in America was William 
Dunlap, who was born in Perth Amboy, N. J., 
February 19th, 1766, and who commenced 
the profession of portrait painter about 17S2. 
Dunlap will be remembered as an artist more 
for his long life of reverent and persistent de- 
votion to the craft, and for the respect and 
estimation which his character gained for it, 
than for his success at the easel ; though he 
both attempted and achieved works which 
were commended at a less brilliant period 
than the present. lie was also an author of 
considerable ability. Among his works is a 
"History of the American Theatre," publish- 
ed in 1832, and another of the New Nether- 
lands, which appeared in 1840; a memoir 
of Charles Brockden Brown, and various 
plays of considerable interest. But the 
most important of his literary labors is the 
only record we possess of the early story of 
American art, an invaluable work under the 
circumstances, and one for which he will be 
ever remembered, although clumsily con- 
structed and injured by a most wearisome 
medley of irrelevant matter. In this " His- 
tory of the Arts of Design," Dunlap gives us 
his own biography with great discursiveness 
and fulness, though with humble and char- 
acteristic reverence, exhibiting his own career 
as one to be shunned rather than followed. 
' I look back," he says in mournful reflec- 
tion, " upon a long life, with the persuasion 
that Avhat is called misfortune in common 
parlance is caused generally by our own 
folly, ignorance, mistakes, or vices." To read 
his story as recorded in his "History of the 
Arts of Design," is to read a sad record of 
untoward circumstances, varied effort, and 
ever-following failure ; but, Avithal, a praise- 
worthy and even exalted longing to be of use 
to his fellows and his country. His pictures 



were generally of a very ambitious character, 
scriptural themes on canvas twenty feet long. 
Among these productions of high art were 
Christ Rejected ; Bearing the Cross ; Cal- 
vary ; and Death on the Pale Horse ; the 
first of which was made up in part, and the 
last wholly, from West's pictures of the same 
names. 

Besides thus remembering Dunlap for the 
art records Avhich he has preserved with so 
much honesty and industry, and for what he 
would have done, and sought to lead others 
to do at the easel, he must be honored as 
one of the founders and the first vice-presi- 
dent of our leading art society, the National 
Academy of Design in New York. Dunlap 
died on the 28th of September, 1839. 

To the life and works of Colonel John 
Trumbull our early art owes great obliga- 
tions, though it is much the fashion at this 
day to disparage and deny his genius. Trum- 
bull's name is fiimihar to the people through 
his grand pictures of revolutionary story 
which decorate the walls of the national 
capitol. He was the son of the first gov- 
ernor Trumbull of Connecticut, and was 
born at Lebanon on the 6th of June, 1756. 
To high birth he added, through life, high 
character and learning, and great culture 
and dignity of manners. His early studies 
were, as was the case with all the artists 
of his time, pursued abroad and under Ben- 
jamin West. He entered the American 
army at the commencement of the Revolu- 
tion, and was an eye-Avitness of, and partici- 
pant in, some of its most stirring scenes, of 
which the subsequent delineation won for 
him his fame as a painter. The four large 
works executed for the government, are : 
the Declaration of Independence ; the Sur- 
render of Cornwallis; the Surrender of 
Burgoyne ; and Washington's Resignation. 
An appropriation of thirty-two thousand 
dollars was made for these pictures, be- 
sides which, the artist received considerable 
emolument from their public exhibition 
through the country. Among his other his- 
torical works may be mentioned the Battle 
of Bunker Hill ; the Death of General Mont- 
gomery ; Capture of the Hessians at Trenton ; 
and the Death of General Mercer at the 
Battle of Princeton. In addition, he exe- 
cuted various scriptural subjects, and many 
portraits, among which was a full-length of 
Washington, painted in 1792, in the artist's 
best days. A few years before his death, 
he presented his collected works to Yale 



328 



THE ARTS OF DESIGN IN AMERICA. 



College, upon the condition that they should 
be suitably housed, and that he should re- 
ceive an annuity of one thousand dollars. 
The college erected a gallery on its grounds 
in New Haven, where the pictures were 
placed, and where they now may be seen. 

Colonel Trumbull was president of the 
American Academy of Fine Arts, in New 
York, until that eti'ete organization was su- 
perseded in 1826 by the establishment of 
the National Academy of Design. Trum- 
bull did not, at any period of his life, pos- 
sess much of that genial fellowship and social 
habit so characteristic of artists, and so es- 
sential to personal popularity in the profes- 
sion. He died in 1843, at the venerable age 
of eighty-seven years, leaving behind him a 
name unspotted, and a claim to distinguished 
remembrance in the history of art in America, 
despite all the faults of his works, and how- 
ever much they have since been or yet may 
be surpassed. 

Charles W. Peale, born at Chesterton, on the 
eastern shore of Maryland, April 16th, 1741, 
was an active colaborer with Trumbull and 
his fellows, but was not eminently successful 
at the easel. He was a man of versatile 
gifts, and at various times dabbled in all 
sorts of crafts. He made his brothers, sis- 
ters, sons, and daughters all artists. He died 
in 1827, at the age of eighty-five years. 

John Vanderlyn was born in Kingston, in 
the state of New York, in October, 1776, 
where he died at the age of seventy-six 
years, in 1852. Aaron Burr was struck 
with his boyish performances in art while 
he was a blacksmith's apprentice in his na- 
tive village, and befriended him at the com- 
mencement of liis career. At the age of 
twenty he made the foreign tour, so custom- 
ary at the time, studying in Paris and other 
cities of the continent of Europe. In the 
year 1817, the corporation of New York 
having given him the lease of the ground, 
he erected the building in the north-east cor- 
ner of the City Hall park in New York, 
afterward used as the Post Office, aiid always 
known as the Rotunda. Here he exhibited 
in succession a series of panoramas, the first 
seen in this country, of Paris, Athens, Mex- 
ico, and Versailles, with his own pictures — 
Marius, Ariadne, and other subjects. The 
unexpected cost of the building, and the 
resumption of the lease by the city before 
the artist had fairly tried his speculation, 
made it a matter of serious pecuniary loss 
to him. Among his chief pictures are the 



Landing of Columbus, which fills one of the 
panels of the rotunda of the Capitol in 
Washington — one of the pendants of those 
already mentioned by Trumbull ; his fine 
picture of Marius Musing over the Ruins of 
Carthage, painted in 1808; and his superb 
full-length figure of Ariadne, so beautifully 
engraved by Durand ; portraits of Presidents 
Madison, Monroe, and Jackson ; of Calhoun, 
De Witt Clinton, and other distinguished 
men. He exerted a most healthy influence 
upon his fellow artists, and his works remain 
as models for future study. 

Edward G. Malbone was born in New- 
port, Rhode Island, in 1777, and died in 
Savannah, in May, 1807, in his thirty-second 
year. During his short life he won high 
reputation as a miniature painter ; and his 
works in this department are still preserved 
in various parts of the country as master- 
pieces of art. One of his most successful 
productions — a picture of three half-length fe- 
male figures, called The Hours — is now in the 
possession of the Athenaeum in Providence. 

Rembrandt Pe-ale, whose history belongs 
to tills period, though more recently deceased, 
was born of a family of artists in Penn- 
sylvania, on the 22d of February, 1778. 
He was an active, earnest man in his time, 
and did much in the service of art, by his 
own works, and the incentive which his ex- 
ample gave to others. His picture of Wash- 
ington, painted in the artist's boyhood, and 
afterward often repeated by him, is well 
known ; as also his grand work called the Court 
of Death. His long and honored career, 
which embraced nearly the whole period of 
our art history, was closed on the 3d of Oc- 
tober, 1860. 

John Wesley Jarvls, one of the most dis- 
tinguished portrait painters of this era, was 
born in England in 1780, and brought to 
America at the age of five years. He 
painted innumerable pictures, many of them 
of great merit ; and did good service as the 
instructor of Henry Inman, and other dis- 
tinguished artists. He was a man of emi- 
nently social disposition, with a great turn 
for humor — traits of character pleasant 
enough when well employed, but which he 
unhappily permitted to lead him into low and 
ruinous dissipation, which impaired his ar- 
tistic powers, and brought a life begun under 
the happiest promise to the dreariest end. 

Charles B. King, born in Newport, Rhode 
Island, 1785; Alvan Fisher, born in Need- 
ham, Massachusetts, 1792 ; William E. West, 



PAINTING, SCULPTURE, AND ENGRAVING. 



329 



aiid William James Bennet, born in London, 
17S7, may be mentioned in this part of our 
story as men of mark and influence in tlieir 
day though they left no works behind them 
of great excellence. Mr. King, passed away, 
March 18, 1862, in Washington, the National 
Capital, where he for many years virtually 
filled the fashionable position of court paint- 
er, preserving to posterity the likenesses of 
presidents, ministers, statesmen, and the 
chiefs of the Indian deputations who came to 
see their great white father at the capital. 

The lite of Thomas Sully fills a delightful 
page in the history of American art. Born 
in England in June, 1783, he came hither 
at the age of nine years, struggled bravely 
through an indigent youth and a laborious 
manhood to a position of high honor and 
usefulness. He is still pursuing, at the age 
of 89, in Philadelphia, the profession which 
he has through many years so effectually 
contributed to advance. His pictures are 
characterized by grace and beauty of feeling, 
and a daintiness and freshness of color well 
deserving of most careful study. He has 
painted many full-length pictures of dis- 
tinguished personages, among them one of 
Queen Victoria, which was exhibited with 
great success in all the Atlantic cities, and 
numerous fancy heads of great poetic beauty. 

Charles Fraser, born in Charleston, South 
Carolina, Aug. 20, 1782, and died there Oct. 
5, 1860, was an esteemed associate of the 
best men of the days of which we write. 
His works have materially advanced the 
standard of public taste in his native state. 
After obtaining a competency by the indus- 
trious pursuit of legal studies, he began the 
profession of artist in earnest at the age of 
thirty-six. Following the successful lead of 
his friend Malbone, he turned his attention 
especially to miniature painting, in which 
style he executed a picture of Lafayette, 
and of nearly all of the prominent men of 
his region. An exhibition of his collected 
works ir 1857, included 313 miniatures, 139 
landscapes, and other works in oil. 

Chester Harding, who passed away, April 
1, 1866, was born in Conway, Mass., Sept. 
1st, 1792. His humble parentage sent 
him at first to farm work and chair-making. 
After the war of 1812, in which he served, 
he engaged in cabinet-making in Caledonia, 
New York. He subsequently went to the 
head waters of the Alleghany, and thence 
on a raft to Pittsburg, where he worked at 
house-painting; he returned home through 



the forest, two hundred miles, on foot, with 
no guide but blazed trees. Again visiting 
the west with his family, he worked from 
sign painting into portraiture ; thenceforth 
gradually rising in his profession, until he 
numbered among his sitters such men as 
Madison, Monroe, Marshall, Wirt, Clay, 
Webster, Calhoun, and Allston, in America ; 
and the dukes of Norfolk, Hamilton, and 
Sussex, Lord Aberdeen, and Samuel Eogers, 
in England. 

Washington Allston, one of the most il- 
lustrious of our artists, was a native of South 
Carolina, having been born on his father's 
plantation at Waccamaw, in that state, on the 
5th of November, 1779. He was a high- 
toned man, of poetic temperament and schol- 
arly tastes, and was eminent as a poet as 
well as an artist. He was a student of the 
Royal Academy in London in 1801, and an 
exhibitor on the walls of that institution the 
following 3"ear. At this early period of his 
life he became an intimate friend of Cole- 
ridge and Thorwaldsen, West and Fuseli, 
and other distinguished men. In a second 
visit to Europe, about 1810, he exhibited 
his famous picture of the Dead Man Re- 
vived, which is now in the Pennsylvania 
Academy at Philadelphia. For this Avork a 
prize of 200 guineas was awarded to him by 
the British Institution. His next consider- 
able works were: St. Peter Liberated by 
the Angel ; Uriel in the Sun, which was 
painted for the duke of Sutherland; and 
Jacob's Dream. In 1818 he returned 
home, with his picture of Elijah in the 
Wilderness, which afterward went back to 
England. Within the next twelve years he 
produced his Prophet Jeremiah, recently pre- 
sented by Prof. Morse to the Art Museum of 
Yale College ; Saul and the Witch of Eudor ; 
Miriam Singing the Song of Triumph, and 
other justly celebrated works. Among his 
smaller pictures, the Valentine and Be- 
atrice, female ideal heads, are remarkable 
for their power of expression and strength 
of color. In the studio in which he finally 
settled himself at Cambridge, he painted 
Spalatro's Vision of the Bloody Hand ; 
Rosalie ; and his grand unfinished subject, 
Belshazzar's Feast. In his early life he was 
an intimate friend of Washington Irving, 
whom he almost won over to his own studies, 
as the author's profession may have attracted 
him, for during his life he made frequent in- 
cursions into the literary arena, publishing 
in London, in 1813, a poem entitled "The 



330 



THE ARTS OF DKSIGN IN AMERICA. 



Sylphs of tlie Season," and afterward the 
metrical satire entitled, " The Two Painters," 
the weird story of the " Paint King," " Mo- 
naldi, a Tale of Passion in Italy," followed 
after his death by a volume of " Lectures on 
Art." He was twice married, first in 1809 
to a sister of Dr. Channing, and again in 
1830. He died at Cambridge on the 9th of 
July, 1843. 

Thomas Birch, a marine painter, born in 
London 1779, died in Philadelphia Jan. 1851, 
and Joshua Shaw, a landscape painter, born 

in England in 1776, died . Both 

became residents of the United States in 
childhood, and gained a reputation in their 
respectiv'e departments. 

Among the popular painters of this time 
were Samuel L. Waldo (1783-1 861), and 
"William Jewett, 1795. Mr. Jewett Avas a 
IHipil and afterwards a partner of Mr. Waldo, 
and the two j^aiuted many portraits together, 
of great merit. 

Our narrative now passes the line, as nearly 
as such a line may be drawn, between the 
artists of the revolutionary and immediately 
following years, and the earlier part of the 
present century. Already have we seen the 
arts firmly rooted in the love of the people 
and the genius of their professors ; seen na- 
tive artists grow up, and by their labors re- 
flect high and imperishable honor on their 
country. In the continuation and the sequel 
of our history it will be our pleasure to see 
this glory ever brightening, aiid the public 
taste and artistic skill still more rapidly ad- 
vancing hand in hand. This progress can- 
not, however, be better understood than by 
following, step by step, the lives of those 
from whose genius and works it alone springs. 
We therefore continue as we have begun, 
the chronological mention of the men to 
whom we are the most indebted for it. 

We have already seen how our country 
had no sooner come of age than its early in- 
debtedness to the mother-land for the hum- 
ble aid of her Smybert and others, was 
promptly and nobly repaid by the fame 
which we sent her of a West and a Copley. 
Not content with this ample acknowledg- 
ment, we added to these high names at a 
later day those of Leslie and Newton, which 
she has inscribed upon the brightest tablet 
of her art achievement. Both these emi- 
nent artists were Americans by their parent- 
age, though, through the chances of the mo- 
ment, the former first saw the light in Lon- 
don. The latter was born in Halifax, in 



Nova Scotia, during a temporaiy visit of his 
parents thither from Boston. They estab- 
lished themselves in London, where they 
passed their lives in such successful labors 
as to leave a name and fame cherished zeal- 
ously both by their native and their ailopted 
homes. 

Some of the men most distinguished and 
the most serviceable in the cause of art in 
America who came upon the stage at or near 
the beginning of the present century, are 
yet living to see the happy fruits of their 
toil, in the general ditfusion of an apprecia- 
tive and enduring love of art throughout the 
land, in the growing up of a comuumity of 
artists, large and influential enough to have 
become an acknowledged and revei'ed power 
in society, and in the firm foundation of a 
strongly individualized and healthful national 
school. 

Among these great men, we should, per- 
haps, mention tlie late ' Samuel Findley 
Breese Morse, to whom (though he was drawn 
out of the profession as Fulton was before 
him, by the allurements of science) we owe 
much for the excellent labors of his pencil 
and the yet more excellent eftects of his 
earnest sympathy with his art brethren 
throughout his long and illustrious life. It 
is to this strong and indefatigable love that 
we are, more than to any other agency, in- 
debted for the foundation and success of our 
chief art society, the National Academy of 
Design. Morse was the leading spii'it in 
this great enterprise. He was its first presi- 
dent ; an ofilce which he continued to fill 
with high honor for a score of years, and 
which, only that other duties required him 
to resign, he would have filled to this day. 
Prof. Morse was born in Charlcstown, Mass., 
April 29th, 1791. His father was the fa- 
mous geographer, the Rev. Jedidiah Morse. 
He was educated at Yale College under Dr. 
Dwight. In his twentieth year he went to 
England, and yet two years later successfully 
exhibited a large picture of the Dying 
Hercules at the Royal Academy. He had 
previously executed a plaster model of the 
Hercules, which he also displayed, and for 
which, greatly to his own surprise, he re- 
ceived the gold medal from the Society of 
Arts. From this happy commencement of 
his life as an artist, and from the portraits 
and other works which he subsequently pro- 
duced, until other studies drew his mind 
away from the easel, we may fairly suppose 
that he would have reached the highest posi- 




GENTLEMKN ENGAGED iX lllE FINE ARTS. 




wome:^ engaged in the fjn^ auts. 



PAINTING, SCULPTURE, AND ENGKAVING. 



331 



tion as a painter had he continued to seek 
it, and some regret at his loss to the arts 
may be permitted, even in view of Avhat the 
world at large owes to his scientific studies 
in the priceless gift of the IMagnetic T( le- 
graph. Professor Morse died in New York, 
April 2, 1872. 

Charles C. Ingham, an eminent portrait 
painter, born in Dublin, 1797, died in New 
York, Dec. 10, 18G3. lie was an earnest 
co-laborer with Morse in the establishment 
of our National Academy, which has always 
owed and still owes much in its exhibitions 
to the productions of his easel — his exquis- 
ite pictures of fair women and brave men. 
He filled for some years the office of vice- 
president of the academy. 

Robert W. Weir, who has been for many 
years, as now, professor of drawing at the 
Military Academy at West Point, holds a 
distinguished place among the older of our 
living artists. He was born on the 18th of 
January, 1803, at New Rochelle, in the state 
of New Y^'ork. It is to his pencil that we 
owe that best of the pictures in the Capitol 
at Washington, tlie Embarkation of the 
Pilgrims, a work eminently illusti'ative of 
the thoughtfulness and conscientiousness of 
his genius. He has painted numerous his- 
torical compositions, genre subjects, land- 
scapes, and portraits of great excellene.e. 

Thomas S. Cummings, another cf the 
founders of the Academy, and always one 
of its officers, held high rank at this period 
in the department of miniature painting. 
Mr. Cummings was born in Bath, England, 
in 1804, and became a resident of the United 
States in early childhood. 

John G. Chapman, born in Alexandria, 
Virginia, on the 11th of August, 1808, now 
residing in Italy, is well known as the paint- 
er of the Baptism of Pocahontas, in the 
Capitol at Washington, and as the author of 
innumerable designs in our illustrated books. 

William S. Mount, born in Setauket, 
L. L, Nov. 1807, died there, Nov.l9, 1868, 
was the first American artist who achieved 
success in subjects of a purely national 
character, in a series of pictures of the hum- 
bler features of our country life. His Bar- 
gaining for a Horse, Haymaker's Dance, the 
Power of Music, and other light themes, 
have been often engraved, and are familiar 
to everybody. 

Francis W. Edmonds, born 1806, died 
I860, produced many pleasant pictures in the 
same vein of quiet humor with Mount. 
20* 



Wiliam Page, born in Albany, Jan. 23, 
1811, has distinguished himself, at home' and 
abroad, in the field of jiortraiture . He 
painted, also, many excellent classic themes, 
among them two V( luises, which were great- 
ly admired. Mr. Page has been President 
of the Academy since May, 1871. 

Henry Inman, born in IJtica, N. Y., Oct. 
20, 1801, died Jan. 17, 1840, was one of the 
most eminent of American artists. He was 
a pupil of Jarvis, whom he foon surpassed, 
excellent as Jarvis was. He was a man of 
remarkable versatility, and worked witii 
equal fac.lity in portraiture, landscape, and 
history. He was a guest of Wordsworth, 
during a visit to England in 1844, at whivh ^ 
time he painted a characteristic i")icture cf 
the great poet, and that charming illustra- 
tion of the scenery of his region, the Ilydal 
Water. While in England, he painted, also, 
portraits of Dr. Chalmers, JMacaulay, and 
o;her eminent people. The exhibition which 
was made, after his death, of liis works, was 
one of the most interesting and vaiied ever 
seen in New York. 

With the advent of Asher Brown Durand 
asa landscape painter, about 1828, begins 
the developinent of high art in the depart- 
ment of landscape painting in this country. 
The few artists who had attempted land- 
scapes before him, had drawn, not from na- 
ture so much as from those conventional 
rules which, both in Europe and America, 
had supplanted nature. Mr. Durand, already 
a skilful artist, had from the beginning gone 
to the forest, the mountain, the lake, and the 
glen, for his inspiration, and his one thought 
was to reproduce in all its beauty of form, 
position, variety, and color, nature as its per- 
fection gladdened his eyes. jNlr. Durand 
was born in Jeffisrson, N. J., Aug. 21, 1796. 
His father was a watchmaker and in a small 
way an engraver of cyphers, coats of arms, 
and designs upon silver and gold. The son 
had from early childhood an insatiable taste 
for the arts of design, and when a mere lad. 
was remarkable for the felicity of his designs 
for the plate, &c., of his father's customers, 
and for his deftness and skill in transferring 
them to the metal. He had also tried his 
hand at engraving and printing watch pa- 
pers and other little sketches which he traced 
on thin sheets of copper hammered out from 
spare pennies. He acquired a very thorough 
knowledge of every branch of the engraver's 
art under Mr. Maverick, whose partner he 
afterwards became, and attained the reputa- 



n32 



Tllr: AKTS OF UKSIGX l.V AMnniCA. 



tion of being the finest engraver of the Nev/ 
"World, and the peer of the best in Euro[)e, 
by his engraving of Vanderlyn's "Ariadne," 
before he had gained any considerable rejju 
tation as a painter. lie had been, however, 
for years secretly trying his powers as a 
painter, before he had the courage to show 
his pictures to any one. He was thirty 
years old when he exhibited his first paint- 
ing — a porrrait of his child — at the Academy, 
but from that tisne forward, the exhibition of 
each ye;ir always contained one or two of 
them, and his trutlifulness to nature, the 
<:are and fidelity of his drawing, and iiis ex- 
(piisite taste in color, have made his pictures 
a perpetual delight. In 1844, he was chosen 
vice-president, and in 1 84.5 president of the 
National Academy, and v/as reelected each 
year till 1801, when he declined in order to 
bi'ing about the reelection of Prof. Morse. 
Though now (1^72) in his 76th year, Mr. 
Durand is still active as ever, and paints as 
well as he did thirty years ago. His land 
scapes are widely known and highly prized. 

Thomas Cole, born in England, Feb. 1, 
1801, died in Cat skill, N. Y., Feb. 11, 1848, 
was the associate and intimate friend of 
Durand, till his death, all too soon, severed 
the ties that bound them together. He came 
to this country at the age of eighteen, and 
though for some years of his early profes- 
sional career he had to struggle with poverty 
and hardshi!)s, j^et he soon received from 
Durand, Trumbull, and Dunlap that cordial 
recognition and encouragement which ena- 
bled him to triumph over all difficulties. His 
tastes in landscape, though equally true to 
nature with Durand's, were attracted to a 
different phase of her many-sided glories. 
Durand was essentially a painter of nature 
in repose and quiet. The gentle grass cov- 
ered slopes, the drowsy forests at noon tide, 
the calm lake whose placid bosom reflects 
the foliage of the hills, the gently flowing 
river, the meadows covered with kine, were 
the subjects in which Durand has always 
deliglited. Cole, on the contrary, preferred 
to depict the mountains riven by earth- 
quakes, the varied hues of the storm cloud, 
the fierce torrent and cataract, and the 
waters lashed into fury by the mighty wind. 
If he painted the forest, it must be when the 
Frost King had decked it in its gorgeous 
parti-colored hues. 

Without losing at any time his fondness 
for nature, his poetic temperament led him 



to embody it in those grand allegorical pic- 
tures, in Avhich he bus combined perfect 
fidelity to the great truths of nature with a 
higher and sublimer significance, as in his 
series of the " Rise, Progress, and Fall of 
Empire," his beautiful epic of the "Voyage 
of Life," and his not quite finished group, 
" The Cross and the World." 

Though cut off ni his prime. Cole has left 
a reputation which in some respects has 
never been surpa-sed in this country. Thos. 
Doughty, the third of the trio of our found- 
ers of the American School of landscape 
art, (born in Philadelphia July 19, 1793, and 
died in New York, July 24, 1856) was not 
the peer of either Durand or Cole. The 
mfluence of the old conventional school 
which thought nature needed to be improAed 
before she Avas presentable, and perhaps, too, 
the lack of that lofty genius which enal.I d 
the others to overleap conventional rnhg, 
kept him in bondage throughout his career. 
Still his landscapes possess a large mea ure 
of poetic beaut}-. He did not enter on his 
profession till he was nearly twenty-eight 
years of age. 

'Daniel Huntington, born in New York, 
Oct. 14, 1816, a pupil of Morse, and Elliott, 
IS one of the most versatile and accomplished 
of American artists. He has painted, and 
with eminent success in every case, portraits, 
historical, allegorical, and (jenre pieces, and 
landscapes of wonderfid beauty. His "jMer- 
cy's Dream," " Christiana and her Children," 
" The Shepherd's Boy," " The Marys at the 
Sepulchre," " The Good Samaritan," " Icha- 
bod Crane and Katrina Van Tassel," "The 
Republican Court," Chocurua Peak," " Sow- 
ing the Word," and his numerous portraits 
of the highest style of art, all give evidence 
of the great scope of his powers. Mr. 
Huntington was President of the National 
Academy from 1862 to 1870. 

Charles Loring Elliott, born in Scipio, N. 
Y., in Dec. 181 2, died at Albany, Aug. 2o, 
1868, was for more than twenty years be- 
fore his death regarded as the most eminent 
portrait painter in this country, succeeding 
almost Avithout any interval to the great 
reputation of Inman. Some of his male 
heads have never been surpassed in vigor 
and thorough soulfulness. 

George A. Baker, of New York, is equally 
distinguished for his heads of Avomen and 
children. Henry Peters Gray, born in New 
York in 1819, holds a high jjosition as a 



PAINTING, SCULPTUUE, AXD ENGIJAVING. 



333 



painter of portraits, and of small pictures 
of genre and history. His " Pride of the 
Village," " Building of the Ship," " Venus 
and Paris," etc., are admirable. Mr. Gray 
was President of the Academy 1870-1871. 
Thomas P. Rossiter, born in Sept. ]818, 
died in 1871, was a man of rare gifts in art, 
and had painted many large historical and 
scriptural pieces of great merit. Arthur F. 
Tait is particularly happy in pictures of 
game and sporting life, a I)ranch successfully 
ibllowed by the late William Ranney. Thos. 
Hicks, born Oct. 18, 1823, is among the 
most popular of the present group of por- 
trait painters in New York. He completed 
in 1865, a large picture of the authors of the 
United States. Edwin White's great pic- 
ture of" Washington Resigning his Commiss- 
ion," painted for the legislature of Maryland, 
is a fair example of this artist's style and 
class of subjects. 

Emanuel Leutze, born in Wurtemburg, 
May 24, 1816, died in Washington, D. C, 
July 18, 18G8, was, perhaps, the best of our 
historical painters. From his 15th to his 
28th year, he resided in Philadelphia, but 
then went abroad to study art, and remained 
eighteen years. He returned to the Uniied 
States in 1859, and painted many pictures 
on topics connected with American Revolu- 
tionary and later history. 

P. F. Rothermel, born July 8, 1817, of 
Philadelphia, is eminent in historical sub- 
jects. The Lambdins, of Philadelphia, father 
and son, hold a distinguished place in the 
art, the elder as portrait painter, the latter 
as painter of poetical and dramatic scenes. 

F. O. C. Darley has achieved a world- 
wide fame, by his designs and book illustra- 
tions. Nothing can surpass, in beauty of 
conception, his charming outline drawings 
from Irving's " Rip Van Winkle " and 
" Sleepy Hollow," or his compositions from 
Judd's novel, " Margaret." He has illus- 
trated a fine edition of Cooper's works in 
thirty-two volumes, and Dickens' works in 
fifty-six volumes, as well as numerous minor 
works. John W. Ehninger has been most 
successful in the same walk with Darley, be- 
sides which he has made many hapjiy genre 
pictures in oil. E. D. E. Green is justly 
famous for the classic beauty of his female 
heads ; J. T. Peele for his dainty pictures 
of childhood; Rowse and Colyer for their 
charming heads in crayon ; W. J. Hays for 
his animal subjects ; Eastman Johnson for 



his domestic passages of negro and other 
humble life ; Healy and Lang for brilliant 
portraiture ; James Plamilton for marine 
views ; Wenzler and Stone for their female 
heads, and May in historical subjects. 

Among the eminent artists of a somewhat 
younger class, the first place as a landscape 
painter must, we think, be given to Frederic 
E. Church, born at Hartford, May, 1826^. 
A pupil of Thomas Cole, he has all his mas- 
ter's genius, with an equally careful industry 
in thoroughly finishing his work. His " Ni- 
agara Falls" achieved for him the highest 
reputation, and his " Heart of the Andes," 
" Cotopaxi," " The Icebergs," and " Rainy 
Season in the Tropics," have maintained it. 

J. F. Cropsey, born in Staten Island, 
Feb. 1 8, 1 823, has also an excellent reputa- 
tion, both in Europe and America, as a land- 
scape artist. He resided in England from 
1856 to 1863. J. F. Kensett is a little old- 
er, having been bom in 1818. He was at 
first a bank note engraver. His first scenes 
and mountain views are greatly admired. 
L. R. Mignot, whose tropical atmospheres 
and vegetation are wonderfully faithful, now 
resides abroad, as does F. R. Gignoux, a 
native of France, but resident for nearly 
thirty years in the United States, and first 
President of the Brooklyn Art Academy. 
His " Niagara by Moonlight," and '' Niaga- 
ra in Winter," are both very beautiful. Ihe 
Hart brothers, William and James M., of 
Scotch birth, have won high fame by their 
landscapes. Albert Bierstadt has immortal- 
ized himself by his large paintings of Rocky 
Mountain Scenery, his views in the Yo- 
Semite, etc. He has a very high reputation 
abroad. Our list would be incomplete with- 
out the names of Giflbrd, Casilear, Hub- 
bard, Webber, Gay, Brown, Shattuck,Inness, 
Colman, and the lamented T. Buchanan Read. 

We pass now to a brief glance at the re- 
markable performance of our young land in 
the noble art of Sculpture, a performance 
confessedly surpassed by no modern school. 

Sculpture, as the more costly art, and as 
the less intelligible to the popular eye, of 
course followed painting in its progress 
among us as elsewhere. The surprise is 
that it should have followed so speedily and 
with such grand strides. It is possible that 
this happy result may have sprung in a meas- 
ure from the circumstance that our first for- 
eign visitors and instructors ui marble art 
were men of the highest genius, instead of 



334 



THE ARTS OF DESIGN IN AMERICA. 



the third-rate talent only which our early 
painters brought to us. It is seldom amiss 
to make a good start, and much is saved 
where there is nothing left to be tmlearned. 

One of our first heralds of the chisel ap- 
peared in 1791, Avhen Ceracchi, an eminent 
Italian sculptor, arrived at Philadelphia. He 
was scarcely less celebrated as a revolution- 
ist than as an artist, and leaving France when 
the dangers there grew too thick around 
him, he marched over to the New World, 
with a scheme for building us a grand mar- 
ble monument to Liberty. His project was 
submitted to Congress, which was then in 
session, but that body supposed that the 
public funds could be employed, at the mo- 
ment, more advantageously in the cause of 
Liberty, than in honoring her with sculptured 
shrines. Washington, however, gave his 
personal assent to the idea, and headed a 
private subscription, by means of which it 
was hoped the required thirty thousand dol- 
lars could be procured. Not an inch, though, 
of the proposed hundred feet of stone ever 
rose from the ground. Instead of the mon- 
ument, the sculptor employed his chisel upon 
busts ; and, among others, executed fine por- 
traits of the commander-in-chief, of Alex- 
ander Hamilton, of Thomas Jefferson, Geo. 
Clinton, John Jay, and I'aul Jones. 

On returning to Frr.ncc, Ceracchi's red 
republicanism reappeared in a madder form 
than ever, and he plotted to take the hated 
life of Napoleon, then first consul, even in 
the sanctity of his own studio, and Avhile he 
should be sitting for his bust. He was after- 
ward guillotined on a charge of complicity 
in the famous scheme of the " infernal ma- 
chine." 

Yet earlier than the time of Ceracchi's 
residence in the United States, Iloudon, a 
celebrated French sculptor, was invited to 
visit this country for the express purpose of 
perpetuating in marble the form and features 
of Washington. The result of his visit was 
the full-length statue which now adorns the 
vestibule of the Capitol at Piiehmond, in 
Virginia. The sculptor's legend on this 
work reads thus : " Pait par Iloudon, Cito- 
yen Franrais, 1788." The Father of his 
country is here represented of life size, and 
in the military style of the Revolution. The 
figure stands, resting on the right foot, hav- 
ing the left somewhat advanced, with the 
knee bent. The left hand rests on a bundle 
of fasces, on which hang a military cloak and 
a small sword, a plough leaning near. 



Another noble statue of Washington, by 
Canova, adorned the Capitol of North Car- 
olina, at Ilaleigh, until that edifice was un- 
happily destroyed, and the statue with it, 
by fire, in 1831. 

Of our native sculptors, perhaps the first 
who gave indications of talent above the 
humblest mediocrity, was John Frasee, born 
in Kockaway, in New Jersey, July 18th, 1790. 
A bust which he executed in 1824 of John 
Wells, now in Grace Church, in New York, 
Avas, says Dunlap in his " Arts of Design," 
the first portrait in marble ever attempted in 
the United States. Ceracchi's works were 
probably only modelled here, and were after- 
ward put into stone at home. Frasee made 
excellent busts of Chief Justice Marshall, of 
Daniel Webster, and others. "He had ad- 
vanced," adds Dunlap in 1834, "to a per- 
fection which leaves him Avithout a rival at 
present in this country." To those who 
know any thing of our sculptors of this day 
we hardly need say, that Dunlap lived too 
long ago to witness the real beginning of its 
brilliant history, and that the talent of Fi-asee, 
excellent as it Avas, did not even indicate the 
high rank the art noAv holds. 

Shobal Yail Clevenger, who Avas born at 
Middleton, Ohio, in 1812, and died at sea in 
1843, left behind him admirable busts of 
Webster, Clay, Allston, Van Buren, and oth- 
ers. His early death interrupted a progress 
which might have extended far toAvard the 
point Avhich our sculptors have since reached. 

In the year 1805, on the 6th of September, 
Horatio Greenough Avas born in Boston, to 
fill a distinguished place in the annals of 
American sculpture. He received his earliest 
instruction from a resident French artist 
named Binon, and at the age of tAventy went 
abroad. After modelling busts of John 
Quincy Adams, Chief Justice Marshall, and 
many others, he executed, at the order of 
Fenimore Cooper, the novelist, his Chant- 
ing Cherubs, Avhich Avas the first original 
group from the chisel of an American artist. 
This Avork Avas made in Florence, Avhere he 
had permanently established his studio at 
this time. In 1831 he Avent to Paris to 
model the bust of Lafayette, and thencefor- 
Avard received liberal commissions, especially 
from his countrymen abroad. 

Through the influence of his generous 
friend. Cooper, he received a commission 
from Congress for the colossal statue of 
Washington, Avhich now stands so grandly 
on the great lawn opposite the east front of 



PAINTING, SCULPTURE, AND ENGKAVING. 



335 



the national Capitol. This work was com- 
pleted in 1843, after many years of indus- 
trious toil. Among others of Greenough's 
works at this period, were the Medora, 
commissioned by Mr. Robert Gilmor, of 
Baltimore ; the Venus Victrix, in the Boston 
Athenaeum ; and the Angel Abdiel. In 1856 
he returned to the United States to superin- 
tend the placing at Washington of his group 
of the Rescue, symbolizing the triumph of 
civilization, which he had executed in fulfil- 
ment of an order from Congress. It is sup- 
posed that the vexatious delays in the arri- 
val of this work from Italy, together with 
the hurly-burly of American life, to which 
his long residence abroad had unaccustomed 
him, contributed to induce the attack of 
brain fever, from the cftects of which he 
died, December 18th, 1852. 

Greenough was educated at Harvard, and 
was a man of elegant attainments and accom- 
plished manners. He was engaged m the 
delivery of a course of art lectures in Boston 
at the time of his last illness. An interest- 
ing memorial of Greenough was published 
by the poet Tuckerman in 1853. 

The first general and popular acknowledg- 
ment, at home and abroad, of our success in 
sculpture, was won for us by the genius of 
Hiram Powers, and dated from the time 
of the exhibition of his Greek Slave. Not 
that this is by any means the best per- 
formance our artists have reached — for other 
men have followed with yet greater works; 
and among these others, one, of whom we 
shall speak, who has cast ofi" the convention- 
alities of old art, and has, upon his own 
native soil, not that of Europe, gone beyond 
mere classic beauty, to the higher attainment 
of individual and national character and 
truth. Yet, as we have said, it was from 
the popular success of this statue of the 
Greek Slave that the world picked up and 
recognized the fact of the genius of Ameri- 
can sculptors. 

Powers is a native of Vermont; but, like 
most of our men of marble, resides and 
works abroad. He established himself long 
years ago in Florence, since which time we 
do not know that he has even visited his 
native land. He is an industrious worker, 
and has made innumerable busts, in addition 
to his more ambitious ventures into the field 
of poetry and the imagination. It is, in- 
deed, in portraiture that his strength lies — 
with a temperament more practical than 
.ianciful, and with a sympathy more with 



the real than with the ideal. His colossal 
figure of Eve, and his full-length statue 
of Calhoun, are preserved in South Carolina. 
In the lamented Crawford, who was born 
in New York, March 2 2d, 1814, and who 
died in London, October 10th, 1857, we pos- 
sessed a man of stronger and nobler grasp 
than any of his predecessors ; a man, who 
not only could have done great things had he 
lived, but who did them even without living 
to the full years of ripe experience. Craw- 
ford was a poor boy, and began his art life 
in the humble occupation of a wood-carver. 
At the age of nineteen he was promoted to 
a place in the studio of Frasee and Launitz, 
in New York ; and, when about twenty-one, 
he went to Rome, and became a pupil of the 
Danish sculptor Thorwaldsen. Here he 
toiled so unremittingly that he is said to 
have modelled no fewer than seventeen busts 
in the space of ten weeks, besides copying, in 
marble, the figure of Demosthenes in the 
Vatican. In 1839, when in his twenty-fifth 
year, he exhibited his Orpheus, with the 
warm congratulations of his master, Thor- 
waldsen, and other sculptors, and with the 
heai'ty approval of the public. From that 
period his fame continued to increase up to 
the hour of his untimely death. The Or- 
pheus — which is now in the Athenaeum in 
Boston — was followed by numerous admira- 
ble subjects from classical and scriptural 
history. Among his greater and later works, 
was the remarkable statue, in bronze, of 
Beethoven, executed for the Boston Music 
Hall ; and the completion of which, at the 
foundry in Munich, was celebrated by a mu- 
sical festival, at which the royal family of 
Bavaria, and a grand concourse of people, 
assisted. Afterward came the equestrian 
statue of Washington, which now adorns 
the Capitol hill at Richmond ; where it was 
placed by the patriotism and liberality of 
the people of Virginia. This great work 
was cast in bronze in Munich, and sent home 
in 1857. Its pedestal rests upon a star- 
shaped elevation, with six points, upon 
which statues of Jefferson, Henry, Lee, and 
other illustrious sons of Virginia are to be 
placed. He executed orders from Congress 
for various works for the new Capitol, some 
of the most successful of which were his 
designs for the pediment and the great 
bronze doors. His grandest eftbrt is, per- 
haps, the model for the colossal statue of the 
Genius of America, which is to be cast in 
bronze, and placed upon the pinnacle of the 



336 



THE ARTS OF DESIGN IN AMERICA. 



Capitol dome. This statue represents a fe- 
male figure, fully draped, and posed with 
marvellous grace and dignity. During his 
brief career, Crawford finished more than 
sixty works, many of them of the grand size ; 
besides which, he left nearly as many 
sketches in plaster, and numerous designs, 
which his assistants are to complete. In 
1844, he married Miss Louisa Ward, daugh- 
ter of the late Samuel Ward, of New York. 
Soon after his return from his last visit to 
his native land, in 1856, he was afflicted with 
a cancerous tumor on the brain, from the ef- 
fects of which he died, after many months 
of acute suffering, borne with heroic pa- 
tience. 

Henry Kirke Brown, another of the most 
eminent of our American sculptors, was born 
at Ley den, Massachusetts, in 1814. He 
began the study of portrait painting in 
Boston, when eighteen years of age ; and 
afterward he became a railroad engineer in 
Illinois, much to the injury of his health, 
and at length repaired to Italy to pursue the 
grave art of the statuary. Among his more 
famous works, are the well-known marbles 
of Hope; the Pleiades; the Four Seasons; 
the bronze statue of De Witt Clinton 
at Greenwood Cemetery, and the noble 
equestrian statue of AVashington, which 
stands in Union square in the city of New 
York. Most, if not all of these works, w-ere 
executed in Brooklyn, New York ; though, 
of late years, the artist has established him- 
self in a pleasant cottage at Newburgh, on 
the Hudson. BroAvn's Washington was the 
first statue ever cast in bronze in this 
country. 

Palmer, who is, perhaps, the most popu- 
lar of American sculptors at the present 
day, was born in the interior of the state of 
New York. His noble character — no less 
personal than professional — is seen in all the 
interesting incidents of his career, from the 
humblest boyhood to his present high po- 
sition, social and artistic. In liis younger 
days he toiled hard at the carpenter's craft ; 
afterward he rose to the dignity of a carver 
in wood, of models and moulds for stove 
and other iron castings ; and at length he 
became a cutter of cameos. He was a mar- 
ried man, with a young family growing up 
around him, before he finally made that ven- 
ture in marble which lias brought such 
high honor to himself and his country. 
His works are marked with singular sim- 
plicity, truth, and naturalness of treatment, 



and with a finish and delicacy of execution 
rarely obtained in obdurate stone. Among 
his chief and best known productions, are 
the full-length, life-like figures of the In- 
dian Girl, and the White Captive ; the 
Moses, and many beautiful bas-reliefs and 
female heads, both portrait and ideal. An 
exhibition of his collected works was made 
a few years ago, with great advantage to his 
own fame and fortune, and to the public 
pleasure and profit. 

Launt Thompson, a young pupil of the 
eminent sculptor above named, is pursuing 
his art in New York with a success which 
promises the most enviable results. 

Clark Mills, a self-educated man, in the 
proper sense of the phrase, is known by his 
popular equestrian statues of Jackson and 
Washington, executed by the order of 
Congress, for the embellishment of the na- 
tional Ca,pitol. 

Harriet liosmer, of Watertown, Mass., 
has acliieved a fair fame in this ditficult field 
of art. The aj^proval w'hich followed her 
first original work — a bust of Hesper — in- 
duced her father to send lier to Rome, where 
sill? has resided most of the time since 1852. 
She began her studies in the eternal city, 
:u a pupil of Gibson, in lb52. Her first 
works abroad weie tlie busts of Daphne and 
Medu.-^a, and a statue of OEnone. Afterward 
came the well-known reclining figure of 
Beatrice Cenci ; and, in 185.i, the charming 
statue of Puck, and a pendant thereto, en- 
titled Will-o'the-V»'isp. In 1859, she com- 
pleted her statue of Zenobia in Chains. 

Of our other sculptors of great promise, 
four have passiMl away within a few years : 
Benjamin Paul Akers who died May 21, 
18Gi; E. S. Bartholomew, at Naples, 
INIay 2, 1858; and more recently Robert 
Ball Hughes, an Englishman by birth, 
who died in Boston, March 5, 1868, and 
Robert E. Launitz, who died Dec. 2, 1870. 
Those mo.^t jirouiinent beside tliose already 
named, are Randolph Roger?, Jolm Q. A. 
Ward, now vice-president of the National 
Academy, William W. Story, Thomas Ball, 
John Rogers, whose groups have done so 
much to popularize sculpture, Ives, Stone, 
M osier, Albert de Groot, and Gould, a young 
countryman of ours now occupying a studio 
in Florence. Mr. Gould has recently sent to 
this country an ideal statue "The West 
Wind," wliich for its perfect embodiment 
of a poetic conception has no superior 
in modern sculpture. Among others, a 




The above engravings, representing the Seasons, are from the Fartner^s Almanac, showing the Aik 
derson style of engraving; the opposite page, engraved from sketches about Newport, R. I. by A. K 
Jocelyn, illustrateB the improvement in the art. 



340 



PAINTING, SCULPTURE, AND ENGRAVING. 



young woman of color, Edmuiiia Lewis, are 
still ciimliing the heights that lead to fame. 

The love of pictures, so general among our 
people of all grades, has been greatly fos- 
tered and cultivated, of late years, by the 
universal diffusion of engravings. Besides 
the best of this class of works, more acces- 
sible examples, in the form of book illustra- 
tions, and especially in illustrated magazines 
and newspapers, have been scattered, through 
a cheap press, broadcast over the land, and 
have penetrated its remotest corners, doing 
the labors of the missionary in the great 
cause of art. It is true that these heralds — 
the pictorial papers, at least — are not always 
the best possible teachers ; yet have they 
cleared the way for greater things to fol- 
low, and it is gratifying to know that they 
are themselves every day reaching toward a 
higher standard. It would, indeed, be quite 
beyond the power of our mathematics, to 
cipher out the good effect upon the art 
progress of the nation, of even one of our 
best pictorial magazines, with the immense 
audience which they are wont to address; 
such a magazine, for example, as that of the 
Harpers — read, or at least seen, every month, 
by millions of people. 

This grand aggregate of the good influ- 
ence of the graver, is gained through the 
agency, not of the ambitious steel-plate, but 
the humble wood-cut. The art of work- 
ing on wood — which has thus of late be- 
come the chief medium of the engraver, and 
has almost superseded all other mediums — 
has, though an old art, so greatly improved 
during the eighty years life of our republic, 
that it Jiiay fairly be said to have grown up 
with it, and in a great degree yrom it. 

The general demand among us for cheap 
art, and the general ability to buy, at least, 
such cheap art, obviously required the wood- 
cut ; and so the wood-cut — which had kept 
its humble place from a period even far 
beyond the invention of types — was brought 
from its obscurity, and made — in our own 
hands, as mucli as in those of any people — 
to fill its present exalted office. 

The art was, really, almost reinvented in 
America, and soon after the great Kevolu- 
tion, when Dr. Anderson, in 1794, left his 
materia medica, and set up in New York as 
a wood-engraver. Anderson's first consider- 
able performance was the repetition, in a 
work called the " Looking-Glass," of some 
cuts by Bewick. Some of these pictures he 
executed on type metal, and only a portion 



of them on the wood-block. For these he 
had to invent his own tools, and then manu- 
facture them. lie continued to improve, 
and all through his professional career he 
contributed greatly to develop the resour- 
ces of the art, and to put it upon the track 
of its pi'csent mature power. In 1812, the 
art was introduced and successfully prac- 
tised in Boston by Abel Brown, and in 
Philadelphia by William Mason. 

About the year 1826, Mr. Adams entered 
the profession, and by his industry and 
skill gave it a great impetus toward the per- 
fection to which it has since been brought. 
The innumerable illustrations which he pro- 
duced in his superb pictorial edition of the 
Bible, published by the Harpers, called 
forth all the talent which the country pos- 
sessed in this direction, and exercised it to 
yet greater excellence. This great work 
served, also, no doubt, to promote the popu- 
lar appreciation of the art, now so univer- 
sally manifested in the demand for illus- 
trated books and pictorial papers of all 
kinds. From the time of Mr. Adams, the 
number of our engravers on wood has 
steadily and rapidly increased ; and so, too, 
has the quality of their work, until the 
present day shows us pictures on wood 
which are, in many respects — as in delicacy 
of finish, softness of texture, and vigor of 
expression — quite equal, if not superior to 
the best examples of work on copper or steel. 
The greater cheapness of the wood-block ; 
its capacity of use, in printing ivith the 
type (which metal plates do not possess) ; 
and the ease with which it may be dupli- 
cated by stereotyping or by electrotyping — 
have caused it to supersede copper and steel- 
plates in a great measure, except for very 
large and costly subjects, and for bank note 
engraving. The invention, in recent times, 
of Lowry's " ruling machine ;" of improv- 
ed methods of printing, as in the process 
called " overlaying," by means of which the 
nearer parts of the picture are made to re- 
ceive a stronger pressure than the more dis- 
tant portions ; and various mechanical aids — 
have contributed to the present wonderful 
perfection of the art among us. The coun- 
try now possesses a host of excellent wood 
engravers, who find full and remunerative 
employment. 

For the finer class of wood-engTavings, 
box-wood (imported chiefly from Germany) 
is used ; while, for coarser and larger work, 
that of the pear-tree will answer, and some- 




FIRST MAP KN'GRAVED TX TIIK UNITED STATES IX RAISEII LETTERS. 




MAP OF THE PRESENT TIME IN RAISED LETTERS. 



THE ARTS OF DESIGN IN AMERICA. 



341 



times even that of the apple-tree, beech, and 
even mahogany and pine. The wood is cut 
across the ends of the fibre, of the thickness 
of type ; and after being smoothly planed, 
a thin covering of vk^hite is rubbed over the 
surface ; after which the drawing to be en- 
graved is made upon it with a lead pen- 
cil, or with India-ink, or both combined. 
The block is then cut away with the gi'aver, 
in such manner as to leave the lines of the 
drawing all in relief, like type. On copper 
or steel, on the contrary, the drawing is sunk 
into the plate, and is necessarily printed with 
greater slowness and care, and at a greater 
cost. In engravings printed in colors, a 
separate block is made for each tint. 

Copper-plate engraving is an art as old, 
almost, as xylography or wood-cutting. A 
picture upon this metal is preserved in Ger- 
many of as ancient a date as 1461. Instead of 
the simple wooden blocks of other days, our 
cotton manufacturers now print their calicoes 
from copper plates of cylindrical form, by 
which improvement the fabrics are made in- 
finitely more beautiful and greatly cheaper. 
Most of the larger print-works employ skil- 
ful artists and engravers to produce their de- 
signs, paying them large salaries for their 
labors. In some establishments thousands 
of dollars are thus profitably expended each 
year. Copper-plate engraving, after reaching 
the highest degree of excellence, both at 
home and abroad, has, within the present 
century, given way in a great measure to 
the superior capacity of the steel plate, a 
capacity revealed to the world and developed 
in the highest degree by Jacob Perkins, of 
Newburyport, in Massachusetts. Mr. Per- 
kins, who began his experiments about 1 805, 
may, indeed, almost be said to have invented 
steel engraving, since the metal had been 
used only once before his time, in an English 
print in Smith's " Topographical Illustrations 
of Westminster." Mr. Perkins discovered 
the present invaluable processes by which 
the steel plate is so hardened after being 
engraved, that by the pressure upon it of 
other soft plates, the picture can be trans- 
ferred in relief and again repeated so as to 
duplicate the work to any extent. The first 
impression in relief, from which duplicates 
of the original engraving are made, is taken 
upon a soft steel cylinder by repeated roll- 
ings over the hardened plate. By this pro- 
cess any bank note vignettes can be trans- 
fen-ed, in combination, at will, from the sep- 
arate original plates to the steel cylinder, and 



from that to other plates for the printer. 
The product is thus greatly cheapened, "inas- 
much as all the pictures, the central vignette, 
the end scene or portrait, and the bottom or 
tail piece, usually put upon a bank note, can 
be fui'nished for the cost of a special engrav- 
ing of one of them. Mr. Perkins' system 
is employed throughout England and the 
continent of Europe, no less than all over 
the United States. By it the art of bank 
note engraving has been so perfected among 
us that only the highest skill and the costliest 
machhiery can now produce successful coun- 
terfeits. Nothing remained but to insure the 
bank note against the wonderful power of 
the art of photography, and this security our 
engravers and paper makers have provided. 
In 1858-9 the principal bank note engravers 
of the country formed themselves into two 
associations, the American and the National 
Bank Note Companies, and in the early 
years of the National Banks, they prepared 
for the government the elaborate engravings 
of the National Bank Notes, as well as the 
simpler plates of the Legal Tender Notes. 
These notes and National Bank notes hav- 
ing now become the only bank circulation 
of the country, they are prepared by the 
government. Among the successful Ameri- 
can steel engravers of bank notes and other 
works, are Durand, Smillie, Cheney, Sar- 
tain, Danforth, Dick, Casilear, and Alfred 
Jones. Engraving on copper or steel is 
practiced in its most simple form, called 
line engraving, by covering the face of the 
polished metal with a thin surface of melted 
white wax ; on this the sketch is transferred by 
laying, face down, a tracing of the design in 
black lead pencil upon the wax, and subject- 
ing it to a heavy pressure ; the lines are 
then seen distinctly upon the wax when the 
paper is removed. The workman then with 
a fine graver makes thelines through upon the 
metal ; after which the wax is melted oft' and 
the engraver proceeds to complete the work 
by cutting the lines to the proper depth and 
shade. The graver, when in use, is pressed 
forward, cutting a furrow and raising burrs 
on each side. The burr, pushed up by the 
graver in its progress, is removed by the 
scraper. Lines are softened by rubbing over 
with a smoothly pointed burnisher. In 
some instances the burrs made by the finest 
etching needles being allowed to remain, 
produce a pleasing eflect, seen in some of 
Rembrandt's engravings. The parallel lines 
that are sometimes required in series are 



PAINTING, SCULPTURE, AND ENGRAVING. 



cut by a ruling machine. The fainter sliades, 
too delicate for the graver, are scratched 
in with a needle. 

In the stipp!in<r or dotted style, the effect 
is produced by dots made in curved lines, 
with the graver. The more closely the dots 
arc grouped together, the darker the shade, 
and the whole effect is more like painting 
than the line engraving. In the shadows of 
the limbs of the human figure it is much 
used, and sometimes in portraits the line and 
stipple are combined with good etfcct. 

The style called etching is practised upon 
other metals, also upon glass. By this pro- 
cess the coating of wax is formed of white 
wax. Burgundy pitch, and asphaltum, and is 
applied in silk bags, through which the com- 
position oozes. When the plate is covered it is 
held over a smokinglamp untilthe wax iscov- 
ered wit li lamp-black. The lead pencil design 
is then laid upon this lamp-black and pressed. 
The lines are then drawn through the wax, 
and nitric acid with four parts water 
is poured upon the plate. This remains 
until the fainter portions of the sketch 
are corroded. The acid is then poured off 
and the plate washed with water. An appli- 
cation of lamp-black and turpentine, called 
stopping, is applied with a camel's hair 
brush to those portions sufficiently corroded ; 
a rcapplication of the acid eats deeper into 
those parts that require deeper lines. This 
process of stopping is repeated until the 
work is complete. Being then cleaned of 
the wax, those portions of the plate that re- 
quire it are gone over with the graver, and 
not uiitVequently the shades are stippled. 

Aquatinta is a French invention of 1662, 
and takes its name from the resemblance it 
has to v^-ater colors on India-ink drawings. 
After the design is etched in outline and the 
wax removed, a solution of Burgundy pitch 
in alcohol is poured over the plate as it lies in 
an inclined position. The alcohol evaporat- 
ing, the pitch remains. The design is then 
drawn with a gummy syrup called the burst- 
ing-ground, which is applied only wherever a 
shade is wanted. The whole is then covered 
with a turpentine varnish ; water being left 
on it for fifteen minutes, the bursting-ground 
cracks open and exposes the copper. The 
etching process is then pursued. Sometimes 
colors are applied and printed from the plate ; 
but when there are different tints, it is cus- 
tomary to use a distinct plate for each one. 

The mezzotinto, or half-painted style, was 
introduced into England by Prince Rupert. 



The invention has been ascribed to Sir Chris- 
topher Wren. The plate is roughed up by 
running over its surface little toothed wheels 
of different degrees of fineness, called cradles, 
which by a rocking motion are caused to 
raise little burrs, pointing in different direc- 
tions. The whole plate being thus made 
rough, the bun's are rubbed off with scrapers, 
wherever light shades are required, and the 
shades are deepened by increasing the burrs. 
The effect is line where dark grounds are 
desired. This method combined with etching, 
produces an improved style. Some mezzo- 
tints are now prepared for the trade by a 
machine. The piints wear much better on 
steel than on copper. 

Admirable examples of these branches of 
the art may be seen in the superb landscape 
works of Sniillie, especially those from the 
four pictures of Cole's Voyage of Life, in 
Durand's works after Vanderlyn's, in our 
many beautiful illustrated books, in the pub- 
lications of the late American Art Union, and, 
as already intimated, in the dainty vignettes 
which embellish our bank notes. 

In the art of die sinking — a process con- 
ducted in a similar manner to that already 
described of the transfer in relief of the im- 
pression from a hardened plate or plug of 
steel to a soft plate, and from that again, 
when hardened, to yet another — many admi- 
rable works have been produced. Excellent 
examples may be seen in the medals of AU- 
ston, Stuart, and other subjects executed for 
the American Art Union bv the late C. C. 
Wright. 

By the assistance of the electrotype pro- 
cess, the work of the engraver is now repeat- 
ed, in as many co})ies as ma}' be desired, 
each of the copper transcripts thus produced 
being an absolute duplicate of the original 
plate or block. It is these electrotyped cop- 
ies which are now used by the printer, the 
same picture sometimes on several presses at 
once, while the original wood block is pre- 
served untouched, except to form the mould 
for other copies in metal when they may be 
required. The effect of this power of per- 
fect and inexpensive repetition of engraved 
blocks has been to reduce the cost of picto- 
rial illustrations to a point within the com- 
pass of the most unpretending purse, and 
thus to send good examples of the engraver's 
art to the remotest and humblest corners of 
the land. 

What may be the consequences of the 
many processes, now more or less perfected, 



THli AKTS OP DKSIGX IX AMEUICA. 



343 



for the mechanical production of engraving 
by the aid of photography, it is hardly pos- 
sible to imagine : not other than advantage- 
ous, however, even to the engravers them- 
selves, since their field of labor will be high- 
er, if not broader, when their pictures shall 
be, as they promise to be, not- only drawn 
for them on their plates and blocks by plio- 
tography, but even etched and engraved be- 
sides. 

In the art of lithography, or drawing upon 
stone, a steady advance may be witnessed ; 
though our works of this class cannot yet 
claim comparison with those of the conti- 
nent of Europe. 

The introduction of the daguerreotype, the 
perfection to which the art has been brought 
in the skilful hands of American operators, 
and the unmense extent to which it is used 
among us, (apart from its share in the work 
of otlier aits), have had, no doubt, a most 
wonderful influence upon our art progress. 
Furnishing pictures which are, througli their 
cheapness, accessible to all classes, it has 
worked, like the engraving, as an elementary 
instructor, while iis truthfulness has been a 
constant lesson to the artist liimself. Better 
pictures have, unquestionably, been painted 
through the hints of the daguerreotype and 
photograph ; and many people who, but for 
them would never have dreamed of jjictures, 
have become intelligent lovers and liberal 
patrons of the arts. 

The art of color printing is not very new, 
but it is only witliin a few years past that it 
has been brought to such perfection by the 
processes of chromo-lithography as to be 
able to reproduce paintings, within certain 
limitations of size and color, so exactly as to 
make it difficult to distinguish the copies from 
the original painting. The process has other 
limitations even than these ; it requires slow 
and careful, almost painful manipulation 
sometimes for months, and the printer mu-t 
be himself an artist, at hast in his taste and 
his knowledge and skill in the blending of 
colors. He will even, at the best, meet with 
frequent failures ; but notwithstanding all 
these limitations, chromo-lithography, as 
now practiced by the best artists, is a boon 
to the world second only to the sun pictures. 
It has made it possible for persons of small 
means and but just developing taste for art, 
to obtain gems of art, every way superior to 
the average copies of celebrated pictures, 
and thus awaken a love for the really beau- 



tiful which will grow until it makes ihe hum- 
ble purchaser in time^ a munificent patron 
of art. The process as now practised by 
Messrs. Colton, Zahm aud Roberts, L. Prang 
& Co., E. Ketterlinus & Co., and others, re- 
quiies Ji very seaiching and accurate analy- 
sis of the colors and combinations of color 
which will produce the required effect of the 
picture selected for copying, and then an 
accurate copy of the picture in outline hav- 
ing been made on stone it is printed first 
with a single uniform tint. Then by suc- 
cessive printings each time from a different 
stone, the colors and combinations are laid 
on, the utmost care being taken to make the 
register perfect each time so as to give the 
perfect copy of the original without blurring 
or commingling the colors unduly. Between 
each printing ample time must be given for 
the pigments to dry and harden. After all 
the printings are done, the picture is var- 
nished and then embossed or subjected to 
jjressure on a grained surface of stone or 
metal, by which process the glo.-sy lights are 
broken, the hard outlines softened, and the 
appearance of canvas is given to it. If all 
these steps have been properly taken, and 
guided by real artistic taste and knowledge, 
the picture once mounted and framed will 
have all the effect of the original. The cost 
of production, which is very considerable, is 
greatly reduced on each copy, from the fact 
that five hundred, one thousand, or more, 
can be printed from the same plates, and 
though there will be some defective copies, 
yet Avith proper care, the greater part will 
be perfect. 

We must not, in ever so cursory a glance 
at the history of the arts, forget the service 
of our academies and schools of painting, 
little as some affect to think of art academies 
— so far, at least, as their honorary charac- 
ter is concerned. 

The first attempt to found an institution 
of this nature in the United States, was 
made in Philadel2>hia, in 1791, by Charles 
Wilson Peale, the father of the painter, 
Rembrandt Peale. The elder Peale was a 
very energetic laborer in the cause of art, all 
through his long lite. This first attempt of 
his to found an academy, was seconded by 
the Italian sculptor Ceracchi, who was in the 
country at the time. The attempt failed, 
however, from some cause or other, and a 
second and rather more fortunate venture 
was made in 1794, when the Columbianum 



344 



PAINTING, SCULPTURE, AND ENGRAVING. 



was established. This society lived a year, 
held one exhibition, and was forgotten. 

In 1802, some art-loving citizens of New 
York, headed by Edward Livingston, found- 
ed the New York, afterward the American 
Academy of Fine Arts. There were so few 
artists in this society, and the governing in- 
fluence was so little of a professional charac- 
ter, that it was an academy of art only in 
name, and quite failed in its office of an acad- 
emy. The necessary result was an inefficient 
life, until it was, in due time, superseded by 
a better organized establishment. This re- 
sult followed in 1826, in the institution of 
the present National Academy of Design. 

The National Academy, thus founded by 
Morse, and his brother artists of the period, 
has steadily advanced to this day in jiosition 
and u-efulness, and now numbers among its 
academicians and associates nearly all the 
leading painters of the land. Its annual ex- 
hibitions have been prepared, without inter- 
ruption, from 1826 until now, with a cata- 
l<igue of works extended gi-adually from less 
tlion two hundred, to over eight hundred, 
and with an aggregate of receipts from less 
than nothing up to six or seven thousand 
dollars annually. The academy has always 
supported free (evening) schools for the study 
of the antique statuary, and the living models; 
schools, to which any student has access, 
when coming with the required preparatory 
knowledge of the use of the crayon. Mem- 
bership in the academy, except in the grade 
of " student," is awarded only to jirofessional 
artists, and then by ballot, as a mark of hon- 
orary distinction. The progre-s of art in 
America during the last forty or fifty years 
cannot be better seen than in the continued 
growth of the National Academy, and in its 
present large and varied exhibitions as com- 
pared with those of days gone by. An art 
academy was founded in Brooklyn, N. Y., in 
1867, which is in a very flourishing condition. 

The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts 
in Philadelphia is doing a good work, though 
it is not so fully an assoc-iation of artists only 
as is the National Academy at New York. 



Conducted in part by laymen, it labors imder 
some of the disadvantages of the old super- 
seded American Academy. It was founded 
as early as 1807, and is now a flourishing 
and most useful institution, keejiing a valu- 
able permanent gallery always open to the 
public view, and providing besides an annual 
display of the cui-rent productions of our 
artists. It possesses also a fine collection of 
casts from the antique, gratuitously accessi- 
ble to all students. 

The art gallery of the Athenaeum in Bos- 
ton, serves, in a measure, the pur])oses of an 
academy in that city. Of late years Acad- 
emies of Art have sprung uj) in some form, 
and with more or less success, in many other 
of our chief cities, as in Baltimore, Charles- 
ton, Brooklyn, Chicago, St. Louis, Cincin- 
nati, and elsewhere, giving us a fair prom- 
ise of ])icture galleries and facilities for art 
study, as general and as liberal as our wants 
demand. 

Besides these institutions for the use of the 
profession itself, there is happily a rapid ex- 
tension throughout the L^nion of drawing 
schools for all classes of the population. 
Professorships of drawing are being intro- 
duced into our universities and colleges, and 
a higher standard is being everywhere set 
up in our seminaries of all grades. Schools 
of Design for women are springing up in our 
larger cities, and such an institution has 
been in successful operation in comieciion 
with the Cooper Union of New Yoik for 
tliirteen or fourteen years past, under the 
highest promise of successful result. When 
the principles of art become universally 
known to us, as we have good cause to be- 
lieve they soon will be, we shall realize the 
fact not oidy in the increased excellence and 
fame of our |)ictures and our sculptures, but 
in the higher beauty, utility, and value of 
our manufactures and fabrics of all kinds, 
from the rarest luxiny to the simplest article 
of necessary use. In another and less ma- 
terial sense we shall feel it and enjoy it, in 
breathing the air of a more refined and more 
beautiful social and national life. 




J^^u^^-z^/ /^v^^'iy^^^^^-^^ 



r 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



CHAPTER I. 

EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE 
COLONIAL PERIOD. 

INTRODUCTION. 

The origin, nomenclature, and early pe- 
culiarities of tlie systems, institutions, and 
methods of instruction adopted in the origi- 
nal colonies, which now constitute a portion 
of the United States of America, will be 
found in the educational institutions and 
practices of the countries from which these 
colonies were settled — modified by the edu- 
cation, character, motives of emigration, and 
necessities of the settlers themselves. 

The earliest effort to establish an education- 
al institution in the English dominions in 
America, was made under the auspices of 
King James I, and by conti'ibutions of mem- 
bers of the Church of England from 1618 to 
1623. In a letter addressed to the Arch- 
bishops, he authorizes them to invite the 
members of the Church throughout the king- 
dom to assist "those undertakers of that 
Plantation [Virginia], with the erecting of 
some churches and schools for the education 
of the children of those barbarians" [the 
Aborigines] and of the colonists. Under 
these instructions, a sum of £1500 was col- 
lected for the erection of a building for a col- 
lege at Henrico — a town whose foundations, 
or site even, cannot now be certainly deter- 
mined, but which according to the best author- 
ities was situated near Varina on Cox's Island, 
about fifty miles above Jamestown. Author- 
ity was given by the Company to the Gov- 
ernor to set apart 10,000 acres of land for 
the support of the college, and one hun- 
dred colonists were sent from England to 
occupy and cultivate the same, who were to 
receive a moiety of the produce as the profit 
of their labor, and to pay the other moiety 
toward the maintenance of the college. In 
1620, George Thorpe was sent out as super- 
intendent, and 300 acres of land was set 
apart for his sustenance. Other donations 



and legacies were made for the endowment 
of this institution of learning. 

In 1619, the Governor for the time be- 
ing was instructed by the company to see 
"that each town, borough, and hundred 
procured by just means a certain number 
of their children to be brought up in the 
first elements of literature ; that the most 
towardly of them should be fitted for college, 
in the building which they purposed to pro- 
ceed as soon as any profit arose from the 
estate appropriated to that use ; and they 
earnestly required their help in that pious 
and important work." In 1621, Rev. Mr. 
Copeland, chaplain of the Royal James, on 
her arrival from the East Indies, prevailed 
on the ship's company to subscribe £100 
toward a " free schoole" in the colony of 
Virginia, and collected other donations in 
money and books for the same purpose. 
The school was located in Charles City, as 
being most central for the colony, and was 
called the " East India School." The com- 
pany allotted one thousand acres of land, with 
five servants and an ovei'seer, for the mainten- 
ance of the master and usher. The inhabitants 
made a contribution of £ 1 50 to build a house, 
for which workmen were sent out in 1622. 

The "college" and "free school" thus 
projected and partially endowed were in the 
style of the " college" and " free school" and 
the " free grammar school" of England, and 
were intended to be of the same character as 
the college afterward established at Cam- 
bridge, and the institution for which "the 
richer inhabitants" of Boston in 1636 sub- 
scribed toward " the maintenance of a free 
schoolmaster," and the same as, according to 
Governor Winthrop,in his journal, was erect- 
ed in Roxbury in 1645, and other towns, and 
for which every inhabitant bound some 
house or land for a yearly allowance for- 
ever, and many benevolently disposed per-, 
sons left legacies in their last wills, and the 
towns made " an allowance out of the com- 
mon stock," or set apart a portion of land 



)46 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



"to be improved forever, for the mainten" 
ance of a free schoole forever." 

The same leading idea can be traced in 
the educational policy of the Dutch West 
India Company — which bound itself, in re- 
ceiving its charter of colonization, "to main- 
tain good and fit preachers, schoolmasters, 
and comforters of the sick." The company 
recognized the authority of the established 
Church of Holland, and the establishment 
of schools and the appointment of school- 
masters rested conjointly with the company 
and the classis (ecclesiastical authorities) of 
Amsterdam. When the company granted 
a special " Chai'ter of Freedom and Exemp- 
tions" to the "Patroons," for the purpose 
of agricultural colonization, they w^ere not 
only to satisfy the Indians for the lands 
upon Avhich they should settle, but were to 
make prompt provision for the support of 
a minister and schoolmaster, that thus the 
service of God and zeal for religion might not 
grow cold, and be neglected among them. 
In 163.3, in the enumeration of the compa- 
ny's officials at Manhattan, Adam Roeland- 
sen is mentioned as the schoolmaster, and 
that school, it is claimed, is still in existence 
in connection with the Reformed Dutch 
Church of New York. In the projected 
settlement at New Amstel on the Delaware, 
the first settlers were encouraged to proceed 
by certain conditions, one of which was that 
the city of Amsterdam should send thither 
" a proper person for a schoolmaster ;" and 
we find among the colonists who embarked, 
" Evert Pietersen, who had been approved, 
after examination before the classis, as school- 
master." In these early efforts to establish 
schools, we trace the educational policy of 
the Reformed Church of Holland as indi- 
cated by the synod of Wesel in 1568, and 
matured at the synod of Dort in 1618, by 
which the training of Christian youth was 
to be provided for — "I. In the house, by 
parents. II. In the schools, by schoolmas- 
ters. III. In the churches, by ministers, 
elders, and the catechists especially appoint- 
ed for this purpose.'''' Owing in part to the 
commercial purposes entertained by the 
companies having charge of the coloniza- 
tion of New York, Virginia, and some other 
portions of the country, and to the edu- 
cational and religious institutions of the 
colonists being not so much a matter of do- 
mestic as of foreign policy, these institu- 
tions never commanded the regular and 



constant attention of the local authorities, 
or of the settlers themselves. 

The outline and most of the essential feat' 
ures of the system of common schools now 
in operation in the New England states, and 
the states which have since avowedly adopt- 
ed the same policy, will be found in the 
practice of the first settlers of the several 
towns which composed the original colonies 
of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Ha- 
ven. The first law on the subject did but 
little more than declare the motive, and make 
more widely obligatory the practice which 
already existed in the several neighborhoods 
and towns, which had grown up out of the ed- 
ucation of these colonists at home, and the cir- 
cumstances in which they were placed. They 
did not come here as isolatecl individuals, 
drawn together from widely separated homes, 
entertaining broad differences of opinion on 
all matters of civil and religious concernment, 
and kept together by the necessity of self- 
defence in the eager prosecution of some tem- 
porary but profitable adventure. They came 
after God had set them in families, and they 
brought with them the best pledges of good 
behavior, in the relations which father and 
mother, husband and wife, parents and chil- 
dren, neighbors and friends, establish. They 
came with a foregone conclusion of perma- 
nence, and with all the elements of the social 
state combined in vigorous activity — every 
man expecting to find or make occupation 
in the way in which he had been already 
trained. They came with earnest religious 
convictions, made more earnest by the trials 
of persecution ; and the enjoyment of these 
convictions was a leading motive in their 
emigration hither. Tlie fundamental articles 
of their religious creed, that the Bible was 
the only authoritative expression of the di- 
vine will, and that every man was able to 
judge for himself in its interpretation, made 
schools necessary, to bring all persons " to a 
knowledge of the Scriptures," and an under- 
standing " of the main grounds and princi- 
ples of the Christian religion necessary to 
salvation." The constitution of civil gov- 
ernment adopted by them from the out- 
set, which declared all civil officers elective, 
and gave to every inhabitant w^ho would take 
the oath of allegiance the right to vote and 
to be voted for, and which practically con- 
verted political society into a partnership, in 
which each member had the right to bind 
the whole firm, made universal education 



EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 



347 



identical with self-preservation. But aside 
from these considerations, the natural and 
acknowledged leaders in this enterprise — 
the men who, by their religious character, 
wealth, social position, and previous expe- 
rience in conducting large business oper- 
ations, commanded public confidence in 
church and commonwealth, were educated 
men — as highly and thoroughly educated 
as they could be at the best endowed free 
and grammar schools in England at that 
period; and not a few of them had en- 
joyed the advantages of her great univer- 
sities. These men would naturally seek for 
their own children the best opportunities 
of education which could be provided ; and 
it is the crowning glory of these men, that, 
instead of sending their own children back 
to England to be educated in grammar 
schools and colleges, these institutions wei'e 
established here amid the stumps of the pri- 
meval forests ; that, instead of setting up 
" family schools" and " select schools" for 
the ministers' sons and magistrates' sons, the 
ministers and magistrates were found, not 
only in town meeting, pleading for an allow- 
ance out of the common treasury for the 
support of a public or common school, and 
in some instances for a "free school," but 
among the families, entreating parents of all 
classes to send their children to the same 
school with their own. All this was done 
in advance of any legislation on the subject, 
as will be seen from the following facts 
gleaned from the early records of several of 
the towns first planted. 

TOWN ACTION IN BEHALF OF SCHOOLS. 

The earliest records of most of the towns 
of New England are either obliterated or 
lost, but among the oldest entries which 
can now- be recovered, the school is men- 
tioned not as a new thing, but as one of the 
established interests of society, to be looked 
after and provided for as much as roads 
and bridges and protection from the Indians. 
In the first book of records of the town of 
Boston, under date of April 13, 1G34, after 
providing by ordinance for the keeping of 
the cattle by "brother Cheesbrough," "it 
was then generally agreed upon that our 
brother Philemon Purmont shall be entreat- 
ed to become schoolmaster for the teaching 
and nurturing of children with us." This 
was doubtless an elementary school, for in 
1636 we find a subscription entered on 
the records of the town "by the richer 



inhabitants," " for the maintenance of afree 
schoolmaster, for the youth with us — Mr. 
Daniel Maude being now also chosen there- 
unto." Mr. Maude was a clergyman, a title 
at that day and in that community which 
was evidence of his being an educated man. 
This " free school" was, in the opinion of the 
writer, not necessarily a school of gratuitous 
instruction for all, but an endowed school 
of a higher grade, of the class of the Eng- 
lish grammar school, in which many of the 
first settlers of New England had received 
their own education at home. Toward the 
maintenance of this school, the town, in 

1642, in advance of any legislation by the 
General Court, ordered " Deer Island to be 
improved," and several persons made be- 
quests in their last wills. Similar provision 
can be cited from the early records of Salem, 
Cambridge, Dorchester, and other towns of 
Massachusetts Bay. 

The early records of the town of Hartford 
are obliterated, but within seven years after 
the first log-house was erected, thirty pounds 
are appropriated to the schools, and in April, 

1643, it is ordered "that Mr. Andrews shall 
teach the children in the school one year," 
and "he shall have for his pains £16, and 
therefore the townsmen shall go and inquire 
who will engage themselves to send their 
children ; and all that do so, shall pay for one 
quarter, at the least, and for more if they do 
send them, after the proportion of twenty 
shillings the year ; and if they go any week 
more than one quarter, they shall pay six- 
pence a week ; and if any would send their 
children and are not able to pay for their 
teaching, they shall give notice of it to the 
townsmen, and they shall pay it at the town's 
charge." Mention is also made of one " Goody 
Betts," who kept a " Dame School" after the 
fashion of Shenstone's " schoolmistress" at 
Leasower, in England. Similar entries are 
found in the town records of Windsor and 
Wethersfield in advance of any school code 
by the colony of Connecticut. 

The records of the town of New Haven are 
full of evidence of the interest taken by the 
leading spirits of the colony, particularly by 
Governor Theophilus Eaton and Rev. John 
Davenport, in behalf of schools of every grade, 
and of the education of every class, from the 
apprentice boy to those who filled the high 
places in church and state. The first settle- 
ment of the colony was in 1638, and within a 
year a transaction is recorded, which, while 
it proves the existence of a school at tha- 



us 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



early period, also proclaims the protection 
which the first settlers extended to the indi- 
n^ent, and their desire to make elementary ed- 
ucation universal. In 1639, Thomas Fugill 
is required by the court to keep Charles 
Higinson, an indentured apprentice, " at 
school one year ;" or else to advantage him 
as much in his education as a year's learning 
comes to. In 1641, the town orders "that 
a Free School be set up," and " our pastor, 
Mr. Davenport, together with the magistrates, 
shall consider what yearly allowance is meet 
to be given to it out of the common stock 
of the town, and also what rules and orders 
are meet to be observed in and about the 
same." To this school "that famous school- 
master," Ezekiel Cheever,* "was appoint- 
ed," " for the better training up of youth in 
this town, that, through God's blessing, they 
may be fitted for public service hereafter, 
in church or commonwealth." Not con- 
tent with a Grammar School, provision was 
early made for " the relief of poor scholars 
at the college at Cambridge," and in 1645 
forty bushels of wheat were sent forward for 
this purpose, and this was followed by other 
donations, and by a richer consignment of 
young men to enjoy the advantages of the 
institution. In 1647, in the distribution of 
home lots, it was ordered in town meeting, 
that the magistrates " consider and reserve 
what lot they shall see meet, and most com- 
modious for a college, which they desire may 
be set up so soon as their ability will reach 
thereunto." Among the active promoters 
of education and schools, the name of Gov- 
ernor Eaton, in connection with Mr. Daven- 
port, is particularly prominent. In 1652, 
he calls a meeting of the magistrates and 
elders " to let them know what he has done 
for a schoolmaster ;" that he had written a 
letter to one Mr. Bower, a schoolmaster of 
Plymouth, and another to Rev. Mr. Lan- 
dron, a scholar ; and many of the town 
thought there would be need of two school- 
masters — " one to teach boys to read and 
write," as well as the " Latin schoolmaster." 
At another time he reports his correspond- 
ence with a teacher in Wethersfield, then 
with one at old Plymouth, and again with 
one at Norwalk, " so that the town might 
never be without a sufficient schoolmaster." 
lie seems to have been considerate of the 
health of the teachers, and proposes to ex- 



*See Barnard's American Teachers and Educators, 
vol. i„ art. ''Ezekiel Cheever.'' 



cuse one "whose health would not allow 
him to go on with the work of teachim/," 
which he seems to regard as more laborious 
than that of the ministry. On another oc- 
casion he introduces to the committee a 
schoolmaster who has come to treat about 
the school. He is allowed £20 a year, and 
30 shillings for his expenses in travel, besides 
his board and lodgings. lie wished to have 
liberty to visit his friends, " which he pro- 
posed to be in harvest time, and that his 
pay be such as wherewith he may buy 
books." These particulars show the consid- 
erate interest taken by men in local authoi'i- 
ty in the school and the teacher, in adxance 
of any directory or compulsory legislation 
of the colony of New Haven. It Avas owing, 
in part, to the timely suggestions of Rev. 
Mr. Davenport, that Gov. Edward Hopkins, 
of Connecticut, by his will, dated London, 
March 7, 1657, bequeathed the residue of his 
estate (after disposing of much of his estate 
in New England) to trustees residing in New 
Haven and Hartford, " in full assurance of 
their trust and faithfulness" in disposing of 
it, " to give some encouragement in those 
foreign plantations for the breeding up of 
hopeful youths both at the grammar school 
and college, for the public service of the 
country in future times." By the final dis- 
position and distribution of this estate three 
grammar schools were established at New 
Haven, Hartford, and Hadley, which are in 
existence at this day, among the oldest insti- 
tutions of this class in America. 

The early records of the several towns 
which subsequently constituted a portion of 
the colony of New Hampshire, exhibit evi- 
dence of a different character and spirit in 
the first settlers. The plantations on the 
Piscataqua river were made by proprietors 
from mere commercial motives, and the set- 
tlers were selected in reference to immediate 
success in that direction ; and in these settle- 
ments we find no trace of any individual or 
town action in behalf of education until 
after their union with the colony of Massa- 
chusetts, Avhose laws made the establishment 
of schools obligatory. 

In the early records of the Rhode Island 
and Providence Plantations, we find traces 
of the same educational policy which mark- 
ed the early history of towns in Massachu- 
setts and Connecticut. According to Cal- 
lender, in Newport, "so early as 1640, Mr. 
Lenthal was by vote called to keep a public 
school for the learning of youth, and for 



EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 



349 



his encouragement there were granted to 
him and his heirs, one hundred acres of laud, 
and four more for a house lot. It was also 
voted that one hundred acres should be ap- 
propriated for a school for encouragement 
of the poorer sort to train up their youth in 
learning. And Mr. Robert Lenthal, while 
he continues to keep school, is to have the 
benefit thereof." The proprietors of other 
plantations reserved a portion of land for 
the maintenance of schools, and generally 
of a " free schoole ;" and " Mr. Schoolmas- 
ter Turpin," petitions the town of Provi- 
dence, that he and his heirs, so long as any 
of them should maintain the worthy art of 
learning, may be invested in the lands set 
apart for a school. 

These citations show the action of the 
towns independent of any general legislation 
by the several colonies of New England — 
action prompted by their own consciousness 
of the advantages of education in " Dame 
Schools," in "Free Schools," in "Grammar 
Schools" and in "Colleges" at home — aided 
by the presence among them of "masters" 
and "ushers," and also of "schoolmasters" 
and " schoolma'ams" willing to engage in 
the same vocations in the new townships and 
villages — stimulated by magistrates and min- 
isters, who had themselves received the best 
education that such schools could give in 
England, who inculcated the reading of the 
Scriptures as of daily obligation, and who 
believed that the foundations of the state 
should be laid in the virtue and intelligence 
of the Avhole people. 

COLONIAL LEGISLATION AND ACTION. 

We shall now notice briefly the legislation 
respecting children and schools of each of 
the colonies, in the order of their settlement. 

Virginia. — Although several attempts 
were made to establish " Free Schools" and 
a " College" in Virginia, by the Virginia 
Company and benevolent individuals, at an 
earlier day, the first general legislation re- 
specting the education of children by the 
Colonial Assembly was in 1631, when it was 
enacted : " It is also thought fit, that upon 
every Sunday the mynister* shall, halfe an 
hour or more before evening prayer, examine, 
catechise, and instruct the youths and igno- 
rant persons of his parish in the ten com- 



* In this and some other quotations we have 
followed the orthography of the original. 
21* 



mandments, the articles of the bcliefe, and in 
the Lord's prayer ; and shall diligentlie heere, 
instruct, and teach the catechisme, sett forth 
in the book of Common Prayer. And all 
fathers, mothers, maysters, and mistrisses, 
shall cause their children, servants, or ap- 
prentices, which have not learned their cate- 
chisme, to come to church at the time ap- 
poynted, obedientlie to heare, and to be 
ordered by the mynister untill they have 
learned the same. And yf any of sayd 
fathers, mothers, maysters & mistresses, 
children, servants, or apprentices, shall neg- 
lect their duties, as the one sorte in not 
causinge them to come, and the other in 
refusinge to learne as aforesayd, they shall 
be censured by the corts in these places 
holden." To secure the execution of this 
last clause, it is provided in the oath of the 
warden, taken before " the justices for the 
monthlie corts" — "they shall present such 
mastyrs and mistresses as shall be delinquent 
in the catechisinge the youth and ignorant 
persons. So help you God." 

In 1660 an attempt was made to found a 
college for the supply of educated clergymen. 
" Whereas the want of able and faithful 
ministers in this country deprives us of those 
great blessings and mercies that always at- 
tend upon the service of God ; which want, 
by reason of the great distance from our 
native country, cannot in all probability be 
always supplied from thence : Be it enacted, 
that for the advance of learning, education 
of youth, supply of the ministry, and pro- 
motion of piety, there be land taken for a 
college and free school with as much speed as 
may be convenient, houses erected thereon 
for entertainment of students and scholars." 
In the same year it was ordered that a peti- 
tion be drawn up by the General Assembly 
to the king for a college and free school ; and 
that there be his letters patent "to collect 
the cliarity of well disposed persons in Eng- 
land, for the erecting of colledges & schools 
in this countrye," and also to bestow univer- 
sities "to furnish the church here with min- 
isters for the present." And this petition was 
recommended to the right honorable Gov- 
ernor, Sir William Berkeley. Sir William 
does not appear, in his reply to the Lords 
Commissioners of Foreign Plantations, dated 
1670, to have been very kindly disposed to 
public schools of high or low degree. 

"Question 23. What course is taken 
about the instructing the people within 
your government in the Christian religion ; 



350 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



and what provision is there made for the pay- 
ment of your ministry ?" 

" Answer. The same course that is taken 
in England out of towns; every man accord- 
ing to his ability instructing his children. 
"We have forty-eight parishes, and our min- 
isters are well paid, and by my consent should 
be better if they would pray oftener and 
preach less. But of all other commodities, 
so of this, the worst are sent us, and we had 
few that we could boast of, since the perse- 
cution in Cromwell's tyranny drove divers 
worthy men hither. But 1 thank God there 
are no free schools, nor printing, and I hope 
we shall not have these hundred years ; for 
learning has brought disobedience and heresy 
and sects into the world, and printing has di- 
vulged them, and libels against the best gov- 
ernment. God keep us from both !" 

In 1691, "the good design of building a 
free school and college for the encourage- 
ment of learning," was recognized, but it was 
not till 1693 that an act was passed locat- 
ing the college, for which a royal charter had 
been obtained April 8, 1692, with the title 
of William and Mary, at Middle Plantation, 
afterward Williamsburgh. Toward its en- 
dowment the royal founders granted £2000 
in money, land, and a revenue duty on to- 
bacco ; and the Assembly enacted an ex- 
port duty on skins and furs. The money 
grant of £2000 did not meet with much 
encouragement from the English Attorney 
General (Seymour) who was instructed to 
prepare the charter, who remarked to the 
Rev. James Blair, the agent of the colony 
for this purpose, that the money was wanted 
for other purposes, and that he did not see 
the slightest occasion for a college in Vir- 
ginia. The agent represented that the in- 
tention of the colony was to educate and 
qualify young men to be ministers of the 
Gospel, and begged Mr. Attorney would 
consider that the people of Virginia had 
souls to be saved as well as the people of 
England. " Souls !" said he ; " damn your 
souls ! make tobacco." The plan of the 
building was designed by Sir Christopher 
Wren. The first commencement was held 
in lYOO, at which, according to Oldmixon, 
" there was a great concourse of people ; 
several planters came thither in their coaches, 
and several sloops from New York, Pennsyl- 
vania and Maryland ; it being a new thing 
in America to hear graduates perform their 
academical exercises. The Indians them- 
selves had the curiosity to come to Wil- 



liamsburgh on this occasion ; and the whole 
country rejoiced as if they had some relish 
of learning." After the English fashion, the 
college had a representative in the General 
Assembly. As a quitrent for the land grant- 
ed by the Crown, the students and professors 
every year marched to the residence of the 
royal Governor, and presented, and some- 
times recited, some Latin verses. On the 
breaking out of the Revolution the endow- 
ments of the college were cut off, and its 
constitution was somewhat changed. 

No general school law was established in 
Virginia until lY96, although a plan was 
proposed by Mr. Jefferson in 1779, which 
recognized three degrees of public instruc- 
tion, viz.: 1. Elementary schools for all chil- 
dren. 2. Colleges for an extension of in- 
struction suitable for the common purposes 
of life, 3. A university, an extension of the 
means of higher culture on the basis of the 
college at Williamsburgh. 

Scattered through the colony were schools 
in connection with churches, both Episcopal 
and Presbyterian, and in many families 
private teachers were employed, and in some 
cases sons were sent out to England to com- 
plete their education. 

Massachusetts. — In 1636, six years.after 
the first settlement of Boston, the General 
Court of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, 
which met in Boston on the 8th of Septem- 
ber, passed an act appropriating £400 to- 
ward the establishment of a college. The 
sum thiis appropriated was more than the 
whole tax levied on the colony at that time 
in a single year, and the population scattered 
through ten or twelve villages did not ex- 
ceed five thousand persons ; but among them 
were eminent graduates of the university of 
Cambridge, in England, and all were here 
for purposes of permanent settlement. In 
1638, John Harvard left by will the sum of 
£779 in money, and a library of over three 
hundred books. In 1640 the General Court 
granted to the college the income of the 
Charlestown ferry; and in 1642 the Gov- 
ernor, with the magistrates and teachers and 
elders, were empowered to establish statutes 
and constitutions for the infant institution, 
and in 1650 granted a charter which still 
remains the fundamental law of the oldest 
literary institution in this country. 

In 1642 the attention of the General 
Court was turned to the subject of family 
instruction in the following enactment: — • 



EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 



351 



" Forasinucli as the good education of 
children is of singular behoof and benefit to 
any commonwealth ; and whereas many 
parents and masters are too indulgent and 
negligent of their duty in this kind : 

" It is therefore ordered by this Court and 
the authority thereof, That the selectmen of 
every town, in the several precincts and 
quarters where they dwell, shall have a vigi- 
lant eye over their brethren and neighbors, 
to see, first, that none of them shall suff'er so 
much barbarism in any of their families, as 
not to endeavor to teach, by themselves or 
others, their children and apprentices so 
much learning as may enable them perfectly 
to read the English tongue, and knowledge 
of the capital laws, upon penalty of twenty 
shillings for each neglect therein ; also, that 
all masters of families do, once a week, at 
least, catechise their children and servants 
in the grounds and principles of religion, and 
if any be unable to do so much, that then, 
at the least, they procure such children or 
apprentices to learn some short orthodox 
catechism, without book, that they may be 
able to answer to the questions that shall be 
propounded to them out of such catechisms 
by their parents or masters, or any of the 
selectmen, where they shall call them to a 
trial of what they have learned in this kind ; 
and further, that all parents and masters do 
breed and bring up their children and ap- 
prentices in some honest lawful calling, labor 
or employment, either in husbandry or some 
other trade profitable for themselves and the 
commonwealth, if they will not nor cannot 
train them up in learning to fit them for 
higher employments; and if any of the select- 
men, after admonition by them given to such 
masters of families, shall find them still neg- 
ligent of their duty in the particulars afore- 
mentioned, whereby children and servants 
become rude, stubborn and unruly, the said 
selectmen, with the help of two magistrates, 
shall take such children or apprentices from 
them, and place them with some masters for 
years, boys till they come to twenty-one, 
and girls eighteen years of age complete, 
which will more strictly look unto and force 
them to submit unto government, according 
to the rules of this order, if by fair means 
and former instructions they will not be 
drawn unto it." 

In the same year the following general 
school law was enacted : — " It being one 
chief project of that old deluder, Satan, to 
keep men from the knowledge of the Scrip- 



tures, as in former times, keeping them in 
an unknown tongue, so in these latter times, 
by persuading from the use of tongues, so 
that at least the true sense and meaning of 
the original might be clouded and corrupted 
with false glosses of deceivers ; and to the end 
that learning may not be buried in the grave 
of our forefathers, in church and common- 
wealth, the Lord assisting our endeavors : 

"It is therefore ordered by this Court and 
authority thereof, That every township with- 
in this jurisdiction, after the Lord hath in- 
creased them to the number of fifty house- 
holders, shall then forthwith appoint one with- 
in their town to teach all such children, as 
shall resort to tim, to write and read, whose 
wages shall be paid, either by the parents or 
masters of such children, or by the inhabi- 
tants in general, by way of supply, as the 
major part of those who order the pruden- 
tials of the town shall appoint; provided, 
that those who send their children be not 
oppressed by paying much more than they 
can have them taught for in other towns. 

'^ And it is further ordered. That where 
any town shall increase to the number of 
one hundred families or householders, they 
shall set up a grammar school, the masters 
thereof being able to instruct youths so far 
as they may be fitted for the university, and 
if any other town neglect the performance 
hereof above one year, then every such 
town shall pay five pounds per annum to 
the next such school, till they shall perform 
this order." 

With variousmodifications as to details, but 
with the same objects steadily in view, viz., the 
exclusion of "barbarism" from every family, 
by preventing its having even one untaught 
and idle child or apprentice, the maintenance 
of an elementary school in every neighbor- 
hood where there were children enough to 
constitute a school, and of a Latin school in 
every large town, and of a college for higher 
culture for the whole colony, the colonial 
legislature, and the people in the several 
towns of Massachusetts, maintained an edu- 
cational system, which, although not as early 
or as thorough as the school code of Saxony 
and Wirtemberg, has expanded with the 
growth of the community in population, 
wealth, and industrial development, and 
stimulated and shaped the legislation and ef- 
forts of other states in behalf of universal edu- 
cation. 

The early records of the colony of Ply- 
mouth contain no trace of the zeal for 



352 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



schools whicli characterized the colonies of 
Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and New 
Haven. In 1662 the profits of the codfish- 
ery were appropriated to the maintenance 
of grammar schools in such towns as would 
make arrangements for the same ; and in 
1669 towns having fifty families were au- 
thorized to raise by rate on all the inhabi- 
tants the sum of twelve pounds for this 
class of schools, " for as much as the mainte- 
nance of good literature doth much tend to 
the advancement of the weal and flourishing 
state of societies and republics." After the 
union of the two colonies under one charter, 
several towns in the old colony were fined 
for not complying with the provisions of the 
law of 1647 respecting children and schools. 
In addition to the grammar school which 
each town having one hundred families was 
obliged by law to maintain, to enable young 
men to fit for college, in several counties 
endowed schools were set up; and in 1763 
the first of that class of institutions, known 
and incorporated as academies, was estab- 
lished in the parish of Byfield in the town 
of Newbury, on a legacy left by Gov. Wil- 
liam Dummer. Its objects were the same as 
those of the town grammar school, but its 
benefits were not confined to one town, nor 
was it supported in any degree by taxation. 

Rhode Island. — In this colony education 
was left to individual and parental care, no 
trace of any legislation on the subject being 
found in the proceedings of the General 
Assembly, except to incorporate in 1747 the 
*' Society for the Promotion of Knowledge 
and Virtue," which was established in New- 
port in 1730 by the name of the " Company 
of the Redwood Library ;" and in 1764 to 
grant the charter to the College of Rhode 
Island, which was first located in Warren, 
and in 1770 removed to Providence, and in 
1804 called, after its most liberal benefactor, 
Brown University. 

Connecticut. — In 1646, Mr. Roger Lud- 
low was requested to compile " a body of 
laws for the government of this common- 
wealth," which was not completed till May, 
1650, and is known as the code of 1650. 
The provisions for the family instruction 
of children and the maintenance of schools 
are identically the same as in Massachu- 
setts, and remained on the statute-book, 
■with but slight modifications to give them 
more efiiciency, for one hundred and fifty 



years. In the chapter on " capital" of- 
fences, it is enacted that if any child above 
sixteen years of age, and of sufficient under- 
standing, shall curse or smite his father or 
mother, he shall be put to death, " unless it 
can be sufficiently testified that the parents 
have been unchristianly negligent in the ed- 
ucation of such children," In the chapter 
respecting schools, the proposition made by 
the "Commissioners of the United Colonies," 
that it be commended to every family Avhich 
" is able and willing to give yearly but the 
fourth part of a bushel of corn, or something 
equivalent thereto," " for the advancement 
of learning," was approved, and two men 
were appointed in every town to receive and 
forward the contributions. This was done 
in the larger towns of the colonies of Con- 
necticut and New Haven, from time to time, 
until ten of the princijial ministers, in 1700, 
at Branford, brought each a number of books, 
and as they laid them on the table, declared — 
^'- 1 give these books for founding a College in 
Conned icut'^'' and on that foundation rose 
Yale College. To fit young men for the 
college at Cambridge, and subsequently for 
Yaie, in 1672 it was ordered by the Gen- 
eral Court, " that in every county there shall 
be set up a grammar school for the use of 
the county, the master thereof being able to 
instruct youths so far as they may be fitted 
for college ;" and to aid the county towns in 
maintaining their schools, six hundred acres 
of land were appropriated by the General 
Court to each, "to be improved in the best 
manner that may be for the benefit of a 
grammar school in said towns, and to no 
other use or end whatsoever;" and in 1677 
a fine of ten pounds annually is imposed on 
any county town neglecting to keep the 
Latin school. In 1690, the county Latin 
schools of Hartford and New Haven are de- 
nominated " Free Schools," probably in ref- 
erence to the partial endowment of schools 
of this class by the trustees of the legacy 
of Governor Hopkins. 

As early as 1700, the system of public 
instruction in Connecticut embraced the fol- 
lowing particulars : 

1. An obligation on every parent and 
guardian of children, " not to sufter so much 
barbarism in any of their families as to have 
a single child or apprentice unable to read 
the holy word of God, and the good laws of 
the colony ;" and also, " to bring them up to 
some lawful calling or employment," under 
a penalty for each offence-. 



EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 



353 



2. A tax of forty shillings on every tliou- 
sand pounds of the lists of estates, was col- 
lected in every town with the annual state 
tax, and payable proportionably to those 
towns only which should keep their schools 
according to law. 

3. A common school in every town hav- 
ing over seventy families, kept for at least 
six months in the year. 

4. A grammar school in each of the four 
head county towns to fit youth for college, 
two of which grammar schools were free or 
endowed. 

5. A collegiate school, toward which the 
General Court made an annual appropriation 
of £120. 

6. Provision for the religious instruction 
of the Indians. 

The system, therefore, embraced every 
family and town, all classes of children and 
youth, and all the then recognized grades of 
schools. There were no select or sectarian 
schools to classify society at the roots, but 
all children were regarded with equal favor, 
and all brou2;ht under the assimilating; influ- 
ence of early associations and similar school 
privileges. Here was the foundation laid, 
not only for universal education, but for a 
practical, political, and social equality, which 
has never been surpassed in the history of 
any other community. 

New Hampshire. — From 1623 to 1641, 
the early records of the first settlements 
within the present limits of New Hampshire 
exhibit no trace of educational enactments; 
from 1641 to 1680, the school laws of Mas- 
sachusetts prevailed, and the presence of 
such men as Philemon Purmont and Daniel 
Maude, who were the first schoolmasters of 
that colony, must have contributed to inaugu- 
rate the policy of local and endowed schools. 
When the necessities of the college at Cam- 
bridge were made known, the people of 
Portsmouth, in town meeting, made a col- 
lection of sixty pounds, with a pledge to con- 
tinue the same amount for seven years, " for 
the perpetuating of knowledge both religious 
and civil among us and our posterity after 
us." In the original grants for towns one 
lot was reser\'ed for the support of schools. 

In 1680 New Hampshire became a sepa- 
rate colony, and in 1693 the Colonial As- 
sembly enacted " that for the building and 
repairing of meeting houses, ministers' 
houses, and allowing a salary to a school- 
master in each town within this province, 



the selectmen shall raise by an equal rate 
an assessment upon the inhabitants ;" and 
in 1719 it was ordained that every town 
having fifty householders should be con- 
stantly provided with a schoolmaster to 
teach children to read and write ; and those 
having one hundred should maintain a gram- 
mar school, to be kept by some decent 
person, of good conversation, well instructed 
in the tongues. In 1721 it was ordered that 
not only each town but each parish of one 
hundred families should be constantly pro- 
vided with a grammar school, or forfeit the 
sum of twenty pounds to the treasury of the 
province. This system of elementary and 
secondary instruction continued substantially 
until the adoption of the state constitution 
in 1792. 

In 1770 Dr. Wlieelock removed a school 
which he had established in Lebanon, Con- 
necticut, under the name of " Moor's Indian 
Charity School," to the depths of the forests 
in the western part of New Hampshire. 
Here, side by side with the school for 
Indians, he organized another institution, 
termed a college in the charter granted by 
Governor Wentworth in 1769, and which 
held its first commencement in l77l, with 
four graduates, one of whom was John 
Wheelock, the second president of the in- 
stitution, which was called Dartmouth Col- 
lege after Lord Dartmouth, one of the larg- 
est benefactors of the Charity School. 

At the close of the colonial period of our 
history, according to Noah Webster, the 
condition of the educational system in Con- 
necticut and New England was as follows : 

"The law of Connecticut ordains that 
every town or parish containing seventy 
householders, shall keep an English school, 
at least eleven months in the year ; and 
towns containing a less number, at least six 
months in the year. Every town keeping 
a public school is entitled to draw from the 
treasury of the state a certain sum of money, 
proportioned to its census in the list of prop- 
erty which furnishes the rule of taxation. 
This sum might have been originally suf- 
ficient to support one school in each town 
or parish, but in modern times is divided 
among a number, and the deficiency of 
money to support the schools is raised upon 
the estates of the people, in the manner the 
public taxes are assessed. To extend the 
benefits of this establishment to all the in- 
habitants, large towns and parishes are di- 



354 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



vided into districts, each of which is sup- 
posed able to furnish a competent number 
of scholars for one school. In each district 
a house is erected for the purpose by the 
inhabitants of that district, who hire a mas- 
ter, furnish wood, and tax themselves to pay 
all expenses not provided for by the public 
money. The school is kept during the win- 
ter months, when every farmer can spare his 
sons. In this manner, every child in the 
state has access to a school. In the sum- 
mer, a woman is hired to teach small chil- 
dren, who are not fit for any kind of labor. 
In the large towns, schools, either public or 
private, are kept the whole year ; and in 
every county town, a grammar school is 
established by law. 

" The beneficial effects of these institutions 
will be experienced for ages. Next to the 
establishments in favor of religion, they have 
been the nurseries of well-informed citizens, 
brave soldiers and wise legislators. A peo- 
ple thus informed are capable of understand- 
ing their rights and of discovering the means 
to secure them. In the next place, our fore- 
fathers took measures to preserve the repu- 
tation of schools and the morals of youth, 
by making the teaching them an honor- 
able employment. Every town or district 
has a committee, whose duty is to procure a 
master of talents and character ; and the 
practice is to procure a man of the best 
character in the town or neighborhood. The 
wealthy towns apply to young men of lib- 
eral education, who, after taking the bache- 
lor's degree, usually keep school a year or 
two before they enter upon a profession. 
' One of the most unfortunate circumstances 
to education in the Middle and Southern 
states, is an opinion that school-keeping is 
a mean employment, fit only for persons of 
low character. The wretches who keep the 
schools in those states very frequently de- 
grade the employment ; but the misfortune 
is, public opinion supposes the employment 
degrades the man : of course no gentleman 
will undertake to teach children while in 
popular estimation he must forfeit his rank 
and character by the employment. Until 
public opinion is corrected by some great 
examples, the common schools, what few 
there are in those states, must continue in 
the hands of such vagabonds as wander 
about the country." 

"Nearly connected with the establishment 
of schools is the circulation of newspapers 
in New England. This is both a conse- 



quence and a cause of a general diffusion of 
letters. In Connecticut, almost every man 
reads a paper every week. In the year 
1785, I took some pains to ascertain the 
number of papers printed weekly in Con- 
necticut and in the Southern states. I found 
the number in Connecticut to be nearly eight 
thousand ; which was equal to that published 
in the whole territory south of Pennsylvania. 
By means of this general circulation of pub- 
lic papers, the people are informed of all 
political affairs; and their representatives 
are often prepared to deliberate on proposi- 
tions made to the legislature. 

" Another institution favorable to knowl- 
edge is the establishment of parish libraries. 
These are procured by subscription, but they 
are numerous, the expense not being con- 
siderable, and the desire of reading universal. 
One hundred volumes of books, selected 
from the best writers, on ethics, divfnity, 
and history, and read by the principal in- 
habitants of a town or village, will have an 
amazing influence in spreading knowledge, 
correcting the morals, and softening the 
manners of a nation. I am acquainted with 
parishes where almost every householder has 
read the works of Addison, Sherlock, Atter- 
bury. Watts, Young, and other similar 
writings ; and will converse well on the 
subjects of which they treat." 

New York. — In the early history of the 
settlements of the New Netherlands, the 
school was regarded as an appendage of the 
church, and the schoolmaster was paid in 
part out of the funds of the government. 
Down to its organization as a royal province 
of England, a parochial school existed in 
every parish. In 1658 a petition of the 
burgomasters and schepens of New Amster- 
dam Avas forwarded to the West India Com- 
pany, in which " it is represented that the 
youth of this place and the neighborhood 
are increasing in number gradually, and 
that most of them can read and write, but 
that some of the citizens and inhabitants 
would like to send their children to a school 
the principal of which understands Latin, 
but are not able to do so without sending 
them to New England ; furthermore, they 
have not the means to hire a Latin school- 
master, expressly for themselves, from New 
England, and therefore they ask that the 
West India Company will send out a fit 
person as Latin schoolmaster, not doubting 
that the number of persons who will send 



EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT- IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 



355- 



tlieir cliildren to sucli teacher will from year 
to year increase, until an academy shall be 
formed whereby this place to great splendor 
will have attained, for which, next to God, 
the honorable company which shall have 
sent such teacher here shall have laud and 
praise." lu compliance with this petition, 
Dr. Alexander Carolus Curtius, a Latin 
master of Lithuania, was sent out by the 
company. The burgomasters proposed to 
give him five hundred guilders annually out 
of the city treasury, with the use of a house 
and garden, and the privilege of collecting 
a tuition of six guilders per quarter of each 
scholar. Dr. Curtius proved not to be a 
good disciplinarian, and parents complained 
to the authorities that " his pupils beat 
each other, and tore the clothes from each 
other's backs." The doctor retorted that 
he could not interfere, " as his hands were 
tied, as some of the parents forbade him 
punishing their children." He accordingly 
gave up his place and returned to Holland, 
and was succeeded in the mastersliip by 
Rev. ^'Egidius Lu3'ck in 1662. His school 
had a high reputation, and was resorted to 
by pupils from Virginia, Fort Orange, and 
the Delaware. 

After the establishment of the English 
authority, the governor claimed the privilege 
of licensing teachers even for the church 
schools, but no general school policy was 
established. In 1702 a free grammar school 
was founded and built on the King's Farm, 
and in 1732 a "Free School," for teaching 
the Latin and Greek and practical branches 
of mathematics, was incorporated by law. 
The preamble of the act of incorporation 
opens as follows : " Whereas the youth of 
this colony are found by manifold experience 
to be not inferior in their natural genius to 
the youth of any other country in the 
world, therefore be it enacted," etc. Li 
17 10, the Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel in Foreign Parts established a 
charity school in connection with the Epis- 
copal church, which is still in existence, and 
is now known as the Trinity School. Li 
1750, Charles Dutens announced to the 
public " that he taught a school for the use 
of young ladies and gentlemen, whose love 
of learning might incline them to take 
lessons from him in French, at his house on 
Broad street, near the Long Bridge, where 
he also makes and vends finger and ear rings, 
solitaires, stay-hooks and lockets, and sets 
diamonds, rubies, and other stones. Science 



and virtue are two sisters, which the most 
part of the New York ladies possess," etc. 

Judge Smith, in his " History of the Prov- 
ince of New York," when speaking of the 
action of the legislature for founding a col- 
lege in 1746, says : " To the disgrace of our 
first planters, who beyond comparison sur- 
passed their eastern neighbors in opulence, 
Mr. Delancy, a graduate of the University 
of Cambridge (England), and Mr. Smith, 
were for niany years the only academics in 
this province, except such as were in holy 
orders; and so late as the period we are now 
examining (1750), the author did not recol- 
lect above thirteen men, the youngest of 
whom had his bachelor's degree at the age 
of seventecTi, but two months before the pass- 
ing of the above law, the first toward erecting 
a college in this colony, though at a distance 
of above one hundred and twenty years after 
its discovery and settlement of the capital by 
Dutch progenitors from Amsterdam." 

In 1754 a royal charter was obtained for 
a college in New York, with the style of 
King's College, which came into possession 
of a fund raised by a lottery authorized for 
this purpose by the Assembly in 1746, and 
of a grant of land conveyed to its governors 
by Trinity Church in 1755. Out of this 
grant, Columbia College is now (1860) re- 
alizing an income of 1^60,000 a year. The 
first commencement Avas celebrated in 1758. 

" For the advantage of our new intended 
college" (King's), " and the use and orna- 
ment of the city," a number of eminent citi- 
zens of New York, in 1754, united in an 
association to form a library, which in l772 
was incorporated with the title of the "New 
York Society Library." 

Maryland. — The first settlement was 
effected within the present limits of Mary- 
land in 1634; and in the years immediately 
following, we find no record of any marked 
individual or legislative effort to establish 
institutions of learning. The first act of the 
colonial Assembly is entitled a "Supplicatory 
Act to their sacred majesties for erecting of 
schools," which was passed in 1694, and re- 
pealed or superseded by an act entitled a 
" I'etitionary Act" for the same purpose. 
Appealing to the royal liberality, which had 
been extended to the neighboring colony of 
Virginia in the institution of the college, "a 
place of universal study," the Assembly ask, 
''that for the propagation of the Gospel, and 
the education of the youth of this province 



356 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS, 



in good letters and manners, that a certain 
place or places for a free school or schools, or 
place of study of Latin, Greek, writing and 
the like, consisting of one master, one usher, 
and one writing-master or scribe to a school, 
and 100 scholars," be established in Arundel 
County, of which the Archbishop of Canter- 
bury should be chancellor, and to be called 
" King William's School;" and a similar free 
school is asked for in each county, to be 
established from time to time as the re- 
sources of the several counties may suffice. 
To increase the educational resources of the 
counties, in 17 17 it was enacted that an ad- 
ditional duty of twenty shillings current money 
per poll should be levied on all Irish servants, 
being papists, to prevent the growth of popery 
by the importation of too great a number of 
them into this province, and also an addi- 
tional duty of twenty shillings current 
money per poll on all negroes, for raising 
a fund for the use of public schools. In 
1723, "an act for the encouragement of 
learning, and erecting schools in the several 
counties," was passed, with a preamble set- 
ting forth that preceding Assemblies have 
had it much at heart, " to provide for the 
liberal and 2:)ious education of the youth 
of the province, and improving their natural 
abilities and acuteness (which seem not to 
be inferior to any), so as to be fitted for the 
discharge of their duties in the several sta- 
tions and employments in it, either in re- 
gard to church or state." By this act seven 
visitors are appointed in each county, with 
corporate powers to receive and hold estate 
to the value of £lOO per annum; and they 
are authorized with all convenient speed to 
purchase, out of funds realized from revenues 
already set apart for this purpose, one hun- 
dred acres more or less, one moiety of which 
is to serve for making corn, grain, and pas- 
turage for the benefit and use of the master, 
who is prohibited growing tobacco, or per- 
mitting it by others on said farm. The 
visitors are directed to employ good school- 
masters, members of the Church of England, 
and of pious and exemplaiy lives and con- 
versation, and capable of teaching well the 
grammar, good writing, and the mathemat- 
ics, if such can be conveniently got, on 
a salary of £20 per annum, and the use of 
the plantation. In 1728 the master of each 
public school is directed "to teach as many 
poor children gratis as the majority of the 
visitors should order." 

Up to the establishment of the state gov- 



ernment in 1777, there was no system of 
common schools for elementary instruction 
in operation in Maryland. " A free school," 
like the free endowed grammar school of 
England, was established in a majority of 
counties, two of which were subsequently 
converted into colleges, that of Charlestown 
in Kent county, into Washington College in 
1782, and the second at Annapolis into St, 
John's College in 1784 — the former "in 
honorable and perpetual memory of his 
excellency General Washington, the illus- 
trious and virtuous commander-in-chief of 
the armies of the United States." 

In 1696, Rev. Thomas Bray, then residing 
in the parish of Sheldon, England, was made 
commissary of Maryland, to establish the 
Church of England in the colony. His first 
act was to inaugurate a plan of parochial 
libraries for the use of ministers in each 
parish. Through his influence, Princess 
Anne made a benefaction for this purpose, 
and in acknowledgment of the honor of 
having the capital of the province called 
after her name (Annapolis), donated books 
to the value of four hundred pounds to the 
parish library, which he called "the An- 
napolitan Library." By his influence in 
England a plan of " lending libraries" was 
projected in every deanery throughout the 
kingdom, and carried out. 

New Jersey. — In the history of New 
Jersey as a colony we find no trace of any 
general legislation or governmental action in 
behalf of schools. Scattered at wide in- 
tervals over the state were schools kept 
by clergymen in connection with their 
churches. 

In 1748 a charter of incorporation for the 
College of New Jersey was obtained from 
George II., during the administration of 
Governor Belcher, " for the instruction of 
youth in the learned languages and liberal 
arts and sciences." During the adminis- 
tration of Governor Franklin in 1770, a 
second college was chartered, with the name 
of Queen's (now Rutger's) College, as a 
school of theology for the Reformed Dutch 
Church. Neither of the institutions receiv- 
ed any aid from the government. 

Pennsylvania. — The frame of govern- 
ment of the province of Pennsylvania, dated 
April 25th, 1682, drawn up' by William 
Penn before leaving England, contains the 
following provision : " The governor and 



EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 



357 



provincial council shall erect and order all 
public schools and reward the authors of 
useful sciences and laudable inventions in 
said province." In the laws agreed upon 
a few months later in the same year by the 
governor and divers freemen of the province 
in England, it is provided " that all children 
■within this province of the age of twelve 
years shall be taught some useful trade, or 
skill, to the end that none be idle, but that 
the poor may work to live, and the rich, if 
they become poor, may not want." In 1683 
the governor and council in Philadelphia, 
" having taken into their serious considera- 
tion the great necessity there is of a school- 
master in the town of Philadelphia, sent for 
Enoch Flower, an inhabitant of said town, 
who for twenty years past hath been exer- 
cised in that care and employment in Eng- 
land, to whom having communicated their 
minds, he embraced it upon the following 
terms : to learn to read English, 4s. by the 
quarter ;" to learn to read and Avrite, 6s. ; 
read, write and cast accounts, 8s. ; for board- 
ing a scholar, £10 per year. In 1689 the 
Society of Friends established a Latin school 
of which George Keith was the first teacher. 
In 1725 Rev. Francis Alison, a native of 
Ireland, but educated at Glasgow, became 
pastor of the Presbyterian church in New 
London, in Chester county, and opened a 
school there, which had great reputation. 
He at one time resided at Thunder Hill, in 
Maryland, where he educated many young 
men who were afterward distinguished in 
the Revolutionary struggle. He was subse- 
quently Provost of the college at Philadel- 
phia. 

In 1749 Benjamin Franklin published his 
" Pro^yosals relating to the Education of 
Youth in Pennsylvania,^'' out of which ori- 
ginated subsequently an academy and char- 
ity school, and ultimately the University of 
Pennsylvania. At the head of the English 
depai-tment of the academy in 1751 was Mr. 
Dove, who was then engaged in giving pub- 
lic lectures in experimental philosophy with 
apparatus — an early lyceum or popular lec- 
turer. 

In 1743 the American Philosophical So- 
ciety originated in a " Proposal for Promot- 
ing Useful Knowledge," published by Ben- 
jamin Franklin, which, after various forms 
of organization, took its present name and 
shape on the 2d of January, 1769. 

In 1765 the Medical School originated 
with the appointment of Dr. Morgan to the 
* 



professorship of the theory and practice of 
physic; in 1767 it was fully organized, and 
in 1768 degrees in medicine were for the 
first time conferred. 

Among the denoiuinational schools which 
grew up in the absence of any general 
legislation on the subject, was a Moravian 
school for boys at Nazareth in 1747, and for 
girls at Bethlehem 1749, both of which are 
still in existence, and the latter, especially, 
since 1789, has been one of the most flour- 
ishing female seminaries in this country. 

Delaware. — In the early settlements of 
the Swedes and Dutch in Delaware, the 
policy of connecting a school with the 
church was probably imperfectly carried 
out, but there is no historical trace of its 
existence. The only school legislation of 
the colony extant, is an act incorporating 
" the Trustees of the Grammar School in the 
borough of Wilmington, and county of New 
Castle"," dated April 10, 1773. 

North Carolina. — In North Carolina for 
fifty years, the policy of the provincial au- 
thorities was to discourage all forms of re- 
ligious and educational activity outside of 
the Church of England, to the extent of for- 
bidding expressly the establishment of print- 
ing presses. The first act on record relat- 
ing to schools, in 1764, was "for the build- 
ing of a house for a school, and the residence 
of a schoolmaster in the town of Newbern" 
— appropriating the half of two lots, before 
set apart for a church, for this purpose. In 
1766 another act was passed incorporating 
trustees for this school, with the preamble 
" that a number of well-disposed persons, 
taking into consideration the great necessity 
of having a proper school, or public seminary 
of learning established, whereby the present 
generation may be brought up and instructed 
in the principles of the Christian religion, 
and fitted for the several offices and purposes 
of life, have at great expense erected a 
school-house for this purpose ;" and provid- 
ing that the master of the school shall be 
"of the established Church of England, and 
licensed by the governor. ' ' Similar acts were 
passedinl770and l779forschoolsat Edenton 
and Hillsborough. In 1770 an act, reciting 
that a very promising experiment had been 
made in the town of Charlotte in the county 
of Mecklenburg, with a seminary of learning 
"a number of youths there taught making 
great advancement in the knowledge of the 



358 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



learned languages, and in the rudiments of 
the arts and sciences, liaving gone to various 
colleges in distant parts of America," incor- 
porates the same with the name of Queen's 
College. This act was repealed by procla- 
mation in the next year, but in 1777 it was 
reincorporated by name of "Liberty Hall." 
With the downfall of the royal authority, 
and the religious party which had swayed 
the colony, a new educational policy was 
inaugurated. 

South Carolina. — In the early history 
o£ the colony of South Carolina, as of several 
other colonies, the first efforts to establish 
schools were in connection with the predom- 
inant church of the settlers, i. e., of the 
Church of England, through the aid of the 
" Venerable Society for Propagating the 
Gospel in Foreign Parts." By the mission- 
aries of that society charity schools were 
established in several parishes, some of which 
were afterward endowed by individuals, and 
incorporated by act of the legislature, and 
called "Free Schools." In 1710 a free 
school of this character was established at 
Goosecreek, and in I7l2 in Charleston; and 
by the general act of February 22, 1722, the 
justices of the county courts were author- 
ized to erect a free school in each county 
and precinct, to be supported by assessment 
on land and negroes. These schools were 
bound to teach ten poor children each, if 
sent by said justices. In ] 724, a memorial 
to the " Venerable Society" from the parish 
of Dorchester sets forth — " The chief source 
of irreligion here is the want of schools ; 
and we may justly be apprehensive, that if 
our children continue longer to be deprived 
of opportunities of being instructed, Chris- 
tianity will of course decay insensibly, and 
we shall have a generation of our own as 
ignorant as the native Indians." The so- 
ciety sent out schoolmasters to this and 
other parishes, and about 2000 volumes of 
bound books. In 1721 Mr. Richard Beres- 
ford bequeathed to the parish of St. Thomas 
and St, Dennis, in trust, for the purpose of 
educating the poor, £6500; and in 1732 
Mr. Richard Harris, for the same object, 
£1000. In 1728 Rev. Richard Ludlam be- 
queathed his whole estate to the parish of 
St. James, which in 1778 amounted to 
£15,272. Other bequests for the same 
objects were made at different times before 
the Revolution. In 1743 Rev. Alexander 
Garden wrote to the society that the negro 



school consisted of thirty children, and in 
1750 that it was going on with all desirable 
success. In 1748 a library was founded in 
Charleston by an association of seventeen 
young men, whose first object was to collect 
new pamphlets and magazines published in 
Great Britain, but in the course of a year 
embraced the purchase of books. After 
many delays and refusals, an act of incor- 
poration was obtained in 1754. There is 
but one older library in this country. 

Georgia. — The earliest effort to establish 
schools in Georgia was made by the Rev. 
George Whitefield. Before leaving England 
in 1737, he had projected an Orphan House, 
after the plan of that of Dr. Franke, at Halle, 
of which an account about that time ap- 
peared in English. His first visit to Savan- 
nah in 1738 satisfied him of the necessity 
of a charity school for poor and neglected 
children, and in the course of that year he 
returned to England to obtain his ordination 
as priest and collect funds for his educational 
enterprise. The trustees of the colony gave 
him five hundred acres of land upon which 
to erect his buildings. These were selected 
about ten miles out of Savannah, and on the 
25th of March, 1740, he laid the first brick 
of the house, which he called Bethesda, or 
House of Mercy, and opened his school in 
temporary shelters with forty children. In 
the fall of the same year he made a collec- 
tion and preaching tour in New England, 
during which he collected over £800 for his 
charity. After disasters by fire, etc., the 
Orphan House property was bequeathed to 
Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, in trust for 
the purposes originally designed, and subse- 
quently incorporated for this purpose. On 
her death, and after the Revolution, the legis- 
lature transferred the property to thirteen 
trustees, to manage the estate and make reg- 
ulations for an academy in the county of 
Chatham. Schools were established by the 
missionaries sent out by the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel at Savannah, Au- 
gusta, and Frederica, and by the Moravians 
and Huguenots in their respective settle- 
ments. 

RESULTS AT THE CLOSE OF OUR COLONIAL 
HISTORY. 

The educational systems and provisions 
of the colonial period of the United States 
were, especially in its earlier portion, closely 
connected with the ecclesiastical systems of 



REVOLUTIONARY AND TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



359 



the colonies. Schools were maintained by 
individual youth trained up in very many 
cases, because it was a duty to prepare use- 
ful future members of the church, which in 
some of the colonies was also the state. 

In three states, Massachusetts, Connecti- 
cut, and New Hampshire, it was very early 
made the legal duty of parents and towns 
to make provision for the education of youth. 
Elsewhere, such efforts as were made, aside 
from the natural desire of parents to afford 
their children such an education as was suit- 
able to their rank in life, or such as would 
aid their subsequent progress and prosperity, 
were, generally speaking, put forth by clergy- 
men, ecclesiastical bodies, or pious laymen, 
for colonial institutions for secondary edu- 
cation were not very numerous, including 
the town grammar schools of New England, 
and a small number of endowed or free 
schools. In these two classes of institutions, 
a small number of pupils were prepared to 
enter college. A far greater number of col- 
lege students, more especially in the middle 
and southern states, were prepared by clergy- 
men, who received each a small number of 
pupils into his family, as a means of secur- 
ing some additional income. There were 
also a few private schools of considerable 
reputation and value. 

In connection with these educational agen- 
cies, the small parochial and social libraries, 
and the two or three associations for the 
increase and dissemination of science, should 
also be referred to. 

The institutions of superior education, 
established during the colonial period, were 
seven in number; namely. Harvard, Wil- 
liam and Mary, Yale, Nassau Hall, Rutgers, 
Brown, and Columbia. From these came 
forth nearly all the liberally educated men 
of that day, though it was a custom of a few 
of the wealthiest families of the day to grad 
uate their sons at a European university, 
Oxford or Cambridge being commonly se- 
lected. The colonial colleges, like the 
schools preparatory to them, were substan- 
tially church institutions, their pupils being 
the stock from which the clerical body was 
reinforced. 

It was not until the very close of the co- 
lonial period that a few special or profes- 
sional schools were established. A school 
of medicine, sufficiently entitled to the name, 
gave degrees in New York in 1769 ; a sort 
of theological seminary was founded in Penn- 
sylvania in 1778; while the first law school 



only arose the year after the peace of 1783. 
Professorships, however, in these depart- 
ments, had aftbrded a certain amount of in- 
struction in all of them as part of the college 
course, long before ; indeed, from the foun- 
dation of the earliest colleges. 

Female education was comparatively neg- 
lected in the colonial period. Girls were 
taught housewifely duties far more assidu- 
ously than learning, and often depended 
upon home instruction for whatever educa- 
tion they received ; neither the common 
schools nor those for secondary education 
affording or being designed to afford accom- 
modation for them. 

That special supplementary training which 
at the present day does so much to alleviate 
the misfortunes of the blind, the deaf and 
dumb, and the feeble minded, was quite un- 
known, nor was the idea entertained that 
such a training was practicable. 



CHAPTER II. 

REVOLUTIONARY AND TRANSITIONAL 
PERIOD. 

The immediate effects of the war of the 
Revolution were adverse, and, in certain as- 
pects, disastrous to the interests of education. 
Dangers so great and imminent almost en- 
grossed all thought and absorbed all exertion 
and resources. Children, indeed, were not 
left without the instruction of the family and 
the local elementary school, and they were, 
thank God, everywhere surrounded with the 
most stirring exhibitions of heroic patriotism 
and the self-sacrificing virtues. But too gen- 
erally the elementary school and the teacher, 
never properly appi'eciated, gave way to 
more pressing and universally-felt necessities. 
Higher education for a time experienced a 
severe shock. The calls of patriotism with- 
drew many young men from the colleges and 
the preparatory schools, and prevented many 
more from resorting thither. The impover- 
ishment of the country, and the demand for 
immediate action, compelled others to relin- 
quish an extended course of professional 
study. In some cases the presence of armies 
caused a suspension of college instruction and 
the dispersion of faculty and students, and 
even converted the college buildings into 
barracks. But the action and influence of 
this period were not wholly adverse or dis- 
astrous to schools and higher education. The 



360 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



public mind was stimulated into greatly in- 
creased activity — now, for the first time, as- 
suming a collective existence and national 
characteristics. The heart of the people was 
thoroughly penetrated by the spirit of self- 
sacrifice, in cheerfully bearing the burdens of 
society with diminished resources, and in re- 
pairing the waste and destruction of the war. 
The examples of wisdom and eloquence in 
council, and courage and heroism in the 
field, and fif patient endurance of privation 
and hardship, and towering above all and 
outshining all, the colossal greatness and 
transpaicnt purity of the character of Wash- 
ington — these were lessons for the head and 
the heart of a young nation, which amply 
compensated for the partial and tempoi'ary 
suspension of schools. In the discussion and 
reconstruction of political society, in framing 
constitutions and organic legislation, and in 
the disposition of unsettled territory, the im- 
portance of the elementary school, the acad- 
emy, and the college, was recognized and pro- 
vided for. 

Among the earliest to do justice to this 
great subject was Noah Webster, who, in a 
series of essays, first published in a New 
York paper, and copied extensively by the 
press in other parts of the country, and after- 
ward embodied in a volume with other fu- 
gitive pieces, advocated a liberal policy by 
the national and local governments in favor 
of a broad system of education. " Here every 
class of people should know and love the 
laws. This knowledge should be diffused by 
means of schools and newspapers ; and an at- 
tachment to the laws may be formed by early 
impression upon the mind. Two regulations 
are essential to the continuance of republican 
governments: 1. Such a distribution of lands 
and such principles of descent and alienation 
as shall give every citizen a power of acquir- 
ing what his industry merits. 2. Such a sys- 
tem of education as shall give every citizen 
an opportunity of acquiring knowledge, and 
fitting himself for places of trust." " Edu- 
cation should be the first care of a legisla- 
ture; not merely the institution of schools, 
but the furnishing them with the best men 
for teachers. A good system of schools 
should be the first article in a code of politi- 
cal regulations ; for it is much easier to in- 
troduce and establish an eftectual system for 
preserving morals, than to correct by penal 
statutes the ill effects of a bad system. I am 
so fully persuaded of this, that I should al- 
most adore that great man who shall change 



our practice and opinions, and make it re- 
spectable for the first and best men to super- 
intend the education of youth." As speci- 
mens of the uttei'ances of eminent public 
men on this subject, we cite the following : 

" Promote, as an object of primary import- 
ance, institutions for the general diffusion of 
knowledge. In proportion as the structure 
of a government gives force to public opin- 
ion, it is essential that public opinion should 
be enlightened." George Washington. 

" The wisdom and generosity of the legis- 
lature in making liberal appropriations in 
money for the benefit of schools, academies 
and colleges, is an equal honor to them and 
their constituents, a proof of their veneration 
for letters and science, and a portent of great 
and lasting good to North and South Amer- 
ica, and to the world. Great is truth — great 
is liberty — great is humanity — and they must 
and will prevail." John Adams. 

" I look to the diffusion of light and edu- 
cation as the resources most to be relied on 
for amelioi'ating the condition, promoting 
the virtue, and advancing the happiness of 
man. And I do hope, in the present spirit 
of extending to the great mass of mankind 
the blessings of instruction, I see a prospect 
of great advancement in the happiness of the 
human race, and this may proceed to an in- 
definite, although not an infinite, degree. A 
system of general instruction, which shall 
reach every description of our citizens, from 
the richest to the poorest, as it was the ear- 
liest, so shall it be the latest of all the public 
concerns in which I shall permit myself to 
take an interest. Give it to us, in any shape, 
and receive for the inestimable boon the 
thanks of the young, and the blessings of 
the old, who are past all other services but 
prayers for the prosperity of their country, 
and blessings to those who promote it." 
Thomas Jefferson. 

" Learned institutions ought to be the fa- 
vorite objects with every free people ; they 
throw that light over the public mind which 
is the best security against crafty and ilan- 
gerous encroachments on the public liberty. 
They multiply the educated individuals, from 
among whom the people may elect a due 
portion of their public agents of every de- 
scription, more especially of those who are 
to frame the laws : by the perspicuity, the 



REVOLUTIONARY AND TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. 



361 



consistency, and the stability, as well as by 
the justice and equal spirit of which, the great 
social purposes are to be answered." 

James Madison, 

" Moral, political and intellectaal improve- 
ment, are duties assigned by the Author of 
our existence to social, no less than to indi- 
vidual man. For the fulfilment of these du- 
ties, governments are invested with power, 
and to the attainment of these ends, the ex- 
ercise of this power is a duty sacred and in- 
dispensable." John Quincy Adams. 

" For the purpose of promoting the happi- 
ness of the State, it is absolutely necessary 
that our government, which unites into one 
all the minds of the State, should possess in 
an eminent degree not only the understand- 
ing, the passions, and the will, but above all, 
the moral faculty and the conscience of an 
individual. Nothing can be politically right 
that is morally wrong; and no necessity can 
ever sanctify a law that is contrary to equity. 
Virtue is the soul of a Republic. To pro- 
mote this, laws for the suppression of vice 
and immorality will be as ineffectual as the 
increase and enlargement of jails. There is 
but one method of preventing crime and of 
rendering a republican form of government 
durable ; and that is, by disseminating the 
seeds of virtue and knowledge through every 
part of the State, by means of proper modes 
and places of education ; and this can be 
done effectually only by the interference and 
aid of the legislature. I am so deeply im- 
pressed with this opinion, that were this the 
last evening of my life, I would not only say to 
the asylum of my ancestors and my beloved 
native country, with the patriot of Venice, 
'■Esto lyerpetua^ but I would add, as the best 
proof of my affection for her, my parting ad- 
vice to the guardians of her liberties, establish 
and support public schools in every part of 
the State." Benjamin Rush. 

" There is one object which I earnestly re- 
commend to your notice and patronage — I 
mean our institutions for the education of 
youth. The importance of common schools 
is best estimated by the good effects of them 
where they most abound and are best regu- 
lated. Our ancestors have transmitted to us 
many excellent institutions, matured by the 
wisdom and experience of ages. Let them 
descend to posterity, accompanied with oth- 
ers, which, by promoting useful knowledge, 



and multiplying the blessings of social order, 
diffusing the influence of moral obligations, 
may be reputable to us, and beneficial to 
them." John Jay. 

" The first duty of government, and the 
surest evidence of good government, is the 
encouragement of education. A general dif- 
fusion of knowledge is the precursor and pro- 
tector of republican institutions, and in it we 
must confide as the conservative power that 
will watch over our liberties and guard them 
against fraud, intrigue, corruption and vio- 
lence. I consider 'the system of our Com- 
mon Schools as the palladium of our freedom, 
for no reasonable apprehension can be enter- 
tained of its subversion, as long as the great 
body of the people are enlightened by educa- 
tion. To increase the funds, to extend the 
benefits, and to remedy the defects of this 
excellent system, is woithy of your most de- 
liberate attention. I can not recommend in 
terms too strong and impressive, as munifi- 
cent appropriations as the faculties of the 
State will authorize for all establishments 
connected with the interests of education, 
the exaltation of literature and science, and 
the improvement of the human mind." 

De Witt Clinton. 

" The parent who sends his son into the 
world uneducated, defrauds the community 
of a lawful citizen, and bequeaths to it a 
nuisance." Chancellor Kent. 

In the discussions which have taken place 
in the press and in the halls of legislation 
on the subject, the experience of the New 
EIngland States is constantly cited as an irre- 
futable argument in favor of public schools 
and universal education. The character and 
value of this example are admirably set forth 
by Daniel Webster : 

" In this particular. New England may be 
allowed to claim, I think, a meiit of a pecu- 
liar character. She eaily adopted and has 
constantly maintained the principle, that it 
is the undoubted right, and the bounden 
duty of government, to provide for the in- 
struction of all 3'outh. That which is else- 
where left to chance, or to charity, we secure 
by law. For the purpose of public instruc- 
tion, we hold every man subject to taxation 
in proportion to his property, and we look 
not to the question, whether he himself have, 
or have not, children to be benefited by the 
education for which he pays. We regard it 



3G2 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



as a wise and liberal system of police, by 
which property, and life, and the peace of 
society are secured. We seek to prevent in 
some measure the extension of the penal 
code, by inspiring a salutary and conserva- 
tive principle of virtue and of knowledge in 
an early age. AVe hope to excite a feeling 
of respectability, and a sense of character, by 
enlarging the capacity, and increasing the 
sphere of intellectual enjoyment. By gen- 
eral instruction, we seek, as far as possible, 
to purify the whole moral atmosphere ; to 
keep good sentiments uppermost, and to turn 
the strong current of feeling and opinion, as 
well as the censures of the law, and the de- 
nunciations of religion, against immorality 
and crime. We hope for a security, beyond 
the law, and above the law, in the prevalence 
of enlightened and well-principled moral sen- 
timent. We hope to continue and prolong 
the time when, in the villages and farm- 
houses of New England, there may be undis- 
turbed sleep within unbarred doors. And 
knowing that our government rests directly 
on the public will, that we may preserve it, 
we endeavor to give a safe and proper direc- 
tion to that public will. We do not, indeed, 
expect all men to be philosophers or states- 
men ; but we confidently trust, and our ex- 
pectation of the duration of our system of 
government rests on that trust, that by the 
diffusion of general knowledge and good and 
virtuous sentiments, the political fabric may 
be secure, as well against open violence and 
overthrow, as against the slow but sure un- 
dermining of licentiousness." 

The action of Congress, and of the early 
constitutional conventions of the several 
states, shows how nobly the public mind 
responded to these appeals. 

On the 17th of May, 1784, Mr. Jefferson, 
as chairman of a committee for that purpose, 
introduced into the old Congress an ordin- 
ance respecting the disposition of the public 
lands; but this contained no reference to 
schools or education. On the 4th of March, 
1785, another ordinance was introduced — by 
whom does not appear on the journal — and 
on the IGth of the same month was recom- 
mitted to a committee consisting of Pierce 
Long of New Hampshire, Rufus King of 
Massachusetts, David Howell of Rhode Is- 
land, Win. S. Johnson of Connecticut, R. R. 
Livingston of New York, Charles Stewart of 
New Jersey, Joseph Gardner of Pennsyl- 
vania, John Henry of Maryland, William 
Grayson of Virginia, Hugh Williamson of 



North Carolina, John Bull of South Caro- 
lina, and William Houston of Georgia. On 
the 14th of April following, this committee 
reported the ordinance — by whom drawn up 
no clue is given — which, after being perfect- 
ed, was passed the 20th of May following, 
and becajne the foundation of the existing 
land system of the United States. 

By one of its provisions, the sixteenth sec- 
tion of every township was reserved "/or the 
maintenance of public schools ;" or, in other 
words, one section out of the thirty-six 
composing each township. The same pro- 
vision was incorporated in the large land 
sale, in 1786, to the Ohio Company, and the 
following year in Judge Symmes' purchase. 
The celebrated ordinance of 1787, for the gov- 
ernment of the territory north-west of the 
River Ohio, and which confirmed the pro- 
visions of the land ordinance of 1785, pro- 
vides fuilher, that, " Religion, Morality 
and Knowledge being necessary to good 
government and the happiness of mankind, 
Schools, and the means of Education, 
shall be forever encouraged." frodl 
that day to the present, this noble policy 
has been confirmed and extended, till its 
blessings now reach even the distant shores 
of the Pacific, and fifty millions of acres 
of the public domain have been set apart and 
consecrated to the high and ennobling pur- 
poses of education, together with five per 
cent, of the net proceeds of the sales of all 
public lands in each of the states and terri- 
tories in which they are situated. 

During this period individual beneficence 
and associated enterprise began to be direct- 
ed to the building up, furnishing, and main- 
taining libraries, colleges, academies, and 
scientific institutions. Societies for the pro- 
motion of science and literature, and schools 
for professional training, were founded and 
incorporated, and men of even moderate 
fortune began to feel the luxury of doing 
good, and to see that a wise endowment 
for the relief of suffering, the diffusion of 
knowledge, the discovery of the laws of 
nature, the application of the principles of 
science to the useful arts, the conservation 
of good morals, and the spread of religious 
truth, is, in the best sense of the term, 
a good investment — an investment produc- 
tive of the greatest amount of the highest 
good both to the donor and his posterity, 
and which makes the residue of the prop> 
erty from which it is taken both more se- 
cure and more valuable. 



COLLEGES, ACADEMIES, AND COMMOM SCHOOLS IN 1800. 



363 



CHAPTER III. 

STATE AND NATIONAL ACTION. 

INTRODUCTION. 

We shall not attempt to follow out in 
separate channels the action of the National 
and State governments, which together con- 
stitute the legislative power of the United 
States, both of which have been exerted on 
the education and educational institutions of 
tlie whole country ; but confine ourselves 
mainly to an exposition of the State systems 
of public instruction, with an incidental 
notice of such national institutions as belong 
to each department treated of. Before enter- 
ing on this exposition, we give from the most 
reliable cotemporaneous authority {A His- 
torical and Geographical Account of the 
United Slates. By Noah Webster, Jr., 
1804), a comprehensive survey of the state 
of learning and of educational institutions 
in the whole country at the opening of this 
century. 

I. EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS ABOUT 1800. 

NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

Of the State of Learning. — An old law of 
the colony (1719), directed every town, con- 
taining one hundred families, to provide a 
grammar school ; in which also was to be 
taught reading, writing and arithmetic. 
This law was not well executed. Since the 
revolution, a law of the state has directed 
the maintenance of schools in the several 
towns under certain penalties. There are 
also social libraries ; and newspapers circu- 
late in almost all parts of the state. 

Of the Academies. — At Exeter an acad- 
emy, founded by John Phillips, Esq., and 
called after his name, was incorporated in 
1781. At Atkinson, an academy founded 
by Nathaniel Peabody, Esq., was incor- 
porated in 1790. Academies are also 
found at Amherst, Charlestown and Concord. 
Of Dartmouth College. — At Hanover, in 
Grafton county, is a college founded by Dr. 
Wheelock in 1769, with a special view to 
the instruction of young Indians. Although 
this object has in a great measure failed, 
the institution is prosperous and highly 
useful. The number of students is seldom 
less than one hundred and fifty ; its funds, 
consisting of new lands, are increasing in 
value; its library and apparatus are tolerably 
complete ; its situation is pleasant and ad- 



vantageous. It takes its name from a 
principal benefactor, the Earl of Dartmouth. 

VERilONT. 

Of the State of Learning. — Learning re- 
ceives from the people of Vermont all the 
encouragement that can be expected from 
an agricultural people in a new settlement. 
Schools for common education are planted 
in every part of the state ; and two col- 
leges are established, one at Middlebnry, 
the other at Burlington, in which are 
taught classical learning, and the higher 
branches of mathematics, philosophy, and 
other sciences. 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Of the State of Learning. — In Massachu- 
setts the principal institutions for science 
are the University of Cambridge, and the 
college at Williamstown. The university 
of Cambridge was founded in 1638 — it is 
well endowed — is furnished with professors 
of the several sciences — a large library 
and apparatus — and contains usually from 
one hundred and forty to two hundred 
students. Williams college, in Williams- 
town, founded in 17-93, is in a thriving 
state. Academies are established in various 
parts of the state, in which are taught the 
liberal sciences, as well as the languages. 
The laws of the state require a school to 
be kept in every town, having fifty house- 
holders, and a grammar school in every 
town having two hundred families. And 
although the laws are not rigidly obeyed, 
still most of the children in the state 
have access to a school. 

MAINE — PART OF MASSACHUSETTS TILL 1822. 

Of the State of Learning and Religion. — 
The laws of Massachusetts direct that a 
school shall be kept in each town, and lands 
are retained, as public lots, for the support 
of schools and the gospel ministry. These 
beneficial institutions are enjoyed in the 
old settlements ; but a great part of the 
district, being lately settled, is not well 
supplied with schools. 

RHODE ISLAND. 

Of the State of Learning. — There is a 
college at Providence, founded by the Bap- 
tists, containing forty-eight rooms for 
students, and eight rooms for public uses. 
It has a library of near three thousand 
volumes — and an apparatus for experiments 
in philosophy. It is furnished with a presi- 
dent and suitable instructors for the students 
who are usually about fifty in number. In 



364 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



the large towns, and in some others, there 
are private schools fiir teaching the com- 
mon branches of learning. 

CONNECTICUT. 

Of the State of Learning. — Soon after 
the settlement of Connecticut, the General 
Court passed laws directing schools to be 
kept in every village, and providing funds 
to encourage them. Every town or village 
containing a certain number of families, 
was directed to maintain a school, and era- 
powered to draw from the treasury of the 
state, a sum equal to one five-hundredth 
part of the amount of the property of the 
town, as assessed in the grand list. By 
means of this provision, common schools 
have been kept in all parts of the state, 
and every person is taught to read, write, 
and keep accounts. By the sale of the 
western reserve in 1795, still more liberal 
and permanent funds were provided for the 
support of schools. In winters the larger 
children are instructed by men ; in sum- 
mer, small children attend the schools, and 
are taught by women ; in general the in- 
structors are selected from persons of good 
families and reputation. 

Of Yale College. — Yale College, so called, 
from a principal benefactor, was founded in 
the year 1700 at Killingworth, but fixed at 
New Haven in 1/16. It consists of three 
colleges, each containing thirty-two rooms, 
a chapel and museum — has a library of 
about two thousand volumes, and a philo- 
sophical apparatus. Its funds are ample, 
and from thirty to fifty students are annu- 
ally graduated at the public commencement 
in September. It is under the direction of 
trustees, consisting of eleven clergymen, 
and eight laymen. The vacancies among 
the clerical members are supplied by the 
board of trustees. The lay members are 
the governor, lieutenant-governor, and six 
senior members of the council of the 
state, or upper house. 

Of Academies and Grammar Schools. — 
By law, a grammar school may be established 
in any town in the state, by a vote of the 
inhabitants in legal meeting; and many 
academies are established and maintained 
by private funds. In these are taught not 
only the primary branches of learning, but 
geography, grammar, the languages, and 
higher branches of mathematics. There 
are also academies for young ladies, in which 
are taught the additional branches of 
ueedle-work, drawing, and embroidery. 



Among the academies of the first reputation 
are, one in Plainfield, and the Bacon acad- 
emy in Colchester, whose funds amount to 
about thirty-five thousand dollars. Tlie 
most distinguished schools for young ladies 
are. Union school in New Haven, and one 
in Litchfield. 

NKW YORK. 

Of the State of Learning. — A college was 
founded in the city of New York in 1754, 
and incorpoiated by charter from the king. 
After the revolution, the legislature instituted 
a university consisting of a number of re- 
gents, whose powers extend to the superin- 
tendence of colleges, academies and schools, 
throughout the state. They are authorized 
to found colleges and academies, confer 
degrees, visit all seminaries of learning, 
and make regulations for their government. 

Of C'olumltia and Union Colleges. — By 
the act of the Legislature in 1787, found- 
ing the university of the state, the college 
in New York received the name of Columbia,, 
and all the privileges and powers, derived 
from its charter, were confirmed. It is 
under the government of twenty-four 
trustees, and has considerable funds. Its 
instructors are a president and professors 
of the principal sciences. The building is 
of stone, three stories high, and contain- 
ing forty-eight apartments. The college is 
furnished with a chapel, a library, museum, 
and philosophical apparatus. Union college 
was founded at Schenectady in 1795, and 
is in a prosperous condition. 

Of Academies and Schools. — Several re- 
spectable academies are established in dif- 
ferent parts of the state, in which are taught 
the learned languages, geography, grammar, 
and mathematics. Until since the revolu- 
tion, common schools received no encour- 
agement from the public treasury, or the 
laws. But in 1795, a law of the state ap- 
propriated a large sum of money for erecting 
school-houses, and paying teachers, the bene- 
ficial effects of which are visible. Hitherto, 
however, the rudimentary instruction of the 
laboring people has not been general. 

NEW JERSEY. 

Of the State of Learning. — The education 
of youth in New Jersey depends on the 
voluntary contributions of individuals, and 
therefore is neglected by some classes of the 
people. In the more populous towns and 
villages arc academies and schools of high 
reputation. The college at Princeton, called 
Nassau Hall, is a seminary of distinguished 



COLLEGES, ACADEMIES, AND COMMON SCHOOLS IN 1800. 



365 



reputation, and from thirty to forty students 
are annually graduated. 

PENNSYLVANIA. 

Of the State of Learning. — In Pennsyl- 
vania is one university, the seat of which 
is Philadelphia ; a college at Carlisle, and 
another at Lancaster. There are numerous 
academies and schools in Philadelphia and 
other large towns. The legislature have re- 
served sixty thousand acres of land as a 
fund for supporting public schools. The 
Moravian academies at Bethlehem and Naz- 
areth, are noted for strict discipline. 

DELAWARE. 

Of the Schools. — There are private schools 
in this state, and especially in Wilmington. 
In 1796, the legislature passed an act for 
creating a fund for the support of public 
schools. There is no co-llege in the state, 
but an academy at Newark, a few miles 
from Wilmington. 

MARYLAND. 

Of the Literary Institutions. — The prin- 
cipal institutions for the education of youth 
are, Washington academy, in Somerset 
county, instituted in 1779; Washington col- 
lege at Chester, founded in 1782 ; St. Johns 
college at Annapolis, founded in 1784-; a 
college at Georgetown, instituted by the 
Catholics ; and Cokesbury college in H;ir- 
ford County, instituted by the mothodists 
in 1785. There are private schools in many 
places ; and private tutors in families ; and 
many young men are sent for their education 
either to Europe, or the northern states. 

VIRGINIA. 

Seminaries of Learning. — The college in 
Williamsburg was founded during the reign 
of William and Mary, and called by their 
names. It was endowed by them with 
twenty thousand acres of land, and the pro- 
ceeds of a duty of one penny on the pound 
of tobacco exported — with a duty on skins 
and furs exported, and liquors imported. It 
is under the government of twenty visitors, 
a president and professors in the most im- 
portant branches of science. There is also 
a college in Prince Edward, and academies 
in the principal towns, as well as numerous 
schools in other parts of the state. 

NORTH CAROLINA. 

Of the State of Learning. — In 1789 the 
legislature passed an act incorporating a 
number of persons as trustees of a univer- 
sity to be established, and funds were sup- 
plied for the purpose of erecting buildings. 
22* 



There is an academy of Warrenton, and a 
few others in the state ; but the education 
of all classes of people is not general. In 
1803, however, the legislature passed an act 
for the establishment of public schools. 

SOUTH CAROLINA. 

Of the Seminaries of Learning. — Gentle- 
men of property have been accustomed to 
send their sons and daughters to England 
for an education. Some of them send 
their sous to one of the colleges in the 
northern states. There are several institu- 
tions in the States called colleges and acade- 
mies — a college in Charleston, one at Wiims- 
borough, in Camden district, one at Cam- 
bri(ige, and one at Beaufort, with consider- 
able funds. There are several academies 
and schools in Charleston, Beaufort, and 
other parts of the state. The South Caro- 
lina College was incorporated in 1801, with 
an appropriation of fifty thousand dollars 
for erecting buildings in Columbia, and six 
thousand dollars yearly for instructors. 

GEORGIA. 

Of the Literary Listitutions. — The legis- 
lature of Georgia has founded and en- 
dowed a college at Louisville. There are 
also some schools in the state. A law of 
the state has incorporated a number of lite- 
rary gentlemen, for the purpose of estab-. 
lishing and superintending seminaries of 
learning — fifty thousand acres of land are 
appropriated for funds, for this university — 
and a sum of money in each county for 
maintaining an academy. The funds des- 
tined by Mr. Whitfield to maintain an or- 
phan house, and by him bequeathed to the 
countess of Huntingdon, in trust, are vested 
in commissioners to support a college. 

KENTUCKY. 

Of the State of Learning. — Provision has 
been made by law for founding and main- 
taining a college, and schools are established 
in diftereut parts of the state. 

TENNESSEE. 

Of Learning. — Several schools are estab- 
lished in this state, and by law provision is 
made for three colleges. There is also a 
society for promoting useful knowledge. 

Before entering on a systematic survey of 
the development of education in its diflTerent 
departments of elementary, secondary, supe- 
rior, professional and supplementary instruc- 
tion, we give in the following table the 
gradual growth of the country from 13 to 
38 States, with their population in. 1870. 



Table I. — Historical and statistical data of the United States. 
[Compiled from Report of the Commissioner of the Lund OflBce for 1867.1 



States and Territo- 
ries. 



Original States. 



New Hampshire 

Massachusetts 

Rhode Island 

Connecticut 

New York 

New Jersey 

Pennsylvania 

Delaware 

Maryland 

Virginia — East and 
West. 

North Carolina 

South Carolina 

Georgia 



States admitted. 



Act organizing Territory, 



U. S. Statutes. Vol. Page 



Ord'ce of 
Mar. 3, 
May 7, 
Apr. 7, 
Feb. 3, 
Mar. 3, 



June 
Mar. 



Kentucky 

Vermont 

Tennessee 

Ohio 

Louisiana 

Indiana 

Mississippi .... 

Illinois 

Alabama 

Maine 

Missouri 

Arkansas 

Michigan I Jan. 11, 

Florida Mar. 30, 

Iowa June 12, 

Texas 

Wisconsin 

California 

Minnesota . 

Oregon 

Kansas 

West Virginia. 

Nevada 

Colorado 

Nebraska 



1787 
1805 

leoo 

1798 
1809 
1817 



Territories. 



New Mexico 

Utah 

Washington 

Dakota 

Arizona 

Idaho 

Montana 

Indian Territory.. 
Dist. of Columbia. 

Russian purchase . 



1812 
1819 
1805 
1822 
1838 



Apr. 20, 1836 



Mar. 3, 
Aug. 14, 
May 30, 



1849 
1848 
1854 



Mar. 2, 
Feb. 28, 
May 30, 



1861 
1861 
1854 



Sept. 9, 1850 

do 

Mar. 2, 1853 
Mar. 2, 1861 
Feb. 24, 1863 
Mar. 3, 1863 
May 26, 1864 



July 16, 1790 
Mar. 3, 1791 



Act admitting State. 



331 

58 
549 
514 
371 



743 
493 
309 
654 
235 



403 
323 

277 



209 
172 
277 



446 
453 
172 
239 
664 
808 
85 



130 
214 



U. S. Statutes. Vol. Page, 



Feb. 4, 
Feb. 18, 
June 1, 
Apr. 30, 
Apr. 8, 
DfC. 11, 
Dec. 10, 
Dec 3, 
Dec. 14, 
Mar. 3, 
Mar. 2, 
June 15, 
Jan. 26, 
Mar. 3, 

do . 

Dec. 29, 
Mar. 3, 
Sept. 9, 
Feb. 26, 
Feb. 14, 
Jan. 29, 
Dec. 31, 
Mar. 21, 



1791 
17'.U 
1796 
1602 
1812 
1814 
1817 
1818 
1819 
1820 
1821 
1836 
1837 
1845 



1845 
1847 
1850 
1857 
1859 
1861 
1862 
1864 



Mar. 1, 1867 



Area in sq. 
miles. 



189 
191 
491 
173 
701 
399 
672 
536 
608 
544 
645 
50 
144 
742 
742 
108 
178 
452 
166 
383 
126 
633 
30 
32 
47 



9,280 
7,800 
1,306 
4,750 

47, OJO 
8, 320 

46, 000 
2, 120 

11, 124 

61, 352 

50, 704 
34,000 
58,000 



37, 680 
*10, 212 
45, 600 
39, 91)4 
*4 1,346 
33, 809 
47, 156 
*55, 410 
5'J, 722 
*35, 000 
*65, 350 

52, 198 
*5G, 451 

59, 268 

55, 045 

*274, 356 

53, 924 
* 188, 981 

83, 531 
95, 274 
81,318 
23,000 
112,090 
*104, 500 
75, 995 



121,201 
88, 056 
69. 994 

240, 597 

113,916 
90, 932 

143, 776 
68,991 

[10 m.sq. 

577, 390 



Populat'n 
in 1860.t 



326, 073 

1,231,066 
174, 620 
460, 147 

3, 880, 735 
672, 035 

2,906, 115 
112,216 
687, 049 

1,596,318 

992, 622 

703, 708 

1, 057, 286 



1,1.55,684 
31.5,098 

1, 109, 801 

2, 339, 502 
7C8, C02 

1, 350, 428 
791,305 

1,711,951 
964, 201 
628, 279 

1, 182, 012 
435, 450 
749, 113 
140, 425 
674, 948 
604,215 
775,681 
305, 439 
173, 855 
52, 465 
107,206 



+6, 857 
J34, 277 
28,841 



§360, 000 



1T126, 990 
70. OOO 



* Area taken from geographical authorities and not from public surveys. 

t Total population in 1800 was 31,500,000 ; estimated in 1867 to be 38,500,000. 

I To the white population in Nevada should be added 10,507 Indians; and in Colorado, 2,261 
Indians. § As estimated January 1, 1865. 

II That portion of District of Columbia south of the Potomac river was retroceded to Virginia 
July 9, 1840, (Stat, vol, C, p. 35.) T] By census of 1867. 



PROGKESS OF COMMON OR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 



367 



n. SCHOOL-HOUSES, STUDIES, BOOKS, AND TEACHERS 
AS THEY WERE. 

To understand the real progress which has 
been made in the organization, administra- 
tion, and instruction of institutions of learn- 
ing in this country, and at the same time to 
appreciate the importance of many agencies 
and means of popular education besides 
schools, books and teachers, we must, as far 
as we can, look into the schools themselves, 
as they were fifty and sixty years ago, and 
realize the circumstances under which some 
of the noblest characters of our history have 
been developed. As a contribution to our 
knowledge of the early history of education 
in the United States, we bring together the 
testimony of several eminent men Avho were 
pupils or teachers in these schools, and who 
assisted in various ways in achieving their 
improvement. 

LETTER FROM NOAH WEBSTER, LL.D. 

"New Haven, March 10th, 1840. 

" Mr. Barnard : Dear Sir — You desire 
me to give you some information as to the 
mode of instruction in common schools when 
I was young, or before the Revolution. I be- 
lieve you to be better acquainted with the 
methods of managing common schools, at 
the present time, than I am ; and I am not 
able to institute a very exact comparison 
between the old modes and the present. 
From what I know of the present schools in 
the country, I believe the principal difference 
between the schools of former times and at 
present consists in the books and instruments 
used in the modern schools, 

" When I was young, the books used were 
chiefly or wholly Dilworth's Spelling Books, 
the Psalter, Testament and Bible. No ge- 
ography was studied before the publication 
of Dr. Morse's small books on that subject, 
about the year 1786 or 1787. No history 
was read, as far as my knowledge extends, 
for there was no abridged history of the 
United States. Except the books above 
mentioned, no book for reading was used 
before the publication of the Third Part of 
my Institute, in 1785. In some of the early 
editions of that book, I introduced short 
notices of the geography and history of the 
United States, and these led to more en- 
larged descriptions of the country. In 1788, 
at the request of Dr. Morse, I wrote an ac- 



count of the transactions in the United 
States, after the Revolution ; which account 
fills nearly twenty pages in the first volume 
of his octavo editions. 

" Before the Revolution, and for some 
years after, no slates were used in common 
schools ; all writing and the operations in 
arithmetic were on paper. The teacher 
wrote the copies and gave the sums in 
arithmetic ; few or none of the pupils having 
any books as a guide. Such was the condi- 
tion of the schools in which I received my 
early education. 

" The introduction of my Spelling Book, 
first published in 1783, produced a great 
change in the department of spelling ; and 
from the information I can gain, spelling was 
taught with more care and accuracy for 
twenty years or more after that period, than 
it has been since the introduction of multi- 
plied books and studies.* 

" No English grammar was generally 
taught in common schools when I was 
young, except that in Dilworth, and that to 
no good purpose. In short, the instruction 
in schools was very imperfect, in every 
branch ; and if I am not misinformed, it is 
so to this day, in many branches. Indeed 
there is danger of running from one extreme 
to another, and instead of having too few 
books in our schools, we shall have too 
many. 

" I am, sir, with much respect, your friend 
and obedient servant, N. Webster." 

Dr. Webster, in an essay published in a 
New York paper in 1788, "On the Educa- 
tion of Youth in America," and in another 
essay published in Hartford, Ct., in 1790, 
" On Property, Government, Education, Re- 
ligion, Agriculture, etc., in the United 
States,"! while setting forth some of the 
cardinal doctrines of American education as 
now held, throws light on the condition of 
schools and colleges in different parts of the 
country at that date. 

" The first error that I would mention is a 



* " The general use of my Spelling Book in the 
United States has had a most extensive effect in 
correcting the pronunciation of words, and giving 
uniformity to the language. Of this change, the 
present generation can have a very imperfect idea." 

f These essays were afterwards collected with 
others in a volume entitled "A. Collection of Es- 
says and Fugitive Writings, etc." By Noah "Webster, 
Jr. Boston: 1790. 



368 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



too general attention to the dead languajjes, 
with a neglect of our own. . . . This 
neglect is so general that there is scarcely an 
institution to be found in the country where 
the English tongue is taught regularly from 
its elements to its pure and regular construc- 
tion in prose and verse. Perhaps in most 
schools boys are taught the definition of the 
parts of speech, and a few hard names which 
they do not understand, and which the 
teacher seldom attempts to explain ; this is 
called learning grammar. . . . The prin- 
ciples of any science afford pleasure to the 
student who comprehends them. In order to 
render the study of language agreeable, the 
distinctions between words should be illus- 
trated by the difference in visible objects. 
Examples should be presented to the sen- 
ses which are the inlets of all our knowledge. 
" Another error which is frequent in 
America, is that a master undertakes to 
teach many diflferent branches in the same 
school. In new settlements, where the 
people are poor, and live in scattered situa- 
tions, the practice is often unavoidable. But 
in populous towns it must be considered as a 
defective plan of education. For suppose 
the teacher to be equally master of all the 
branches which he attempts to teach, which 
seldom happens, yet his attention must be 
distracted with a multiplicity of objects, and 
consequently painful to himself, and not use- 
ful to his pupils. Add to this the continual 
interruptions which the students of one 
branch suffer from those of another, which 
must retard the progress of the whole school. 
It is a much more eligible plan to appropri- 
ate an apartment to each branch of educa- 
tion, with a teacher who makes that branch 
his sole employment. . . . Indeed what 
is now called a liberal education disqualifies 
a man for business. Habits are formed in 
youth and by practice ; and as business is 
in some measure mechanical, every person 
should be exercised in his employment in an 
early period of life, that his habits may be 
formed by the time his apprenticeship ex- 
pires. An education in a university inter- 
feres with the forming of these habits, and 
perhaps forms opposite habits ; the mind 
may contract a fondness for ease, for plea- 
sure, or for books, which no efibrts can over- 
come. An academic education, which should 
furnish the youth with some ideas of men 
and things, and leave time for an apprentice- 
ship before the age of twenty-one years, 



would be the most eligible for young men 

who are designed for active employments. 
****** 

" But the principal defect in our plan of 
education in America is the want of good 
teachers in the academies and common 
schools. By good teachers I mean men of 
unblemished reputation, and possessed of 
abilities competent to their station. That a 
man should be master of what he undertakes 
to teach is a point that will not be disputed ; 
and yet it is certain that abilities are often 
dispensed with, either through inattention 
or fear of expense. To those who em- 
ploy ignorant men to instruct their children, 
let me say, it is better for youth to have no 
education than to have a bad one ; for it is 
more difficult to eradicate habits than to im- 
press new ideas. The tender shrub is easily 
bent to any figure ; but the tree which has 
acquired its full growth resists all impi-es- 
sions. Yet abilities are not the sole requi- 
sites. The instructors of youth ought, of all 
men, to be the most prudent, accomplished, 
agreeable, and respectable. What avail a 
man's parts, if, while he is ' the wisest and 
brightest,' he is the ' meanest of mankind ?' 
The pernicious effects of bad example on the 
minds of youth will probably be acknowl- 
edged ; but, with a view to improvement, it 
is indispensably necessary that the teachers 
should possess good breeding and agreeable 
manners. In order to give full effect to in- 
structions it is requisite that they should pro- 
ceed from a man who is loved and respected. 
But a low-bred clown or morose tyrant can 
command neither love nor respect ; and that 
pupil who has no motive for application to 
books but the fear of the rod, will not make 
a scholar." 

LETTER FROM REV. HEMAN HUMPHREY, D.D. 

'• PiTTSFiELD, Dec. 12th, 1860. 

" Hon. Henry Barnard : Dear Sir — I 
am glad to hear from you, still engaged in 
the educational cause, and that you are in- 
tending to ' give a picturesque survey of the 
progress of our common schools, their equip- 
ment, studies and character.' If ray early 
recollections and experience will give you 
any little aid, I shall esteem myself happy 
in aftbrding it. 

" The first school I remember was kept a 
few weeks by a maiden lady, called Miss 
Faithy, in a bam. I was very young, as 
were most of the children. "What I learned 



PROGRESS OF COMMON OR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 



369 



tlien, if any thing, I have forgotten. This 
Avas in the summer, of course. The next was 
a school, SO called, kept a month or two by 
a neighbor of ours, who was the best trout 
fisher^ with his horse-hair line, in all those 
parts. He wrote a fair hand, as I remem- 
ber, on birch bark. What he taught us, but to 
say tue and due, has escaped my recollection. 
AVe had no school-house then in our dis- 
trict, and we met as much for play as any 
thing, where we could find shelter. The 
next winter, another neighbor took us a few 
weeks into one of the rooms of his own 
house, where every thing but learning was go- 
ing on. Ilis speech bewrayed him of Rhode 
Island origin, and whatever he knew, he cer- 
tainly could never have had much if any 
chance of being whipped in school when he 
was a boy, I remember his tremendous 
stamp when we got noisy in school-time, and 
that is all. This, however, is not a fair 
sample of school accommodations in my 
boyhood ; and I had a better chance for two 
or three winters afterward. 

" School Houses. — Most of the other 
districts in the town had school-houses, but 
not all. The first winter that I kept school 
myself, was in a room next to the kitchen in 
a small private house. Some of the school- 
houses were better than others ; but none of 
them in that or the adjoining towns were 
convenient or even comfortable. They were 
rather juvenile penitentiaries, than attractive 
accommodations for study. They were too 
small, and low from the ceiling to the floor, 
and the calculation of the builders seemed 
to have been, to decide into how small a 
space the children could be crowded, from 
the fire-place till the room was well packed. 
Not unfrequently sixty or seventy scholars 
were daily shut up six hours, w^here there 
was hardly room for thirty. The school- 
houses were square, with a very narrow en- 
try, and a large fire-place on the side near 
the door. There were no stoves then. Tliey 
were generally roughly clapboarded, but 
never painted. They had writing-desks, or 
rather, long boards for writing, on two or 
three sides, next to the wall. The benches 
were all loose ; some of them boards, with 
slabs from the saw-mill, standing on four 
legs, two at each end. Some were a little 
lower than the rest, but many of the smaller 
children had to sit all day with their legs 
dangling between the bench and the floor. 
Poor little things! nodding and trying to 
keep their balance on the slabs, without any 



backs to lean against, how I pity them to 
this day. In the coldest weather, it was 
hard to tell which was the most difficult, to 
keep from roasting or freezing. For those 
nearest to the fire it was sweltering hot, 
while the ink was freezing in the pens on 
the back side of the room, ' Master, I am 
too hot' — ' Master, may I go to the fire ? 
That was the style of address in those days, 
and we did our best to be masters, anyhow. 

" All the school-houses that I remember 
stood close by the travelled road, without 
any play-grounds or enclosures whatever. 
If there were any shade trees planted, or left 
of spontaneous growth, I have forgotten 
them. And in most cases, there were no 
outside accommodations, even the most 
necessary for a moment's occasion. I now 
marvel at it, but so it was. In that respect, 
certainly, the days of the children are better 
than the days of their fathers were. 

" For the most part, the winter schools 
were miserably supplied with wood. I kept 
school myself in three towns, and in but one 
of the schools was there any wood-shed what- 
ever ; and no wood was got up and seasoned 
in summer against winter. Most of what 
we used was standing in the forests when 
the school began, and was cut and brought 
sled length by the farmers in proportion to 
the number of scholars which they sent. 
Not exactly that, either; for sometimes, 
when we went to the school-house in a cold 
morning, there was no wood there. Some- 
body had neglected to bring his load, and 
we were obliged to adjourn over to the 
next day. In many cases, the understand- 
ing was, that the larger boys must cut the 
wood as it was wanted. It always lay in 
the snow, and sometimes the boys were sent 
to dig it out in school-time, and bring it in, 
all wet and green as it was, to keep us from 
freezing. That was the fuel to make fires 
with in the morning, when the thermometer 
was below zero, and how the little children 
cried with the cold, when they came almost 
frozen, and found no fire burning ; nothing 
but one or two boys blowing and keeping 
themselves warm as well as they could, by 
exercise, in trying to kindle it. Such were 
our school-houses and their disaccommoda- 
tions. 

" Branches Taught in the Schools, — 
They were reading, spelling, and writing, 
besides the A B C's to children scarcely four 
years old, who ought to have been at home 
with ■ their mothers. They were called up 



370 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



twice a day by the master pointing with his 
penknife ' What's that ?' 'A.' 'What's that?' 
'D; 'No, it's B; 'What's that?' 'K' 'No, 
you careless boy, it's C ;' and so down to 
ezand. 'Go to your seat, you will never learn 
your lesson in the world, at this rate.' Our 
school-books were the Bible, ' Webster's 
Spelling Book,' and ' Third Part,' mainly. 
One or two others were found in some 
schools for the reading classes. Grammar 
was hardly taught at all in any of them, and 
that little was confined almost entirely to 
committing and reciting the rules. Parsing 
was one of the occult sciences in my day. 
We had some few lessons in geography, by 
questions and answers, but no maps, no 
globes ; and as for black-boards, such a 
thing was never thought of till long after. 
Children's reading and picture books, we 
had none ; the fables in Webster's Spelling 
Book came nearest to it. Arithmetic was 
hardly taught at all in the day schools. As a 
substitute, there were some evening schools 
in most of the districts. Spelling was one 
of the leading daily exercises in all the 
classes, and it was better, a good deal, I 
think, than it is now. 

"The winter schools were commonly kept 
about three months ; in some favored dis- 
tricts four, but rarely as long. As none of 
what are now called the higher branches 
were taught beyond the merest elements, 
parents generally thought that three or four 
months was enough. There were no winter 
select schools for the young above the age of 
sixteen or seventeen, as I remember, till af- 
ter I retired from the profession, such as it 
then was. There may have been here and 
there an academy, in some parts of the 
state ; but not one within the range of my 
acquaintance. 

"Our Spring Exhibitions. — At the close 
of the winter schools we had what we used 
to call our Quarter-days, when the schools 
came together in the meeting-house, with a 
large congregation of parents and friends. 
The public exercises were reading, spelling, 
and speaking single pieces, and dialogues. 
Some of the dialogues we wrote ourselves, 
for our own schools. Most of them were 
certainly verj^ flat ; but they brought down 
the house, and answered the purpose as well 
as any we could pick up. We thought 
then, as I think now, that those quartei- 
days w ere of great advantage to the schools. 
The anticipation of them kept up an interest 
all winter, and stimulated both teachers and 



scholars to do their best in the way of prep- 
aration. As the time approached, we had 
evening schools for reading and rehearsing 
the dialogues, so as to be sure not to fall be- 
hind in the exhibitions. None of our col- 
lege commencements are now looked forward 
to with greater interest than were those ver- 
nal anniversaries. 

"Another thing that helped us a good deal 
was the occasional afternoon visits of the 
parents and other friends of the schools. 
They came in by invitation, or whenever 
they chose, and their visits always did us 
good. 

" Still another practice we found to be quite 
stimulating and useful. We had a mutual 
understanding that, without giving any no- 
tice, any teacher might dismiss his own 
school for an afternoon, and, taking along 
with him some of the older boys, call in to 
see how his brother teacher got along in the 
next or some other distiict. The arrange- 
ment worked well. We made speeches, 
complimented one another as politely as cir- 
cumstances would allow, and went home re- 
solved not to fall behind the best of them. 

"In the school, we made up our minds to 
be masters, in fact as well as in name. 
Though of late years I have not had very 
good advantages for making the comparison, 
I believe the schools were quite as well gov- 
erned sixty years ago as they are now. 
Among other things which we did to main- 
tain our authority, was to go out now and 
then and have a snowball skirmish with the 
boys, and though we commonly got beat, 
nothing we could do was more effectual. 

" Corporal punishments, I believe, were 
sparingly resorted to in most of our schools. 
Though I myself believed in Solomon fully, 
I never flogged but one scholar in my life, 
though I shook the mischief out of a great 
many. I think Sam was of the opinion, in 
the premises, that the rod was laid on rather 
smartly, for I understood he promised, 
some day, to pay me in kind, which, how- 
ever, I suppose he never found it quite con- 
venient to undertake. 

" We schoolmasters within convenient dis- 
tances used to meet in the winter evenings 
for mutual improvement, which, to own the 
truth, we needed a good deal. Our regular 
exercises v-ere reading for criticisms, report- 
ing how we were getting along, and con- 
versing upon the best method of managing 
our schools. This was very profitable, as 
we thought, to us all. 



PROGRESS OF COMMON OR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 



371 



" In those ancient times, it was an almost 
universal custom in the rural towns of Con- 
necticut, for the teachers to hoard round, 
and upon the whole I liked it. It was a 
good school for us. By going into all the 
families we learned a great deal. We were 
looked upon as having more in our heads 
than we could fairly claim, and they always 
kept us on the best they had. It is true, 
the cooking was not always the best, nor 
sheets always so clean as to guard against 
infection ; and if, perchance, it sometimes 
broke out, we knew how to cure it. 

" Our wages were generally screwed down 
to the lowest notch by the school commit- 
tees, under the instruction of the distiicts. 
For my first campaign I received seven dol- 
lars a month and board ; for the next, nine ; 
for the third, ten; and I think I never went 
above thirteen till quite the last of my teach- 
ing before I went to college. As I had 
some reputation in that line, I suppose I was 
as well paid as my brethren. 

" With regard to the summer schools of 
that period, I have very little to say. They 
were kept by females upon very low wages, 
about as much a week as they could earn in 
families by spinning or weaving. They took 
good care of the little children, and taught 
them as well as they could. 

"As we had no grammar schools in which 
the languages were taught, we most of us 
fitted for college with our ministers, who, 
though not very fresh from their classics, 
did what they could to help us. 

" Finally, you ask me whether there were 
any schools for young ladies in those old 
times ? There may possibly have been in 
two or three of the largest towns, but the 
only one of which I had any knowledge was 
in Litchfield, kept by Miss Pierce, and I am 
not quite sure that her school was estab- 
lished as early as your question contem- 
plates. 

" Theso, dear sir, are some of my old re- 
membrances, which you may make such use 
of as you please. 

" Respectfully yours, 

" H. Humphrey." 

LETTER PROM HON. JOSEPH T. BUCKINGHAM. 

"Cambridge, Dec. 10th, 1860. 

" Henry Barnard, Esq. : My Dear Sir 
— I cheerfully comply with your request to 
give you some account of the schools and 
the educational books that were in use about 



the close of the last century. I never had 
the privilege of attending any higher insti- 
tution of learning than the common district 
schools of Connecticut, in the town of Wind- 
ham ; but I have no doubt that those of that 
town were a fair type of many others, prob- 
ably most of them, except such as were kept 
in the larger towns or thickly populated vil- 
lages. 

" According to the best of my remem- 
brance, my school-days began in the spring 
of 1783. The school to which I was admit- 
ted was kept by a lady, and, like most of the 
district schools, was kept only for the younger 
pupils, and was open for two months durintr 
the summer season. The upper class in the 
school was formed entirely of females — such 
as could read in the Bible. The lower classes 
read in spelling books and the New England 
Primer. The spelling books, of which there 
were not, probably, more than three or four 
in the school, I believe were all by Dilworth, 
and were much worn and defaced, having 
been a sort of heir-loom in the families of 
the pupils. The teacher of this school was 
the daughter of the minister of the parish. 
She kept a rod hanging on the wall behind 
her chair and a ferule on the table by her 
side ; but I do not recollect that she used 
either of them. The girls who constituted 
the first class were required, every Monday 
morning, to repeat the text or texts of the 
preceding day's discourse, stating the book, 
chapter, and verse whence it Avas taken. The 
next summer, 1784, the same lady, or one of 
her sisters, kept school in the same district. 
The same books were in use, and there was 
the same routine of exercises. It was kept 
on the first floor of the steeple. The lower 
end of the bell-rope lay in a coil in the centre 
of the floor. The discipline was so strict, 
that no one, however mischievously disposed, 
I believs ever thought of taking hold of it, 
thoufjh it was somethinfj of an incumbrance. 
I was then four years and a half old, and had 
learned 6y heart nearly all the reading lessons 
in the Primer, and much of the Westminster 
Catechism, which was taught as the closing 
exercise every Saturday. But justice to one 
of the best of mothers requires that I should 
say that much the greater part of the im- 
provement I had made was acquired from 
her careful instruction. 

" In December, 1784, the month in which 
I was five years old, I attended, for a few 
days, the school kept by a master — I do not 
remember his name. When asked up for 



372 



EDUCATION AND KDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



examination, he asked me if I could read 
without spelling ? I said I could read in the 
Bible. He hesitated a moment, and then 
placed me on one of the benches, opened a 
Bible at the fifth chapter of Acts, and asked 
me to read. I read ten or a dozen verses — 
being the account of Ananias and his wife 
falling dead before Peter for telling a lie. 
Whether he had any suspicion that I had 
told a falsehood, and took this method to 
reprove me, I know not ; but he dismissed 
me with approbation. He used his ferule on 
the hands of some of the elder boys; but 
the severest punishment that he inflicted for 
any violation of order, was compelling a boy 
who had brought into the school the breast- 
bone of a chicken, (commonly called the 
wishing -hone,) and with which he had excited 
some noise among the pupils, to stand on 
one of the benches and wear the bone on 
his nose till the school was dismissed. I 
am strongly impressed with the belief that 
Webster's spelling book made its first ap- 
pearance in the schools during this winter. 
The following summer I attended, but very 
irregularly, a school kept as before in the 
steeple of the meeting-house,* and had a 
copy of Webster. AVhether there were any 
other copies in the school or not I am not 
able to say. The next two winters, circum- 
stances which I have no desire to recall, and 
which you would not care to be acquainted 
with, prevented my attending any school. 
In the summer of 1786, these same circum- 
stances caused me to be removed to another 
district three miles distant from the central 
village. The farmer with whom I lived 
thought I could read well enough, and as 
the district school-house was a mile or more 
distant, he considered it unnecessary to send 
me that distance in the winter, merely to 
read ; and consequently for two or three 
winters I went to school not more than eight 
or ten days in each. At length, in 1790 or 
1791, it was thought I was old enough to 
learn to cipher, and accordingly was per- 
mitted to go to school more constantly. I 
told the master I wanted to learn to cipher. 
He set me a sum in simple addition — Jive 
columns of figures, and six figures in each 
column. All the instruction he gave me 
was — add the figures in the first column, 
carry one for every ten, and set the overplus 
down under the column. I supposed he 
meant by the first column the left hand 



* This was the last time I went to a summer school. 



column ; but what he meant by carrying one 
for every ten was as much a mystery as 
Samson's riddle was to the Philistines. 
I worried my brains an hour or two, and 
showed the master the figures I had made. 
You may judge what the amount was, when 
the columns were added from left to right. 
The master frowned and repeated his former 
instruction — add up the column on the right, 
carry one for every ten, and set down the 
remainder. Two or three afternoons (I did 
not go to school in the morning) were spent 
in this way, when I begged to be excused 
from learning to cipher, and the old gentle- 
man with whom I lived thought it was time 
wasted ; and if I attended the school any 
further at that time, reading and spelling, 
and a little writing were all that was tauofht. 
The next winter there was a teacher more 
communicative and better fitted for his place, 
and under him some progress was made in 
arithmetic, and I made a tolerable acquisi- 
tion in the first four rules, according to Dil- 
worth's Schoolmaster's Assistant, of which 
the teacher and one of the eldest boys had 
each a copy. The two following winters, 
1794 and 1795, I mastered all the rules and 
examples in the first part of Dilworth ; that 
is, through the various chapters of Rule of 
Three, Practice, Fellowship, Interest, etc. 
etc., to Geometrical Progression and Per- 
mutation. 

" In our district, the books were of rather 
a miscellaneous character, such as had been 
in fimiilies perhaps half a century or more. 
My belief is that Webster's Spelling Book 
was not in general use before 1790 or 1791. 
The Bible was read by the first class in the 
morning, always, and generally in the after- 
noon before the closing exercise, which was 
always a lesson in spelling, and this was per- 
formed by all the pupils who were sufficient- 
ly advanced to pronounce distinctly words 
of more than one syllable. It was the cus- 
tom for all such pupils to stand together as 
one class, and with one voice to read a column 
or two of the tables for spelling. Tlie mas- 
ter gave the signal to begin, and all united 
to read, letter by letter, pronouncing each 
syllable by itself, and adding it to the pre- 
ceding one till the word was complete. Thus, 
a-d ad, m-i mi, admi, r-a ra, admira, t-i-o-n 
shun, admiration. This mode of reading 
was exceedingly exciting, and, in my humble 
judgment, exceedingly useful ; as it required 
and taught deliberate and distinct articula- 
tion, and inspired the youngest with a desire 



PROGRESS OF COMMON OR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 



3*73 



to equal the older ones. It is true the voices 
would not all be in perfect unison ; but after 
a little practice they began to assimilate. I 
have heard a class of thirty or more read 
column after column in this manner, with 
scarcely a perceptible variation from the 
proper pitch of voice. When the lesson had 
been thus read, the books were closed, and 
the words given out for spelling. If one was 
misspelt, it passed on to the next, and the 
next pupil in order, and so on till it was 
spelt correctly. Then the pupil who had 
spelt correctly went up in the class above the 
one who had misspelt. It was also a prac- 
tice, when one was absent from this exercise 
in spelling, that he should stand at the foot 
of the class when he returned. Another of 
our customs was to choose sides to spell once 
or twice a week. The words to be spelt went 
from side to side ; and at the conclusion, the 
side which beat (spelt the most words) were 
permitted to leave the schoolroom, preceding 
the other side, who had to sweep the room 
and build the fires the next morning. These 
customs prevalent sixty and seventy years 
ago excited emulation, and emulation pro- 
duced improvement. A revival of them, I 
have no doubt, would be advantageous in 
the common schools, especially where pupils 
are required to spell words given out indis- 
criminately from a reading book or diction- 
ary. There Avas not, to my knowledge, any 
readlnj book proper, except the Bible, till 
Webster's Third Book, so called, came out 
about 1793 or 1794. A new edition of his 
spelling book furnished some new matter for 
reading — selections from the New Testament, 
a chapter of Proverbs, and a set of Tables, 
etc.; but none of these operated to the exclu- 
sion of the Bible. 

" In the family in which I lived there were 
three or four old spelling books, which I 
presume had been used in schools before the 
period of my remembrance. One of these 
was a book of less than a hundred pages, 
printed in London, I think in 1690. The 
words were arranged in tables according to 
syllables. The terminations tion, sion, cial, 
tial, etc., were all divided and printed as two 
distinct syllables. (And I believe this mode 
of printing is still continued in England. It 
was in the time of Lindley Murray, as may 
be seen in his spelling book, printed about 
forty years ago.) This spelling book con- 
tained a numeration table which, from a sin- 
gular feature, early attracted my attention. 



Every figure was 9, and the whole formed a 
curious triangle. Thus : 

9 
99 
999 and so on to 
the last, 999,999,999 

" Another spelling book in our farmer's 
library was by Daniel Penning, printed in 
London. It contained a short treatise on 
grammar, on Avhich I sometimes exercised 
my memory, but understood not one of its 
principles. We had also a Dilworth, con- 
taining certain fables — such as Jupiter and 
the Frogs, the Romish Priest and tlie Jester, 
Hercules and the Wagoner, etc., etc. An- 
other still we had, the author of which I 
never knew, as several pages had been lost 
from the beginning. It had a page of prov- 
erbs, one of which — ' a cat may look upon a 
king' — occasioned me much thoughtful ex- 
ercise. It also had an appropriate collection 
of couplets for writiug-copies, of which the 
only one I recollect was this : 

" ' X things a penman sliould have near at hand — 
Paper, pounce, pen, ink, knife, hone, rule, plum- 
met, wax, sand.' 

But that which rendered the book so mem- 
orable as never to be forgotten, was the as- 
tonishing, if not terrific, word of fourteen 
syllables — ' Ho-no-ri-fi-ca-bi-li-tu-di-ni-tu-ti- 
bus-que' — asserted to be the longest word in 
the English language. 

"In the winter of 1793-4, we had for a 
teacher Erastus Ripley, who was an un- 
der-graduate of Yale College. I mention his 
name, because I cannot look back upon the 
time when I had the advantage of his in- 
struction without a feeling of reverence for 
the man and respect for the teacher. I 
learned more from him than all the school- 
masters I had been under. He took more 
pains to instruct us in reading than all his 
predecessors within my knowledge. He 
opened the school every morning with pray- 
er — which had not been practised in our 
district. He was preparing for the ministry, 
and was afterwards settled at Canterbury, I 
think. He was highly esteemed by all the 
people of the district, and gave such an im- 
petus to the ambition of the pupils, that a 
subscription was made to employ him an ex- 
tra month after the usual term of the school 
had expired. 

" Mr. Ripley was succeeded in the winter 
of 1794-5 by a young man from Lebanon 
by the name of Tisdale, under whom my 



3U 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



school days were finished ; and here I may 
bring this long and, I fear, very uninteresting 
letter to a close. Hoping this may serve the 
purpose for which you suggested the writ- 
ing of it, and wishing you all the success 
you can desire in the noble cause in which 
you are engaged, 

" I am, very respectfully 
" And truly yours, 

"Joseph T. Buckingham." 

letter from rev. eliphalet nott, d.d., 
dated jan., 1861. 

" When I was a boy, seventy-five or eighty 
years ago, in good old Puritan Connecticut, 
it was felt as a practical maxim ' that to 
spare' the rod was to spoil the child ;' and 
on this maxim the pedagogue acted in the 
school-room, and applied it for every oftence, 
real or imaginary ; and for having been 
whipped at school by the relentless master, 
the unfortunate tyro was often whipped at 
home by his no less relentless father; so 
that between the two relentless executors of 
justice among the Puritan fathers, few 
children, I believe, were spoiled by the with- 
holding of this orthodox discipline. For 
myself, I can say (and I do not think I was 
waywai-d beyond the average of district 
school-boys) that, in addition to warnings, 
and admonitions daily, if I was not whipped 
more than three times a week, I considered 
myself for the time peculiarly fortunate. 

" Being of a contemplative and forbearing 
disposition, this discipline of the rod became 
peculiarly irksome to me, and, as I thought, 
unjustifiable ; and I formed a resolution, if I 
Uved to be a man, I would not be like other 
men in regard to their treatment of children. 

" Through the mercy of God I did live to 
be a man, and when at the age of eighteen 
I became installed as master of a district 
school in the eastern part of Franklin, Con- 
necticut — a school where rebellious spirits 
had previously asserted their rights, and 
been subdued or driven from the school 
by the use of the rod — nothing daunted, 
I made up my mind to substitute in my 
school moral motives in the place of the 
rod ; and I frankly told my assembled pu- 
pils so, and that if they would have the 
generosity to second my effbrts, they would 
secure to themselves and furnish me and 
their parents the happiness which is the 
heaven-appointed reward of well-doing. 

" The school responded to my appeal, and 



thereafter, though we played and gambolled 
together as equals in play-hours, and oa 
Saturday afternoons, which were also de- 
voted to play, the moment we entered the 
school-room, a subordination and application 
to study was observable, that became matter 
of remark and admiration among the in- 
habitants of the district, the fame of which 
success extended to other districts, and even 
to adjoining towns, so that the examination 
and exhibition with which the school closed 
the ensuing spring, called together clergymen 
and other officials from places quite remote. 

" This success brought me to the knowl- 
edge of the trustees of the Plainfield Acad- 
emy, one of the most important, if not at 
the time the most important academy in the 
state, and I was by a unanimous vote ap- 
pointed principal of said academy — an in- 
stitution in which several hundred children 
of both sexes were in the same building 
successfully taught and governed, for years, 
without the use of the rod, it being at that 
time the prevailing usage, both in district 
schools and academies, for the two sexes to 
be taught in the same room, and subjected 
to the same form of government. 

" This successful experiment in the use of 
moral suasion, and other kindred and kindly 
influences, in place of the rod, led to other 
and kindred experiments, until, whether for 
the better or the worse, the rod at length 
came to occupy a very subordinate place in 
the system of school education. 

" In those days, education in common 
schools was not so diffusive as at the present 
day ; but quite as thorough, if not more so. 
The same remark may be applied to the 
higher schools or academies — the whole field 
of natural science being at that time, for the 
most part, unexplored ; but mathematics and 
classics were zealously taught. In evidence 
of this, though inferior in attainments to 
some of my classmates, I published success- 
fully myself an almanac when about twenty- 
one years of age. 

" As the rod in those days was the prin- 
cipal instrument in common school edu- 
cation, so when I was afterward called to 
Union College, fines, suspensions, and ex- 
pulsions were the principal instruments of 
collegiate government. The faculty sat in 
their robes as a coui't, caused offenders to be 
brought before them, examined witnesses, 
heard defences, and pronounced sentences 
with the solemnity of other courts of justice ; 
and thoufjh Union Colleixe had on its cata- 



PROGRESS OF COMMON OR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 



375 



logue but a very diminutive number of stu- 
dents, the sitting of the faculty as a court 
occupied no inconsiderable part of the time 
of its president and professors. 

" Soon after I became connected with 
the college as its president, a case of disci- 
pline occurred which led to the trial and is- 
sued in the expulsion of a student belong- 
ing to a very respectable family in the city 
of Albany. According to the charter of 
Union College, the sentence of the faculty is 
not final. An appeal can be taken to the 
board of trustees, and in the case in ques- 
tion an appeal was taken, and, after keeping 
college in confusion for months, by the dif- 
ferent hearings of the case, the board re- 
versed the decision of the faculty, and re- 
stored the young man. On the event of this 
restoration, I informed them that they should 
never, during my administration, have occa- 
sion to review another case of discipline by 
the faculty ; and during the fifty-six years 
which have since passed away, I have kept 
my word ; and though we have been less 
successful in our system of parental govern- 
ment than could be wished, we have had no 
rebellions, and it is conceded, I believe gen- 
erally, that quite as large a proportion of 
our young men have succeeded in after life 
as of any other collegiate institution in the 
Union." 

RECOLLECTIONS OF PETER PARLEY. 

The following picture of the District 
School as it was a few years later, in the 
town of Ridgefield,* one of the most ad- 
vanced agricultural communities of Connec- 



* " Nearly all the inhabitants of Ridgefield were 
farmers, with the few mechanics that were neces- 
sary to carry on society in a somewhat primeval 
state. Even the persons not professionally devoted 
to agriculture, had each his farm, or at least his gar- 
den and home lot, with his pigs, poultry, and cattle. 
The population might have been 1200, comprising 
200 families. All could read and write, but in point 
of fact, beyond the Almanac and Watts' Psalms and 
Hymns, their literary acquirements had little scope. 
There were, I think, four newspapers, all weekly, 
published in the state : one at Hartford, one at New 
London, one at New Haven, and one at Litchfield. 
There were, however, not more than three sub- 
scribers to all these in our village. "We had, how- 
ever, a public library of some 200 volumes, and 
what was of equal consequence — the town was on 
the road which was then the great thoroughfare, 
connecting Boston with New York, and hence it 
had means of intelligence from travellers constantly 
passing through the place, which kept it up -nith 
the march of events." 



ticut, is from the pen of Peter Parley, in his 
" Recollections of a Lifetime." 

" About three fourths of a mile from my 
father's house, on the winding road to Lower 
Salem, which bore the name of West Lane, 
was the school-house where I took my first 
lessons, and received the foundations of my 
very slender education. I have since been 
sometimes asked where I graduated : my 
reply has always been, 'At West Lane.' Gen- 
erally speaking, this has ended the inquiry, 
whether because my interlocutors have con- 
founded this venerable institution with ' Lane 
Seminary,' or have not thought it worth while 
to risk an exposure of their ignorance as to 
the college in which I was educated, I am 
unable to say. 

" The site of the school-house was a trian- 
gular piece of land, measuring perhaps a 
rood in extent, and lying, according to the 
custom of those days, at the meeting of four 
roads. The ground hereabouts — as every- 
where else in Ridgefield — was exceedingly 
stony, and in making the pathway the stones 
had been thrown out right and left, and 
there remained in heaps on either side, from 
generation to generation. All round was 
bleak and desolate. Loose, squat stone 
walls, with innumerable breaches, inclosed 
adjacent fields. A few tufts of elder, with 
here and there a patch of briers and poke- 
weed, flourished in the gravelly soil. Not a 
tree, however, remained, save an aged chest' 
nut, at the western angle of the space. This 
certainly had not been spared for shade or 
ornament, but probably because it woidd 
have cost too much labor to cut it down, for 
it was of ample girth. At all events it was 
the oasis in our desert during summer ; and 
in autumn, as the burrs disclosed its fruit, 
it resembled a besieged city. The boys, 
like so many catapults, hurled at it stones 
and sticks, until every nut had capitulated. 

" Two houses only were at hand : one, sur- 
rounded by an ample barn, a teeming or- 
chard, and an enormous wood-pile, belonged 
to Granther Baldwin ; the other was the 
property of 'Old Chich-es-ter,' an uncouth, 
unsocial being, whom everybody for some 
reason or other seemed to despise and shun. 
Bis house Avas of stone and of one story. 
He had a cow, which every year had a calf. 
He had a wife — filthy, uncombed, and vague- 
ly reported to have been brought from the 
old country. This is about the whole his- 
tory of the man, so far as it is written in 
the authentic traditions of the parish. His 



376 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



premises, an acre in extent, consisted of a 
tongue of land between two of the converg- 
ing roads. No boy, that I ever heard of, 
ventured to cast a stone or to make an in- 
cursion into this territory, though it lay 
close to the school-house. I have often, in 
passing, peeped timidly over the walls, and 
caught glimpses of a stout man with a drab 
coat, drab breeches, and drab gaiters, glazed 
with ancient grease and long abrasion, prowl- 
ing about the house ; but never did I dis- 
cover him outside of his own dominion. I 
know it was darkly intimated that he had 
been a tory, and was tarred and feathered in 
the revolutionary war, but as to the rest he 
was a perfect myth. Granthcr Baldwin was 
a character no less marked, but I must re- 
serve his picture for a subsequent letter. 

"The school-house itself consisted of rough, 
unpainted clapboards, upon a w^ooden frame. 
It was plastered within, and contained two 
apartments — a little entry, taken out of a 
corner for a wardrobe, and the school-room 
proper. The chimney was of stone, and 
pointed with mortar, which, by the way, 
had been dug into a honeycomb by uneasy 
and enterprising penknives. The fireplace 
was six feet wide and four feet deep. The 
tlue was so ample and so perpendicular, that 
the rain, sleet, and snow fell direct to the 
hearth. In winter, the battle for life with 
green fizzling fuel, which was brought in 
sled lengths and cut up by the scholars, was 
a stern one. Not unfrequently, the wood, 
gushing with sap as it was, chanced to be 
out, and as there was no living Avithout fire, 
the thermometer being ten or twenty degrees 
below zero, the school was dismissed, where- 
at all the scholars rejoiced aloud, not having 
the fear of the schoolmaster before their 
eyes. 

" It was the custom at this place to have a 
woman's school in the sununer months, and 
this was attended only by young children. 
It was, in fact, what we now call a primary 
or infant school. In winter, a man was 
employed as teacher, and then the girls and 
boys of the neighborhood, up to the age of 
eighteen, or even twenty, were among the 
pupils. It was not uncommon, at this sea- 
son, to have forty scholars crowded into this 
little building, 

" I was about six years old when I first 
went to school. My teacher was Aunt De- 
light, that is. Delight Benedict, a maiden 
lady of fifty, short and bent, of sallow com- 
plexion and solemn aspect. I remember the 



first day with perfect distinctness. I went 
alone — for I was familiar with the road, it 
being that which passed by our old house. 
I carried a little basket, with bread and 
butter within, for my dinner, the same being 
covered over with a white cloth. When I 
had proceeded about half way, I lifted the 
cover, and debated whether I would not eat 
my dinner then. I believe it was a sense 
of duty only that prevented my doing so, 
for in those happy days I always had a 
keen appetite. Bread and butter were then 
infinitely superior to pate de foie gras now ; 
but still, thanks to my training, I had also a 
conscience. As my mother had given me 
the food for dinner, I did not think it right 
to convert it into lunch, even though I was 
strongly tempted. 

" I think we had seventeen scholars — boys 
and girls — mostly of my own age. Among 
them were some of my after companions. I 
have since met several of them — one at 
Savannah, and two at Mobile, respectably 
established, and with families around them. 
Some remain, and are now among the gray 
old men of the town ; the names of others I 
have seen inscribed on the tombstones of 
their native village. And the rest — where 
are they ? 

" The school being organized, we were all 
seated upon benches, made of what were 
called slabs — that is, boards having the ex- 
terior or rounded part of the log on one 
side : as they were useless for other purposes, 
these were converted into school-benches, 
the rounded part down. They had each 
four supports, consisting of straddling wood- 
en legs, set into auger holes. Our own legs 
swayed in the air, for they were too short to 
touch the floor. Oh, what an awe fell over 
me, when we Avere all seated and silence 
reigned around ! 

" The children were called up, one by one, 
to Aunt Delight, who sat on a low chair, 
and required each, as a preliminary, to make 
his manners, consisting of a small sudden 
nod or jerk of the head. She then placed 
the spelling-book — which was Dilworth's — 
before the pupil, and with a buck-handled 
penknife pointed, one by one, to the letters 
of the alphabet, saying, ' What's that V If 
the child knew his letters the ' What's that V 
very soon ran on thus : 

'" What's that r 

"'A.' 

" ' 'Stha-a-t V 

" ' B.' 



PROGRESS OF COMMON OR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 



377 



" ' Sna-a-a-t V 

" ' Sna-a-a-t V 

" ' Sna-a-a-t V 
" ' E.' &c. 

" I looked upon these operations with in- 
tense curiosity and no small respect, until 
my own turn came. I went up to the school- 
mistress with some emotion, and when she 
said, rather spitefully, as I thought, ' Make 
your obeisance !' my little intellects all fled 
away, and I did nothing. Having waited a 
second, gazing at me with indignation, she 
laid her hand on the top of my head, and 
gave it a jerk which made my teeth clash. 
I believe I bit my tongue a little ; at all 
events, my sense of dignity was offended, 
and when she pointed to A, and asked what 
it was, it swam before me dim and hazy, 
and as big as a full moon. She repeated the 
question, but I was doggedly silent. Again, 
a third time, she said, ' What's that V I 
replied: 'Why don't you tell me what it 
is? I didn't come here to learn you your 
letters !' I have not the slightest remem- 
brance of this, for my brains were all a-wool- 
gathering ; but as Aunt Delight affirmed it 
to be a fact, and it passed into tradition, I 
put it in. I may have told this story some 
years ago in one of my books, imputing it 
to a fictitious hero, yet this is its true origin, 
according to my recollection. 

"What immediately followed I do not 
clearly remember, but one result is distinct- 
ly traced in my memory. In the evening 
of this eventful day, the school-mistress paid 
my parents a visit, and recounted to their 
astonished ears this, my a\Yfiil contempt of 
authority. My father, after hearing the 
story, got up and went away; but my 
mother, who was a careful disciplinarian, 
told me not to do so again ! I always had 
a suspicion that both of them smiled on one 
side of their faces, even while they seemed 
to sympathize with the old petticoat and 
penknife pedagogue, on the other; still I 
do not affirm it, for I am bound to say, of 
both my parents, that I never knew them, 
even in trifles, say one thing while they 
meant another. 

"I believe I achieved the alphabet that 
summer, but my after progress, for a long 
time, I do not remember. Two years later 
I went to the winter-school at the same place, 
kept by Lewis Olmstead — a man who had a 
call for plowing, mowing, carting manure, 



etc., in summer, and for teaching school in the 
winter, with a talent for music at all seasons, 
wherefore he became chorister upon occa- 
sion, when, peradventure. Deacon Ilawley 
could not officiate. He was a celebrity in 
ciphering, and 'Squire Seymour declared 
that he was the greatest ' arithmeticker' in 
Fairfield county. All 1 remember of his 
person is his hand, which seemed to me as 
big as Goliah's, judging by the claps of 
thunder it made in my ears on one or two 
occasions. 

" The next step of my progress which is 
marked in my memory, is the spelling of 
words of two syllables. I did not go very 
regularly to school, but by the time I was 
ten years old I had learned to write, and 
had made a little progress in arithmetic. 
There was not a grammar, a geography, or 
a history of any kind in the school. Read- 
ing, writing, and arithmetic were the only 
things taught, and these very indifterently — 
not wholly from the stupidity of the teacher, 
but because he had forty scholars, and the 
standarrds of the age required no more than 
he performed. I did as well as the other 
scholars, certainly no better. I had excel- 
lent health and joyous spirits; in leaping, 
running, and wrestling, I had but one su- 
perior of my age, and that was Stephen 
Olmstead, a snug-built fellow, smaller than 
myself, and who, despite our rivalry, was 
my chosen friend and companion. I seemed 
to live for play: alas! how the world has 
changed since I have discovered that we live 
to agonize over study, work, care, ambition, 

disappointment, and then ? 

" As I shall not have occasion again, for- 
mally, to introduce this seminary into my 
narrative, I may as well close my account 
of it now. After I had left my native town 
for some twenty years, I returned and paid 
it a visit. Among the monuments that 
stood high in my memory was the West 
Lane school-house. Unconsciously carrying 
with me the measures of childhood, I had 
supposed it to be at least thirty feet square; 
how had it dwindled when I came to esti- 
mate it by the new standards I had form- 
ed ! It was in all things the same, yet 
wholly changed to me. What I had deem- 
ed a respectable edifice, as it now stood be- 
fore me was only a weather-beaten little 
shed, which, upon being measured, I found 
to be less than twenty feet square. It hap- 
pened to be a warm, summer day, and I 
ventured to enter the place. I found a girl, 



318 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



some eighteen years old, keeping ' a ma'am 
school' for about twenty scholars, some of 
•whom were studying Parley's Geography. 
The mistress was the daughter of one of my 
schoolmates, and some of the boys and girls 
were grandchildren of the little brood which 
gathered under the wing of Aunt Delight, 
when I was an a-b-c-darian. None of them, 
not even the school-mistress, had ever heard 
of me. The name of my father, as having 
ministered unto the people of Ridgefield in 
some bygone age, was faintly traced in their 
recollection. As to Peter Parley, whose 
Geography they were learning — they sup- 
posed him some decrepit old gentleman 
hobbling about on a crutch, a long way off, 
for whom, nevertheless, they had a certain 
affection, inasmuch as he had made geogra- 
phy into a story-book. The frontispiece- 
picture of the old fellow, with his gouty foot 
in a chair, threatening the boys that if they 
touched his tender toe, he would tell them 
no more stories, secured their respect, and 
placed him among the saints in the calendar 
of their young hearts. Well, thought I, if 
this goes on I may yet rival Mother Goose ! 

" At the age of ten years I was sent to the 
up-town school, the leading seminary of the 
village, for at this period it had not ar- 
rived at the honor of an academy, the in- 
stitution being then, and many yeai's after, 
under the charge of Master Stebbins. He 
was a man with a conciliating stoop in the 
shoulders, a long body, short legs, and a 
swaying walk. lie was, at this period, some 
fifty 3'ears old, his hair being thin and sil- 
very, and always falling in well-combed rolls 
over his coat-collar. His eye was blue, 
and his dress invariably of the same color. 
Breeches and knee-buckles, blue-mixed stock- 
ings, and shoes with bright buckles, seemed 
as much a part of the man as his head and 
shoulders. On the Avhole, his appearance 
was that of the middle-class gentleman of 
the olden time, and he was in fact what he 
seemed. 

" This seminary of learning for the rising 
aristocracy of Ridgefield was a wooden edi- 
fice, thirty by twenty feet, covered with 
brown clapboards, and, except an entry, con- 
sisted of a single room. Around and against 
the walls ran a continuous line of seats, front- 
ed by a continuous writing-desk. Beneath, 
were depositories for books and writing mate- 
rials. The centre was occupied by slab seats, 
similar to those of West Lane. The larger 
scholars were ranged on the outer sides, at 



the desks ; the smaller fry of a-b-c-darians 
were seated in the centre. The master was 
enshrined on the east side of the room, con- 
trary, be it remembered, to the law of the 
French savans, which places dominion in- 
variably in the west. Regular as the sun, 
Master Stebbins was in his seat at nine 
o'clock, and the performances of the school 
began. 

" According to the Catechism — which, by 
the way, we learned and recited on Saturday 
— the chief end of man was to glorify God 
and keep his commandments : according to 
the routine of this school, one would have 
thought it to be reading, writing, and arith- 
metic, to which we may add spelling. From 
morning to night, in all weathers, through 
every season of the year, these exercises 
were carried on with the energy, patience, 
and perseverance of a manufactory. 

" Master Stebbins respected his calling : 
his heart was in his work ; and so, what he 
pretended to teach, he taught well. When 
I entered the school, I found that a huge 
stride had been achieved in the march of 
mind since I had left West Lane. Webster's 
Spelling Book had taken the place of Dil- 
worth, which was a great improvement. 
The drill in spelling was very thorough, and 
applied every day to the whole school. I 
imagine that the exercises might have 
been amusing to a stranger, especially as 
one scholar would sometimes go off in a 
voice as gruin as that of a bull-frog, while 
another would follow in tones as fine and 
piping as a peet-weet. The blunders, too, 
were often ineffably ludicrous; even we 
children would sometimes have tittered, had 
not such an enormity been certain to have 
brought out the birch. As to rewards and 
punishments, the system was this : who- 
ever missed went down ; so that perfection 
mounted to the top. Here was the begin- 
ning of the up and down of life. 

" Reading was performed in classes, which 
generally plodded on without a hint from 
the master. Nevertheless, when Zeek San- 
ford — who Avas said to have a streak of 
lightning in him — in his haste to be smart, 
read the 37th verse of the 2d chapter of the 
Acts — ' Now when they heard this, they 
were pickled in their heart' — the birch stick 
on Master Stebbins's table seemed to quiver 
and peel at the little end, as if to give warn- 
ing of the wrath to come. When Orry 
Keeler — Orry was a girl, you know, and not 
a boy — drawled out in spelling : k — o — n, 



PROGRESS OF COMMON OR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 



379 



Icon, s — h — u — n — t — s, shunts, konshunts 
— the bristles in the master's eyebrows fidg- 
eted like Aunt Delight's knitting-needles. 
Occasionally, when the reading was insup- 
portably bad, he took a book and read him- 
self, as an example. 

"We were taught arithmetic in Daboll, 
then a new book, and which, being adapted 
to our measures of length, weight, and cur- 
rency, was a prodigious leap over the head 
of poor old Dilworth, whose rules and ex- 
amples were modelled upon English customs. 
In consequence of the general use of Dil- 
worth in our schools, for perhaps a century 
— pounds, shillings, and pence were classi- 
cal, and dollars and cents vulgar, for several 
succeeding generations. ' I would not give 
a penny for it,' was genteel ; ' I would not 
give a cent for it,' was plebeian. We have 
not yet got over this : we sometimes say red 
cent in familiar parlance, but it can hardly 
be put in print without offence. 

" Master Stebbins was a great man with a 
slate and pencil, and I have an idea that we 
were a generation after his own heart. We 
certainly achieved wonders according to our 
own conceptions, some of us going even be- 
yond the Rule of Three, and making forays 
into the mysterious region of Vulgar Frac- 
tions. Several daring geniuses actually en- 
tered and took possession. 

" But after all, penmanship was Master 
Stebbins's great accomplishment. He had 
no magniloquent system ; no pompous les- 
sons upon single lines and bifid lines, and 
the like. The revelations of inspired copy- 
book makers had not then been vouchsafed 
to man. He could not cut an American 
eagle with a single flourish of a goose-quill. 
He was guided by good taste and native 
instinct, and wrote a smooth round hand, 
like copper-plate. His lessons from A to &, 
all Avritten by himself, consisted of pithy 
proverbs and useful moral lessons. On every 
page of our writing-books he wrote the first 
line himself. The eflfect was what might 
have been expected — with such models, pa- 
tiently enforced, nearly all became good 
writers. 

" Beyond these simple elements, the Up- 
town school made few pretensions. When 
I was there, two Webster's Grammars and 
one or two Dwight's Geographies were in 
use. The latter was without maps or illus- 
trations, and was in fact little more than an 
expanded table of contents, taken from 
Morse's Universal Geography — the mam- 



moth monument of American learning and 
genius of that age and generation. The 
grammar was a clever book ; but I have an 
idea that neither Master Stebbins nor his 
pupils ever fathomed its depths. They floun- 
dered about in it, as if in a quagmire, and 
after some time came out pretty nearly where 
they went in, though perhaps a little obfus- 
cated by the dim and dusky atmosphere of 
these labyi'inths. 

" The fact undoubtedly is, that the art of 
teaching, as now understood, beyond the 
simplest elements, was neither known nor 
deemed necessary in our country schools in 
their day of small things. Repetition, drill- 
ing, line upon line, and precept upon pre- 
cept, with here and there a little of the birch 
— constituted the entire system. 

" Let me here repeat an anecdote, which 
I have indeed told before, but which I had 
from the lips of its hero, G . . . H . . ., a 
clergyman of some note thirty years ago, 
and which well illustrates this part of my 
story. At a village school, not many miles 
from Ridgefield, he was put into Webster's 
Grammar. Here he read, ' A noun is the 
name of a thing — as hor.se, hair, justice.' 
Now in his innocence, he read it thus : ' A 
noun is the name of a thing — as horse-hair 
justice.'' 

" ' What then,' said he, ruminating deeply, 
'is a noun? But first I must find out what 
a horse-hair justice is.' 

"Upon this he meditated for some days, 
but still he was as far as ever fi'om the solu- 
tion. Now his father was a man of authority 
in those parts, and moreover he was a justice 
of the peace. Withal, he was of respectable 
ancestry, and so there had descended to him 
a somewhat stately high-backed settee, cov- 
ered with horse-hair. One day, as the youth 
came from school, pondering upon the great 
grammatical problem, he entered the front 
door of the house, and there he saw before 
him, his father, oflaciating in his legal capa- 
city, and seated upon the old horse-hair set- 
tee. ' I have found it !' said the boy to 
himself, as greatly delighted as was Archim- 
edes when he exclaimed Eureka — ' my fa- 
ther is a horse-hair justice, and therefore a 
noun !' 

" Nevertheless, it must be admitted that 
the world got on remarkably well in spite 
of this narrowness of the country schools. 
The elements of an English education were 
pretty well taught throughout the village 
seminaries of Connecticut, and I may add, 



380 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



of New England. The teachers were heart- 
ily devoted to their profession : they re- 
spected their calling, and were respected 
and encouraged by the community. They 
had this merit, tliat while they attempted 
but little, that, at least, was thoroughly per- 
formed. 

" As to the country at large, it was a day 
of quiet, though earnest action : Franklin's 
spirit was the great ' schoolmaster abroad' — 
teaching industry, perseverance, frugality, 
and thrift, as the end and aim of ambition. 
The education of youth was suited to what was 
expected of them. With the simple lessons 
of the country schools, they moved the 
world immediately around them. Though 
I can recollect only a single case — that al- 
ready alluded to of Ezekiel Sanford — in which 
one of Master Stebbins's scholars attained 
any degree of literary distinction, still, quite 
a number of them, with no school learning 
beyond what he gave them, rose to a certain 
degree of eminence. His three sons obtain- 
ed situations in New York as accountants, 
and became distinguished in their career. 
At one period there were three graduates 
of his school, who were cashiers of banks in 
that city. My mind adverts now with great 
satisfaction to several names among the 
wealthy, honorable, and still active mer- 
chants of the great metropolis, who were 
my fellow-students of the tip-town school,, 
and who there began and completed their 
education." 

J'o the advantages, such as they were, of 
the district school, Mr. Goodrich adds an 
account of his experience on the farm, and 
his juvenile sports, as Avell as his early at- 
tempts at whittlim^ and other mechanical 
arts, and adds the following reflections : — 

" Now all these things may seem trifles, 
yet in a review of my life, I deem them of 
some significance. This homely familiarity 
with the more mechanical arts was a mate- 
rial part of my education; this communion 
with nature gave me instructive and impor- 
tant lessons from nature's open book of 
knowledge. My technical education, as will 
be seen hereafter, was extremely narrow and 
irregular. This defect was at last partially 
supplied by the commonplace incidents I 
have mentioned. The teaching, or rather 
the training of the senses, in the country — 
ear and eye, foot and hand, by running, leap- 
ing, climbing over hill and mountain, by oc- 
casional labor in the garden and on the farm, 
and by the use of tools — and all this in youth, 



is sowing seed which is repaid largely and 
readily to the hand of after cultivation, \io\\- 
ever unskilful it may be. This is not so 
much because of the amount of knowledge 
available in after-life, which is thus obtained 
— though this is not to be despised — as it 
is that healthful, vigorous, manly habits and 
associations — physical, moral, and intellec- 
tual — are thus established and developed. 

" It is a riddle to many people that the 
emigrants from the country into the city, in 
all ages, outstrip the natives, 'and become 
their masters. The reason is obvious : coun- 
try education and country life are practical, 
and invigorating to body and mind, and 
hence those who are thus qualified triumph 
in the race of life. It has always been, it 
will always be so ; the rustic Goths and 
Vandals will march in and conquer Rome, 
in the future, as they have done in the past. 
I say this, by no means insisting that my 
own life furnishes any very striking proof 
of the ti'uth of my remarks ; still, I may say 
that but for the country training and experi- 
ence I have alluded to, and which served as 
a foothold for subsequent progress, I should 
have lingered in my career far behind the 
humble advances I have actually made. 

"Let me illustrate and verify my meaning 
by specific examples. In my youth I be- 
came familiar with every bird common to 
the country : I knew his call, his song, his 
hue, liis food, his habits; in short, his natu- 
ral history. I could detect him by his flight, 
as far as the eye could reach. I knew all 
the quadrupeds — wild as well as tame. I 
was acquainted with almost every tree, shrub, 
bush, and flower, indigenous to the country ; 
not botanically, but according to popular 
ideas. I recognized them instantly, where- 
ever I saw them ; I knew their forms, 
hues, leaves, blossoms, and fruit. I c<juld 
tell their characteristics, their uses, the 
legends and traditions that belonged to 
them. All this I learned by familiarity with 
these objects ; meeting with them in all my 
walks and rambles, and taking note of them 
with the emphasis and vigor of eaily experi- 
ence and observation. In after days. 1 have 
never had time to make natural history a 
systematic study; yet my knowledge as to 
these things has constantly accumulated, 
and that without special eftbrt. When I 
have travelled in other countries, the birds, 
the animals, the vegetation, have interested 
me as well \>j their resemblances as their 
diflcrences, Avhen compared Mith our own. 



PROGRESS OF COMMON OR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 



381 



In looking over the pages of scientific works 
on natural history, I have always read with 
eagerness and intelligence of preparation ; 
indeed, of vivid and pleasing associations. 
Every idea I had touching these matters 
was living and sympathetic, and beckoned 
other ideas to it, and these again originated 
still others. Thus it is that in the race of a 
busy life, by means of a homely, hearty start 
at the beginning, I have, as to these subjects, 
easily and naturally supplied, in some hum- 
ble degree, the defects of my irregular edu- 
cation, and that too, not by a process of re- 
pulsive toil, but with a relish superior to all 
the seductions of romance. I am therefore a 
believer in the benefits accruing from simple 
country life and simple country habits, as here 
illustrated, and am, therefore, on all occasions 
anxious to recommend them to my friends and 
countrymen. To city people, I would say, 
educate yourchildren, at least partially, in the 
country, so as to imbue them with the love 
of nature, and that knowledge and training 
which spring from simple rustic sports, ex- 
ercises, and employments. To country peo- 
ple, I would remark, be not envious of the 
city, for in the general balance of good and 
evil, you have your full portion of the first, 
with a diminished share of the last." 

THE HOMESPUN ERA OF COMMON SCHOOLS. 
BY HORACE BUSHNELL, D.D. 

" But the schools — we must not pass by 
these, if we are to form a truthful and suffi- 
cient picture of the homespun days. The 
schoolmaster did not exactly go ^ound the 
district to fit out the children's minds with 
learning, as the shoemaker often did to fit 
their feet with shoes, or the tailor to mea- 
sure and cut for their bodies ; but, to come 
as near it as possible, he boarded round, (a 
custom not yet gone by,) and the wood for 
the common fire was supplied in a way 
equally primitive, viz., by a contribution of 
loads from the several families, according to 
their several quantities of childhood. The 
children were all clothed alike in home- 
spun ; and the only signs of aristocracy 
were, that some were clean and some a de- 
gree less so, some in fine white and striped 
linen, some in brown tow crash ; and, in 
particular, as I remember, with a certain 
feeling of quality I do not like to express, 
the good fathers of some testified the opin- 
ion they had of their children, by bringing 
fine round loads of hickory wood to warm 
them, while some others, I regret to say, 
23* 



brought only scanty, scraggy, ill-looking 
heaps of green oak, white birch, and hem- 
lock. Indeed, about all the bickerings of 
quality among the children, centered in the 
quality of the wood pile. There was no 
complaint, in those days, of the want of 
ventilation ; for the large open fire-place 
held a considerable fraction of a cord of 
wood, and the windows took in just enough 
air to supply the combustion. Besides, the 
bigger lads were occasionally ventilated, by 
being sent out to cut wood enough to keep 
the fire in action. The seats were made of 
the outer slabs from the saw-mill, supported 
by slant legs driven into and a proper dis- 
tance through auger holes, and planed 
smooth on the top by the rather tardy 
process of friction. But the spelling went 
on bravely, and we ciphered away again 
and again, always till we got through Loss 
and Gain. The more advanced of us, too, 
made light work of Lindley Murray, and 
went on to the parsing, finally, of extracts 
from Shakspeare and Milton, till some of us 
began to think we had mastered their tough 
sentences in a more consequential sense of 
the term than was exactly true. 0, I re- 
member ('about the remotest thing I can 
remember) that low seat, too high, never- 
theless, to allow the feet to touch the floor, 
and that friendly teacher who had the ad- 
dress to start a first feeling of enthusiasm 
and awaken the first sense of power. He is 
living still, and wdiencver I think of him, he 
rises up to me in the far background of 
memory, as bright as if he had worn the 
seven stars in his hair. (I said he is living ; 
yes, he is here to-day, God bless him !) 
How many others of you that are here as- 
sembled, recall these little primitive univer- 
sities of homespun, where your mind was 
born, with a similar feeling of reverence 
and homely satisfaction. Perhaps you re- 
member, too, with a pleasure not less genu- 
ine, that you received the classic discipline 
of the university proper, under a dress of 
homespun, to be graduated, at the close, 
in the joint honors of broadcloth and the 
parchment." 

We might add other lights and shades to 
the picture of school life as it was down to a 
very recent period in New England and New- 
York, but we must refer oiir readers to that 
amusing and instructive volume of Rev. War- 
ren Burton, " The District School as it was." 
We must pass to the elementary schools of 
Pennsylvania and the Southern States. 



382 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



LETTER FROM "WILLIAM DARLINGTON, M.D., 
LL.D. 

" At your request, T propose to attempt a 
brief and hasty sketch of m}^ acquaintance 
with, and reminiscences of the Country 
Schools, and their condition, some sixty-five 
or seventy years since, in the south-eastern 
corner of the state of Pennsylvania ; more 
particularly the school at Birmingham, Ches- 
ter county, where the limited instruction of 
my youthful days was chiefly acquired. 

" My earliest recollections of the school to 
which I was sent go back to that trying pe- 
riod of loose government, rusticity, and 
scarcity experienced in the interval between 
the War of Independence and the adoption 
of the Federal Constitution; and if it were 
given me to wield the pen of Tom Brown 
of Rugby, I might peradventure furnish some 
graphic details of our rural seminaries of 
learning in those days of general destitution. 
But, under present circumstances, I can only 
offer the impeifect narrative of incidents and 
observations, as retained in an almost octo- 
genarian memory, 

"At the time when I was first sent to 
school — say in 1787-8 — school-houses were 
rare; and there was little or no organization 
for their maintenance. The country round, 
having been recently ravaged by a hostile 
army, was scantily supplied with teachers, 
who occasionally obtained schools by going 
among the principal femilies of the vicinage, 
and procuring subscribers for a quarter's tui- 
tion of the children on hand. Those who 
were too young to be serviceable on the 
farm were allowed to go to school in the 
summer season ; but the larger ones {exper- 
tus loquor) could only be spared for that 
purpose during winter. The extent of rural 
instruction was then considered to be prop- 
erly limited to what a worthy London alder- 
man designated as the three Rs, viz., 'Read- 
ing, Riting, and Rithmetic' To cipher 
beyond the Rule of Three was deemed a 
notable achievement and mere surplusage 
among the average of country scholars. 
The business of teaching, at that day, was 
disdainfully regarded as among the hum- 
blest and most unprofitable of callings ; and 
the teachers — often low-bred, intemperate 
adventurers from the old world — were gen- 
erally about on a par with the prevalent es- 
timate of the profession. WTienever a thrift- 
less vagabond was found to be good for 
nothing else, he would resort to school-keep- 



ing, and teaching young American ideas 
how to shoot ! It was my good fortune, 
however, to have a teacher who was a dis- 
tinguished exception to the sorry rule re- 
ferred to. John Forsythe Avas a native of 
the Emerald Isle, born in 1754, received a 
good English education at home, and while 
yet a young man, migrated to the county of 
Chester, in the land of Penn, where he be- 
came an excellent schoolmaster. When he 
arrived in our quakerly settlement, he was a 
gay young Presbyterian, dressed in the fash- 
ionable apparel of the world's people ; and 
being withal musical in his taste, was an ex- 
pert performer on the violin. He soon, how- 
ever, adopted the views and principles of the 
' Friends,' among whom he remained, mar- 
ried one of the society, and was ever recog- 
nized as an exemplary and valuable member. 

" As the head and master-spii it of tlie 
school, at Birmingham meeting-house, es- 
tablished under the auspices of the Quaker 
society, he taught for a number of years, 
and alwavs applied himself con amore to his 
arduous duties. He accomplished more in 
exciting a taste for knowledge and develop- 
ing young intellects, than any teacher who 
had theretofore labored in that hopeful vine- 
3'ard. He effectually routed the lingering 
old superstitions, prejudices, and benighted 
notions of preceding generations, and ever 
took delight in introducing youthful genius 
to the bright fields of literature and science. 
The young men of his day, who have since 
figured in the world, were deeply indebted 
to John Forsythe for the aid which he af- 
forded them in their studies, as well as for 
the sound doctrines which he inculcated; 
and some few of them yet survive to make 
the grateful acknowledgment, 

" When the noble Quaker institution at 
West-town was erected, near the close of the 
last centur}', the skill and experience of John 
Forsythe were put in requisition, until it was 
fairly inaugurated ; after which he retired to 
his comfortable farm, in East Bradford, 
where he passed a venerable old age, until 
his 87th year, in superintending agricultural 
employments and in manifesting a lively in- 
terest in the progress of education among 
our people. No instructor has labored in 
this community more fiiithfully, nor with 
better effect. None has left a memory more 
worthy to be kindly cherished. 

"The old school-hotise ai Birmingham was 
a one story stone building, erected by men 
who did not understand the subject ; and 



PROGRESS OF COMMON OR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 



383 



was badly lighted and ventilated. The dis- 
cipline of that day (adopted from the mother 
country) was pretty severe. The real hirch 
of the botanists not beinof indigenous in the 
iiumediate vicinity of the school, an efficient 
substitute was found in young apple tree 
sprouts, as unruly boys were abundantly 
able to testify. 

"The school books of my earliest recollection 
were a clieap English spelling book, the Bi- 
ble for the reading classes, and when we got 
to ciphering, the 'Schoolmasters' Assistant.' 
The ' Spelling Book' and ' Assistant' were 
by Thomas Dilworth, an English school- 
master at Wapping. The ' Assistant' was a 
useful work, but has long since disappeared. 
The 'counterfeit presentment' of the worthy 
author faced the title-page, and was famil- 
iarly known to every schoolboy of my time. 
The Spelling Book contained a little ele- 
mentary grammar, in which the English sub- 
stantives were declined through all the cases 
(genitive, dative, etc.) of the Latin. But 
grammar was then an unknown study among 
us. Dilworth's ' Spelling Book,' however, 
was soon superseded by a greatly improved 
one, compiled by John Pierce, a respect- 
able teacher of Delaware county, Pennsyl- 
vania. This comprised a tolerable English 
grammar, for that period, and John Forsythe 
introduced the study into his school with 
much zeal and earnestness. Intelligent em- 
ployers were made to comprehend its advan- 
tages, and were pleased with the prospect 
of a hopeful advance in that direction ; but 
dull boys and illiterate parents could not ap- 
preciate the benefit. Great boobies often 
got permission, at home, to evade the study, 
but they could not get round John Forsythe 
iu that way. They would come into school 
with this promised indulgence, and loudly 
announce, 'Daddy says I needn't lam gram-- 
mar ; it's no use :' when the energetic re- 
sponse from the desk was, ' I don't care 
what daddy says. He knows nothing about 
it ; and I say thou shalt learn it !' and so 
some general notion of the subject was im- 
pressed upon the minds even of the stupid; 
while many of the brighter youths became 
excellent grammarians. 

" In this Friendly seminary we were all re- 
quired to use the plain language in conver- 
sation, being assured that it was wrong, both 
morally and grammatically, to say you to 
one person. Our teacher contrived a meth- 
od of his own for mending our cacology, 
even while at our noonday sports. He pre- 



pared a small piece of board or shingle, 
which he termed a paddle; and whenever a 
boy was heard uttering bad grammar, he 
had to take the paddle, step aside, and re- 
frain from play, until he detected some other 
unlucky urchin trespassing upon syntax ; 
when he was authorized to transfer the 
badge of interdiction to the last oftcnder, 
and resume his amusements. It was really 
curious to observe how critical we soon be- 
came, and how much improvement was ef- 
fected by this whimsical and simple device. 

"Pierce's 'Spelling Book' kept its position 
in our school for several years, but was at 
length superseded, in the grammatical de- 
partment, by a useful little volume, prepared 
by John Comly, of Bucks county, Pennsyl- 
vania. Lindley Murray and others prepared 
elaborate grammars, which were successively 
introduced, as our schools improved or cre- 
ated a demand ; and so rapidly have the 
bookmaking competitors in that department 
multiplied that their name is now legion, 
and the respective value of their works is 
known only to experts iu the art of teach- 

" Excellent works in Reading and Elocution 
are now so abundant and well known in all 
our respectable seminaries, that they need 
not to be here enumerated. One of the best 
and most popular of those works, some half 
century or more since, was a volume entitled 
' The Art of Speaking,' compiled, I think, 
by a Mr. Rice, iu England. 

" But, as we have now reached the age of 
academies, normal institutes, and schools for 
the -people, I presume you will gladly forego 
a further extension of this prosy narrative, 
so little calculated to interest a veteran in 
the great cause of education. I have ever 
been a sincere friend and advocate of the 
blessing ; but, unfortunately, my acquaint- 
ance with it has been mainly limited to a 
humbling consciousness of my deficiencies 
in the ennobling attainment. 

" Very respectfully, 

" Wm. Darlington. 
"West Chester, Pa., Dec. 21, 1860." 

schools in PHILADELPHIA. 

The following picture of the internal econ- 
omy of one of the best schools of Phila- 
delphia, is taken from Watson's " Annals 
of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania." 

"My facetious friend, Lang Syne, has pre- 
sented a lively picture of the ' schoolmas- 



384 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



ters' in those days, when ' preceptors,' and 
' principals,' and ' professors' were yet un- 
named. SVhat is now known as ' Friends' 
Academy,' in Fourth street, was at that time 
occupied by four different masters. The 
best room down-stairs by Robert Proud, 
Latin master ; the one above him, by Wil- 
liam Waring, teacher of astronomy and math- 
ematics ; the east room, up-stairs, by Jere- 
miah Paul, and the one below, 'last not 
least' in our remembrance, by J. Todd, and 
severe he was. The State House clock, be- 
ing at the time visible from the school pave- 
ment, gave to the eye full notice when to 
break off marble and plug top, hastily col- 
lect the ' stakes,' and bundle in, pell-mell, 
to the school-room, where, until the arrival 
of the 'master of scholars,' John Todd, 
they were busily employed, every one in 
finding his place, under the control for the 
time of a short Irishman, usher, named Jim- 
my M'Cue. On the entrance of the master, 
all shuffling of the feet, ' scrouging,' hit- 
ting of elbows, and whispering disputes, 
were hastily adjusted, leaving a silence 
which might be felt, 'not a mouse stir- 
ring.' He, Todd, dressed after the plainest 
manner of Friends, but of the richest ma- 
terial, with looped cocked hat, was at all 
times remarkably clean and nice in his per- 
son, a man of about sixty years, square 
built, and well sustained by bone and mus- 
cle. 

"After an hour, maybe, of quiet time, 
every thing going smoothly on — no sound, 
but from the master's voice, while hearing 
the one standing near him, a dead calm, 
when suddenly a brisk slap on the ear or 
face, for something or for nothing, gave 
'dreadful note' that an eruption of the 
lava was now about to take place. Next 
thing to be seen w^as ' strap in full play 
over the head and shoulders of Pilgarlic' 
The passion of the master 'growing by 
what it fed on,' and wanting elbow room, 
the chair w^ould be quickly thrust on one 
side, when, with sudden gripe, he was to be 
seen dragging his struggling suppliant to 
the flogging ground, in the centre of the 
room ; having placed his left foot upon the 
end of a bench, he then, with a patent jerk, 
peculiar to himself, would have the boy com- 
pletely horsed across his knee, with his left 
elbow on the back of his neck, to keep him 
securely on. In the hurry of the moment 
he would bring his long pen with him, 
griped between his strong teeth (visible the 



while), causing both ends to descend to 
a parallel with his chin, and adding much 
to the terror of the scene. His face would 
assume a deep claret color — his little bob of 
hair would disengage itself, and stand out, 
each ' particular hair' as it were, ' up in 
arms and eager for the fray.' Having his 
victim thus completely at command, and all 
useless drapery drawn up to a bunch above 
the waistband, and the rotundity and the 
nankeen in the closest affinity possible for 
them to be, then once more to the ' staring 
crew' would be exhibited the dexterity of 
master and strap. By long practice he had 
arrived at such perfection in the exorcise, 
that, moving in quick time, the fifteen inches 
of bridle rein [alias strap) would be seen 
after every cut, elevated to a perpendicular 
above his head; from whence it descended 
like a flail on the stretched nankeen, leav- 
ing ' on the place beneath' a fiery red 
streak, at every slash. It was customary 
with him to address the sufferer at intervals, 
as follows : ' Does it hurt ?' ' Oh ! yes^ 
master ; oh ! don't, master.' ' Then I'll 
make it hurt thee more. I'll make thy flesh 
creep — thou shan't want a warming pan to- 
night. Intolerable being ! Nothing in na- 
ture is able to prevail upon thee but my 
strap.' He had one boy named George 
Fudge, who usually wore leather breeches, 
with which he put strap and its master at 
defiance. He would never acknowledge 
pain — he would not ' sing out.' Todd seiz- 
ed him one day, and having gone through 
the evolutions of strapping (as useless, in 
effect, as if he had been thrashing a flour- 
bag), almost breathless with rage, he once 
more appealed to the feelings of the ' repro- 
bate,' by saying : ' Does it not hurt V The 
astonishment of the school and the mas- 
ter was completed, on hearing him sing 
out, ' No ! Hurray for leather crackers !' 
He was thrown off immediately, sprawling 
on the floor, with tlie benediction as follows : 
' Intolerable being ! Get out of my school. 
Nothing in nature is able to prevail upon 
thee — not even my strap !' 

" 'Twas not ' his love of learning was in 
fault,' so much as the old British system of 
introducing learning and discipline into the 
brains of boys and soldiers by dint of pun- 
ishment. The system of flogging on all 
occasions in schools, for something or for 
nothing, being protected by law, gives free 
play to the passions of the master, which 
he, for one, exercised with great severity. 



PROGRESS OF COMMON OR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 



385 



The writer has, at this moment, in his mem- 
ory, a schoolmaster then of this city, who, a 
few years ago, went deliberately out of his 
school to purchase a cow-skin, with which, 
on his return, he extinguished his bitter re- 
venge on a boy who had offended him. 
The age of chivalry preferred ignorance in 
its sons, to having them subjected to the 
fear of a pedagogue — believing that a boy 
who had quailed under the eye of the 
schoolmaster, would never face the enemy 
with boldness on the field of battle ; which 
it must be allowed is ' a swing of the pen- 
dulum' too far the other way. A good 
writer says : ' We do not harden the wax 
to receive the impression — wherefore, the 
teacher seems himself most in need of cor- 
rection — for he, unfit to teach, is making 
them unfit to be taught !' 

" I have been told by an aged gentleman, 
that in the days of his boyhood, sixty-five 
years ago, when boys and girls were to- 
gether, it was a common practice to make 
the boys strip oft' their jackets, and loose 
their trowsers' band, preparatory to hoisting 
them upon a boy's back so as to get his 
whipping, with only the linen between the 
flesh and the strap. The girls too — we 
pity them — were obliged to take off" their 
stays to receive their floggings with equal 
sensibility. He named one distinguished 
lady, since, who was so treated among oth- 
ers, in his school. All the teachers then 
were from England and Ireland, and brought 
with them the rigorous principles which 
had before been whipped into themselves at 
home." 

Robert Coram, in a pamphlet devoted in 
part to a " Plan for the General Establish- 
ment of Schools throughout the United 
States," printed in Wilmington, Delaware, 
in 1791, characterizes the state of education 
as follows : " The country schools, through 
most of the United States, whether we con- 
sider the buildings, the teachers, or the reg- 
ulations, are in every respect completely des- 
picable, wretched, and contemptible. The 
buildings are in general sorry hovels, neither 
wind-tight nor water-tight ; a few stools 
serving in the double capacity of bench and 
desk, and the old leaves of copy books ma- 
king a miserable substitute for glass win- 
dows. The teachers are generally foreign- 
ers, shamefully deficient in every qualifica- 
tion necessary to convey instruction to 
youth, and not seldom addicted to gross 



vices. Absolute in his own opinion, and 
proud of introducing what he calls his Euro- 
pean method, one calls the first letter of the 
alphabet, aw. The school is modified upon 
this plan, and the children who are advanced 
are beat and cuff'ed to forget the former 
mode they have been taught, which irritates 
their minds and retards their progress. The 
quarter being finished, the children lie idle 
until another master offers, few remaining in 
one place more than a quarter. When the 
next schoolmaster is introduced, he calls the 
first letter a, as in mat ; the school under- 
goes another reform, and is equally vexed 
and retarded. At his removal a third is in- 
troduced, who calls the first letter hay. All 
these blockheads are equally absolute in 
their own notions, and will by no means 
suflfer the children to pronounce the letter 
as they were first taught ; but every three 
months the school goes through a reform — 
error succeeds error, and dunce the second 
reigns like dunce the first. I will venture 
to pronounce, that however seaport towns, 
from local circumstances, may have good 
schools, the country schools will remain in 
their present state of despicable wretched- 
ness, unless incorporated with government. 
* * * The necessity of a reformation in 
the country schools is too obvious to be in- 
sisted on ; and the first step to such a re- 
formation will be by turning private schools 
into public ones. The schools should be 
public, for several reasons — 1st. Because, as 
has been before said, every citizen has an 
equal right to subsistence, and ought to have 
an equal opportunity of acquiring knowl- 
edge. 2d. Because public schools are 
easiest maintained, as the burthen falls upon 
all the citizens. The man who is too 
squeamish or lazy to get married, contrib- 
utes to the support of public schools, as 
well as the man who is burthened with a 
large family. But private schools are sup- 
ported only by heads of families, and by those 
only while they are interested ; for as soon 
as the children are grown up, their support 
is withdrawn; which makes the employ- 
ment so precarious, that men of ability and 
merit will not submit to the trifling salaries 
allowed in most country schools, and which, 
by their partial support, cannot aflford a bet- 
ter." 

SCHOOL HOLIDAY IN GEORGIA. 

We have not been very successful in gath- 
ering the printed testimony of the dead, or 



386 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



the vivid reminiscences of the living, respect- 
ing the intei'nal economy of schools, public 
or family, in any of the Southern states prior 
to 1800. The following graphic sketch of 
" the turn out" of the schoolmaster, from 
Judge Longstreet's " Georgia Scenes," is 
said to be " literally true :" 

" In the good old days oi fescues, abisself- 
as and anpersants* terms which used to be 
familiar in this country during the Revolu- 
tionary war, and which lingered in some of 
our country schools for a few years after- 
ward, I visited my friend Captain Gritfen, 
who resided about seven miles to the east- 
ward of Wrightsborough, then in Richmond, 
but now in Columbia county. I reached the 
captain's hospitable home on Easter, and 
was received by him and his good lady with 
a Georgia welcome of 1790. 

" The day was consumed in the inter- 
change of news between the captain and 
myself (though, I confess, it might have 
been better employed), and the night found 
us seated round a temporary fire, which the 
captain's sons had kindled up for the pur- 
pose of dyeing eggs. It was a common cus- 
tom of those days with boys to dye and 
peck eggs on Easter Sunday, and for a few 
days afterward. They were colored accord- 
ing to the fancy of the dyer ; some yellow, 
some green, some purple, and some with a 
variety of colors, borrowed from a piece of 
calico. They were not unfrequently beauti- 
fied with a taste and skill which would have 
extorted a compliment from Hezekiah Niles, 
if he had seen them a year ago, in the hands 
of the '^ young ojjeratives,'' in some of the 
northern manufactories. No sooner was the 
work of dyeing finished, than our ' young 
operatives' sallied forth to stake the whole 
proceeds of their ' domestic industry'' upon 
a peck. Egg was struck against egg, point 
to point, and the egg that was broken was 



* The fescue was a sharpened wire or other instru- 
ment used by the preceptor to point out the letters 
to the children. 

Ahisselfa is a contraction of the words " a by it- 
self, a." It was usual, when either of the vowels 
constituted a syllable of a word, to pronounce it, 
and denote its independent character by the words 
just mentioned, thus : " a by itself, a, c-o-r-n corn, 
acorn;" "e by itself, e, v-i-1, evil" etc. 

The character which stands for the word " and" 
(A) was probably pronounced with the same accom- 
paniment, but in terms borrowed from the Latin lan- 
guage, thus: "Averse" (by itself) and. Hence, "an- 
persaut." 



given up as lost to the owner of the one 
which came whole from the shock. 

" While the boys were busily employed 
in the manner just mentioned, the captain's 
youngest son, George, gave us an anecdote 
highly descriptive of the Yankee and Geor- 
gia character, even in their buddings, and 
at this early date. ' What you think, pa,' 
said he, ' Zeph Pettibone went and got his 
uncle Zach to turn him a wooden egg ; and 
he won a whole hatful o' eggs from all us 
boys 'fore we found it out ; but, when we 
found it out, maybe John Brown didn't 
smoke him for it, and took away all his 
eggs, and give 'em back to us boys ; and 
you think he didn't go then and git a guinea 
Qgg, and win most as many more, and John 
Brown would o' give it to him agin if all we 
boys hadn't said we thought it was fair. I 
never see such a boy as that Zeph Pettibone 
in all my life. He don't mind whipping no 
more 'an nothing at all, if he can win eggs.' 

" This anecdote, however, only fell in by 
accident, for there was an all-absorbing sub- 
ject which occupied the minds of the boys 
during the whole evening, of which I could 
occasionally catch distant hints, in under 
tones and whispers, but of which I could 
make nothing, until they were afterward ex- 
plained by the captain himself. Such as 
'I'll be bound Pete Jones and Bill Smith 
stretches him.' ' By Jockey, soon as they 
seize him, you'll see me down upon him like 
a duck upon a June-bug.' ' By the time he 
touches the ground, he'll think he's got into 
a hornet's nest,' etc. 

" ' The boys,' said the captain, as they re- 
tired, * are going to turn out the schoolmas- 
ter to-morrow, and you can perceive they 
think of nothino- else. We must gro over to 
tlie schoolhouse and witness the contest, in 
order to prevent injury to preceptor or pu- 
pils ; for, though the master is always, upon 
such occasions, glad to be turned out, and 
only struggles long enough to present his 
patrons a fair apology for giving the child- 
ren a holiday, which he desires as much as 
they do, the boys always conceive a holiday 
gained by a ' turn out' as the sole achieve- 
ment of their valor ; and in their zeal to dis- 
tinguish themselves upon such memorable 
occasions, they sometimes become too rough, 
provoke the master to wrath, and a very se- 
rious conflict ensues. To prevent these con- 
sequences, to bear witness that the master 
was forced to yield before he would with- 
hold a day of his promised labor from his 



PROURESS OF COMMON OR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 



387 



employers, and to act as a mediator between 
him and the boys in settling the articles of 
peace, I always attend ; and you must ac- 
company me to-morrow.' I cheerfully pro- 
mised to do so. 

" The captain and I rose before the sun, 
but the boys had risen and were oft' to the 
school-house before the dawn. After an ear- 
ly breakfast, hurried by Mrs. G. for our ac- 
commodation, my host and myself took up 
our line of march toward the school-house. 
We reached it about half an hour before the 
master arrived, but not before the boys had 
completed its fortifications. It was a simple 
log pen, about twenty feet square, with a 
doorway cut out of the logs, to which was 
fitted a rude door, made of clapboards, and 
swung on wooden hinges. The roof was 
covered with clapboards also, and retained 
in their places by heavy logs placed on thein. 
The chimney was built of logs, diminishing 
in size from the ground to the top, and over- 
spread inside and out with red clay mortar. 
The classic hut occupied a lovely spot, over- 
shadowed by majestic hickories, towering 
poplars, and strong-armed oaks. The little 
plain on which it stood was terminated, at 
the distance of about fifty paces from its 
door, by the brow of a hill, which descended 
rather abruptly to a noble spring that gush- 
ed joyously forth among the roots of a state- 
ly beech at its foot. 

" The boys had strongly fortified the school- 
house, of which they had taken possession. 
The door was barricaded with logs, which I 
should have supposed would have defied the 
combined powers of the whole school. The 
chimney, too, was nearly filled with logs of 
goodly size ; and these were the only pass- 
ways to the interior. I concluded, if a turn 
out was all that was necessary to decide the 
contest in favor of the boys, they had al- 
ready gained the victory. They had, how- 
ever, not as much confidence in their out- 
works as I had, and therefore had armed 
themselves with long sticks, not for the pur- 
pose of using them upon the master if the 
battle should come to close quarters, ior this 
was considered unlawful warfare, but for the 
purpose of guarding their works from his ap- 
proaches, which it was considered perfectly 
lawful to protect by all manner of jabs and 
punches through the cracks. From the ear- 
ly assembling of the girls, it was very ob- 
vious that they had been let into the con- 
spiracy, though they took no part in the 
active operations. They would, however, 



occasionally drop a word of encouragement 
to the boys, such as ' I wouldn't turn out 
the master; but if I did turn him out, Fd 
die before Fd give up.' 

"At length Mr. Michael St. John, the 
schoolmaster made his appearance. Though 
some of the girls had met him a quarter of 
a mile from the school-house, and told him 
all that had happened, he gave signs of sud- 
den astonishment and indignation when he 
advanced to the door, and was assailed by a 
whole platoon of sticks from the cracks : 
' AVhy, what docs all this mean ?' said he, 
as he approached the captain and myself, 
with a countenance of two or three varying 
expressions. 

" ' Why,' said the captain, ' the boys have 
turned you out, because you have refused to 
give them an Easter holiday.' 

"'Oh,' returned Michael, 'that's it, is it? 
Well, Fll see whether their parents are to 
pay me for letting their children play when 
they please.' So saying, he advanced to 
the school-house, and demanded, in a lofty 
tone, of its inmates, an unconditional sur- 
render. 

" ' Well, give us a holiday, then,' said 
twenty little urchins within, ' and we'll let 
you in.' 

" ' Open the door of the academy' — 
(Michael would allow nobody to call it a 
school-house) — 'Open the door of the acad- 
emy this instant,' said Michael, 'or Fll break 
it down.' 

" ' Break it down,' said Pete Jones and 
Bill Smith, ' and we'll break you down.' 

" During this colloquy I took a peep into 
the fortress, to see how the garrison were 
aft'ectcd by the parley. The little ones were 
obviousl}^ panic-struck at the first words of 
command ; but their fears were all chased 
away by the bold determined reply of Pete 
Jones and Bill Smith, and they raised a 
whoop of defiance. 

" Michael now walked round the academy 
three times, examining all its weak points 
with great care. He then paused, reflected 
for a moment, and wheeled oft' suddenly to- 
ward the woods, as though a bright thought 
had just struck him. ll^i passed twenty 
things which I supposed he might be in 
quest of, such as huge stones, fence rails, 
portable logs, and the like, without bestow- 
ing the least attention upon them. He 
went to one old log, searched it thoroughly, 
then to another, then to a hollow stump, 
peeped into it with great care, then to a 



388 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



hollow log, into wliicli he looked with equal 
caution, and so on. 

" ' AVliat is he after V inquired I. 

"'I'm sure I don't know,' said the cap- 
tain, ' but the boys do. Don't you notice 
the breathless silence which prevails in the 
school-house, and the intense anxiety with 
which they are eyeing him through the 
cracks ?' 

" At this moment Michael had reached a 
little excavation at the root of a dogwood, 
and was in the act of putting his hand into 
it, when a voice from the garrison exclaimed, 
with most touching pathos, * Lo'd o' messy, 
ke's found my eggs ! boys, let's give up.' 

" ' I won't give up,' was the reply from 
many voices at once. 

" ' Rot your cowardly skin, Zeph Petti- 
bone, you wouldn't give a wooden egg for 
all the holydays in the world.' 

" If these replies did not reconcile Zeph- 
aniah to his apprehended loss, it at least si- 
lenced his complaints. In the mean time 
Michael was employed in relieving Zeph's 
storehouse of its provisions ; and, truly, its 
contents told well for Zeph's skill in egg- 
pecking. However, Michael took out the 
eggs with great care, and brought them 
within a few paces of the schoolhouse, and 
laid them down with equal care in full view 
of the besieged. He revisited the places 
which he had searched, and to which he 
seemed to have been led by intuition ; for 
from nearly all of them did he draw eggs, 
in greater or less numbers. These he treated 
as he had done Zeph's, keeping each pile 
separate. Having arranged the eggs in 
double files before the door, he marched be- 
tween them Avith an air of triumph, and 
once more demanded a surrender, under 
pain of an entire destruction of the garri- 
son's provisions. 

" ' Break 'em just as quick as you please,' 
said George Griffin ; ' our mothers '11 give 
us a plenty more, won't they, pa?' 

" ' I can answer for yours, my son,' said 
the captain ; ' she would rather give up 
every egg upon the farm than to see you 
play the coward or traitor to save your prop- 
erty.' 

" Michael, finding that he could make no im- 
pression upon the fears or the avarice of the 
boys, determined to carry their fortifications 
by storm. Accordingly he procured a heavy 
fence-rail, and commenced the assault upon 
the door. It soon came to pieces, and the 
upper logs fell out, leaving a space of about 



three feet at the top. Michael boldly en- 
tered the breach, when, by the articles of 
war, sticks were thrown aside as no longer 
lawful weapons. He was resolutely met on 
the half-demolished rampart by Peter Jones 
and William Smith, supported by James 
Griffin. These were the three largest boys 
in the school ; the first about sixteen years 
of ago, the second about fifteen, and the 
third just eleven. Twice was Michael re- 
pulsed by these young champions ; but the 
third effort carried him fairly into the fort- 
ress. Hostilities now ceased for a while, 
and the captain and I, having levelled the 
remaining logs at the door, followed Michael 
into the house. A large three inch plank 
(if it deserve that name, for it was wrought 
from the half of a tree's trunk entirely with 
the axe), attached to the logs by means of 
wooden pins, served the whole school for a 
writing desk. At a convenient distance be- 
low it, and on a line with it, stretched a 
smooth log, resting upon the logs of the 
house, which answered for the writers' seat. 
Michael took his seat upon the desk, placed 
his feet on the seat, and was sitting very 
composedly, when with a simultaneous move- 
ment, Pete and Bill seized each a leg, and 
marched off with it in quick time. The 
consequence is obvious; Michael's head first 
took the desk, then the seat, and finally the 
ground (for the house was not floored), with 
three sonorous thumps of most doleful por- 
tent. No sooner did he touch the ground 
than he was completely buried with boys. 
The three elder laid themselves across his 
head, neck and breast, the rest arranging 
themselves ad Iibitu7)i. Michael's equanim- 
ity was considerably disturbed by the first 
thump, became restive with the second, and 
took flight with the third. His first effort 
was to disengage his legs, for without them 
he could not rise, and to lie in his pres- 
ent position was extremely inconvenient and 
undignified. Accordingly he drew up his 
right, and kicked at random. This move- 
ment laid out about six in various direc- 
tions upon the floor. Two rose crying : 
'Ding his old red-headed skin,' said one 
of them, ' to go and kick me right in 
my sore belly, where I fell down and raked 
it, running after that fellow that cried "school 
butter." '■* 



* " I have never been able to satisfy myself clearly 
as to the literal meaning of these terms. They were 



PROGRESS OF COMMON OR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 



389 



" ' Drot his old snaggle-tooth picture,' said 
the other, 'to go and hurt my sore toe, where 
I knocked the nail off going to the spring to 
fetch a gourd of warter for him, and not for 
myself n' other.' 

" ' II ut !' said Captam Griffin, ' young 
Washingtons mind these trifles ! At him 
again.' 

" The name of Washington cured their 
wounds and dried up their tears in an in- 
stant, and they legged him de novo. The 
left leg treated six more as unceremoniously 
as the right had those just mentioned; but 
the talismanic name had just fallen upon 
their ears before the kick, so they were in- 
vulnerable. They therefore returned to the 
attack without loss of time. The struggle 
seemed to wax hotter and hotter for some 
time after Michael came to the 'ground, and 
he threw the children about in all directions 
and postures, giving some of them thrusts 
which would have placed the ruffie-shirted 
little darlings of the present day under the 
discipline of paregoric and opodeldoc for a 
week ; but these hardy sons of the south 
seemed not to feel them. As Michael's head 
grew easy, his limbs, by a natural sympathy, 
became more quiet, and he offered one day's 
holiday as the price. The boys demanded 
a week ; but here the captain interposed, and 
after the common but often unjust custom 
of arbitrators, split the difference. In this 
instance the terms were equitable enough, 
and were immediately acceded to by both 
parties. Michael rose in a good humor, and 
the boys were of course. Loud was their 
talking of their deeds of valor as they re- 
tired. One little fellow about seven years 
old, and about three feet and a half high, 
jumped up, cracked his feet together, and 
exclaimed, 'By jingo, Pete Jones, Bill 
Smith and me can hold any Sinjin [St. John] 
that ever trod Georgy grit.' " 



considered an unpardonable insult to a country 
school, and always justified an attack by the whole 
fraternity upon the person who used them in their 
hearing. I have known the scholars pursue a trav- 
eller two miles to be revenged of the insult. Prob- 
ably they are a corruption of ' The school's better.' 
' Better^ was the term commonly used of old to de- 
note a superior, as it sometimes is in our day: 
'Wait till your betters are served,' for example. I 
conjecture, therefore, the expression just alluded to 
was one of challenge, contempt, and defiance, by 
which the person who used it avowed himself the 
superior in all respects of the whole school, from the 
preceptor down. If any one can give a better ac- 
count of it, I shall be pleased to receive it." 



AN OLD FIELD SCHOOL, OR ACADEMY, IN 
VIRGINIA. 

The experience of one of that class of 
teachers, who found temporary occupation 
in teaching the children of one or more fam- 
ilies of planters in Virginia and other south- 
ern states, will be found in the " Travels of 
Four Years and a Half in the United States 
(in 1798, 1799, 1800, 1801 and 1802), by 
John Davis." Mr. Davis was an English- 
man of more than ordinary education and 
of social address, and while in this country 
numbered among his friends such men as 
Aaron Burr, President Jefferson, and other 
men of high political standing. He was a 
private tutor in New York, South Carolina 
and Virginia, and his graphic sketches of 
men and manners show some of the defi- 
ciencies in the means of education which 
even wealthy planters in the southern states 
experienced. With letters of introduction 
from President Jefferson he proceeds to the 
plantation of a Mr. Ball, and is engaged to 
teach his and his neighbors' childi'en : 

" The following day every fanner came 
from the neighboi'hood to the house, who 
had any children to send to my Academy, 
for such they did me the honor to term the 
log-hut in which I was to teach. Each man 
brought his son, or his daughter, and re- 
joiced that the day was arrived when their 
little ones could light their tapers at the 
torch of knowledge ! I was confounded at 
the encomiums they heaped upon a man 
whom they had never seen before, and was 
at a loss what construction to put upon 
their speech. No price was too great for 
the services I was to render their children ; 
and they all expressed an eagerness to ex- 
change perishable coin for lasting knowl- 
edge. If I would continue with them seven 
years ! only seven years ! they would erect 
for me a brick seminary on a hill not far off; 
but for the present I was to occupy a log- 
house, which, however homely, would soon 
vie with the sublime college of William and 
Mary, and consign to oblivion the renowned 
academy in the vicinity of Fauquier Court- 
House. I thought Englishmen sanguine ; 
but these Virginians were infatuated. 

" I now opened what some called an acad- 
emy,* and others an Old Field School ; 

* " It is worth the while to describe the academy 
I occupied on Mr. Ball's plantation. It had one 
room and a half. It stood on blocks about two feet 



390 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



and, however it may be thought that con- 
tent was never felt within the walls of a 
seminary, I, for my part, experienced an ex- 
emption from care, and was not such a fool 
as to measure the happiness of my condition 
by what others thought of it. 

" It was pleasurable to behold my pupils 
enter the school over which I presided ; for 
they were not composed only of truant boys, 
but some of the fairest damsels in the coun- 
try. Two sisters generally rode on one 
horse to the school-door, and I was not so 
great a pedagogue as to refuse them my as- 
sistance to dismount from their steeds. A 
running-footman of the negro tribe, who 
followed Avith their food in a basket, took 
care of the beast ; and after being saluted 
by the young ladies with the courtesies of 
the morning, I proceeded to instruct them, 
with gentle exhortations to diligence of 
study. 

" Common books were only designed for 
common minds. The unconnected lessons 
of Scot, the tasteless selections of Bingham, 
the florid harangues of Noah Webster, and 
the somniferous compilation of Alexander, 
were either thi'own aside, or suffered to 
gather dust on the shelf; while the charm- 
ing essays of Goldsmith, and his not less 
delectable Novel, together with the impres- 
sive work of Defoe, and the mild produc- 
tions of Addison, conspired to enchant the 
fancy, and kindle a love of reading. The 
thoughts of these writers became engrafted 
on the minds, and the combinations of their 
diction on the language of the pupils. 

" Of the boys I cannot speak in very en- 
comiastic terms ; but they were perhaps like 
all other school-boys, that is, more disposed 
to play truant than enlighten their minds. 



and a half above the ground, where there was free 
access to the hogs, the dogs, and the poultry. It 
had no ceiling, nor was the roof lathed or plaster- 
ed, but covered with shingles. Hence, when it 
rained, like the nephew of old Elwes, I moved my 
bed (fi^r I slept in my academy) to the most com- 
fortable corner. It had one window, but no glass, 
nor shutter. In the night, to remedy this, tlie mu- 
latto wench who waited on me, contrived very in- 
geniously to place a square board against the win- 
dow with one hand, and fix the rail of a broken 
down fence against it with the other. In the morn- 
ing, when I returned from breakfasting in the 
'great big house,' (my scholars being collected,) I 
gave the rail a forcible kick with my foot, and down 
tumbled the board with an awful roar. ' Is not my 
window,' said I to Virginia, ' of a very curious con- 
struction?' 'Indeed, indeed, sir,' replied my fair 
disciple, 'I think it is a mighty noisy one.' " 



The most important knowledge to an Amer- 
ican, after that of himself, is the geogi-aphy 
of his country. I, therefore, put into the 
hands of my boys a proper book, and ini- 
tiated them by an attentive reading of the 
discoveries of the Genoese ; I was even so 
minute as to impress on their minds the 
man who first descried land on board the 
ship of Columbus. That man was Roderic 
Triana, and on my exercising the memory 
of a boy by asking him the name, he very 
gravely made answer, Roderic Random. 

" Among my male students was a New 
Jersey gentleman of thirty, whose object 
was to be initiated in the language of Cicero 
and Virgil. He had before studied the 
Latin grammar at an academy school (I use 
his own words) in his native state ; but the 
academy school being burnt down, his gram- 
mar, alas ! was lost in the conflagration, 
and he had neglected the pursuit of litera- 
ture since the destruction of his book. 
When I asked liim if he did not think it 
was some Goth who had set fire to his acad- 
emy school, he made answer, ' So, it is like 
enough.' 

" Mr. Dye did not study Latin to refine 
his taste, direct his judgment, or enlarge his 
imagination ; but merely that he might be 
enabled to teach it when he opened school, 
which was his serious design, lie had been 
bred a carpenter, but he panted for the hon- 
ors of literature." 

Mr. Davis accounts for his fidelity in 
teaching more hours than he was required 
to do by his conti-act, by his interest in the 
lessons of one of his female pupils : 

" Hence I frequently protracted the stud- 
ies of the children till one, or half past one 
o'clock ; a practice that did not fail to call 
forth the exclamations both of the white 
and the black people. Upon my word, Mr. 
Ball would say, this gentleman is diligent ; 
and Aunt Patty the negro cook would re- 
mark, ' He good cool-mossa that ; he not 
like old Hodgkinson and old Harris, who 
let the boys out before twelve. He deserve 
good wages 1" 

" Having sent the young ladies to the 
family mansion, I told the boys to break 
up, and in a few minutes they who had 
even breathed with circumspection, now 
gave loose to the most riotous merriment, 
and betook themselves to the woods, follow- 
ed by all the dogs on the plantation." 

" There was a carpenter on the planta- 
tion, whom Mr. Ball had hired by the year. 



PROGRESS OF COMMON OR, ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 



391 



He had tools of all kinds, and the recreation 
of Mr. Dye, after the labor of study, was to 
get under the shade of an oak, and make 
tables, or benches, or stools for the acade- 
my. So true is the assertion of Horace, 
that the cask will always retain the flavor 
of the liquor with which it is first impreg- 
nated. 

" ' Well, Mr. Dye, what are you doing V 

" ' I am making a table for the academy 
school.' 

" ' What wood is that ?' 

" ' It is white oak, sir.' 

" ' What, then you are skilled in trees, you 
can tell oak from hickory, and ash from fir V 

" ' Like enough, sir. (A broad grin.) I 
ought to know those things ; I served my 
time to it.' 

'" Carpenter. — I find, sir, Mr. Dye has done 
with his old trade ; he is above employmg 
his hands ; he wants work for the brain. 
Well ! larning is a fine thing ; there's noth- 
ing like larning. I have a son only five 
years old, that, with proper larning, I should 
not despair of seeing a member of Congress. 
He is a boy of genus ; he could play on the 
Jews-harp from only seeing Sambo tune it 
once.' 

" ' Mr. Dye. — I guess that's Billy ; he is a 
right clever child.' 

" ' Carpenter. — How long, sir, will it take 
you to learn Mr. Dye Latin V 

" ' Schoolmaster. — How long, sir, would it 
take me to ride from Mr. Ball's plantation 
to the plantation of Mr. Wormley Carter ?' 

" ' Carpenter. — Why that, sir, I suppose, 
would depend upon your horse,' 

" ' Schoolmaster. — Well, then, sir, you 
solve your own interrogation. But here 
comes Dick. What has he got in his hand V 

" ' Mr, Dye. — A mole like enough. Who 
are you bringing that to, Dick ?' 

" ' Dick. — Not to you. You never gave 
me the taste of a dram since I first know'd 
you. Worse luck to me ; you New Jersey 
men are close shavers ; I believe you would 
skin a louse. This is a mole. I have 
brought it for the gentleman who came from 
beyond sea. He never refuses Dick a dram; 
I would walk through the wilderness of Ken- 
tucky to serve him. Lord ! how quiet he 
keeps his school. It is not now as it was ; 
the boys don't go clack, clack, clack, like 
'Squire Pendleton's mill upon Catharpin 
Run!' 

" ' Schoolmaster. — You have brought that 
mole, Dick, for me.' 



" ' Dick. — Yes, master, but first let me tell 
you the history of it. This mole was once 
a man ; see, master (Dick exhibits the mole), 
it has got hands and feet just like you and 
me. It was once a man, but so proiid, so 
lofty, so puffed-up, that God, to punish his 
insolence, condemned him to crawl under 
the earth.' 

" ' Schoolmaster. — A good fable, and not 
unhappily moralized. Did you ever hear or 
read of this before, Mr. Dye ?' 

" ' Mr. Dye. — Nay (a broad grin), I am 
right certain it does not belong to ^Esop. 
I am certain sure Dick did not find it there.' 

" ' Dick. — Find it where ? I would not 
wrong a man of the value of a gram of corn. 
I came across the mole as I was hoeing the 
potato-patch. Master, shall I take it to the 
school-house ? If you are fond of birds, I 
know now for a mocking-bird's nest ; I am 
only afeared those young rogues, the school- 
boys, will find out the tree. They play the 
mischief with every thing, they be full of 
devilment. I saw Jack Lockhart throw a 
stone at the old bird, as she was returning 
to feed her young ; and if I had not coaxed 
him away to look at my young puppies, he 
would have found out the nest.' 

" I liad been three months invested in 
the first executive oflfice of pedagogue, 
when a cunning old fox of a New Jersey 
planter (a Mr. Lee) discovered that his eld- 
est boy wrote a better hand than I. Fame 
is swift-footed ; vires arquirit eundo ; the' 
discovery spread far and wide ; and whither- 
soever I went, I was an object for the hand 
of scorn to point his slow unmoving finger 
at, as a schoolmaster that could not write. 
Virginia gave me for the persecutions I 
underwent a world of sighs, her swelling 
heavens rose and fell with indignation at old 
Lee and his abettors. But the boys caught 
spirit from the discovery. I could perceive 
a mutiny breaking out among them ; and 
had I not in time broke down a few branches 
from an apple tree before my door, it . is 
probable they would have displayed their 
gratitude for my instructions by throwing 
me out of ray school-window. But by argu- 
ing with one over the shoulders, and another 
over the back, I maintained with dignity the 
first executive oflice of pedagogue. 

" I revenged myself amply on old Lee. 
It was the custom of his son (a lengthy fel- 
low of about twenty) to come to the acade- 
my with a couple of huge mastiffs at his 
heels. Attached to their master [par nobile 



392 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



fratrum) they entered without ceremony 
Pohoke Academy, bringing with them myr- 
iads of fleas, wood-lice, and ticks. Nay, 
they would often annoy Virginia, by throw- 
ing themselves at her feet, and inflaming the 
choler of a little lap-dog, which I had bought 
because of his diminutive size, and which 
Virginia delighted to nurse for me. I could 
perceive the eye of Virginia rebuke me for 
suffering the dogs to annoy her ; and there 
lay more peril in her eye than in the jaws 
of all the mastiff's in Prince William County. 
" ' Mr. Lee,' said I, ' this is the third time 
I have told you not to convert the academy 
into a kennel, and bring your dogs to school.' 
Lee was mending his pen 'judgmatically.' 
He made no reply, but smiled. 

" I knew old Dick the negro had a bitch, 
and that his bitch was proud. I walked 
down to Dick's log-house. Dick was beat- 
ing flax. 

"'Dick,' said T, 'old Farmer Lee has 
done me much evil — (I don't like the old 
man myself, master, said Dick) — and his 
son, repugnant to my express commands, 
has brought his father's two plantation dogs 
to the academy. Revenge is sweet — ' 

" ' Right, master,' said Dick. ' I never 
felt so happy as when I bit off" Cuffey's 
great toe and swallowed it — 

" ' Do you, Dick,' said I, ' walk past the 
school-house with your bitch. Lee's dogs 
will come out after her. Go round with 
them to your log-house; and when you have 
once secured them, hang both of them up by 
the neck.' 

" ' Leave it to me, master,' said Dick. 
' I'll fix the business for you in a few min- 
utes. I have a few fadoms of rope in my 
house — that will do it.' 

" I returned to the academy. The dogs 
■were stretched at their ease on the flooi'. 
' Oh ! I am glad you are come,' exclaimed 
Virginia ; ' those great big dogs have quite 
scai'ed me.' 

" In a few minutes Dick passed the door 
with his slut. Quick from the floor rose 
Mr. Lee's two dogs, and followed the female. 
The rest may be supplied by the imagina- 
tion of the reader. Dick hung up both 
the dogs to the branch of a pine-tree ; old 
Lee lost the guards to his plantation ; the 
negroes broke open his barn, pilfered his 
sacks of Indian corn, rode his horses in the 
nio-ht — and thus was I revenged on Alexan- 
der the coppersmith. 

" Three months had now elapsed, and I 



was commanded officially to resign my s(i\ e- 
reigu authority to Mr. Dye, who was in 
every respect better qualified to discha.'ge 
its sacred functions. He understood ta-.e 
and tret, wrote a copper-plate hand, and, 
balancmg himself upon one leg, could flour- 
ish angels and corkscrews. I, therefore, 
gave up the ' academy school' to Mr. Dye, 
to the joy of the boys, but the sorrow of 
Virginia." 

Whilst schools were thus poorly equipped 
and the instruction given was thus defective 
in its methods and meagre in its extent, it 
becomes of interest to inquire whence such 
a measure of general intelligence and so 
many individual cases of attaining to an emi- 
nent position in society. This was the re- 
sult of no single cause alone, but of a varietty 
in combination. 

The first of these that may be named, both 
in its influence upon childhood and upon 
manhood, was the necessity of a hard fought 
battle for existence, but relieved by the as- 
surance that victory would be the reward of 
persistent exertion. Its results were robust- 
ness, patience of toil, resoluteness and per- 
severance in encountering difficulties, and 
fertility of resources. The rustic lad, — and 
making the necessary variations, we include 
the female sex with the representative male, 
— the rustic lad who had been trained to 
help his parents from the moment he liad 
acquired strength to steady his steps, to toil 
on all the same whether the bright sun 
cheered him or the chill air benumbed his 
limbs ; whether his tasks were varied, pleas- 
ant and light, or, on the contrary, he had 
learned patience, marching beside the patient 
ox all the long hours of a long spring day, 
the animals only alternating with others 
which served as relays ; and had been no 
stranger to such discipline as picking stones 
in the stubble whilst the sad heavens distil- 
led a drizzly rain, the}' condensing all their 
gloom in his soul, but withheld those large 
and frequent drops which would have been 
the signal of his release ; and among the 
least severe of whose lessons in acquiring 
hardihood had been, in gathering the fruits 
of autumn, to face its frosts without mittens 
or shoes ; this lad found nothing in the diffi- 
culties of the school-room to appall him, and 
storms and deep drifts rather added zest to 
his daily walks. Xo unintelligible jargon of 
the spelling book, no abstruse section in his 
reader, was an overmatch for his industry. 



PROGRESS OF COMMON OR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 



393 



True, he did not understand all he studied, 
but he learned to spell and to read and to 
commit to memory what was assigned him. 
And when he took his arithmetic, which con- 
tained only definitions, rules and examples, 
although his teacher vouchsafed him little 
explanation, he had perseverance enough to 
ponder every dark process till light broke 
through. And there were instances of boys 
who worked for consecutive hours and days 
at problems confessedly some of the most 
knotty that could be found, till at last their 
unaided exertions were rewarded with suc- 
cess, which brought more exquisite joy than 
ever thrilled the finder of a rai'e gem. These 
exceptional cases stimulated the more dull, 
and most became possessed of at least the 
rudiments of the science, quite sufficient for 
practical Hfe, or which under the stimulus of 
necessity became subsequently enlarged to 
that extent. In manhood no blind adhei-ence 
to traditional methods was or could be ob- 
served. Emergencies were constantly arising 
which taxed ingenuity to the utmost in de- 
vising the fitting expedients to meet them. 
It was a daily study to make the narrowest 
means serve the same ends as the amplest. 
Hard thought was expended without stint 
upon labor-saving processes, improvements 
and inventions. Thus was gained a disci- 
pline of mind beyond what the higher col- 
lege mathematics usually imparts, and oft- 
times a readiness in applying mechani- 
cal principles, of whicli many an engineer 
trained in the schools is utterly devoid, how- 
ever prompt he may be in the routine to 
which he is accustomed. 

The family training, aside from the inuring 
of children to patient industry, contributed 
greatly to their profiting from their school 
privileges. To do or not to do was not then 
left so generally to the child's pleasure. He 
was made to obey before he had experienced 
the deliglit of carrying into eftect his own 
will in opposition to that of others ; and 
thus was formed the habit of unquestioning 
compliance with the requirements of parents. 
When the child could understand the sub- 
ject, he was taught that however irksome at 
times were the tasks imposed upon him, it 
was only in virtue of the allotment that man 
was to eat bread by the sweat of his brow, 
and that only by a cheerful performance of 
what was within his power could he make a 
return for the care he was continually re- 
ceiving. Thus from a sense of religious and 
filial obligation the rigor of their early disci- 



pline was the more easily sustained. Self- 
control and a certain measure of self-reliance 
were results of the discipline of infancy 
even ; and in advancing childhood it was in- 
culcated in the house and in the field, that 
each must depend upon himself for what- 
ever he was to be and to possess in life. 
And knowledge, knowledge that was not the 
mere blind recipient of instruction, intelli- 
gent knowledge which perceived relations, 
and reasoning knowledge which could make 
the practical application as opportunity 
served, was set forth as the condition indis- 
pensable to render exertion successful. Hence 
it was a prized privilege to go to school, as 
well as a pleasant exchange for physical toil 
for a brief period, an exchange of work at 
home for another variety of work in the 
school-room, not of one manner of busy idle- 
ness and mischief for another. Also in many 
cases the home wa'^ itself a school, and either 
that knowledge was there gained which oth- 
ers acquired at school, or study was further 
pursued under the guidance of parent, or 
brother or sister, who by some happy gift 
of Providence had required little tuition. 
Often also, wintei- evenings or other hours, 
when the labor of one pair of hands might 
be spared, were passed in the social reading 
of instructive books. 

The listening every seventh day to two 
discourses, whei-ein were discussed the deep- 
est theories which can be proposed to man, 
may be named as an additional item in the 
answer to our inquiry. The clergymen of 
that day had received the best education 
that the country aftbrded, and were daily 
cultivating intimacy with the profoundest 
theologians. Thus they had ever thoughts 
which they had originated or had made their 
own to present. And these thoughts were 
inwardly digested by a goodly number of 
their hearers, and becoming a part of their 
being, they too 

"reasoned high 
Of Providence, foreknowledge, will and fate, 
Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute;" 

and if they " found no end," they were not 
" in wandering mazes lost," for, unlike the 
lost angels, they ruled their discussions by 
the infahible word of inspiration. It cannot 
be said that serious thought then bored, or 
that the sparkle of the unsubstantial poem 
chiefly drew, or that triviality was the char- 
acteristic of the multitude. 

The study of one book, and that the Bible, 
simple enough in parts to meet the under- 



394 



KDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



standing of the little child, and of interest 
enough to absorb his attention, and in other 
parts of depths which no finite intellect can 
sound, and everywhere wise above the wis- 
dom of men, and without any alloy of error, 
was one of the most efficacious means of 
raising the mass of the people in intelligence, 
and in educating a few, who made it their 
constant meditation, to a nicety of discrimi- 
nation and a profundity of thought truly 
wonderful. Take as an example one silvery 
haired man whose memory is cherished Avith 
veneration. His school privileges had been 
less even than the scanty amount of most 
of his contemporaries, hardly amounting to 
three winter schools in all. Moreover, weak- 
ness of the eyes almost cut him otf from 
reading books and papers throughout his 
life. But he was able to read daily a few 
verses, sometimes several chapters, in his 
large quarto Bible, and when he read aloud, 
all untaught as he was, he read with a natu- 
ralness and gave the sense, so that the hearer 
marvelled. Comparing scripture with scrip- 
ture, he had attained to a skill in interpret- 
ing which seldom erred. His quickness in 
detecting a fallacy or in observing a doc- 
trine which harmonized not with the living 
oracles was surpassed by very few of even 
the most highly educated of schoolmen. He 
was exceedingly retiring, but to the few who 
knew him, his life and his language seemed 
as correct as the words of that book on 
which both, with perfect naturalness, with- 
out any tinge of formality or quaintness, were 
modeled. Who will venture to say that this 
man's education was not incomparably supe- 
rior to that of him who has delved a whole 
life in conflicting systems, who has sought 
to know the thoughts of all reported as 
great, but who has settled nothing for him- 
self? 

The political principles which found their 
expression in the declaration of independ- 
ence, and which were a cherished inheri- 
tance from the fathers, leading to a general 
participation in the government of the coun- 
try, and producing the habit of earnestly 
debating every question of public concern, 
had no small share of influence in exciting 
intensity and energy of mental action. By 
the fireside, in the field, at the corners of the 
streets, in the shops and stores, those pow- 
ers were developed which had further exer- 
cise in the town meeting, and carried their 
possessor to some humble position of trust 
or authority ; and when here trained and 



shown to be capable of sustaining higher 
responsibilities, advanced him again, so that 
he who had forged iron chains, was chosen 
to fashion the more eflicacious restraints of 
laws ; he who had occupied the cobbler's 
seat, was promoted to the bench of justice ; 
and he who had been wont to rule oxen was 
thought worthy to govern men. 

The newspaper, and the family, and the 
village library contributed largely to the 
general intelligence. The weekly paper fur- 
nished no small part of the topics of conver- 
sation in the family and among neighbors, 
and, in particular, supplied the pabulum for 
political discussions. The few books owned 
or borrowed were carefully read again and 
again. The small proprietary libraries fur- 
nished some of the most valuable histories 
and the choicest works in belles-lettres. It 
was not of rare occurrence to find persons 
who showed familiaiity with Rollin, Fers^u- 
son. Gibbon, Robertson, and Hume ; and 
sometimes one might even be met, who 
could give an orderly account of an entire 
work of these authors ; and there were many 
who could repeat favorite poems, peradven- 
ture even the entire Night Thowjhts of Dr. 
Young, if that was the chosen vade mecum. 
Even some children of twelve or fifteen years 
of age, — barefoot boys who had only " noon- 
ings" and the time they might gain by man- 
ual dexterity in accomplishing their " stents," 
— had perused several of the voluminous 
historians named above. How will such 
lads compare in mental strength and vigor 
with children who willingly read nothing but 
the most exciting tales or the most intellec- 
tual pap made toothsome ? 

The observation of men and of nature, 
pursued to good advantage where no un- 
bending usages restrained free development 
of character, no wrappings of conventionali- 
ties gave a uniform semblance to all, where 
the woods and the waters and the inhabi- 
tants thereof had only begun to lecognize 
the dominion of man, quickened too by 
the necessity of turning to account everv 
item of knowledge that could be gained, was 
an ample equivalent for the more compre- 
hensive speculations of mental philosophy 
and the scientific nomenclatures and descrip- 
tions of natural history to be learned from 
the mouth of the lecturer. 

Finally, those defective schools of the past 
generation did place the key of knowledge 
in the hands of the inquisitive ; which is 
nearly all that the schools can now do. 



COMMON SCHOOLS AND ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 



895 



CHAPTER IV. 

PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENT OP SCHOOLS 
AND OTHER INSTITUTIONS OF PUBLIC 
INSTRUCTION. 

INTRODUCTION. 

By common or public schools in this 
chapter is understood that grade or class of 
educational institutions which the State 
provides or secures for all its children, in the 
rural districts as well as in the crowded city, 
wherever a human being is to be found on 
its territory capable of receiving that formal 
instruction which is essential to the healthy 
physical, moral, and intellectual growth of 
each individual, and to the attainment of 
that amount of knowledge which the per- 
formance of every day business and the 
universal duties of citizenship require. It 
is common, because it is the debt which the 
community owes to every citizen for their 
good and its security. It is public, because 
it is established l3y the State through 
agencies of its appointment or providing, 
conducted according to the rules of its 
prescribing or authorization, supported by 
funds protected or furnished by its legislation, 
accessible to all pupils upon terms of 
equality, and subject to such inspection as 
the law may institute. It is not necessarily 
gratuitous; it may be free or cheap — but it 
can not be common if the cost is beyond the 
reach of the poorest. Although public, it is 
not beyond legal control. It is everywhere 
subject to such limitations as to age, attend- 
ance, studies, books, and teachers as the State 
may prescribe ; and it must exist by force 
of law, general or special, and be managed 
by agents who have their authority direct or 
indirect from legal provisions, and its privi- 
leges must be open to all children on equal 
terms. It is no longer limited in its range 
of instruction to the few elementary studies, 
or to mere children. Studies which formerly 
belonged to the academy or college are now 
parts of the curriculum in the higher classes 
or grades of the common school, especially 
in cities and large villages. 

Although originating at different times, 
and projected after ditferent models, and 
modified by differing conditions of nation- 
ality, occupation, and religions opinions or 
practices, the American Common or Public 
School, however widely separated in terri- 
tory, is now subjected to common social and 
political influences, and is fast approximating 



to a common organization, and to siirdlar, 
and almost identical systems of administra- 
tion, instruction and discipline. It is doubt- 
ful if the institution attains its highest effi- 
ciency and broadest usefulness, by this legal 
uniformity. Large bodies of children will 
be thrown out of its influence altogether ; 
bitter antagonisms between bodies of citizens 
will be engendered ; and the teaching power 
of the schools will not find that field and 
stimulus for individual expansion and orig- 
inal methods and special adaptations, which 
greater liberty of instruction, and more diver- 
sified preparation and administration would 
create. It is not impossible that the recent 
rapid approach to uniformity in organization, 
administration, instruction and discipline, will 
be arrested and modified by the independent 
action of State and city systems, as soon as 
each becomes again more subject to peculiar 
local influences. 

The constitutional provision of any State 
is indicative only of the policy of a com- 
paratively few men on the subject of schools 
and education, and is mainly serviceable in 
protecting funds specially appropriated to 
these purposes from being devoted to other 
objects, and in giving the friends of these 
interests a firm ground to stand on in their 
advocacy of the same. The constitutions 
and school acts since 1865 in the States re- 
cently engaged in the rebellion, and pros- 
trated in its suppression, have been adopted 
for the protection of the enfranchised col- 
ored population, and are not in harmony 
with the former habits and present convic- 
tions of a large majority of the old voters. 
It will take years before this great interest 
of schools and education can get adjusted to 
the new relations of parties, and firmly es- 
tablished in the habits of society. 

We shall now proceed to give a compre- 
hensive survey of the progressive develop- 
ment of Common or Public schools in each 
State, and at the same time indicate at least 
statistically, the condition of the State in re- 
spect to other educational institutions and 
agencies. For convenience of reference we 
shall present the States in their alphabetical 
order and not in the more logical order of 
the chronological establishment and de- 
velopment of schools in the same. To ap- 
preciate the greater or less rapidity and 
efficiency of the movement we shall indicate 
the date of settlement, the organization of 
the government, the growth of population, 
and the resources of each State, and the 
latest statistical results. 



396 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



I. ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 

ALABAMA. 

Alabama belonged to the State of 
Georgia till 1802, when by cession it be- 
came part of the Territory of Mississippi 
until 1817, when it was organized as an in- 
dependent Territory, and admitted a State 
in 1819, with a population in 1820, 127,- 
901; which bad increased in 1870 to 996,- 
992, (475,510 colored); on an area of 
50,722 square miles ; and taxable property 
to the value of 8157,770,387. 

The earliest constitution of Alabama 
(1810) ordains that 'schools and the means 
of education shall forever be encouraged,' 
and the General Assembly is directed to pro- 
tect (1,) the land grants of the United States 
for the use of schools within each township ; 
and (2,) the Seminary lands ' for a State uni- 
versity for the promotion of the arts, litera- 
ture and science.' 

The Constitution of 1867 ordains the ap- 
pointment of a Superintendent of Public In- 
struction, — elected at the same time and in 
the same manner as the Governor, and of a 
Board of Education, consisting of the Super- 
intendent and the Governor ex-officio, and 
two members elected for a term of four 
years, for each Congressional District. The 
Board of Education is declared a body 
corporate and politic, ' with full legislative 
powers in reference to the public educational 
institutions of the State, and its acts when 
approved by the Governor, or when reenacted 
by two-thirds of the Board in case of his dis 
approval, shall have the eftect of law, unless 
repealed by the General Assembly.' This 
Board of Education is constituted a Board 
of Regents for the State University, and 
when sitting as such, has power to appoint 
the president and fiiculty. Of the Board of 
Regents, the president of the University is, 
ex-offi,cio, a member for consultation. To 
the support of public schools the constitu- 
tion continues the appropriation of all lands 
and other property donated to the State by 
the United States and individuals for educa- 
tional purposes, and one-fifth of the aggregate 
annual revenue of the State, and of any 
specific tax wdiich the General Assembly may 
levy upon all railroad, navigation, banking 
and insurance companies, foreign or domes- 
tic, duing business in the State. 

The peculiar legislative and administrative 
school authorities provided by the State in 



the constitution of 1867, has not had thus 
far, a favorable field, or sufticient time to de- 
velop its legitimate results. The attempts 
to establish an eflacient system of public 
schools, based on the original U. S. town- 
ship land grants (16th section), by ordinary 
legislation, from the first State law of 1823 
down to 1854, had entirely failed. In the 
year last named, to give efficiency to previous 
laws, a State Superintendent was appointed, 
additional resources were provided by set- 
ting aside the income of the U. S. Sui-plus 
Revenue fund deposited with the State, and 
the avails of certain swamp lands, and a 
direct appropriation of $100,000 out of the 
aggregate annual State tax. Under the 
active labors and legislative reports of the 
Superintendent, the holding of Teachers' 
Institutes, the meetings of a State Educa- 
tional Association, the circulation of rnonthly 
issues of an ^Educational Journal, an intelli- 
gent public opinion was being created, and 
school officers were being educated to their 
work, when the war of Secession arrested 
the work of peace. The annihilation of all 
personal property, and the revolution of the 
old social and industrial system of the South 
which followed, has left a debris to be cleared 
away before any general system of education 
adapted to the new order of society can be 
organized and put in efficient operation. 

Under the legislative authority vested by 
the constitution in the Board of Education, 
and under the administration of a Superin- 
tendent of Public Schools, elected by the 
people for four years, a system has been in- 
stituted which in most of its features cor- 
responds to that which was growing up out 
of the legislation of 1854, and for its sup- 
port the superintendent in his report for 
1871 estimates that the sum of $700,000 
will be available in 1872. 

To assist the reorganization of public 
schools in Mobile, Montgomery, Sehna, 
Iluntsville, La Fayette, Girard, and Colum- 
biana, aid was extended by the agent of 
the Peabody Fund to the extent of about 
$5,000 in 1871. 

The census of 1870 returned 77,139 in 
school attendance, out of 342,976 of the 
school age (5 to 18 years); and 349,771 
persons over 10 years who could not read, 
and 383,012 who could not write. Out of 
2,969 schools of all kinds, with 75,866 
pupils, 57 are returned as classical colleges 
and academies, with 3,218 pupils, and 2,812 
public schools, with 67,000 pupils. 



COMMON SCHOOLS AND ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 



397 



ARKANSAS. 



Population— In 1840, 97,574; in 1870, 484,471— race, 362,- 
U5 w.; 12-2,169 c. Area— 52,198 sq tn. ; per-orf! to s. m., 
9 30; families, 96.135; pers. to fam., 5.04; dwellings, 
98,195; per. to dw., 5.20; persons between 5 and 18, 
84,045 TO., 80,815/. Ta.xable property. $il4, 108,843. 

Arkansas was organized a Territory in 
March, 1819, and admitted a State in 1836. 

The constitution of 1836 ordains that the 
General Assembly, in consideration that 
' knowledge and learning generally diffused 
throughout a community are essential to the 
preservation of a free government,' shall pro- 
vide by law for the school lands, and ' en- 
courage intellectual, scientific and agricul- 
tural improvements.' The State received 
886,460 acres of land for common schools, 
and 46,0&0 for a university, but the legisla- 
ture did not come up to the above require- 
ments of the above fundamental ordinance, 
and no serious, or at least no successful at- 
tempt was ever made to inaugurate a system 
of public schools. In 1854 the Secretary of 
the State, who was ex-officio, State Commis- 
sioner of Common Schools, reported only 40 
public schools, and complains of ' the indif- 
ference that pervades the public mind on the 
subject of education.' Owing to this in- 
ditference, and fraudulent and defective legis- 
lation, the munificent land grants of the gen- 
eral government have been squandered, and 
the permanent school fund from these sources 
in 1870 was $35,192, instead of $2,000,000 
or $3,000,000, as might have been realized 
under honest and judicious management. 

The constitution of 1868 ordains that 'the 
General Assembly shall establish and main- 
tain a system of free schools for the gratuit- 
ous instruction of all persons in the State be- 
tween the ages of five and twenty-one years,' 
and for their supervision, ' a superintendent 
and such other officers as may be necessary, 
shall be appointed.' A State university, 
' with departments for instruction in teaching, 
in agriculture and the natural sciences shall 
also be established and maintained.' ' To 
support these institutions, the proceeds of all 
school lands and other property before 
donated, or which may be donated to the 
State for educational purposes, shall consti- 
tute a School Fund, the annual income of 
wdiich, together with one dollar per capita 
annually assessed on every male inhabitant 
over the age of 21 years, and so much more 
of the ordinary annual revenue of the State 
as shall be found necessary, shall be faithfully 
appropriated to the free schools and univer- 
sities, and to no other purpose whatever.' 
24* 



In view of these provisions, a school sys- 
tem was established in 1869, the authorities 
of which are: (1,) a State Superintendent, 
elected every four years ; (2,) a Circuit Super- 
intendent, appointed by the Governor for 
each judicial district, of which there are ten ; 
(3,) a State Board of Education, composed 
of the State and Circuit Superintendents ; 
(4,) a single trustee for each school district, 
and (5,) a city Superintendent for each incor- 
porated city. The Circuit Superintendent 
gives his entire time to the interests of the 
schools, holds a Teachers' Institute in his 
district every year, examines all candidates 
for the office of public school teacher, and 
issues three grades of certificates — the first 
of which is valid in his district for 2 years, the 
second for 1 year, and the third for 6 months. 

The report of the Superintendent to the 
Governor at the close of 1870, made a very 
fair exhibit of schools, teachers and expen- 
ditures compared with any thing before pub- 
lished. In the two years 1869 and 1870, 
657 new school-houses have been built, mak- 
ing in all 1,289; of 182,474 children (white 
and colored) between the ages of 5 and 21, 
107,908 have attended school of some kind ; 
2,537 schools had been taught by 2,302 
teachers, of whom 944 attended the 41 
Teachers' Institutes which had been held. 
The entire sum expended for the public 
schools was $583,844, of which $334,952 
was from direct tax. 

The Arhmsas Journal of Eihicat'wn was 
established in 1870, and made the organ of 
the State Board in 1871. A State Teachers' 
Association was organized in 1869, and has 
held three annual meetings. The Peabody 
Fund furnished aid in 1870 to the amount 
of $9,450. 

The National census for 1870 returns 
1,978 schools of all kinds, under 3,008 
teachers, of whom 992 were females. Of 
these schools 1,744 are public, with 1,966 
teachers and 72,004 pupils. Under the head 
of classical, professional and technical insti- 
tutions, there are 8 colleges {so-called)., 46 
academies, 1 school of theology, 1 of medi- 
cine and one for the blind and deaf mutes. 

These statistics returned for some States 
would be significant, but names are not 
things, or at least schools, in the light which 
official reports throw on their actual condi- 
tion in Arkansas, especially when the same 
census returns 111,799 persons over 10 
years old who can not read, and 133,339 
who can not write. 



398 



EDUCATION' AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



CALIFORNIA. 

Population in 1850, 92,597 ; in 1870, 560,2-17 ; race, 499,424 
to. (inil 4,272 c. Area, 198,181 sq. m. ; persons, 2.29 to .s-^. 
m. ; fniTiilies, 128,752 ; persons to a fam., 4.35 ; dwellings, 
126,307; pers. to a dw., 4.44 ; persons 5 to 18, 71,08l5 m., 
60,043/. Ta.\able propert^-, $269,(544,008. 

California was settled by the Spanish as 
early as 1769, and became part of the terri- 
tory of the United States by treaty with 
Wisconsin in 1848, and was admitted into 
the Union in 1850. 

The constitution of 1849 provides for the 
election by the people of a superintendent 
of public instruction, and enjoins on the 
legislature ' the establishment of a system 
of common schools, by which a school shall 
be kept in each district at least three months 
in each year,' and deprives each district 
which neglects to do so, of its share in the 
interest of the public fund during such 
neglect. The proceeds of all lands donated 
by the United States Government for school 
or university purposes, including 500,000 
acres donated for internal improvements, are 
to be set aside inviolably and without dim- 
inution for such purposes and no other. 
Under this injunction and wise legislative 
counsels, a system of public schools was at 
once established, and within the last ten years 
has been developed into proportions and 
efficiency, especially in the large towns, 
which may challenge comparison with any in 
the country. Without noticing the succes- 
sive enactments, many of them important, 
by which the system was developed, we find 
in the constitution, and revised school law 
of 1866 the following features: 

1. A State Superintendent, elected for a 
term of four years by the people. 

2. A State Board of Education, consist- 
ing of the Governor, the State Superintend- 
ent, the Principal of the State Normal School, 
the Superintendent of the city and county of 
San Francisco, and of the respective counties 
of Sacramento, Santa Clara and San Joaquin, 
and two professional teachers holding State 
certificates of competency and experience, 
nominated by the State Superintendent and 
elected by the Board. To this Board is as- 
signed the duty of ' adopting a course of 
study, and rules and regulations for all public 
schools, to prescribe a uniform system of text- 
books, and a list of books suitable for school 
libraries, to grant diplomas to teachers and 
regulate their examinations.' 

3. A County Superintendent for each 
county, elected at the general election, to 
hold office for two years, who must visit all 



the schools in his county at least once a year, 
distribute and see to the enforcement of all 
regulations and circulars of the State Board, 
hold Teachers' Institutes, keep on file the 
State Educational Journal, and all printed 
reports and documents of the Superintend- 
ent, and all reports of school officers and 
teachers, as well as an official record of his 
own doings and of the county board of ex- 
amination, on the penalty of a forfeiture of 
$100 from his official salary in case of failure. 

4. Three trustees for each school district, 
one elected each year and holding office for 
three years, to whom the local management 
of the school, as to teachers, books and 
school-houses belongs, subject to the regula- 
tions of the State and county officers. 

The law provides for a State Normal 
School, Teachers' Institutes, and State and 
County Boards of Examination composed of 
teacher.s, exclusively. It also deals specific- 
ally with many points which are left doubt- 
ful or discretionary in other States, such as : 
a gradation of schools into primary, gram- 
mar and high ; a limitation of school hours 
for children under eight years to four hours, 
and for all schools to six hours, a school 
month to twenty school days, or four weeks 
of five school days ; making the parents of 
pupils liable for damages to school property 
of any kind ; making profanity and vulgarity 
good cause for suspension, and continued 
willful disobedience and open defiance of the 
teacher's authority, good cause for expulsion ; 
exempting all teachers from professional em- 
ployment on days as may be declared public 
holidays. State or national ; the necessity of 
teachers attending the Institute for their 
county, and of the State Superintendent 
subscribing for a copy of an Educational 
Journal in which the official circulars, decis- 
ions and laws relating to schools are pub- 
lished, for each county and city and district 
officer. Teachers are enjoined ' to instruct 
their pupils in the principles of morality, 
justice, and patriotism, and to train them up 
to a true comprehension of the rights, duties, 
and dignity of American citizenship.' 

According to the official reports, there were 
in 1870, 1,354 public schools, under 1,687 
teachers (061 females), maintained at a 
total expenditure of $1,290,585, of which 
$847,229 was raised by tax. The productive 
capital of the school fund is $2,000,000. 

The census of 1870 returned 24,877 per- 
sons over 10 years old who could not read, 
and 312,716 who could not write. 



COMMON SCHOOLS AND ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 



399 



CONNECTICUT. 

Connecticut on becoming a State con- 
tinued the educational policy commenced in 
the colonial law of 1650, and much earlier 
in the original towns, which composed both 
the colonies of Connecticut and New Haven 
— in all of which schools were instituted 
within one year after the first settlements 
were made. At the beginning of this 
century the system of public instruction 
embraced (1.) a common school in every 
neighborhood where at least twelve children 
could be gathered for elementary instruction ; 
(2.) an endowed grammar school, or incor- 
porated academy, in the county town, or 
one or more private schools for classical in- 
struction in all the large parishes of the 
State ; (3,) a college for superior instruction 
at New Haven, with special reference to the 
ministry, and the ' learned professions ' of 
law and medicine. The common school 
authorities were: (1,) a school committee 
(of three persons) for each school society 
(which corresponded to the parish — and of 
which there was one or more for each town,) 
which looked after the financial aftairs ; 
(2,) a district committee, appointed by the 
society, for each district, to employ the 
teacher and look after the local matters ; and 
(3,) school visitors, (of which the clergy- 
man was always a member) whose business 
it was to visit the schools and certify to the 
competency of the teachers. 

The State exercised its direct authority in 
the supervision of the common schools for 
the first time in 1838, when, under the lead 
of Henry Barnard, a member of the Legis- 
lature from Hartford, a State Board, entitled 
Commissioners of Education, was instituted, 
with a secretary as its executive officer. 
The duties of the board were mainly to 
collect and disseminate information and 
awaken public interest in behalf of the 
schools, and the means of popular education 
generally. Out of the action of that board, 
and of the Massachusetts Board of Educa- 
tion established in 1837, have been devel- 
oped the measures of educational reform and 
the systems of public instruction which now 
exist in every one of the United States. 

I. The system of Common Schools in 
Connecticut is administered by (1,) State 
Board of Education, composed of the Gov- 
ernor, Lieut. Governor, and four persons, 
one from each Congressional district, and 
charged with the general supervision and 
control of the educational interests of the 



State, with special power to prescribe what 
books shall be used, but not to require any 
book to be changed oftener than once in 
five years ; to prescribe the form of all 
school reports ; to establish and manage a 
State Normal School, and hold conventions 
of teachers; and to appoint a secretary, 
whose business it is made to exercise a gen- 
eral supervision over the public schools, to 
visit different parts of the State for the pur- 
pose of awakening and guiding public senti- 
ment in relation to the practical interests of 
education, to collect school-books, apparatus, 
maps, and charts as can be obtained without 
expense to the State, and to report annually 
to the board on the condition of Normal 
schools and other public schools of the State. 

(2,) A Board of School Visitors for each 
town, of six or nine members, as the town 
may determine, who prescribe regulations 
for the management, studies, classification, 
and discipline of the public schools ; exam- 
ine candidates and issue certificates of quali- 
fications to such as they find qualified. If 
authorized by the towns, this board may 
employ the teachers for the schools ; visit 
the schools through one or more of their 
members, called an acting visitor or visitors ; 
and report to the town and the board an- 
nually, and when required. 

(3,) A committee of each district, charged 
with all matters of local management, unless 
the same shall have been transferred by 
the town to the school visitors. 

The law designates certain branches in 
which the teachers must be found qualified 
to teach, and which any parent may require 
his child, if properly qualified, to receive 
instruction, viz., reading, writing, arithme- 
tic, and grammar thoroughly, and the rudi- 
ments of geography, history, and drawing. 

From the year 1650, it has been made by 
law the duty of all parents and guardians 
of children ' to bring them up in some hon- 
est and lawful calling, and to cause them 
to be instructed,' originally ' to read the 
Holy Word of God and other good laws of 
the colony,' but by existing statute ' in read- 
ing, writing, English grammar, geography 
and arithmetic' By the existing law, ' any 
child between the ages of 8 and 14 must 
attend some school, public or private, or be 
instructed at home, at least three months in 
each year, unless the physical or mental 
condition renders such instruction inexpe- 
dient. And no child under 14 can be em- 
ployed to labor in any business, whatever, 



400 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



unless he has attended school three montlis 
out of the twelve preceding, under a pen- 
alty of $100 for each offense. Each city or 
town may make all needful regulations con- 
cerning habitual truants from school, or 
children under 16 years of age found loiter- 
ing during school hours, with prescribed 
modes for their arrest, penalties, and for re- 
peated convictions, their sentence to the 
State Reform School, and in case of girls, to 
the Girls' Industrial School. To carry out 
these provisions relative to children engaged 
in factory labor, the State Board appoint an 
agent who visits the localities, confers with 
employers and teachers, and thus, without 
actually appealing to penalties, secure the 
enforcement of the law. But the statistics 
of the Secretary's report for 1872, and the 
national census of 1870, show that the aim 
of the law — universal school attendance, 
and universal elementary instruction at 
home or at school, are not now reached. 
The census shows that there were 29,616 
persons over 10 years old, of all races, 
who were returned as illiterate — over 
19,000 who could not read, and over 
29,000 who could not write. Of the 
29,616 thus returned, 27,913 were white, 
and of these 5,678 were native born. 
Out of 131,748 persons over 4 and under 
16 years of age in January, 1872, only 
83,095 were registered as scholars in public 
schools in the summer of 1872, and 94,408 
in the winter of 1872. If to these we add 
8,754 in private schools, it leaves 11,947 
not in any school, public or private. 

In 1871, there were 166 towns; 1,535 
school districts, with 1,630 schools, classi- 
fied into 2,290 departments, under 2,420 
teachers (2,194 females), of whom 595 had 
not taught before ; the State School Fund, 
$2,048,375 ; Town Deposit Fund, $763,661 ; 
Local School Fund, $150,000; valuation 
of taxable property, $322,553,488. The 
income in 1871 was, from permanent funds, 
$183,262 ; from town and district taxation, 
$1,052,545; from rate-bills, $267,809,— 
total $1,503,617. 

The educational institutions of the State 
in 1872 consisted of (1,) 1,630 common 
schools; 100 academies, seminaries, and 
high schools of secondary instruction ; 3 
colleges, 8 professional and special schools, 
1 teaching, 3 theology, 1 law, 1 medicine, 
1 science applied to engineering, agriculture, 
and architecture, 1 art — industrial and 
ideal, 1 deaf mute, 1 imbecile, and 290 
private schools of every grade and aim. 



DELAWARE. 

Delaware was the first State to ratify the 
Federal Constitution (1789), and one of the 
earliest to ordain by constitution (1792) 
that 'the Legislature shall, as soon as con- 
veniently may be, provide by law for estab- 
lishing schools and promoting arts and sci- 
ences.' But the act of 1796 'to create a 
fund sufficient to establish schools,' and all 
subsequent acts of 1797, 1816, 1817, 1821, 
' to increase the fund or pay the tuition of 
poor children,' or of 1829 'to provide for 
free schools,' or of 1830 and 1832, 1833 and 
1835 supplementary and additional thereto, 
or of 1837 appropriating the income of the 
U. S. Surplus Revenue Fund for the benefit 
of the school districts, and all subsequent 
acts (1852, 1857, 1858, 1861) have failed to 
go to the root of the matter by making it 
obligatory on the towns or hundreds to estab- 
lish and maintain public schools, not for the 
poor, but for all classes, and to raise by tax 
on the taxable property of such town or 
hundred, a minimum sum for the support of 
such schools, and then subjecting teachers 
to an examination, and the schools to regular 
visitation, by a committee responsible to the 
State and to the local community for the 
perforinance of their duties. From this 
general remark should be excepted the city 
of Wilmington, in which a system of public 
schools has been maintained under a special 
act of the Legislature, by which the school 
interest is committed to a board elected by 
the citizens, with power to establish schools 
and provide money for their support, by 
requisition on the city authorities. Down to 
1872, no provision was made by the State 
for education of the colored children, but by 
the aid of citizens, and the Freedmen's 
Bureau, 29 schools were maintained with 
2,104 pupils at an expense of $11,000. 

According to the national census of 1870, 
out of a school population (5 to 18 years of 
age) of 40,807, only 19,965 were returned 
at school in the year previous, and out of 
the total population (125,015), 19,356 per- 
sons over 10 years could not read, and 
23,100 could not write. According to the 
same census there were 326 public schools 
under 388 teachers, w'ith 17,835 pupils; 
9 academic institutions under 63 teachers 
and 859 pupils (including 2 classed as colleges 
with 15 teachers, of whom 8 are females, 
and 137 pupils, of whom 120 are females; 
and 38 private and parochial schools, with 
59 teachers and 1,881 pupils. 



COMMON SCHOOLS AND ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 



401 



Florida was admitted into the United 
States in 1845, although settled earlier than 
other portions of the Union. Although the 
Constitution adopted in 1839, and that of 
1865 throw their protection around lands 
granted * for the use of schools and semin- 
aries of learning,' not much seems yet to 
have come of the lands (amounting to over 
1,000,000 acres), or to have been done for 
schools, until under the act of Jan. 30, 1869, 
by which (1,) a Superintendent of Public In- 
struction is appointed for the State, and (2,) 
County Superintendents for each. 

According to the national census of 1870, 
out of a school population (5 to 18 years of 
age) of 63,807, 12,778 were returned as at- 
tending school in the year previous. Of this 
number, 8,254 were white and 4,524 colored. 
Out of the entire population (187,748), 
66,238 persons over 10 years of age could 
not read, and 71,803 could not write, with 
taxable property to the valuation of $32,- 
480,843, and school lands yet undisposed of. 
A better exhibit may be anticipated in 1880 
over 1870, when the census returned 377 
public schools, with 14,000 pupils; 10 
academies, with 580 pupils, and 141 private 
schools, with 1,500 pupils. 

GEORGIA. 

Georgia was one of the earliest to assert 
in its fundamental law (Constitution of 1777), 
that ' schools shall be erected in each county, 
and supported at the general expense of the 
State,' and to make liberal appropriations to 
endow seminaries of learning. In 1783 the 
legislature donated 1,000 acres of land to 
each county for the support of free schools, 
and in the year following, 40,000 acres for 
the endowment of a university, and in 1792, 
one thousand pounds for the endowment of 
an academy in each county. In the preamble 
of the charter creating the University of 
Georgia in 1785, are these words: ' as it is 
the distinguishing happiness of free govern- 
ments that civil order should be the result 
of choice, and not necessity, and that the 
common wishes of the people become the 
laws of the land, their public prosperity and 
even existence depend very much on suitably 
forming the minds and morals of their citi- 
zens. * * * It should be among the 
first objects of those who wish -well to the 
national prosperity, to support the princi|iles 
of religion and morality, and early to place 
the youth under the forming hand of society, 



that by instruction they may be molded to 
the love of virtue and good order. Sending 
them abroad to other countries for an educa- 
tion will not answer.' To give effect to the 
last suggestion, in the same year it was 
enacted that 'if any person or persons under 
the age of sixteen years, shall, after the pas- 
sage of this act, be sent abroad without the 
limits of the United States, and reside there 
three years for the purpose of receiving an 
education under a foreign power, such per- 
son or persons, after their return to this 
State, shall for three years be considered and 
treated as aliens, in so far as not to be eligi- 
ble to a seat in the legislature or executive 
authority, or to hold any office, civil or miH- 
tary, in the State for that term, and so in 
proportion for any greater number of years 
as he or they shall be absent as aforesaid.' 
The Legislature at this period was in earnest, 
and comprehensive in its educational policy. 
In spite of numerous laws and liberal appro- 
priations designed to provide free elementary 
instruction for the poor, to establish at least 
one endowed academy in each county, and a 
university for higher and professional learn- 
ing for the whole State, the hindrances inci- 
dent to a new country, with its productive 
resources not developed, to a population set- 
tled and settling not in villages or groups, 
but in independent and isolated plantations, 
and more than all, to a radically unrepub- 
lican constitution of society, these laws failed 
to accomplish their beneficent objects. The 
provisions of the amended Constitution of 
1798, reordained in that of 1839, that 'the 
arts and sciences shall be promoted,' and 
' the General Assembly shall provide effectual 
measures ' for elementary as well as higher 
institutes, did not establish free schools, pro- 
vide competent teachers, awaken public in- 
terest, or keep the legislature informed of the 
exact state of education in difierent parts of 
the State. The national census of 1840, 
while it showed the existence of 11 colleges 
(so designated) with 622 students, and 176 
academies with 7,878, and only 601 primary 
schools with 15,561 pupils, for a white popu- 
lation of over 400,000, of whom 30,717 
persons (increased to 42,000 in 1850,) over 
20 years of age were returned unable to read 
and write. In 1843, and again in 1854 and 
1856, after a personal visit of the writer of 
this article, and correspondence with promi- 
nent citizens, a plan was devised to create a 
system of common schools, open alike to 
rich and poor, supported by public tax, State 



402 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



and local, and administered by district, 
county and State commissioners. The plan 
met with favor in the legislature both in 1854 
and 1856, but failed in spite of the eloquent 
appeal of Hon. W. H. Stiles, Speaker of the 
House, ' Let us, by the passage of this bill, 
inaugurate a system of common schools in 
Georgia. In the name and in behalf of 
150,000 Georgians, between 5 and 20 years 
of age, who are growing up in ignorance of 
the duties and relations of civilized life, I 
demand it. In the name of 42,000 of my 
countrymen, over the age of 20 years, who 
are daily hurrying to the grave without being 
able to read for themselves the way of eternal 
life, I demand it. In the name and in be- 
half of the Avhole State, which we proudly 
call the ' EmpireState of the South,' I demand 
it. And in what, pray, does her empire con- 
sist? In lands and tenements, in fields and 
stocks, in railroads and copper mines, but 
not in that which exceeds them all, in culti- 
vated intellect. It is an empire of matter, 
and not of mind, of darkness and not of 
light. Enlighten this darkness, efface from 
her escutcheon that foul blot of illiteracy 
which the census discloses, or never call her 
again the Empire State.' The census of 
1870 disclosed a progressive increase of illit- 
eracy ; the events of the war, having 
added the entire black race at once to the 
number of citizens, and the ranks of the 
illiterate, making 468,593 persons over 10 
years of age who could not read. 

In 1870 a school system was established, 
with the following school authorities : 

(1,) A State Board of Education, consist- 
ing of the Governor and other State officers, 
acting through a State School Commissioner. 
To this Board is given the apportionment of 
any State appropriation, and supervision. 

(2,) A County Board of Education, consist- 
ing of a member for each militia district. 
By this Board a County School Commis- 
sioner is elected, who thus becomes a mem- 
ber, and its secretary. To this Board belongs 
the examination of teachers, the inspection 
of schools, and the imposition of a tax. 

(3,) School Trustees for each militia dis- 
trict, which has been made a school district. 
This Board manages the school, and reports 
to the County Commissioner, 

(4,) The city school authorities of Augusta, 
Columbia and Savannah, instituted by special 
acts, by which graded systems of public 
schools are established for the respective cities 
and the counties of which they form part. 



ILLINOIS. 

Illinois became one of the United States 
Dec. 3, 1818, with a population in 1820 of 
55,211, which had increased in 1870 to 
1,680,637. By an ordinance dated Aug. 
26, 1818, the convention which framed the 
State Constitution accepted a proposition 
contained in act of Congress passed April 
18, 1818, as a condition precedent of the 
admission of the people of the Illinois Ter- 
ritory, and to be obligatory upon the United 
States, viz., 'That section numbered 16 in 
every township shall be granted to the State 
for the use of the inhabitants of said town- 
ship for the use of schools ; that five per 
cent, of the net proceeds of public lands 
within the State and sold by Congress after 
the first day of January, 1819, shall be re- 
served for the following purposes, viz., two- 
fifths for making roads leading to the State, 
and the residue shall be appropriated by the 
Legislature of the State for the encourage- 
ment of learning, of which one-sixth part 
shall be exclusively bestowed on a college 
or university.' 'That 36 sections, or one 
entire township, to be designated by the 
President of the United States, together 
with the one heretofore reserved for that 
purpose, shall be reserved for the use of a 
seminary of learning, and vested in the 
Legislature of said State to be appropriated 
solely to the use of such seminary.' 

Much legislation has been had on the 
management of the funds growing out of 
the lease and sale of the lands thus donated, 
and the controversy over the possession of 
portions of the avails of the United States 
reservations paid over to the State has not 
ceased. The capital of these funds in 1871 
was as follows: School Fund, 1613,363; 
College or University Fund, 1156,613; 
Seminary Fund, $^59,839 ; County School 
Fund, 6348,285 ; Congressional Township 
Fund, $4,868,555 ; Surplus Revenue Fund, 
1335,592; — Total, September 30th, 1872, 
$6,382,248. 

The first general school law was passed in 
1825, 'to provide for the establishment of 
free schools,' with the following preamble : 
'To enjoy our rights and liberties we must 
understand theni ; their security and pro- 
tection ought to be the first object of a free 
people; and it is a well established fact that 
no nation has ever continued long in the 
enjoyment of civil and political freedom, 
which was not both virtuous and enlight 
ened ; and believing that the advancement 



COMMON SCHOOLS AND ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 



403 



of literature always has been, and ever will 
be, the means of developing more fully the 
rights of man ; that the mind of every citi- 
zen in the republic is the common property 
of society, and constitutes the basis of its 
strength and happiness; it is, therefore, con- 
sidered the peculiar duty of a free govern- 
ment like ours, to encourage and extend the 
improvement and cultivation of the intel- 
lectual energies of the whole.' 

The upward and onward movement of 
common schools in Illinois dates from the 
legislation of 1854, for which preparation 
had been made by long and persistent indi- 
vidual and associated labor. Among 
these should be mentioned the seven 
founders (particularly Baldwin, Turner, and 
Sturtevant,) of the Illinois College from 
1829; the Ladies' Association for Educnt'u)g 
Females, founded at Jacksonville in lSo3; 
the Illinois Institute of Education, founded 
at Vandalia in the same year; the Illinois 
State Educational Society, founded at 
Springfield in 1841 ; i\\Q Northioestern Edu- 
cational Societi/, begun in 1845; the In- 
dustrial Education Convodions, from 1851 ; 
the Teachers' Association, county-wise from 
1845, and culminating in the State Associa- 
tions in 1853; the publications of the 
Common School Advocate in 1837, the 
Illinois School Advocate in 1841, the 
Prairie Farmer, and Illinois Teacher m 1853. 

In 1854 provision was made for the elec- 
tion by the people of a Superintendent of 
Public Instruction, to hold his office for two 
years, and whose whole time should be de- 
voted to the supervision of the common 
schools, to conferences with teachers and 
school officers, to public addresses in the 
different counties, and to the advancement 
of public education generally. He was 
specifically required to make a report every 
year, and in the year following his election, 
to report to the Legislature by bill 'a system 
of free school education throughout the 
State, to be supported by a uniform ad 
valorem tax upon property to be assessed 
and collected as the state and county 
revenue is assessed and collected.' 

In 1855 a bill for the thorough organiza- 
tion of the common schools was drawn up 
by the superintendent, the basis of which 
was the principle of state and local taxation 
for educational purposes, and a series of 
school officers for local and general adminis- 
tration to secure uniformity and efficiency 
in the schools. The bill became a law, and 



under it were : (1,) A State Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, elected by the people. 
(2,) A School Commissioner for each county, 
elected by the township boards of educa- 
tion in that county. (3,) A Board of Edu- 
cation for each township. Provision whs 
made for County School Conventions and 
Teachers' Institutes, and an examining com- 
mittee for each county. No school could 
receive any portion of the state or local 
school moneys unless it had been kept for 
at least six months for the equal and free in- 
struction of all persons. The law has been 
modified and revised from time to time, 
and the system of public instruction has 
been extended by the addition of new insti- 
tutions until it has reached a high degree 
of efficiency in the School Law of 1872. 

The State now requires and secures of- 
ficial returns from all institutions established, 
incorporated, or aided to any extent out of 
public funds, and of the school attendance 
of all its children and youth, and the causes 
of the neglect of any person growing up in 
illiteracy, either white or black. Provision 
is made to protect the public schools against 
the employment of incompetent persons as 
teachers, by providing a Normal University, 
teachers' institutes, teachers' associations, 
the advice and co-operation of school officers, 
and then the thorough examination by ex- 
perts of all applicants in a range of specified 
studies as extensive as was ever before 
inserted in the qualifications of common 
school teachers, viz., orthography, reading 
in English, penmanship, arithmetic, English 
grammar, modern geography, the elements 
of natural science, the history of the United 
States, physiology, and the laws of health, 
which the law declares must be thoroughly 
and efficiently taught ; vocal music and 
drawing may be insisted on when deemed 
expedient by the directors. And these 
studies may be extended at the discretion of 
the Board of Education in all large cities. 

The school authorities are : 

(1.) State Superintendent, elected by the 
people for a term of four years, who is the 
legal adviser of all school officers and 
teachers, and who must address the county 
superintendents by circular on all points 
touching the system, and the organiz- 
ation, instruction, and discipline of schools, 
and report annually to the Governor on the 
condition and improvement of the educa- 
tional institutions of the State. 

(2,) County Superintendent, elected by 



404 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



the voters of each county to hold office for 
four years, who must visit at least once in 
each year every school in his county, and to 
note the method of instruction, the branches 
taught, the text-books used, and the disci- 
pline, government, and general condition of 
the schools. He shall give such directions 
in the science, art, and method of teaching 
as he may deem expedient and necessary, 
and shall be the official adviser and constant 
assistant of the school officers and teachers 
of his county, and shall faithfully carry out 
the advice and instructions of the State 
Superintendent, He shall encourage the 
formation and assist in the management of 
county teachers' institutes, and labor in 
every practicable way to elevate the stand- 
ard of teaching, and improve the condition 
of the common schools of his county. In 
all controversies arising under the school 
law, his advice shall first be sought, and all 
appeals to the State Superintendent must be 
taken up on the statement of facts certified 
by him. In case of failure of any township 
officers to provide the authorized informa- 
tion and statistics, he can employ a com- 
petent person to examine all books and 
papers, and obtain and furnish the same. 

(3,) Township Trustees for each town- 
ship (one elected each year for a term of 
three year), who must secure an efficient 
school in each legally constituted district, 
for a period of six months in each year, and 
a High School for the winter term when so 
ordered by the town. 

(4,) District Directors, one for each dis- 
trict, into which a township may be divided, 
who must, among other items, report the 
names of persons over 12 and under 21 re- 
siding in the district unable to read and 
write, and the causes of such neglect. To 
this office is committed the power of levying 
a tax on the property of the district to con- 
tinue the school for not less than 5 or more 
than 9 months, and to excuse the attendance 
of children under 12 years for more than 
four hours each day. 

In 1872 there were 11,156 common 
schools (9 high, 651 graded, and 10,414 un- 
graded,) with 672,782 pupils under 20,285 
teachers (11,459 females), in 10,979 school- 
houses (cost, with ground and apparatus, 
$18,373,880); 58 academies and colleges; 
20 professional and special schools, 4 teach- 
ing, 2 law, 2 medicine, 2 agriculture, 1 
blind, 1 deaf mute, 2 commercial, 1 art, 
and 700 private schools. 



INDIANA. 

Indiana was organized as a Territory in 
1800, and admittted as a State in 1816, 
with a population in 1820 of 145,750, which 
in 1870 had increased to 1,680,637, with a 
valuation for taxable purposes of $663,- 
455,044. 

The history of education in Indiana com- 
mences with the Act of Congress of 1804 
providing for the sale of the public lands, 
which directed that the Secretary of the 
Treasury should select a township of land 
in several portions of the northwestern terri- 
tory for the use of seminaries of learning, 
and that the section numbered sixteen in 
each and every township should be reserved 
for the use of schools. No application of 
these lands was, however, made until 1816, 
when Congress passed an ordinance to enable 
the people of the Indiana Territory to form 
a constitution and be admitted into the 
Union. That ordinance provided that one 
township of land, in addition to the one 
heretofore reserved, should be granted to 
the State of Indiana for the use of a semi- 
nary of learning, and that the sixteenth sec- 
tion in every township, and where that ha<l 
been otherwise disposed of, other lands in 
lieu thereof should be granted for the use 
of schools. The proposition was accepted, 
and after the admission of the State of Indi- 
ana into the Union, a State University was 
established at Bloomington in Monroe county, 
and the proceeds of the sales of the two 
townships were directed to be funded, and 
the income thereof annually applied to the 
support of the institution. 

The constitution of 1816 makes it the 
duty of the General Assembly ' to provide 
by law for a general system of education, 
ascending in regular gradation from town- 
ship schools to a State University, where tui- 
tion shall be gratis and equally open to all.' 
This duty is reaffirmed in the constitution 
of 1851, with provision for the election of a 
superintendent, and a consolidation and 
enlargement of the Common School Fund, 
which is declared to consist of : 

(1,) Congressional Township Fund and 
land ; (2,) United States Surplus Revenue 
Fund ; (3,) Saline Fund and land belonging 
thereto ; (4,) Bank Tax Fund ; (5,) County 
Seminaries' Fund, and fines assessed for 
breaches of the penal laws; (6,) Swamp 
Land Funds. 

The aggregate of these funds in 1870 
amounted to $7,282,639, and the income 



COMMON SCHOOLS AND ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 



405 



from the same to about $400,000, which was 
increased by property and capitation tax to 
the sum of $1,810,866. 

The first school law was enacted in 1821, 
which underwent many revisions and modi- 
fications, without producing efficient schools, 
and leaving Indiana in 1840 behind most of 
the other States, and in 1840, according to 
the national census (out of a population of 
988,416), there were 70,540 persons over 20 
years of age who could not read or write, 
of whom less than 1,000 were returned as 
native born. Under the energetic appeals 
of 'One of the People' {Prof. Caleb Mills 
of Wabash College,) addressed from year to 
year, from 1840 to 1848, to the people of 
Indiana, as a sort of supplement to the Gov- 
ernor's message, the Legislature was finally 
aroused to efficient action, and in 1848 an 
act to provide a system of free schools was 
passed. It having been left with the counties 
to repeal or adopt its provisions by popular 
vote for its respective townships, many 
counties adhered to the old defective system, 
but the Constitution of 1850, and the school 
law of 1855, brought up the legal require- 
ments to a higher and a uniform state, and 
from that time the schools have been under 
agencies which have constantly improved the 
quality of the instruction given, although 
they have not prevented an alarming amount 
of illiteracy, viz., 76,634 persons over 10 
years of age who could not read, and 187,- 
124 who could not write, according to the 
census of 1870. 

The system is now administered by : 
(1,) State Superintendent; (2,) State Board 
of Education, composed of State Superin- 
tendent, president of State University and 
State Normal School, and the superintend- 
ents of the three largest cities ; (3,) County 
•Commissioners, one for each of the 92 
counties, who visit the schools of their re- 
spective townships, hold institutes, and ap- 
point ; (4,) District Superintendents, who 
hold office for three years, and examine all 
candidates for teaching; Township Trustees, 
who may, among other powers, introduce 
the study of the German language into any 
school where the parents or guardians of 25 
children demand it. 

In 1870, out of 619,627 children between 
the ages of 5 and 21, 462,527 attended in 
the 8,759 district and high schools (includ- 
ing 34 cities), taught by 11,846 teachers 
(4,722 females), and maintained at a cost 
of $1,810,860. 



Iowa was organized as a territory in 1838 
and admitted into the Union in 1846, with 
an area of 55,045 sq. m., and a population in 
1850 of 192,214, which has increased to 
1,191,792 in 1870, with taxable property 
valued at $302,515,418. The constitution 
of 1846 provides for the inviolability of 
the school and university funds, and the 
election by the people of a superin- 
tendent of public instruction, to hold 
his office for three years, directs the Gen- 
eral Assembly to encourage intellectual, 
scientific, moral and agricultural improve- 
ments, and provide a system of common 
schools, by which a school shall be kept up 
and supported in each school district at least 
three months in every year. The amended 
constitution of 1857 goes into much detail, 
respecting the powers of a 'Board of Edu- 
cation for the State of Iowa,' to which was 
given ' full power to legislate and make all 
needful rules and regulations in relation to 
common schools, and other educational insti- 
tutions aided from the school or university 
funds, subject to the revision and repeal of 
the General Assembly.' Power was reserved 
to the General Assembly to abolish or reor- 
ganize the Board of Education at any time 
after 1863, and provide for the educational 
interests of the State in such manner as shall 
seem to them best and proper. The action 
of the Board, instituted according to the 
provisions of this constitution, did not prove 
acceptable to the people, and in 1864 the 
school system as established by them was 
reorganized by the General Assembly. 

By the act of 1863 and its subsequent 
amendments the school authorities are : 
(1,) State Superintendent, elected by the 
people for two years ; (2,) County Superin- 
tendents, one for each county, elected for 
two years; (3,) Township Board of Direct- 
ors, made up of three or more sub-directors 
for each township, who have the manage- 
ment of the township school fund ; and 
(4,) Sub-director for each sub-district, for 
the local management of the school. 

According to the report of 1871, there 
were 1,260 district townships, 344 inde- 
pendent districts (cities and villages), and 
7,716 sub-districts, with 7,823 schools, of 
which 289 are graded, in which are 40 high 
schools; out of 460,629 school population 
(between 5 and 21 years) 341,938 attended 
school during the year, under 14,070 differ- 
ent teachers, at an aggregate salary of 



406 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



$1,900,893, in 7,594 school-houses, erected 
at a cost of $6,704,551, in which was school 
apparatus to the value of $104,359. In 
1871, 7,500 teachers met in 76 teachers' 
institutes. There are two School Journals 
and a State Teachers' Association. 

According to the national census in 1870 
there were 217,554 persons of all ages in 
7,496 schools, of which there were 1 normal, 
37 high, 41 grammar, 294 graded, and 6,949 
ungraded common schools ; 1 university, 
witli 23 professors, and 403 pupils; 21 
classical colleges, and 34 academies, and 
5,200 pupils ; 1 school of law, 1 of medi- 
cine, and 4 of theology, with 209 pupils ; 
10 special schools, with 850 pupils; (1 ag- 
ricultural, 5 commercial, 1 blind, 1 deaf 
mutes, 2 music); 103 private schools, with 
5,300 pupils; and 24,115 persons over 10 
could not read, and 45,671 (24,979 natives) 
could not write. 

The school fund amounts to $3,174,578. 

KANSAS. 

Kansas organized as a Territory in 1854, 
was after many tribulations, admitted as a 
Stale in 1859, with an area of 91,318 sq. m., 
and a population in 1860 of 107,206, which 
had increased in 1870 to 364,399, and a 
taxable property of $92,125,861. Total 
value of farms and live stock in 1870 was 
$126,992,538. 

The constitution adopted in 1858, pro- 
vides for a superintendent of public instruc- 
tion for the State, and one for each county, 
and directs the legislature to 'encourage the 
promotion of intellectual, moral, scientific 
and agricultural improvement by establishing 
a uniform system of common schools, and 
schools of higher grade, embracing normal, 
preparatory, collegiate and university depart- 
ments.' ' The proceeds of lands donated by 
the United States or the State for the support 
of schools, and the 500,000 acres granted to 
the new State in 1841, and all estates of 
persons dying without heirs or will, and such 
per cent, as may be granted by Congress on 
the sale of lands in this State are made a 
perpetual school fund, which shall not be 
diiiiiuished, the interest of which with such 
other means as the legislature may furnish by 
tax or otherwise, shall be inviolably appro- 
priated to the support of common schools.' 
' Provision shall be made by law for a State 
University for the promotion of literature 
and the arts and sciences, including a normal 
and agricultural department,' and ' no relig- 
ious sect or sects shall ever control any part 



of the common school or university funds of 
the State.' 

Schools are organized on the basis of 
cities (incorporated by general law), and of 
the congressional township distribution of 
territory. Each city by general law has a 
board of education somewhat differently 
constituted, but all with full powers to es- 
tablish and maintain public schools accord- 
ing to its population, while each con- 
gressional township, embracing an area of 
six miles square, is constituted one school 
district. Each district is divided into sub- 
districts of any convenient size, by the 
county superintendent. Each sub-district 
elects a director, and all the directors of 
sub-districts constitute a school district 
board for the township, with power to levy 
taxes, locate, and erect school-houses, em- 
ploy teachers for the schools of the town- 
ship, and with power to erect a higher 
school for the older children of all the sub- 
districts. 

The school authorities are : (1,) State 
Superintendent, elected for two years, with 
the usual powers ; (2.) County Superintend- 
ents, one for each county, elected for two 
years, with power to divide the congression- 
al townships into districts, examine (when 
associated with two competent persons ap- 
pointed by the County Commissioners, who 
together constitute a County Board of Ex- 
aminers,) teachers, hold institutes, and gen- 
erally administer the system for the county; 
(3,) Township Boards, composed of a di- 
rector from each sub-district into which the 
township district is divided ; (4,) District 
Boards, composed of the director, clerk, and 
treasurer; (5,) City Boards of Education, 
charged with full powers of local manage- 
ment of public schools in the several in- 
corporated cities. 

According to the report of the superin- 
tendent for 1872 there were 3,419 sub- 
districts, containing 165,982 persons be- 
tween the ages of 5 and 21 years. Of 
this number 106,663 were enrolled in the 
public schools, with an average daily attend- 
ance of 61,538 pupils under "3,835 different 
teachers (2,048 females), to whom was paid 
for their services $596,611, The entire ex- 
penditure on account of public schools in 
1871 was $1,701,950, of which $217,810 
was received from the State (interest from 
the permanent fund and taxes), $22,680 
from county funds, $822,644 from district 
tax, and $431,382 from tuition and other 



COMMON SCHOOLS AND ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 



407 



sources. The total number of school- 
houses for 3,419 organized districts was 
2,437, valued, with lots and apparatus, at 
$2,84o,262. Beside the public schools 
there are two State Normal Schools (at 
Emporia and Leavenworth), with buildings 
erected at a cost of $140,000, and an aver- 
age attendance in both of 300 pupils. 

Out of section 16, and 36 in each town- 
ship, and the 500,000 acres (total nearly 
3,000,000 acres), only $759,095 has yet 
been converted into a permanent school 
fund. The university received 46,000 acres, 
out of which only $10,000 has yet been 
realized as a permanent fund. The grounds 
and improvements have cost $164,000, 
mainly contributed by the city of Lawrence. 
The Agricultural College receives $90,000 
from Congressional grants, out of which 
$189,745 have been realized, leaving land 
unsold estimated at $180,797, or a total of 
$378,542. Tlie State University was crip- 
pled at the start by the incorporation of 
two denominational institutions of higher 
education (Baker University and Washburne 
College), on which $200,000 have already 
been expended for buildings andequipments. 

The census of 1870 returns a school at- 
tendance of 63,183, out of a school popula- 
tion (between the ages of 5 and 18) of 
108,710, with 16,369 persons 10 years of 
ago who could not read, and 24,550 who 
could not write. In the table of schools 
there were 1,663 public schools (1 normal, 
4 high, 1 grammar, 118 graded, 1,539 un- 
graded), with 1,955 teachers; 2 universities 
with 13 teachers (1 female), and 292 
students ; 5 special schools (1 agricultural, 
2 commercial, 1 blind, 1 deaf mutes), with 
277 pupils; and 11 private schools, with 
671 pupils. 

KEXTUCKy. 

Kentucky was settled from Virginia, of 
which it was part until 1791, when it was 
admitted as a State, with a population of 
73,077, which in 1870 had increased to 
1,321,011. In its educational and econom- 
ical policy it followed the mother State — 
relying on colleges, academies and private 
tutors for families who could pay, and mak- 
ing no general provision for common schools 
until 1821, when a Literary Fund was estab- 
lished out of one-half of the clear profits of 
the Bank of the Commonwealth. This law 
was made slightly efficient by the act of 
1830, 'to establish a uniform system of pub- 
lic schools,' in which this provision occurs. 



' any widow or fcmme sole over 21 years of 
age, residing and owning property subject to 
taxation for school purposes in any school 
district, shall have the right to vote, either 
in person or by written proxy ; also infants 
so situated may vote by proxy.' In 1838 an 
act to establish a system of common schools 
was passed, by which a Board of Education 
was instituted, of which the Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, appointed by the Gov- 
ernor with the consent of the senate, was 
made a member and the executive officer. 
By this law the State was divided into dis- 
tricts, and the income of the small permanent 
fund was increased by a tax of two cents 
(made three by popular vote in 1850) on 
every one hundred dollars of taxable prop- 
erty in the State, designed, according to a 
subsequent act (1845), 'to encourage and 
aid the citizens to organize and maintain 
common schools.' In 1842 the Superin- 
tendent was instructed to report on creating 
the profession of teaching, and in 1854 the 
legislature made provision for the education 
of 150 teachers in the State University at 
Lexington. But the difficulties of a sparse 
population, and the peculiar social and in- 
dustrial habits of the people render a sys- 
tem of common schools impossible, and the 
schools never got such a lodgment as to 
materially modify the habits of the State 
except in Louisville, where the graded sj^stem 
was truly efficient, its public high school, 
teachers, and superintendence comparing 
favorably with these features in any city. 
The census of 1870, out of a school popula- 
tion (5 to 18) of 454,539, returns 181,225 
persons in attendance in the year previous, 
and out of the entire population (1,324,011), 
249,567 persons over 10 years who can not 
read, and 321,176 who can not write. 

According to the same census there were 
in 1870, 5,149 schools of all kinds in opera- 
tion ; 4,727 public schools, viz., 1 normal, 
23 high, 19 grammar, 88 graded, 1,596 un- 
graded, with an aggregate of 218,440 
pupils ; 137 classical academies and colleges 
(including two universities), with 12,088 
pupils ; 15 professional and special schools, 
2 law, 4 medicine, 5 theology, 1 agricul- 
tural, 8 commercial, 1 blind, 1 deaf mutes, 
1 idiotic. 

According to the report of theState Super- 
intendent for the year ending June 30, 1871, 
there were 5,117 school districts, in which 
5,068 schools were taught to 120,866 pupils, 
at an expense to the State (about $156,000 



408 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



income of school funds, $802,000 avails 
of State property tax,) of $968,176, to which 
will be added next year the avails of "a rate 
bill assessed on each patron of the school, 
according to the number of children and 
length of time actually sent by each." The 
State tax is about 2 mills on each dollar of 
taxable property, which, according to the 
census in 1870, was $469,544,294. 

LOUISIANA. 

Louisiana was admitted a State in 1812, 
with a population in 1810 of 76,556, which 
had increased to 726,915 in 1870. While 
in a territorial organization, the University 
of Orleans was instituted, and provision was 
made for a college in the city of New 
Orleans, and at least one academy and one 
public library in each county, and for the 
support of the same, $50,000 was to be raised 
annually. lu 1808 authority was given to 
institute elementary schools in each parish, 
which in 1819 were placed under police 
juries, and in 1821 under five trustees ap- 
pointed by the police jury of each parish, 
from the resident landowners; and the sum 
of $800 WHS appropriated annually to each 
parish for such schools, which could be in- 
creased by a local tax on the property of the 
parish. In 1833 the Secretary of State was 
made Superintendent of Public Education, 
and required to submit to the Legislature 
annually a report on the condition of schools, 
academies, and colleges. Li 1849 special 
authority was given to the Second Munici- 
pality of New Orleans to establish a system 
of public schools supported by a tax on the 
property, which system was organized in 
that year on a plan submitted by Henry 
Barnard of Connecticut, to whom the posi- 
tion of superintendent was tendered before 
the schools were opened, and again in 1849. 
In the constitution of 1845, it is ordained 
that a superintendent of public education 
shall be appointed, and that free public 
schools shall be established throughout the 
State supported by taxation on property, 
and that all lands donated by the United 
States shall constitute a perpetual fund, on 
which the State shall pay an annual interest 
of six per centum for the support of such 
public schools. In 1847 an act ' to establish 
Free Public Schools' for all white children 
between the ages of 6 and 16, provided for 
the appointment of a State Superintendent, 
and of a superintendent for each parish, and 
the collection of a tax of one mill on the 
dollar of the taxable property of the State, 



and establishment of a State School Fund 
out of a consolidation of all land grants 
(786,044 acres for common schools,) and in- 
dividual donations made for educational pur- 
poses. To these revenues was added in 1855 
a capitation tax of one dollar on each free 
white male inhabitant over the age of twenty- 
one years. The almost insuperable diffi- 
culties of a sparse population, divided socially 
by race and occupation, made a system of 
common schools almost impossible out of 
New Orleans, and Baton Ilouge, and the 
larger villages. 

In the constitution of 1868 it is ordained 
that ' the General Assembly shall establish 
at least one free school in each parish, and 
provide for its support by taxation or other- 
wise.' 'All children between the years of 6 
and 21 shall be admitted to the public 
schools or other institutions of learning sus- 
tained or established by the State in com- 
mon, without distinction of race, color, or 
previous condition. There shall be no 
separate school or institution of learning 
established exclusively for any race by the 
State of Louisiana.' Provision is made for 
the election by the qualified voters of the 
State of a Superintendent of Education, to 
hold his office for four years, and to receive 
a salary of $5,000 per annum. In the spirit 
of these provisions, a system of public schools 
was inaugurated in 1870, which with 
abundant means, has encountered almost in- 
superable obstacles from the prejudices of 
race and the disturbed condition of the 
public mind. ' Colored citizens are willing 
to receive the benefits of the schools, but 
have not the knowledge or experience re- 
quired to establish and manage a system ; 
the white citizens are opposed to mixed 
schools.' 

The school authorities are: (1,) a State 
Superintendent ; (2,) State Board of Educa- 
tion, composed of the State and six Division 
Superintendents; (3,) a Superintendent for 
each Judicial District, of which there are six; 
(4,) Parish Directors, composed of one 
member for each jury board; (5,) Town and 
City Boards. The means of support consist 
of (1,) Free School Fund, $1,193,500; (2,) 
Seminary Fund, $138,000; (3,) Amount 
levied on property, $468,035 ; amount of 
poll tax, $112,668. The State tax is 
two mills on the dollar upon all taxable 
property. 

The census of 1870 returns a school at- 
tendance of 51,259, out of a population 



COMMON SCHOOLS AND ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 



409 



(persons from 5 to 18 years) of 226,114; 
and 592 schools of all kinds, viz., 1Y8 
public, (1 normal, 5 high, 4 grammar, 60 
graded common, and 108 ungraded com- 
mon), with a total of 25,088 pupils ; 36 
classical academies and colleges (including 2 
universities), with 4,357 pupils; 10 pro- 
fessional and special schools, viz., 1 law, 1 
medicine, 1 theology, 1 blind, 1 deaf mutes, 
and 4 commercial. 

MAINE. 

Maine was settled under the colonial juris- 
diction of Massachusetts, and acted under 
the school legislation of that commonwealth, 
until 1820, when it was admitted as a State, 
with a population of 298,335, which had in- 
creased in 1870 to 626,915. The constitu- 
tion of 1820 makes it the duty of the legis- 
lature 'to require the several towns to make 
suitable provision at their own expense, for 
the support of public schools, and to encour- 
age and suitably endow academies, colleges 
and seminaries of learning within the State ; 
■provided, that no donation, grant, or endow- 
ment shall at any time be made by the legis- 
lature to any literary institution, unless at 
the time of making such endowment the 
legislature shall have the right to grant any 
further powers to alter, limit, or restrain any 
of the powers vested in any such literary in- 
stitution as shall be judged necessary to 
promote the best interests thereof.' The 
first school law distinct from that of Massa- 
chusetts was passed in 1821, by which each 
town was required to raise by tax on the polls 
and estates of the citizens a sum of money, 
which in the aggregate would amount to at 
least 40 cents for each inhabitant. This sum, 
increasing from year to year with the popu- 
lation was apportioned among the several 
school districts into which each town was 
divided, for the support of public schools, 
equally free and accessible to all the children 
between the ages of 4 and 21 years, under the 
local care of an agent appointed by the town 
for each district, and the general supervision 
of a superintending committee for the whole 
town in the matter of teachers and studies. 
These fundamental principles were slightly 
altered in 1822 and 1825, by which the 
election of the agent was left, on the vote of 
the town, to the district, and the towns of 
Portland in 1825, Bath in 1828, Bangor in 
1832, and all other towns in 1834, were al- 
lowed to dispense with a district agent and 
put all their schools under one board. In 
1825, the selectmen of the several towns 



were required to make returns to the Secre- 
tary of State, once in three years, as to the 
number of districts, the number of scholars 
of school age, and the number in actual 
school attendance, the length of time the 
schools were kept, and the amount expended 
in each. Maine was thus the second State 
to require such returns, and which became 
henceforth the basis of all school discussion. 
In 1828 a permanent State School Fund was 
commenced by setting apart the sales of 
twenty townships of the State lands for that 
purpose ; * and the principle of a graded 
school by the employment of a master and 
teachers in the same district was recognized. 
— After much discussion in local and State 
conventions, and in the legislature from 1838 
to 1846, in the year last named a State Board 
of Education was instituted, and in 1847 the 
mistress was required to keep a register, and 
return the same at the close of the school to 
the town school committee, who were re- 
quired henceforth to make the statistical re- 
turn to the Board of Education. In 1835 
the first educational association was formed, 
and in 1838 the State Teachers' Association 
was organized. In 1846 the first Teachers' 
Institute was held ; in 1863 a State Normal 
School was opened at Farmington, and a 
second at Castine in 1865 ; and in 1869 the 
office of County Supervisors was established, 
and $16,000 appropriated for their salaries. 
According to the revision of 1871, the 
administration and supervision of common 
schools is committed to: (1,) State Super- 
intendent, appointed by the Governor and 
council for three years, or during the pleas- 
ure of the executive, to exercise general su- 
pervision, advise and direct toAvn commit- 
tees, obtain and disseminate information 
respecting the schools of the State and other 
States and countries, awaken and sustain a 
popular interest in school matters, hold an- 
nually a State educational convention, and 
an institute of teachers in each county, pre- 
scribe the studies that shall be taught (re- 
serving to town committees the right to pre- 



* In 1784 the legislature of Massachusetts directed the com- 
mittee charged with the sale of eiistern lands to reserve, in each 
township conveyed, 200 acres for the use of the ministry, 280 for 
the first settled minister, 280 for the grammar school and 200 for 
the future appropriation of the General Court. This resolve was 
modified in I78j so as to require a reservation of five lots of 320 
acres each, in every township six miles square, one for each of 
the purposes above specified. This resolve in the articles of 
separation in 1818, became applicable to all grants and sales of 
land made by Massachusetts or Maine. The present practice in 
Maine is to reserve in each township 1,000 acres for the use of 
schools, which, after the township is settled, form a school fund 
for the town. Down to 1834 more than half a million acres of 
land had been donated by the State to incorporated academies, 
and nine townships of land to two colleges. 



410 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



scribe additional studies), act as superin- 
tendent of the State Normal School, and 
report annually to the legislature. (2,) 
County Supervisors, appointed by the Gov- 
ernor, on the reconiinendation of State 
Superintendent, for each county, for three 
years, an assistant of the State Superin- 
tendent, and together with him constitu- 
ting a State Board, to meet at least once a 
year during the session of the legislature 
for the purpose of conferring with the edu- 
cational committee of that body, and ma- 
turing plans for the following year to pro- 
mote and elevate the public schools. (3,) 
Town Superintending School Committee, of 
three members, elected one each year for a 
terra of three years, who examine, after 
public notice of time and place, all candi- 
dates for teaching in reading, spelling, writ- 
ing, English grammar, geography, history, 
arithmetic, and other studies usually taught 
in public schools, and particularly in the 
school for which he is examined, and also 
his capacity for the government thereof; 
and employ teachers for the several districts, 
prescribe regulations for the studies, books, 
discipline, and returns of all the public 
schools. (4,) District Agents, one for each, 
where the town is divided into districts. 

The support of public schools is derived 
from (1,) State School Fund, the income of 
which, and all money received by the State 
from the tax on banks, together ' with a 
mill tax for the support of common schools, 
assessed and collected as other State taxes, 
and paid out according to the number of 
scholars in each ;' (2,) Town Tax, not less 
than one dollar for each inhabitant, exclusive 
of the income of corporate school funds, or 
revenue from the State, or devise, bequest 
or forfeiture to the use of schools ; (3,) 
District Tax, for site, construction, and 
equipment of school-houses, and for main- 
taining graded schools, not exceeding the 
sum received from the town. 

In 1810 the total cost of 4,000 common 
schools was 81,077,927, to which the towns 
voted by tax 8740,321, and the school fund 
(1293,590) $12,409; districts to continue 
schools, $24,000 ; balance by the State. 

According to the census of 1870 the 
whole number of schools of all kinds was 
4,723, with 6,986 teachers (2,320 males, 
4,556 females), and 162,e'36 pupils, out of 
a school population (5 to 18 years) of 175,- 
488; 13,486 persons over 10 years of age 
could not read, and 19,052 could not write. 



MARYLAND. 



Maryland was first settled in 1634, had in 
1790 a total population of 319,728, which 
had increased in 1870 to 780,894, on an area 
of 11,124 sq. m., and with $423,834,919 of 
taxable property. The Constitutions of 1 776 
and 1851 had no provision respecting educa- 
tion ; that of 1864 prescribed even the de- 
tails of organization and the amount of taxa- 
tion (' not less than ten cents on each hundred 
dollars of taxable property, until the existing 
School Fund has been increased to $6,000,- 
000 by the accumulating avails of an annual 
tax of five cents on the taxable property, 
when the annual State tax for school purposes 
shall be reduced to five cents'). These pro- 
visions in the revision of 1868 gave way to 
three brief articles, by which it is made the 
duty of the first General Assembly ' to estab- 
lish by law a thorough and efficient system 
of free public schools, and to provide by 
taxation or otherwise for its support,' and to 
continue the system of public schools estab- 
lished by and under the Constitution of 
1864, until the end of the first session of the 
General x\ssembly held after 1868. 

In 1671 an act passed the upper house 
of the assembly ' to found and erect a 
school or college in the province of Mary- 
land, for the education of youth in learning 
and virtue,' which in the lower house was 
returned with a message asking that the 
place for the college might be named, and 
' that the schoolmasters of such school or 
college should be qualified according to the 
Reformed Church of England, or that there 
be two schoolmasters, one for the Catholic 
and one for the Protestant children, and the 
Protestants shall have leave to choose their 
schoolmaster ;' and ' the Lord Proprietor 
be pleased to set out his declaration as to 
what privileges and immunities shall be en- 
joyed by scholars brought up or taught at 
such schools.' 

In 1694, and again in 1696, a 'petitionary 
act for free schools ' was addressed to his 
Most Excellent Majesty asking 'for Ilis 
Majesty's princely royal benediction and 
aid in the establishment of schools and col- 
leges of universal study; and for the propa- 
gation of the gospel and education of youth 
within the province in good manners and 
letters,' especially for 'free school or schools 
or places for the study of Latin, Greek, 
writino-, and the like,' with 'one master, one 
usher, and one wntmg master or scribe to a 
school of one hundred scholars, more or 



COMMON SCHOOLS AND ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 



411 



less, according to the ability of said free 
school,' and that ' the Most Reverend Father 
in God, Thomas, by the grace of God, Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, and Metropolitan of 
all England, may be chancellor, and to per- 
petuate the memory of your Majesty, the 
first, at Anne Arundel town, be called King 
Williams school or college, and be managed 
by certain trustees nominated and appointed 
by your Sacred Majesty,' and so on ' until 
each county of the province shall have one 
free school, and apply so much of the reve- 
nues to each school as they shall deem most 
expedient, not exceeding 120 pounds per 
annum.' Under this and subsequent acts 
in 1715, 1717, 1723, and especially of the 
last, a ' free school,' inadequately endowed, 
was established in each county, ' the trustees 
were to have perpetual succession, the 
schoolmasters were to be members of the 
Church of England, of pious, exemplary 
lives, and capable of teaching well, grammar, 
good writing, and mathematics ; for which 
they were to be allowed the use of the 100 
acres of land attached to the school, and 
£20 per annum, paid out of the county 
allowance.' 

From an advertisement in the Gazette, 
February, 1774, it would appear that fam- 
ilies were supplied with private teachers 
after a peculiar fashion. ' To be sold, a 
schoolmaster, an indented servant that has 
got two years to serve.' John Hammond, 
near Annapolis. N. B. ' He is sold for no 
fault, any more than we are done with him. 
He can learn book-keeping, and is an excel- 
lent scholar.' 

The Revolution freed nearly all the cler- 
gymen of the English Church, who had at- 
tached themselves to the side of the mother 
country, from their clerical services, and 
most of them eked out a precarious sup- 
port for many years by receiving pupils into 
their families, and setting up private schools. 

The earliest law for general education was 
the act of 1825, 'to provide for the public 
instruction of youth in primary schools,' by 
which a State Superintendent was appointed 
to digest and report a system ; and County 
Commissioners, to divide up the counties 
into school districts, for which three trustees 
were to be elected by the qualified voters ; 
and Inspectors for the visitation of the 
schools and examination of teachers. Two 
reports were made by the superintendent, 
which were occupied with the details of the 
monitorial system and the plan of a central 
school for teachers, which at that date was 



attracting much attention, and had" been 
officially noticed and commended by Gov. 
Clinton to the legislature of New York. The 
office was abolishedin 1827, and not revived 
till 18G5, in pursuance of a provision of 
the constitution of the year previous. 

The avails of the school fund continued 
to be distributed through the County Com- 
missioners, and the capital was increased by 
the amount of the U. S. Surplus Revenue 
Fund. The great result of the movement 
of 1825 was the permanent establishment 
of public schools in the city of Baltimore, 
which in 1870 included 102 day schools 
(1 college for boys, 2 high schools for girls, 
37 grammar, 60 primary, and 2 unclassified 
schools), with 21,795 pupils, under 511 
teachers, besides 6 evening schools, and 13 
schools for colored children — a total of 121 
schools, 571 teachers, and 24,673 scholars. 

The act ' to establish a uniform system of 
public instruction' of 1865, vested its super- 
vision and control in a State Board of Edu- 
cation, and in a board of school commission- 
ers for the city of Baltimore and each county, 
embraced a series of schools from the neigh- 
borhood or primary, and township grammar, 
to a county high school and a State normal 
school, and directed that ' every child in the 
State between the ages of 8 and 14 years, 
without fixed employment, shall attend 
school at least six months in each year, and 
that no child under the age of 14 years 
shall be employed in any business, unless 
such child has attended some school six 
months of the year preceding.' 

In 1868 the impulse which had been 
given to school agencies was arrested, and a 
reaction, both in legislative and administra- 
tive activity, followed from which the State 
has not yet recovered. Under the judicious 
management of the superintendent (Prof. 
Newell, principal of the State Normal 
School), further reaction has ceased. 

By the census of 1870, out of a school 
population of 244,454, there was a school 
attendance of 105,435, and 114,100 persons 
over 10 years of age who could not read, 
and 135,499 who could not write. Of the 
whole number of schools (1,779) returned, 
there were: 1,487 public (3 normal, 10 
high, 49 grammar, 159 graded, and 1,266 
ungraded); 53 classical academies and col- 
leges, including two universities; 19 pro- 
fessional and special schools (1 law, 2 medi- 
cine, 4 theology, 1 agricultural, 3 com- 
mercial, 1 blind, 1 deaf mutes, 6 art and 
music) ; and 220 private schools. 



412 



EDUCATION" AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION'S. 



MASSACHUSETTS. 

Massacliiisetts had by the first national 
census in 1790, a population of 'Sl8,1l7, 
which had increased in 1870 to 1,450,350, 
on an area of 7,800 square miles, with taxa- 
ble property to the valuation of $1,417,- 
127,370 — second only to the Empire State 
in this particular. 

Massachusetts in its constitution of 1780, 
was the earliest State to throw the protec- 
tion of a fundamental ordinance around 
funds appropriated to educational purposes, 
and partic ilarly of Harvard College, ' in 
which many persons of great eminence 
have, by the blessing of God, been initiated 
into those arts and sciences which qual- 
ified them for public employment both 
in church and State ; and whereas the encour- 
agement of the arts and sciences, and all 
good literature, tends to the honor of 
God, the advantage of the christian re- 
ligion, and the great benefit of this and 
the other United States of America,' it is 
declared that all powers, rights, privileges, 
immunities, and facilities shall be continued, 
and all gifts, legacies, &c., are confirmed ; 
and then follows a section drawn up by 
John Adams, and adopted by the conven- 
tion unanimously. 

Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, dif- 
fused generally among the body of the people, being 
necessary for the preservation of their rights and 
liberties, and as these depend on spreading the op- 
portunities and advantages of education in various 
parts of the country, and among the different or- 
ders of the people, it shall be the duty of the legis- 
latures and magistrates, in all future periods of this 
commonwealth, to cherish the interest of literature 
and the sciences and all seminaries of them, espe- 
cially the university at Cambridge, public schools, 
and grammar schools in the towns; to encourage 
private societies and public institutions, by rewards 
and immunities for the promotion of agriculture, 
art, sciences, commerce, trades, manufactures, and 
a natural history of the country ; to countenance 
and inculcate the principles of humanity and 
general benevolence, public and private charity, 
industry and frugality, honesty and punctuality in 
all their dealings; sincerity, good humor, and all 
social affections and generous sentiments among the 
people. 

Among the articles of amendments rat- 
ified by the people in 1 857, are the following : 
' No person shall have the right to vote, or be 
eligible to office under the constitution of 
this commonwealth, who shall not be able 
to read the con.stitution in the English 
language and write his name,' unless pre- 
vented by physical disability from comply- 
ing with the requirement, and unless he 



already enjoys the right to vote. 'All 
moneys raised by taxation in town and 
cities for the support of public schools, and 
all moneys appropriated by the State for 
the support of common schools' 'shall 
never be appropriated to any religious sect 
for the maintenance exclusively of its own 
schools.' 

The earliest legislation of Massachu.setts 
respecting schools, and 'the good education 
of children,' bears date 1642, which, with 
various modifications as to details, kept the 
following objects steadily in view, viz. : the 
exclusion of ' barbarism ' from any family, 
by making it the duty of the selectmen of 
every town, in the several precincts and 
quarters where they dwell, to have a vigi- 
lant eye over their brethren and neighbors,' 
' to see that they teach their children and 
apprentices by themselves and others so 
much learning as may enable them to read 
the English tongue, and the capital laws, 
upon penalty of twenty shillings for each 
neglect therein,' 'to learn some short ortho- 
dox catechism without book,' and ' to breed 
and bring them up in some honest lawful 
calling, labor, or employment, either in hus- 
bandry, or some other trade profitable for 
themselves and the commonwealth, if they 
will not, or can not train them up in learning 
to fit them for higher employments;' and, 
should parents 'continue negligent of their 
duty in the particulars above mentioned, 
whereby children and servants become rude, 
stubborn and unruly, the selectmen, with 
the help of two magistrates, shall take such 
children or apprentices from them, and place 
them with some masters for years, boys till 
they come to twenty-one, and girls to 
eighteen years of age complete, who will 
more strictly look into and force them to 
submit unto government, according to the 
rules of this order, if by fair means and 
former instruction they will not be drawn 
into it.' To enable parents to have places 
where their children and apprentices ma}' be 
sent to be taught, it was enacted the same 
year (1642) 'that every township within 
this jurisdiction of fifty householders, shall 
appoint one within their town to teach all 
such children as shall resort to him, to write 
and read, ivhose wages shall be paid either 
by the parents or masters of such children, 
or by the inhabitants in general, by way of 
supply, as the major part of those who order 
the prudentials of the town shall appoint; 
provided those who send their children be 




INTERIOR VIEW OF ^ bOHOOL-HOLbL IN 1770 



^l^^il^llif^iiiW 



^Lv^lll 



Jlllllll^ii 




INTERIOR VIEW OF A SCHOOL-HOUSE IX 1><TI 



COMMON SCHOOLS AND ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 



413 



not oppressed by paying much more than 
they can have them taught in other towns.' 
In addition to this elementary school, every 
town of one hundred families, ' shall set up 
a grammar school, the masters thereof being 
able to instruct youths so far as they may 
be fitted for the university,' and the towns 
which neglect to set up such school any 
one year, must pay five pounds per annum to 
the next nearest school. In Plymouth 
Colony, the provision for schools was not 
so early, and the requirements for a gram- 
mar school were extended in 1677 to towns 
of fifty families, and impose on ' those who 
have the more immediate benefit thereof 
by their children's good and general good, 
shall make up the residue (over the twelve 
pounds in current merchantable pay to be 
raised on all the inhabitants of such town) 
necessary to maintain the same,' and every 
town of seventy families which neglected 
to maintain a grammar schools shall ' allow 
unto the next town which does, the sum of 
five pounds collectable by constable on the 
warrant of any magistrate in this jurisdic- 
tion.' 

On this basis of the duty of parents to 
give their children at least an elementary 
education, and of every town, large or small, 
to provide the place and teacher where their 
children could be taught; and of every 
large town to maintain a teacher competent 
to fit the same for the university ; and of 
the State to encourage such university, ' that 
learning might not be buried in the graves 
of the fathers,' and that some of their sons 
might be fitted every year for higher em- 
ployment in church and state, the system of 
public instruction in Massachusetts has been 
built up and extended to meet the wants of 
successive generations. The town grammar 
school feature, occasionally suspended in 
some towns, and superseded by the academy 
and private school in others, has kept the 
common school up to the requirements of 
the rich and the educated, and saved the 
district schools from becoming common in 
the worse sense, or being regarded as the 
schools exclusively of the poor, or of those 
only who knew what constituted the con- 
ditions of a good education in respect to 
house, studies and teachers, but of all, rich 
and poor, the more or the less intelligent, 
in the city as well as in the country. 

The first revision of the school laws after 
the revolution was in 1789, by which it is 
provided ' that towns of fifty families are re- 
25* 



quired to sustain schools wherein children 
are taught to read and write, and instructed 
in the English language, arithmetic, orthog- 
raphy, and decent behavior, for a term equal 
to one school of six months in each year ; 
every town of one hundred families, twelve 
months ; every town of one hundred anrl 
fifty families, eighteen months ; and every 
town of two hundred families, twelve 
months, and in addition thereto sustain a 
school wherein is taught the Latin, Greek, 
and English languages for twelve months in 
each year.' It is also 'made the duty of 
the president, professors and tutors of the 
University at Cambridge, preceptors and 
teachers of academies, and all other in- 
structors of youth, to take diligent care, 
and to exert their best endeavors to impress 
on the minds of children and youth com- 
mitted to their care and instruction, the 
principles of piety, justice and a sacred re- 
gard to truth, love to their country, human- 
ity and universal benevolence, sobriety, in- 
dustry and frugality, chastity, moderation 
and temperance, and those other virtues 
which arc the ornament of human society, 
and the basis upon which the republican 
constitution is structured ; and it shall be 
the duty of such instructors to endeavor to 
lead those under their care into a particular 
understanding of the tendency of the before- 
mentioned virtues to preserve and perfect a 
republican constitution, and to secure the 
blessings of liberty as well as to promote 
their future happiness, and the tendency of 
the opposite vices to slavery and ruin.' 

By the act of 1789, 'in consequence of 
the dispersed situation of the inhabitants 
of several towns,' the children and youth 
can not be collected in any one place for 
their instruction,' such towns were author- 
ized ' in town meeting called for that pur- 
pose to determine and define the limits of 
school districts.' In this provision and the 
supplementary law of 1800 authorizing dis- 
trict taxation for school-houses, originated 
the district system, v.' Inch Mr. Mann pro- 
nounced the most ' disastrous feature ' of 
the school legislation of Massachusetts ; and 
from the deteriorating influence of which 
the State has only quite recently escaped 
into a graded system for the whole town. 
The act of 1789 excludes from the town 
grammar school all children ' who have not 
in some other way learned to read the Eng- 
lish language by spelling the same,' and 
admits as teachers only those who are 



414 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



university graduates, or have a certificate of 
qualification from a learned minister of the 
town, and give satisfactory evidence of 
good moral character.' ' Ministers and se- 
lectmen are required to see that the youth 
regularly attend the school, and once at 
least, every six months, visit and inspect the 
schools, inquire into the regulations and 
discipline thereof, and the proficiency of 
the scholars therein.' ' That the greatest 
attention may be given to children in the 
ea.rly stages of life, to the establishing of 
just principles in their tender minds,' and 
right habits of reading ; ' no person shall 
keep school without a proper certificate from 
the selectmen, or a committee duly ap- 
pointed by each town or district, and the 
minister, if there be one in the place, on the 
forfeiture of twenty shillings to the informer 
and the poor of the place.' Whether under 
master or mistress, 'a sense of piety and 
virtue, and decent behavior,' as well as read- 
ing, and writing if contracted for, were made 
the staple of primary instruction. 

In 1825 the legislature appointed com- 
missioners ' to digest and prepare a system 
for the establishment of one or more institu- 
tions for instruction in the practical arts and 
sciences for that class of persons who do not 
desire, or are unable to obtain, a collegiate 
education.' This proposition grew out of 
the discussions which followed the establisli- 
ment of Mechanics' Institutes in England, 
Fellenberg's Schools at Hofwyl, and the Ren- 
sellaer School at Troy — and the want, long 
and widely felt, of some essential modifica- 
tion of the studies of the academies and 
colleges of the country. The report of the 
commissioners in 182G, and the supplement- 
ary report of 1827, anticipates by a quarter 
of a century the whole movement for the 
' new education,' ' the agricultural and 
mechanical art colleges,' and ' the scientific 
schools.' 

In 1826 towns were authorized to choose 
a school committee to superintend the 
schools, to visit and inspect the town and 
district schools, to examine and approve 
teachers, to determine class books, and pro- 
vide the same for such whose parents may be 
unable to pay for the same ; and for the first 
time to make returns thereafter each year to 
the Secretary of State (wliose duty it is 
made to furnish appropriate blanks) of the 
number, state, and cost of each school. 

In 1827 a select committee of the House, 
to whom was referred a memorial of James 



G. Carter, praying for aid to enable him to 
establish a ' Seminary for the instruction of 
School Teachers,' reported favorably ; but 
the bill not becoming a law by the want of 
one vote in the Senate, Mr. Carter estab- 
lished such a seminary in Lancaster, as a 
private enterprise, in the same year ; and in 
1830 a similar seminary was established at 
Andover, with the expectation that Mr. Gal- 
laudet, of Hartford, would become its prin- 
cipal, but was opened under the direction 
of Rev. S. S. Hall, who had been a teacher 
of teachers in a private seminary in Con- 
cord, Vermont, from 1822, and whose lec- 
tures read to his pupil-teachers were pub- 
lished in 1829, under the title of '■Lectures 
on School-Keeping,^ almost the first contri- 
bution to this department of American 
literature. 

In 1827 the school laws were thoroughly 
revised, by which, among other modifica- 
tions, ' in each town of fifty families the 
teacher or teachers must be employed, must 
be of good morals, and competent to in- 
struct children in orthography, reading, 
writing, English grammar, geograpliy, arith- 
metic, and good behavior, for at least six 
months in the year ;' and in towns of one 
hundred families, the following branches 
must be added, history of the United States, 
book-keeping by single entry, geometry, 
surveying, and algebra ; and in every city 
or town of four thousand inhabitants the 
master shall be able to teach, in addition, 
the Latin and Greek languages, liistory, 
rhetoric, and logic' All towns are author- 
ized to raise by tax any amount of money 
they may think necessary for the suppoit of 
schools. Each town may, in addition to 
the school committee, appoint one person 
for each district in the town, a resident of 
the district, to be called a prudential com- 
mittee, or they may authorize the districts 
to choose their own committee. The com- 
mittee are forbidden to prescribe books 
favoring any particular religious sect. 

In 1829 the first public effort to educate 
the blind was made in Boston, by the incor- 
poration of the New England Asylum for 
the Blind, and turning over to its use any 
unexpended balance of the State's appropri- 
ation for deaf mutes. 

In 1830 the American Institute of In- 
struction was formed at Boston, composed 
of members from all parts of the country, 
and incorporated by the legislature of Mas- 
sachusetts in 1831, and in 1835, through 



COMMON SCHOOLS AND ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 



415 



the influence of James G. Carter, (who more 
than any other one man was the mover in 
all the advanced legislation of the State 
from 1830 to 1838), was aided by an annual 
grant of |350 to meet the expense of the 
publication of the annual volumes, which 
now amount to 42. 

In 1834 provision was made for a State 
School Fund (out of the sale of lands in 
Maine, and claims of the State on the gov- 
ernment of the United States for military 
sei'vices, to which have since been added 
other sources), which was originally limited 
to $1,000,000, but from tiuie to time the 
maximum was raised, until in 1872 the 
capital was $2,233,366. In the same year 
the employment of children under the age 
of fifteen years, in any manufacturing estab- 
lishment was forbidden, unless such child 
had attended some public or private school 
tauo"ht by a teacher qualified according to 
law, at least three of the twelve months next 
preceding, on a forfeiture of $50 for each 
offense, for the use of the common schools 
in the town. This provision has been modi- 
fied from time to time, until now the main 
object of school attendance, the elementary 
instruction of such children, is secured. 

In 1836 the school laws were revised, and 
appear on the statutes under the title of 
* Public Instruction.' In this revision the 
school committee are required to include in 
their annual school returns the number and 
attendance in all private schools and acade- 
mies. ' No apportionment of the income of 
the school fund can be paid to any town 
which does not make the return required by 
law, or raise by taxation, for the wages of 
teachers only, a sum equal to one dollar for 
each person belonging to such town between 
the ages of 4 and 16.' This sum has been 
increased until it now stands at $1.50 for 
each person between 5 and 15. 

In 1837 the legislature authorized the 
expenditure of $20 for each district for the 
purchase of a district school library. To 
supply the want of books suitable for this 
purpose, the State Board caused to be pre- 
pared a selection of books, entitled ' The 
School Library,' consisting of two series, 
one for children 10 and 12 years of age and 
under, and the other for advanced scholars 
and their parents. This action of the Board, 
however, met with considerable opposition, 
as being meant to control the reading facili- 
ties of the public, and the enterprise, after 
reaching thirty volumes, was abandoned by 



them. To encourage districts in the pur- 
chase of school libraries, the State appropri- 
ated to each district of sixty children be- 
tween the ages of 4 and 15 years, the sum 
of $15 towards the purchase of the same; 
and for districts having over sixty children, 
the sum was increased proportionately to 
the number. In 1843, any town or city in 
the commonwealth was authorized to raise 
and appropriate to school libraries a sum 
equivalent to $15 to each grouping of sixty 
children, which in 1851 was extended to 
maintaining a public library for the use of 
the inhabitants of the town, and providing 
the same with suitable rooms under proper 
regulations for its government; and to ap- 
propriate annually a sum not exceeding fifty 
cents for each of its rateable polls in the 
year next succeeding that in which such ap- 
propriation is made. 

Social libraries may be established by 
seven or more proprietors associating them- 
selves into a corporation for the purpose of 
establishing, extending, or enlarging such 
library. According to the returns of 1872, 
there were 60 city and town libraries, with 
an aggregate of 500,000 volumes, beside 
265 social libraries, with 643,866 volumes. 

In 1837, school districts were authorized 
to raise money to establish and maintain a 
common school library and apparatus for 
the use of the children therein, to the 
amount of $50 for the first year and $10 for 
each succeeding year. This provision has 
been modified until now all towns and cities 
may establish libraries by tax. 

In the same year, in place of a State 
Superintendent, as asked for, a Board of 
Education was instituted, to consist of 
the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and ten 
persons, holding their offices respectively 
for eight years, whose duty it was made 
' to submit to the legislature in a printed 
form annually an abstract of the annual 
school returns made by the town commit- 
tees ; ' to appoint a secretary, who, under 
their direction, shall collect information of 
the actual condition and efficiency of the 
common schools, and other means of popu- 
lar education, and to diff"use as widely as 
possible through every part of the common- 
wealth information as to the most approved 
and successful methods of arranging the 
studies and conducting the education of the 
young, to the end that all children who de- 
pend upon common schools may have the 
best education which they can be made to 



416 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



impart ; and to submit annually to the legis- 
lature a detailed report of all its doings, 
with such observations as their experience 
and reflection may suggest upon the con- 
dition and efficiency of our system of popu- 
lar education, and the most practicable 
means of improving and extending it.' Of 
this board, Horace Mann, at the time Presi- 
dent of the Senate, was made Secretary. 

In 1838 the school committee are re- 
quired ' to make annually a detailed report 
of the condition of the several public schools, 
designating particular improvements and de- 
fects in the methods or means of education, 
to be read in open town meeting, or be 
printed and distributed for the use of the 
inhabitants, deposited in the office of the 
clerk of the town, and an attested copy 
transmitted to the secretary with the official 
return required by law.' The committee 
must also select and contract with the teach- 
ers in the town and the districts,' unless the 
town shall determine otherwise in respect to 
the districts ; must enter in a record-book 
all their proceedings, and deliver over the 
same, at the expiration of the year, to their 
successors in office ; shall fill up all the 
blanks and answer the inquiries in the form 
of return prescribed by the State Board, 
and cause the school register prescribed by 
said Board to be faithfully kept in all the 
town and district schools.' The committee 
thus charged with new and important duties 
are required to be paid ' one dollar each per 
day, and such additional compensation as 
the town may allow.' In the same year the 
secretary, in addition to his other duties, is 
required ' to attend in each county a meet- 
ing of teachers, school committees, and 
friends of education generally, and diligently 
apply himself to the object of collecting in- 
formation of the condition of the public 
schools of such county, of the manner in 
which school committees fulfill the duties of 
their office, and the condition of the dis- 
tricts in respect to teachers, pupils, books, 
apparatus, and methods of education, in 
order to furnish requisite material for the 
report of the Board.' 

In the same year, the establishment of 
special institutions for qualifying teachers 
for common schools, first systematically pre- 
sented by Thomas H. Gallaudet and James G. 
Carter in periodicals in 1824-5, and issued 
in pamphlet form in the year following, and 
subsequently advocated almost every year in 
educational conventions and addresses, and 



particularly after 1835 by Rev. Charles 
Brooks, was secured by the offer of the sum 
of $10,000, by the Hon. Edmund Dwight, 
of Boston, then a member of the State 
Senate and of the Board of Education, on 
the condition that a like sum should be ap- 
propriated by the State for the same object. 
The offer was accepted, and the sum of 
$10,000 appropriated by the State, and both 
sums placed at the disposition of the Board 
of Education ; and three schools were opened 
at Lexington, Bridgewater, and Barre. 

In 1839 every school averaging 50 schol- 
ars was required to employ a female assistant, 
and contiguous districts were authorized to 
associate for the purpose of maintaining a 
Union school for the older children of such 
associating districts. This (and a similar Act 
in Connecticut of the same year) is the germ 
of the whole system of Union and Graded 
schools, which now prevails in every State. 

In 1840 a vigorous attempt was made in 
the legislature to reverse the policy of a State 
provision for educating teachers, by return- 
ing to Mr. Dwight the gift made by him to 
the State for this purpose, and to abandon 
all State supervision of schools ; and at one 
period it was anticipated by Gov. Everett, 
and Mr. Mann, that the proposition would 
succeed by a small majority in both Houses. 

In 1841 the town of Springfield appro- 
priated the sum of $1,000 as a salary for 
the Superintendent of Public Schools, to be 
selected and appointed by the town com- 
mittee. This office was filled by the ap- 
pointment of S. S. Green, afterwards Professor 
in Brown University, and was an important 
step in the improvement of school super- 
vision in Massachusetts. Several other towns 
followed the example of Springfield. But in 
Lowell the right of the town to appoint such 
officer was contested, which led to the pas- 
sage of an Act in 1854 requiring the school 
committee to appoint a superintendent 
wherever the town or city shall so deter- 
mine, and gradually the practice of appoint- 
ing a superintendent has extended to all the 
cities and many large towns. In Boston,' 
after the subject had been discussed for 
years in the School Committee and City 
Council, the office was created in 1851, and 
filled by the appointment of Nathan Bishop, 
at that time occupying the same position in 
Providence since 1839, the earliest officer 
devoting his whole time to the work, in the 
United States. 

In 1842 the sum of $6,000 annually for 



COMMON SCHOOLS AND ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 



417 



three years was appropriated to continue the 
Normal Schools which were for the first 
time designated State institutions, and the 
policy of district school libraries was extend- 
ed to towns and cities. 

In 1845 an important decision was made 
by the Supreme Court, by which the right 
of all the towns to vote such sums of money 
for the support of town schools, and to make 
the public schools as good, as long, and as 
numerous as in the exercise of an honest 
discretion they may deem it expedient, was 
affirmed. In this case the town of New- 
buryport had provided for the support of 
all the schools, including the town grammar 
school, required by law, and also voted 
to raise money for the support and did sup- 
port a Female High School for the purpose 
of teaching book-keeping, algebra, geometry, 
hygiene, mental, moral, and natural philoso- 
phy, the Latin and French languages, and 
other hio:her branches than were taught in 
the grammar schools of the town. The 
court held this to be a town school within 
the meaning of the revised statutes, and the 
money for its support could be legally raised 
by tax. 

In 1846, Teachers' Institutes which had 
been held by Mr. Mann for the first time in 
1845, by aid of $1,000 given by Hon. 
Edmund Dvvight, were provided for by an 
appropriation of |2,000 from the school 
fund, since increased to $3,600. 

In 1847, cities and towns were authorized 
to appropriate money for the support of 
schools for the instruction of adults in read- 
ing, writing, English grammar, arithmetic, 
and geography ; and in the same year the 
offer of Theodore Lyman to aid in the es- 
tablishment of an institution for the instruc- 
tion, employment, and reformation of juve- 
nile offenders, was accepted, and the State 
'Reform School at Westborough was begun ; 
and an annual appropriation made to fur- 
nish books to the inmates of the State 
Prison, which was afterwards extended so as 
to secure instruction in reading and writing 
to all prisons and houses of correction. 

In 1848, wherever a suitable site for a 
school-house can not be secured by volun- 
tary purchase, the same may be condemned 
for public uses, and the owner properly in- 
demnified. In the same year an appropria- 
tion was made for training and teaching 
idiotic children of indigent parents for three 
years, which resulted in the establishment 
of the institution for that class at South 
Boston iu 1851. 



In 1849, all willful interruptions and dis- 
turbances of schools were punishable by fine 
and imprisonment, and provision was made 
for the preservation of all school reports and 
other documents in the school libraries; and 
the State Library was made the office of the 
Board of Education, and the secretary made 
librarian, with instructions to provide for . 
the display of apparatus, &c. A copy of, 
Barnard's School Architecture was furnished 
to each town, and an annual appropriation 
of $150 was made to the State Teachers' As- 
sociation, and similar sums were afterwards 
voted to this and to the county associations. 

In 1850, physiology and hygiene were 
added to the branches to be taught, and 
teachers were required to be examined into 
their abilities to teach the same. Towns 
were authorized to abolish school districts, 
and take possession of the property of the 
same, and provide for the erection of school- 
houses at the common expense of the town. 
In the same year, cities and towns were 
authorized ' to make all needful provision 
and arrangements concerning habitual tru- 
ants, and children not attending school, 
without any regular lawful occupation, grow- 
ing up in ignorance, between the ages of 6 
and 15 years.' The Board of Education 
was authorized to furnish a copy of either 
Webster's or Worcester's large Dictionary 
of the English Language to every school dis- 
trict, and every school, except primary. In 
the same year provision was made for an 
Agricultural College, which did not take 
form and location till Congress made in 
1862 the Agricultural and Mechanical Col- 
lege land grant. 

In 1851 the Board of Education was 
authorized to employ two or more suitable 
persons to visit the towns and school dis- 
tricts, for giving and receiving information 
in the manner of the secretary of the Board; 
and to publish for general distribution selec- 
tions from the reports of the Board. 

In 1853, the legislature established a sys- 
tem of State scholarship ' to aid in qualify- 
ing principal teachers for high schools,' by 
assisting to educate and train forty-eight 
young men, ' of irreproachable moral char- 
acter, free from any considerable defect of 
sight and hearing, and of good health and 
constitution,' in the different colleges of the 
State. Before the details of the system 
could be perfected by actual experience, 
particularly in the direction of practical 
training, and in the final step of inducting 



418 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



these teacher graduates into the schools, 
first as assistant, and afterwards as principal, 
the law was repealed, and the most benefi- 
cent measure was lost for a quarter of a 
century, at least. 

In 1857, towns were antliorized to estab- 
lish and maintain day or evening schools 
for the education of persons over fifteen 
years of age — and thus legalized the prac- 
tice of evening schools already introduced 
in several cities (in Boston in 1836, in New 
Bedford in 1848, in Lowell in 1853), 

In 1870, after nearly fifty years of sug- 
gestion, discussion, and isolated experiments, 
drawing was included by act of the legis- 
lature (May 16) ' among the branches re- 
quired to be taught in the public schools,' 
and 'any city and town having more than 
ten thousand inhabitants were required to 
make provision for free instruction in indus- 
trial or mechanical drawing to persons over 
fifteen years of age, in day or evening 
schools, under the direction of the school 
committee.' Thus was consummated one 
of the suggestions of the commissioners ap- 
pointed by the legislature in 1825, that 
drawing should be made part of the curri- 
culum of their proposed State institution for 
instruction in the practical arts and sciences ; 
and of the slate and blackboard exercises 
presented by Josiah Holbrook and William 
A. Alcott from 1830 to 1842, and of Mary 
T. Peabody (Mrs. Horace Mann) in her 
Primer of Drawing, and of Mr. Barnard in 
his Manual of Methods for Common School 
Teachers in 1839-41 ; and of Mrs. William 
Minot in her first instructions to a class in 
the Franklin school in 1839, and to all the 
teachers of the primary schools of Boston 
in 1841-42. 

In 1871 the legislature appropriated $10,- 
000 out of the income of the school fund 
for the salaries and expenses of special 
agents of the Board of Education, the ob- 
ject being, first, to 'secure the services of a 
competent agent to give aid and direction 
to a more systematic and thorough course 
of instruction in drawing in the Normal 
Schools; to visit the cities and towns re-, 
quired by the law of 1870 to maintain 
schools or classes for instruction in mechan- 
ical drawing ; to give information and assist 
school committees in the formation of such 
classes, and in the management of suitable 
courses of instruction in them ; and to ad- 
vise and aid a practical method for the edu- 
cation of teachers in drawing for special 



schools and for the common schools in this 
branch.' The second object was the em- 
ployment of competent persons to act as 
special agents of certain designated districts 
in cooperation with the labors of the general 
agent, with the view of reaching all the 
towns in the commonwealth, annually, by a 
direct and thorough system of inspection, 
and independent of, and at the same time 
in cooperation with, that of the town com- 
mittees. It was to do, in part, in Massachu- 
setts the work of county superintendents in 
the system of Pennsylvania, Illinois, and 
several other States. This feature was part 
of the original school law prepared by Mr. 
Barnard in 1844 for Rhode Island. 

The first object was secured by the em- 
ployment of Mr. Walter Smith, art master 
in one of the prominent schools (at Leeds) 
in connection with the English department 
of art and science, as professional adviser 
and lecturer in art education, with the title 
of State Director of Art Education. 

In 1872, the fifth State Normal School 
was located at Worcester, and $60,000 ap- 
propriated for a building on a site appropri- 
ated for its use, — a sum which measures the 
progress of public opinion towards these in- 
stitutions, the first institution, in 1838, not 
receiving a dollar towards such expenditure, 
and the three only $5,000, after an experi- 
ence of four years of their utility. They are 
now regarded as indispensable in any sys- 
tem of public instruction. 

The statistics of public schools and State 
expenditures for educational purposes in 
1871 were as follows: total amount of 
taxes paid to maintain public schools, 
$5,462,852 ; and total expense, exclusive of 
collegiate and professional education $6,- 
297,010; $22.63 for each person between 
the ages of 5 and 15 years. Among the 
items are — $3,272,335 for the wages of 
teachers; $122,086 for town and city super- 
vision and printing reports ; number of 
public schools 5,076 (including 181 high 
schools), with 273,661 pupils ; number of 
normal schools (State and city) 6, with 
1,100 pupils; teachers' institutes held, 7, 
with an attendance of 908 teachers. Among 
the charges on the income of the State 
School Fund were $3,400 for secretary ; 
$4,224 for agents; $10,627 for printing re- 
port and expenses of board ; $41,4 27, State 
Normal Schools ; $3,000, Institutes; $800, 
State Teachers' Association ; $225, County 
Associations ; $500, American Institutes. 



COMMON SCHOOLS AND ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 



419 



MICHIGAN. 

Michigan was settled as early as 1650, 
organized as a territory in 1805, and admit- 
ted a State in 1837, with an area of 56,451 
square miles, and a population in 1830 of 
31,639, which had increased in 1870 to 
1,184,049, and taxable property to the value 
of $272,242,917. 

The constitution adopted in 1835 ordains 
the appointment of a superintendent of 
public instruction, consecrates the proceeds 
of all land grants for educational purposes, 
to such purposes and no other, provides for 
a common school in each school district for 
at least three months in the year, and the 
establishment of libraries, at least one in each 
township, and a university for the State.' 
Under these provisions, that of a State Su- 
perintendent and township libraries being in 
advance of other States, the system of public 
instruction was organized, and these cardinal 
features were not materially altered by the 
Constitution of 1850; except the legislature 
is enjoined to provide within five years for 
the establishment of a ' system of primary 
schools, in which a school shall be kept with- 
out charge for tuition, for at least three 
months in each year in every school district, 
and all instruction conducted in the English 
language.' The university is placed under 
the charge of a Board of Regents, one for 
each judicial district, elected at the same 
time, and for the same term, as the judge of 
that circuit. A State Board of Education 
is also created, of which the Superintendent 
is member and secretary, and to which the 
State Normal School is committed. To 
these State officials the law has added, 
County Superintendents, one for each 
county, elected by the people of the county ; 
Township Inspectors, three for each con- 
gressional township; District Boards for the 
local management of the schools ; and 
Boards of Education for the cities and large 
villages. 

Tlie system of public instruction in 
Michigan started under favorable auspices — 
the early settlers having come from States 
where common schools had been the main 
reliance of the people for the education of 
their children, and having located in neigh- 
borhoods, they enjoyed the facilities of at 
once organizing schools after the old type. 
The framers of the first constitution, and of 
the early legislation, were graduates of the 
academies and colleges of New York and 
New England, and into the educational 



movement from the start, as soon , as 
agitated elsewhere, were introduced the 
agencies and institutions which have proved 
useful in the older States. A SchoolJournal 
was started in 1838; a school convention 
was called in the year following; and was 
soon followed by county teachers' associations 
and the State Teachers' Association in 1853 ; 
a Teachers' Institute was held in 1846, 
and ever}' year since there has been several 
such brivf professional courses, and a State 
Normal Scliool has been in operation since 
1859; the permanent university was opened 
to receive pupils within two years after the 
State had adoj)ted a constitution, and was 
allowed, with the assistance of the State, 
and in anticipation of its special endow- 
ments, to get its foundations laid, and its 
different schools organized before denomi- 
national institutions were chartered to draw 
off" the pupils and enlist the interest of 
localities in rivalry, if not in antagonism. 
Under these advantages the munificent pro- 
visions of Congress have been better cher- 
ished and applied up to that time than in 
the other Western States, and her example 
has had a powerful influence in inaugura- 
ting better methods of management. 

The system of public instruction em- 
braces: (1,) Primary schools — so extended 
and so expansive in their organization as to 
meet the wants of 5,000 rural districts, 
where the sparseness of the population ren- 
ders only one school for pupils of all ages 
possible, and at the same time, by allowing 
of gradation in 256 villages and cities, to 
fill up all the educational demands below 
the university and special schools — doing 
away with the necessity of incorporated 
academies and college preparatory schools. 
This higher, or secondary institution is not 
yet fully developed, but the germ and ca- 
pacity is in the system, and is partially 
worked out in Detroit and other cities. 
According to the superintendent's report, 
there were 273,682 pupils, under 11,014 
teachers (8,221 females), whose wages 
amounted to $1,398,328; in school-houses 
which cost $6,234,797. The total school 
expenditure for the year 1870 was $3,154, - 
221. Of this $175,000 was income of the 
Primary School Funds (capital $2,700,834, 
with 468,713 acres unsold), and the balance 
was State, town, city, and district property 
taxation, the rate bills paid by parents up 
to 1869 having been abolished. Of the 
teachers engaged in the schools nearly 1,000 



420 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



are graduates of State Normal Schools or 
higher educational institutions, and 2,005 
attended the 16 institutes which were held 
in as many different and widely separated 
localities in 1870. 

(2,) The Union and High Schools al- 
though belonging to secondary institutions, 
are returned under the primary schools. Of 
the serai-public schools — the incorporated 
academies, and colleges, and the private 
classical schools, no returns are made. 

(3,) The University, with its professional 
schools, is part of the system of public in- 
struction, and in 1870 reported 1,126 
students, viz., 477 in the department of 
science, literature, and the arts; 340, of 
medicine and surgery; 309, of the law. 
The expenses of the institution for the year 
were 170,167, met by the income of the 
University Fund (|564',443, with 200 acres 
unsold), and an appropriation from the State 
treasury. The State has recently assigned 
the avails of a special tax in aid of the 
university ; all the schools of the institution 
are open to all citizens of the State without 
distinction of race or sex. 

(4,) State Agricultural College at Lansing 
— founded in 1855, in pursuance of the 
constitutional requirement of 1850, on a 
farm of 676 acres, and with a special fund, 
not yet realized, for its support, but with an 
annual appropriation of $.30,000 from the 
State treasury towards its expenses, in addi- 
tion to over $100,000 paid towards its build- 
ings and equipment in 1870. There were 
129 students, of whom 10 were females. 

(5,) State Normal School at Ypsilanti, 
with 90 pupil-teachers in the training de- 
partment. This school was founded in 
1849, on an endowment of a portion of the 
salt spring lands and swamp lands, out of 
which a capital of $67,616 has been realized, 
leaving land unsold, which it is estimated 
will increase the capital to $300,000. 

(6,) Other Special Schools are the insti- 
tutions for deaf mutes and blind at Flint, 
founded in 1854; the State Reform School 
at Lansing, opened in 1856. 

(7,) The public library feature of the 
system of public instruction ordained in the 
constitution has not been developed satis- 
factorily in most townships. In Detroit 
alone has it become a prominent institution, 
numbering 20,000 volumes in 1872. 

The aggregate expenditure by the State, 
from funds and property taxation, in 1870 
exceeded $4,000,000. 



MINNESOTA. 



Minnesota was organized as a Territory in 
1849, and admitted as a State in 1850, with 
an area of 83,531 square miles and a popula- 
tion in 1860 of 172,413, which had increased 
in 1870 to 439,706, with taxable property 
to the value of $84,135,332. 

The Constitution of 1850 provides for a 
general and uniform system of public schools 
in each township by taxation or otherwise, 
and a university for the State. 

The State has received from Congress 
2,969,790 acres for schools, 46,080 for a 
university, and 120,000 for a college of agri- 
culture and the mechanic arts. The State 
Auditor for 1872 reports the permanent 
school fund already realized at $2,532,351, 
and the avails of other educational lands 
sold at $500,000 more. 

The authorities for administration are : 

(1,) State Superintendent appointed by 
the Governor and Senate at a salary of $2,- 
500, who must meet with the county super- 
intendents for discussions of all matters 
relating to the schools, and hold teachers' 
institutes as far as practicable in the dif- 
erent counties, and encourage county con- 
ventions of teachers. 

(2,) County Superintendents for such 
counties as elect so to do, through the Coun- 
ty Commissioners, who examine teachers 
after thirty days' notice of the time and 
place, and issue three grades of certificates 
and revoke such license for adequate cause; 
visit all the schools in the county, and con- 
duct in each county one institute for the in- 
struction of teachers each year ; encourage 
teachers' associations, and disseminate in- 
formation respecting improved methods of 
teaching, school construction and equip- 
ment, and report annually. 

(3,) District Trustees — composed of di- 
rector, treasurer, and clerk, elected by the 
voters in districts and sub-districts created 
by the County Commissioners, to have 
charge of all school matters in such dis- 
tricts, subject to the action of the State and 
County Superintendents. 

(4,) Board of Education for independent 
school districts (cities, villages, &c., having 
over 500 inhabitants), composed of six mem- 
bers, two elected each year for a term of 
three years, with power to appoint a district 
superintendent (to visit schools, and assist 
teachers in the classification and promotion 
of the pupils), and district examiners, to 
examine candidates for the ofiice of teacher, 
&c. 



COMMON SCHOOLS AND ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 



421 



In 1872 the State disbursed $171,881 for 
the 'State Institutions,' viz., $26,212 for 
Normal Schools; $10,000 for Insane Asy- 
lum; $20,000 for deaf mutes and blind; 
$12,009 for State Reform School ; $12,506 
for soldiers' orphans; and $331,161 for State 
Prison ;— total, $171,981. 

The national census for 1870 returns 12,- 
747 persons over 10 years of age who can 
not read, and 24,413 who could not write. 

MISSISSIPPI. 

Mississippi was organized as a Territory in 
1798, and admitted as a State in 1817, with 
an area of 47,156 square miles and a popu- 
lation in 1820 of 75,458, which had increased 
to 827,822 in 1870, with taxable property 
estimated at $177,288,892. 

By act of Congress in 1803, section 16 in 
each township is reserved for the support of 
schools, and 36 sections for the use of Jef- 
ferson College, chartered by the territorial 
legislature in 1801, and two town lots in the 
town of Natchez, and an out lot not exceed- 
ing 30 acres, for the same college. In 1819 
another township, or a quantity equivalent 
thereto, was donated to the State for the use 
of a seminary of learning. It was stated in 
a special message of Governor McRae to the 
legislature in 1856, that the total amount of 
the Seminary Fund in the treasury of the 
State, and for which the State was respon- 
sible, was nearly $1,200,000. In 1870 the 
legislature appropriated $50,000 a year for 
ten years to the support of the university. 

The Constitution of 181 7 contains a clause 
from the ordinance of 1785: 'Religion, mo- 
rality and knowledge being neces.sary to good 
government, the promotion of liberty, and 
the happiness of mankind, schools and the 
means of education shall forever be encour- 
aged.' 

The Constitution of 1868 provides for the 
election by the people of a superintendent 
of public education, at the same time and 
manner as the governor, to hold his office for 
a term of four years and until his successor 
shall be elected, and whose duty it was to sub- 
mit to the legislature for its adoption within 
twenty days after its first session under the 
constitution, a uniform system of free public 
schools. It also provides for a Common 
School Fund out of the consolidation of the 
congressional township fund, the swamp 
lands, escheats, fines for penal off"enses, and 
authorizes a poll tax, not to exceed two dol- 
lars per capita. No religious sect or sects 
shall ever control any part of the school or 
university fund. 



The system of free public schools adopted 
by the legislature in 1869 provides for: (1,) 
State Superintendent; (2,) State Board, 
composed of the State Superintendent, the 
Secretary of State and the Attorney General, 
whose duties are confined to the investment 
of the school funds ; (3,) County Superin- 
tendents, of which there are 70, and (4,) 
District Boards in each county, who have 
the local management of schools. Each 
county is made a school district, which can 
be divided into sub-districts for the manage- 
ment of local schools. A State Normal 
School exists at Holly Springs, and a Teach- 
ers' Institute must be held annually in each 
Congressional district. In 1870 there were 
98,600 pupils enrolled out of a school popu- 
lation of 304,762, in 3,450 public schools, 
under 3,520 teachers. According to the 
census there were 291,718 persons over 10 
years of age who could not read, and 313,- 
313 who could not write. 

MISSOURI. 

Missouri was first settled in 1763 and ad- 
mitted into the Union in 1820, having an 
area of 67,380 square miles, and a popula- 
tion in 1820 of 66,586 (10,222 slaves), 
which had increased in 1870 to 1,721,295 
(118,071 colored), with a valuation of tax- 
able property of $556,129,969. 

The constitution of 1820 provides for the 
security of school lands (section 16 in each 
township, or 1,199,139 acres, and 36 sec- 
tions, or 46,080 acres, for a university), and 
enjoins 'the establishment of one or more 
schools in each township, as soon as practi- 
cable and necessary, where the poor shall be 
taught gratis.' But little progress was made 
outside of St. Louis until after the constitu- 
tion was revised in 1865. 

In St. Louis, under the Territorial legisla- 
ture, ' a Board of Trustees for schools in the 
town of St. Louis,' was organized in 1817; 
but this Board did little more than legally 
assert the claims of the city to certain 
out-lots, which were more vigorously prose- 
cuted by the new Board constituted in 1833, 
when these claims were converted into a fund 
which already amounts to over $1,000,000, 
and yielded in 1871 an income of $53,000. 
The first school was opened in 1838, and 
the first building was erected in 1842 at a 
cost of $10,000; and in 1871 the buildings 
owned by the city and occupied by the pub- 
lic schools were valued at $2,000,000, the 
schools having increased from two in 1841, 
with 350 pupils, to sixty-eight in 1871, with 



422 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



an enrolled attendance of 31,221 pupils, 
under 559 teachers, and maintained at a 
cost of $723,362. The schools consist of one 
Normal School for female teachers ; one 
High School for boys and girls ; one inter- 
mediate school for boys and girls; twenty- 
seven district schools in which pupils are 
classified according to age and attainments 
in the primary and grammar divisions; six 
separate schools for colored scholars ; six- 
teen evening schools culminating in a higher 
industrial school ; and a public school library 
of 10,000 volumes. 

The first general law was passed in 1820, 
hut repealed in 1825 by an act 'for estab- 
lishing and governing common schools' 
through commissioners of the school land 
in each township, appointed by the county 
commissioner and trustees in each district, 
which shall be laid out and constituted by 
the same county officers. Under this act, 
in a few townships, schools were opened, but 
nothing eticctual was done until 1837, when 
a State fund was instituted out of the pro- 
ceeds of the saline lands and the State's 
proportion of the United States surplus 
revenue. This fund has increased to |2,- 
253,000 in 1872. 

In 1853 the office of Superintendent, 
which had been associated with that of Sec- 
retary of State, was made independent and 
elective by the people, and commissioners 
were appointed for each county. Under 
this new act the schools were multiplied, 
but the system did not attain any efficiency 
until the revision of the constitution, and 
the school law in pursuance thereof, in 
1865. By the constitution of that year 
the Legislature must maintain ' common 
schools for the gratuitous instruction of all 
persons between the ages of 5 and 21 years, 
and establish separate schools for children 
of African descent.' Their supervision is 
vested in a Board of Education, of which 
Board the Superintendent is made Presi- 
dent.' ' No township can receive any por- 
tion of the public fund unless a free school 
shall have been kept therein for not less 
than three months during the year for which 
the distribution is made ; and every child 
of sufficient mental and physical ability can 
be required to attend the public schools be- 
tween the ages of 5 and 18 for a term 
equivalent to sixteen months, unless edu- 
cated by other means.' *To supply any de- 
ficiency in the public school fund to sustain 
a free school, at least four months in every 



year, a property tax may be levied in each 
county, township, or school district, as the 
General Assembly shall provide. In the 
distribution of the State fund, any inequality 
in the county, town, or city local funds may 
be corrected.' 

Under the operation of the law of 1865, 
the schools have increased from 4,840 to 
7,547; the teachers from 6,262 to 7,881, 
and children in attendance from 169,270 to 
280,472. But with this increase there is 
yet a great work to be done in Missouri. 
According to the census of 1870, out of 
577,803 between the ages of 5 and 18 years, 
only 324,348 attended any school in the 
year preceding; and there were 146,771 
persons over 10 years of age who could not 
read, and 222,411 (206,827 natives and over 
130,000 whites) who could not write. 

The State Auditor's report for 1872 gives 
a few items of disbursements for educational 
purposes : Superintendent, assistant, and 
contingent expenses, S6,348 ; blind asylum, 
$27,500; deaf mute asylum, $29,500; State 
school moneys paid to the counties, $355,- 
427 ; Normal Schools (Teachers' Institutes, 
(fee), $17,000 ; Agricultural College, 18,500; 
township funds (l6th section), $2,271,582; 
seminary fund (university or the 36 sec- 
tions), $108,700 ; Congressional Agricultural 
College grant, 330,000 acres, with 640 acres 
given by Boone County. 

NEBRASKA. 

Nebraska was organized as a Territory in 
1854, and admitted as a State in 1867, with 
an area of 75,995 square miles, and a popu- 
lation in 1870 of 122,993, and taxable prop- 
erty of $56,584,616. The Constitution of 
1867 provides that all 'educational funds 
accruing out of the sale of all lands or other 
property granted or intrusted to the State 
for educational and religious purposes, shall 
forever be preserved inviolate and undimin- 
ished, and the income thereof shall be ap- 
plied to the specific objects of the original 
grants or appropriations, and no religious 
sect or sects shall ever have any exclusive 
right or control of any part of the school 
funds of the State.' The legislature must 
secure a thorough and efficient system of 
common schools throughout the State. 

The school lands were estimated by a 
committee of the Constitutional Convention 
to exceed 3,000,000 acres, which, if sold at 
the minimum rate recommended, would give 
a permanent fund estimated by the same 
committee at $15,000,000. 



COMMON SCHOOLS AND ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 



423 



The system now in operation under the 
school law of 1866 is administered (1,) by a 
State Superintendent; (2,) 40 County Super- 
intendents, one for each county, elected by 
the people, subject to the rules and instruc- 
tions of the State Superintendent; (3,) trus- 
tees for the several districts. Teachers are 
examined by the County Examiners, and 
receive three grades of certificates- run- 
ning for different periods of time, according 
to their qualifications. The law requires a 
County Institute organized under the Coun- 
ty Superintendent, and an Institute for a 
wider territory by the State Superintendent. 

In 1870 there were 1,032 organized school 
districts, with 41,063 children between the 
ages of 5 and 21 years, of whom 23,158 at- 
tended school under 1,080 teachers, whose 
wages amounted to $145,975. The cost 
of school-houses and value of school lots is 
returned at $445,538, and the total expendi- 
ture for all purposes for the year was $363,- 
524. 

NEVADA. 

Nevada was organized as a Territory in 
1861, and admitted as a State in 1864, with 
an area of 81,539 square miles, and a popu- 
lation in 1863 of 43,000, which in 1870 as 
given by the census, stood at 42,491, with 
taxable property valued at $25,740,973. 

The Constitution of 1864 enjoins the 
legislature ' to encourage, by all suitable 
means, the promotion of intellectual, literary, 
scientific, mining mechanical, agricultural 
and moral improvements, provide for the 
election of a superintendent of public instruc- 
tion, and the establishment of a uniform sys- 
tem of common schools, by which a school 
shall be established in each school district 
for at least six months in each year ; and any 
school district neglecting to establish and 
maintain such school, or which shall allow 
instruction of a sectarian character therein, 
shall be deprived of its portion of the inter- 
ests of the public school fund during such 
neglect or infraction. The legislature is au- 
thorized to pass such laws as shall secure a 
general attendance of the children at school. 
The 16th and 36th sections in every town- 
ship, the 30,000 acres for each senator and 
representative in Congress by act of 1862, 
the 500,000 acres granted to new States in 
1841, all escheats and fines for penal offenses, 
shall be held and used for educational pur- 
poses, the interest thereof only to be applied 
as directed in the laws donating the same. 
'The legislature shall provide for a State 



university, which shall embrace departments 
of agriculture, mechanic arts and mining, 
and is authorized to establish normal schools 
and schools of different grades, from the 
primary school to the university, ' in which 
no sectarian instruction shall be imparted or 
tolerated.' A special tax of one half of one 
mill on the dollar of all taxable property, 
must be provided for the maintenance of the 
university and common schools. The gover- 
nor, Secretary of State and Superintendent 
are constituted a Board of Regents to 
manage the university funds and affairs. 

The school law of 1865, and amended in 
1867, makes it the duty of the State Super- 
intendent to convene an institute of teachers 
annually, and visit each county for the pur- 
pose of addressing public assemblies on sub- 
jects pertaining to common schools, and 
consulting county and other school officers. 
In 1870 there were 2,883 pupils out of 
3,952 children between the ages of 6 and 
18 years, under 53 teachers ; and 727 per- 
sons over 10 years of age who can not read, 
and 872 who can not write. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



By the first national census in 1790, New 
Hampshire had a population of 141,899. 
which had increased in 1870 to 318,300, on 
an area of 8,280 square miles, and with 
taxable property to the value of 149,065,290. 

The first settlements within the present 
limits of New Hampshire were made from 
Massachusetts at Dover and Portsmouth in 
1623, and down to 1680 all the settlements 
were treated as belonging to the county of 
Norfolk ; and for brief periods afterwards it 
was united to Massachusetts, and the school 
policy of that colony prevailed generally in 
its legislation as an independent province. 
In the first constitution of New Hampshire, 
adopted in 1784, the language introduced 
by John Adams into the second section of 
the article on education in the constitution 
of Massachusetts, relating to the encourage- 
ment of literature, the sciences, and semi- 
naries of learning, was followed literally. 

In 1789 a general school law was passed, 
repealing all former acts on the subject, and 
providing: (1,) That the selectmen of the 
several towns and parishes shall assess an- 
nually the inhabitants of the same according 
to their polls and rateable estate, in a sum 
to be computed at the rate of five pounds 
for every twenty shillings of their propor- 
tion for public taxes for the time being, ' to 
be applied to the sole purpose of keeping an 



424 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



English grammar school or schools for teach- 
ing reading and writing and arithmetic with- 
in the towns and parishes for which the 
same shall be assessed; except such town be 
a shire or half-shire town, in which case, 
the school by them kept shall be a grammar 
school for the purpose of teaching the Latin 
and Greek languages, as well as reading, 
writing and arithmetic aforesaid ; and in 
failure to assess, collect and apply this tax 
in the manner set forth, the selectmen must 
pay out of their individual estates, for the 
benefit of the town schools, a sum equal to 
that in which they may be found delin- 
quent,' on the requisition of the town clerk, 
whose duty it is made to look after this 
matter. (2,) 'No person shall be deemed 
qualified to keep a town public school, un- 
less* he shall produce a certificate from some 
able and reputable schoolmaster and learned 
minister, or preceptor of some academy, or 
president of some college, that he is quali- 
fied to keep such school.' 

These simple and salutary provisions, 
coupled with another dating back to 1691, 
empowering the towns to build suitable 
school-houses by tax on the rateable estates 
of the inhabitants, rigidly enforced would 
liave kept up a system of public instruction 
on a uniform basis over the state, when, un- 
fortunately, in 1805 the towns were author- 
ized to divide their territory into districts ; 
a!id school districts thus constituted were 
authorized to provide school accommoda- 
tion, appoint a local committee, and in gen- 
eral to manage the public school in their 
own way. Tlie lack of intelligent, vigilant, 
and responsible town inspectors over the 
district schools in which the local manage- 
ment was left to themselves, and the estab- 
lishment of academies in the large centers 
of population and business, which met the 
wants of the educated, were followed with 
the same real or relative deterioration which 
characterized the common schools of New 
England, generally. 

Tlie subject of school improvement at- 
tracted attention as early as 1830, in the 
lyceum movement conducted by Josiah Hol- 
brook, and was continued by county com- 
mon school conventions and associations 
begun in 1836. The first state convention 
was called in 1843; the first teachers' insti- 
tute held in 1845 ; the office of state com- 
missioner of common schools was instituted 
by the Legislature in June, 1846; and the 
duty of the State in respect to the super- 



vision of schools, which it makes obligatory 
on the towns, has since been recognized in 
some form, and at present by a State Board 
constituting the Governor and council, and 
the Superintendent of public instruction 
acting through county commissioners, or 
rather through a commissioner for each of 
the eight counties into which the State is 
divided. A private Normal school was in- 
stituted in 1845 at Reed's Ferry by Prof. 
Wm. Russell, and a State Normal school es- 
tablished in 1870 at Plymouth. 

To supply the want of the old town gram- 
mar school, an act was passed in 1837 giv- 
ing to the town of Portsmouth, and any 
other town which chose to adopt the pro- 
visions of the act, authority to establish two 
high schools, one for males and the other 
for females, and provide for a graded course 
of studies in connection with the district 
schools. The same authority was given to 
central districts by the Act of 1848. 

Li 1872 there were 2,452 common schools 
taught in 2,284 districts, located in 232 
towns, with a registered attendance of 72,672 
pupils, under 3,826 teachers (3,241 females). 
The whole amount raised for school pur- 
poses was $468,527, of which |l 1,565 was 
paid the superintendents of town commit- 
tees for their services. The buildings and 
sites of school-houses were valued at $1,- 
870,000. According to the census of 1870 
there were 7,618 persons over ten years of 
age who could not read, and 9,926 who 
could not write. 

Various attempts have been made since 
1846 to protect children under fifteen years 
of age employed in factories and other 
manufacturing establishments from excessive 
labor, and secure to all children elementary 
instruction, which culminated in 1871 in 
* An Act to compel children to attend 
school,' which ordains that all parents, 
guardians, or masters of any child between 
the ages of eight and fourteen, residing 
within two miles of a public school, shall 
send such child at least twelve weeks in each 
year, six of which must be consecutive, un- 
less such child shall be excluded from such 
attendance on the ground of physical or 
mental inability to profit by such attend- 
ance ; or is instructed in the same period in 
a private school or at home, under penalties 
for violation, $10 for the first and -^20 for 
each subsequent offense, to be recovered as 
in an action of debt. A penalty attaches to 
school officers for not executing the law. 



COMMON SCHOOLS AND ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 



425 



NEW JERSEY. 

New Jersey was first settled in 1627, and 
adopted its first constitution as a State in 
1776, with an area at that time of 8,320 
square miles, and a population in 1790 of 
184,139, which in 1870 had increased to 
906,096, with a valuation of taxable proper- 
ty of $624,868,971. 

The constitution of 1776 contains no 
allusion to schools or education ; nor prior to 
the colonial period was there any legislation 
respecting common schools. In 1816 an 
act to create a fund for the support of free 
schools was adopted, and the first distribu- 
tion of its income took place under the act 
of 1829, passed 'to establish common 
schools.' I3y this act towns were authorized 
to raise money to support schools by tax, 
and must raise in this way a sum sufficient 
to entitle it to any portion of the income 
of the school fund ; but it was not till ten 
years later that towns were compelled to 
raise a specified sum every year, nor till 
1871 that the schools were made free by a 
State school tax of 2 mills on the valuation. 

The first educational convention in the 
State -was held in 1828, at Trenton, and 
from that time the subject of school im- 
provement was agitated in county and state 
meetings until 1838, when a large meeting 
of delegates from every part of the State 
was held at Trenton, presided over by Chief 
Justice Hornblower, and the address of 
which to the people of the State was drawn 
up by Rt. Rev. Bishop Doane. From this 
rousing address we make a brief extract : 

We address you as the sovereign people, and we 
say that it is your duty and your liighest interest to 
provide and maintain, within the reach of every 
child, the means of sucli an education as will qualify 
him to discharge the duties of a citizen of the 
Republic; and will enable him, by subsequent exer- 
tion, in the free exercise of the unconquerable will, 
to attain the highest eminence in knowledge and 
power which God may place within his readi. We 
utterly repudiate as unworthy, not of freemen only, 
but of men, the narrow notion that there is to be an 
education for the poor as such. Has God provided 
for the poor a coarser earth, a thinner sky, a paler 
air? Does not the glorious sun pour down his 
golden flood as cheerily upon the poor man's hovel 
as upon the rich man's palace ? Have not the cot- 
ter's children as keen a sense of all the freshness, 
verdure, fragrance, melody and beauty of luxuriant 
Nature as the pale sons of kings ? Or is it on the 
mind that God has stamped the imprint of a baser 
birth, so that the poor man's child knows with an 
inborn certainty that his lot is to crawl and not to 
climb ? It is not so. God has not done it. Man 
can not do it. Mind is immortal. Mind is im- 
perial. It bears no mark of high or low, of rich or 
poor. It heeds no bound of time or place, of rank 



or circumstance. It asks but freedom ; it requires 
but light. It is heaven-born, and aspires to heaven. 
Weakness does not enfeeble it. Poverty can not re- 
press it. DiflSculties do but stimulate its vigor. 
And the poor tallow-chandler's son that sits up all 
the night to read the book which an apprentice 
lends him, lest the master's eye should miss it in 
the morning, shall stand and treat with kings, shall 
add new provinces to the domain of science, shall 
bind the lightning with a hempen cord, and bring it 
harmless from the skies. The common school is 
common, not as inferior, not as the school for the 
poor men's children, but as the light and air and 
water are common. 

The office of State Superintendent was 
created in 1846. The first County Teachers' 
Association was formed for Essex County in 
1847, and the State Teachers' Association 
was formed in 1853. The first Teachers' 
Institute was held at Sommerville in 1851, 
and provision was made for their being held 
by the State for the first time in 1854. The 
State Normal School, after years of agita- 
tion was established in 1858. Special 
authority to the large cities to establish 
graded schools was given to the city of 
Patterson in 1836, and subsequently extend- 
ed and exercised by most of the large cities. 

The school authorities are : (1,) The State 
Board of Education, composed of the Gov- 
ernor, Attorney-General, Comptroller, Sec- 
retary of State, President of the Senate, 
Speaker of the Assembly, and the Trustees 
of the State Normal School ; (2,) the Super- 
intendent of Public Instruction, who is ap- 
pointed by the Board, of which he is secre- 
tary, and who, with the Principal of the 
Normal School, constitutes a Board of Ex- 
amination; (3,) County Superintendents, 
appointed by the Board, who, with the City 
Superintendents, elected by the City Boards 
of Education, constitute tlie State Associa- 
tion of School Superintendents ; (4,) Town- 
ship Board of School Trustees. 

The means to support common schools 
in 1871 were: (1,) the income (^35,000) of 
the school fund (capital 1792,190) and State 
appropriation ($65,000 to make), $100,000 ; 
(2,) township school tax, $44,467 ; district 
school tax, $18,144; surplus revenue, $31,^ 
654; two mill State school tax, $1,168,803 ; 
appropriation for the State Normal, and Far^ 
num Schools, $11,200; — total, for all pur- 
poses, $2,263,070. Total valuation of school 
buildings and grounds, $4,966,788. 

Out of 258,227 children between the 
ages of 5 and 18 years, 161,683 were en- 
rolled in public schools; of the number en^ 
rolled, 15,594 attended ten months, 21,801 
eight months, 26,570 six months, 33,158 
four and 63,429 less than four months. 



426 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



NEW YORK. 

New Yorlv, settled as early as 1609, had 
by the first national census of 1792, on an 
area of 46,000 square miles a population of 
340,120, which had increased in 1870 to 
4,382,759, with taxable property to the 
value of $1,967,001,185. 

In the first constitution of 1777 there is 
no reference to schools; in that of 1822, the 
proceeds of all State lauds are appropriated 
to a common school fund ; and in the third 
of 1846, the capital of several educational 
funds at that time existing, are declared in- 
violate, and their revenues must be applied 
to the objects to which they are donated. 

In 1784, the first session after the term- 
ination of the war, an act was passed to 
alter the name of Kings College, in the city 
of New York, to Columbia College, and to 
erect a university. This act was superseded 
in 1787 by another, which instituted the 
Regents of the University, and provides for 
the incorporation by them of colleges and 
academies. To this board has been given 
from time to time, duties which cover the 
common schools. 

The first act for the encouragement of com- 
mon schools was drafted by Adam Comstock, 
a native of Connecticut, in 1795, by which 
|50,000 were annually appropriated for five 
years to the several cities and towns, 'in 
which the children of the inhabitants resid- 
ing in the State shall be instructed in the 
English language (taught English grammar), 
arithmetic, mathematics, and such other 
branches of knowledge as are most useful 
and necessary to complete a good English 
education.' The boards of supervisors were 
required to raise by tax a sum equal to one 
half of that appropriated by the State, to be 
applied in like manner. At the end of four 
years the appropriation was not renewed, 
and notwithstanding the efforts of Jedediah 
Peck, a native of Connecticut, and others, 
no efficient legislation took place till 1812. 

In 1811, on the recommendation of Gov. 
Tompkins, a commission, with Mr. Peck 
chairman, was appointed to report a plan 
for establishing a system of common schools, 
which was done in 1812, after the commis- 
sioners had conferred with friends of educa- 
tion in different parts of the State, and 
studied the rise and progress of similar sys- 
tems in neighboring States. The following 
are the outlines of their plan : ' That the 
several towns in the State be divided into 
school districts, by three commissioners. 



elected by the citizens qualified to vote for 
town officers ; that three trustees be elected 
in each district, to whom shall be confided 
the care and superintendence of the school 
to be established therein ; that the interest 
of the school fund be divided among the 
difterent counties and towns, according to 
their respective population, as ascertained 
by the successive census of the United 
States ; that the proportions received by the 
respective towns be subdivided among the 
districts into which such towns shall be 
divided, according to the number of children 
in each, between the ages of 5 and 15 years; 
that each town raise by tax annually as much 
money as it shall have received from the 
school fund ; that the gross amount of 
moneys received from the State and raised 
by the towns be appropriated exclusively to 
the payment of the wages of the teachers; 
and that the whole system be placed under 
the superintendence of an officer appointed 
by the Council of Appointment.' 

These features were embodied in the act 
of 1812, and under the careful administra- 
tion of Gideon Hawley, a native of Con- 
necticut, as superintendent, the system went 
into operation, to gather strength and ex- 
pansion from year to year, and contribute 
by its beneficent results to the establishment 
and improvement of common schools in 
other States. 

In 1839, the superintendent (John C. 
Spencer) was authorized to appoint a County 
Board of School Visitors to serve gratuitous- 
ly in their several counties, and so favorably 
received were the reports of these school 
visitors, that in 1841 the legislature, by a 
nearly unanimous vote, provided for the ap- 
pointment by the Board of Supervisors for 
each county, biennially, of a County Super- 
intendent, charged with the general super- 
vision of the interests of the several schools 
under his jurisdiction. No previous act had 
imparted such general activity to school 
affliirs as this; but in 1847 the office \yas 
abolished, and the supervision of the schools, 
examination of teachers, the appointment 
and disbursement of the school fund, were 
intrusted to a single officer in each town. 
In 1857, the operation of town supervision 
proving unsatisfactory, provision was made 
for the appointment of School Commission- 
ers in districts. There were 135 city and 
district commissioners in 1871. 

The law of 1812 provided for the support 
of schools out of the income of the school 



COMMON SCHOOLS AND ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 



427 



fund and a tax upon the towns equal to its 
distributive share of the school money, at 
first optional, but afterwards obligatory, 
through the county tax. In 1814, the trus- 
tees of the district were authorized to sup- 
ply any deficiency in the means to pay the 
wages of teachers, by collecting it from the 
parents or patrons of the school in propor- 
tion to the attendance of their children. In 
1849, the rate bills were abolished, leaving 
the deficiency, after applying the public 
money to the payment of teachers' wages, 
to be made up by district taxation. This 
act was submitted to the people, and ap- 
pi'oved by a vote of 249,872 in its favor, 
and 91,151 against it. In 1850 the Free 
School Act, as it was called, was repealed ; 
but being again submitted to the people, the 
act itself was sustained. In 1851 the law 
was repealed, and the State taxation of 
$800,000 was levied, to be distributed with 
the school moneys in the support of schools, 
instead of the county tax, equal in amount to 
the annual distribution from the school fund. 
In 1856, to the State tax of $800,000, a 
levy of three-fourths of a mill upon every 
dollar of real and personal estate was made, 
which has since been increased to one and 
one-fourth of a mill, yielding in 1872 the 
net sum of $2,565,672. 

To secure the services of well qualified 
teachers, and to exclude the incompetent 
and immoral, was a primary object with the 
commissioners who reported the original 
school law of 1811. This they aimed to 
effect by the appointment of inspectors to 
whom the examination of all candidates was 
given, and without whose certificate no 
teacher could be legally employed. This 
mode tested the attainments of candidates, 
but provided no way in advance of actual 
experience of acquiring the requisite knowl- 
edge whereby better qualifications could be 
had of principles and methods of teaching. 
To remedy this, Gov. Clinton in 1825 and 
in 1826 recommended a 'seminary for the 
education of teachers in those useful branches 
of knowledge already introduced in all our 
common schools,' and in 1828 he urges the 
establishment in each county of a Monitorial 
High School (after the model of one in Liv- 
ingston County, under the charge of C. C. 
Felton — afterwards President of Harvard 
College), 'in which better methods of teach- 
ing shall be at once taught and exemplified.' 
In 1826, Mr. John C. Spencer, from the 
Literature Committee of the Senate (to 



whom the recommendations of the Governor 
had been referred), recommended that the 
income of the Literature Fund should be 
divided among the academies, not in pro- 
portion to the number of classical students, 
but to the number of 'persons instructed in 
each, who shall have been licensed as teach- 
ers of public schools by the proper board.' 
In 1827, Mr. Spencer, from the same com- 
mittee, reported an act by which the Litera- 
ture Fund was increased for the avowed pur- 
pose in the preamble ' of promoting the 
education of teachers,' 'the incompetency 
of the great mass of whom is radical and 
defeats the whole system, and the hopes and 
wishes of all who feel an interest in dissem- 
inating the blessings of education.' 

In 1834, a portion of the income of the 
Literature Fund was set apart ' to be dis- 
tributed by the regents to such academies, 
subject to their visitation, as will provide for 
the education of teachers for the common 
schools.' Under this provision, one academy 
was selected in each of the eight senatorial 
districts, in which was erected a department 
devoted to this particular work, known as 
the Teachers' Department; and in 1838, by 
an act appropriating the income of the 
United States Deposit Fund for the pur- 
poses of education, $28,000 was appropriated 
lo the several academies on condition that 
' the academies receiving any of its distribu- 
tive share equal to $700 should establish 
and maintain a department for the instruc- 
tion of common school teachers.' Under 
this provision the number of academies with 
this special course for teachers was increased 
to fifteen; and in 1871, under a revision of 
the previous legislation on the subject in 
1855, 'the science of common school teach- 
ing' was taught to 'teachers' classes' in 87 
academies, with a total attendance of 1,494 
pupil teachers. 

In 1840, Prof. Potter, of Union College 
(afterwards Bishop Potter, of Pennsylvania), 
in a special report founded on a personal 
visit to the academies having teachers' de- 
partments, recommends 'the establishment 
of one institution at the capital, devoted ex- 
clusively to the education of teachers.' The 
same recommendation was indorsed by the 
superintendent (John C. Spencer), in his re- 
port to the legislature of that year. In 
1844, the committee on colleges, academies, 
and common schools, in the House of Rep- 
resentatives, through the chairman (Mr. 
Hulburt), after visiting the Normal Schools 



428 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



of Massachusetts reported a bill to establish 
a Normal School at iVlbatiy ' for the instruc- 
tion and practice of teachers for common 
schools iu the science of education and in 
the art of teaching,' appropriating $10,000 
annually for five years for its support. This 
school, in a building furnished gratuitously 
by the city of Albany, went into operation 
in December, 1844; and, after a successful 
trial of four years, received in 1848 from 
the state a special appropriation to provide 
permanent accommodations, and an annual 
appropriation of $12,000 for its support. 
In 1863, aid was extended to the Training 
School at Oswego, which was formally recog- 
nized a State Normal School in 1866; and 
in 1864, provision was made for six other 
institutions located in ditt'irent parts of the 
State ; the citizens of Brockport, Fredonia, 
Cortland, Potsdam, Geneseo, and Buffalo 
having furnished suitalile buildings at an ag- 
gregate expense of $500,000. The value 
of the grounds, buildings, and equipment 
of the State Normal Schools is estimated 
$829,739, and the annual expense to main- 
tain them, at $150,000. With the Normal 
pupils are large schools and classes of 
children whose exercises are made subsidiary 
to the main object of the institution. In 
1872, there were 5,807 students in attend- 
ance on the different departments of the 8 
Normal schools. 

In 1839, Francis Dwight secured the con- 
solidation of all the school districts in 
Geneva, and inaugurated the union or graded 
system in New York ; and in 1840 issued 
the first number of the District School 
Journal, a copy of which the superintendent 
obtained authority to send to every school 
district. 

By the Union Free School Act of 1853, 
cities and villages divided into districts were 
enabled to consolidate for the purpose of 
maintaining graded schools, and for making 
them free in advance of the general free 
school act of 1867. Under the operation 
of this act, more than ninety academies in- 
cluded within the limits of such districts 
were absorbed into the general system, be- 
coming the High Schools of the united dis- 
tricts. The whole number of such schools in 
1870 was 694. 

In 1835, the first legislative provision for 
school libraries was made. To James Wads- 
worth of Geneseo, a native of Connecticut, 
belongs the credit of originating the system 
of district school libraries. In 1811, in a 



letter addressed to one of the commissioners 
appointed by Gov. Tompkins to report to 
the legislature a system for the organization 
and establishment of common schools, Mr. 
Wadsvvorth (after giving the outline of the 
system of common schools actually adopted), 
suggested that ' it should be made the duty 
of the State Commissioner to send to the 
school inspector of each town a " Lancaster 
Manual," containing observations on teach- 
ing and school government, and thus diffuse 
throughout the State the latest and most 
practical information as to approved meth- 
ods.' In 1832 he was instrumental in secur- 
ing the distribution of a copy of " Hall's 
Lectures on School Teaching," to each 
school district (9,000), and in"l833 recom- 
mended the incorporation into the school act 
of a provision authorizing a majority of the 
voters ' to raise by a tax on the property of 
each district $15 or $20 as a commence- 
ment of, and $5 or $10 annually, as a peren- 
nial spring, to purchase and sustain a school 
library,' until 1835, when the foundation of 
the district school library was laid by the 
passage of an act giving the authority as 
above suggested. Tu secure a beginning in 
this direction, Mr. Wadsworth offered to pay 
one-fourih of the $20 to all districts in Avon 
and Geneseo, and then offered $20 to the 
first five districts in Henrietta which should 
adopt the same, and employed the Rev. Mr. 
Page to give lectures on the subject, in all 
towns of Livingston County, and in other 
sections. In 1838 he labored to secure 
the appropriation of a portion of the income 
of the United States Deposit Fund for the 
same purpose, and through the exertions of 
the Hon. G. W. Patterson, who was then 
Speaker of the House, and the Hon. D. D. 
Barnard, chairman of the committee, this 
was accomplished, and $55,000 was annually 
appropriated for the purpose. To his labors 
in this direction should be added the publi- 
cation, at his expense, of The School and 
the Schoolmaster — the first prepared by 
Prof. Alonzo Porter, and the last by George 
B. Emerson of Boston, and the distribution 
of over 15,000 copies, one to each school 
district, and to town and county school 
officers. Mr. Wadsworth also paid the ex- 
pense of the American edition of Cousin's 
Report on the School System of Prussia 
in 1834, and aided J. Orville Taylor in the 
publication of the Common School Advocate 
from 1835 to 1838. 

The common schools are situated in 



COMMON SCHOOLS AND ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION, 



429 



11,350 districts, taught in houses which, 
with their sites, are vahicd at 123,468,266, 
accommodating 1,028,147 children in attend- 
ance some portion of the year (to which 
should he added 5,807 in normal schools, 
30,370 in academies, 3,194 in colleges, 
135,433 in private schools), taught by 28,217 
teachers (21,668 females). The average 
daily attendance of children attending the 
common schools is placed at 493,648. 

The means for the support of schools for 
the year 1872 were derived from the follow- 
ing sources, viz., The Common School 
Fund ($3,004,513), 1170,000; United States 
Deposit Fund ($4,414,520), income $165,- 
000; State school tax (Ij- per cent, on the 
valuation), $2,610,784 ; by local tax, $6,552,- 
994, making a total of $10,874,910. Among 
the items of expenditure we find, for the 
wages of common school teachers, $6,510,- 
164; district school libraries, $30,917; 
school apparatus, $179,156; colored schouls, 
$678,582 ; school construction and furni- 
ture, $1,982,547; incidental expenses, 
$1,164,142; appropriation for academies, 
$44,646 ; teachers' classes in academies, 
$15,345; Teachers' Institutes, $16,171; 
Normal Schools, $128,723; Cornell Univer- 
sity, $25,000; Indian schools, $6,837; su- 
perintendent of public instruction, $18,127 ; 
regents of universities, $6,349 ; printing 
registers for school districts, $13,000. To 
these items should be added the following 
not included in the aggregate above given : 
deaf and dumb institution, $103,923 ; 
institution for the blind at New York, 
$39,903 ; institution for the blind at Batavia, 
$40,500 ; state asylum for idiots, $50,000 ; 
orphan asylums, $9,000; school commis- 
sioners' salaries, $90,187 ; state reformatory 
at Elmira, $198,000. 

The enormous sums expended for the 
common schools of New York will be real- 
ized in the fact that from 1850, when the 
school expenditure was $1,607,684, to 1872, 
when the total expenditure was $9,607,903 
— a period of 22 years — the aggregate ex- 
penditure was nearly $106,146,344. 

In 1825, orphans in special asylums were 
first recognized as entitled to the distribu- 
tion share of any money appropriated to 
common schools, which is now made the 
basis of the special appropriation in their 
behalf to the amount, in 1871, of $472,760. 

In 1866, the superintendent was charged 
with providing schools for the Indian 
children, which in 1871 numbered 1,073, in 
27 schools, at a cost of $8,559. 
26* 



The system of common .schools rests on territorial 
subdivisions of tiie State known as School Districts, 
whose boundaries are defined and altered by the 
Scliool Commissioner, and on Union Free School 
Districts, ibriued with special powers under the act 
of 1853, and the City Districts created by special 
acts. 

The officers intrusted with the administration of 
the system, beginning at the lowest point, are: 

1. Didrkt Tru'Ues — composed of one or three, as 
the district may decide. The three act as a board, 
and the sole trustee has the same power as a board 
of three. These powers and duties are: to call 
meetings; to make out tax lists and warrants; to 
purchase sites, and build or hire school-houses; to 
insure district property; to have the custody and 
safe keeping of tlie school-house and other property ; 
to contract with and employ teachers, and pay 
them; and generally to attend to all the business of 
the district. They must make in October of every 
year, a return in form and substance as required by 
law, to the School Commissioner, as the basis of all 
.school statistics, and sucli other information as the 
State Superintendent may from time to time require. 
There is also a district clerk, collector, and librarian. 

2. Town Clerk for each toum — is required to keep 
in his office all books, maps, papers, and records 
touching schools ; to record in a book the certificate 
of apportionment of scliool moue)'s ; to notify the 
trustees of the filing of such certificate ; to obtain 
from trustees their annual reports; to furnish the 
School Commissioner with the names and post-office 
address of all district officers; to distiibute to trus- 
tees all books and blanks forwarded to him for their 
use; to file and record the final accounts of super- 
visors ; to preserve the supervisor's bond ; to file 
and keep the description of district boundaries; and 
wlien called upon, to take part in tlie erection or 
alteration of a school district. The supervisor for 
each town receives all moneys destined for school 
purposes in the town, and disburses according to 
law and the special direction of tlie State Superin- 
tendent. 

3. School Commissioners — elected for certain dis- 
tricts originally established by boards of supervisors, 
but now determined by law to the number of 112 
for the State. They have power, and it is their 
duty, to see that tlie boundaries of districts are cor- 
rectlj'' described ; to visit and examine the schools ; 
to advise with and counsel the trustees; to look 
after the condition of the school-houses, and con- 
demn such as are entirely unfit for use ; to recom- 
mend studies and text-books ; to examine and 
license teachers ; to examine charges against teach- 
ers, and, on sufficient proof, annul their certificates; 
and when required by the Superintendent, to take 
and report testimony in cases of appeal. It is also 
their duty, annually, to apportion and divide among 
the districts the school moneys apportioned to their 
respective counties by the Superintendent of Public 
Instruction. 

4. Department of Public Instruction. — The head of 
this department is the State Superintendent, which 
office was originally independent, but in 1822 as 
such, was abolished and its duties assigned to the 
Secretary of State, who performed them through a 
special clerk or deputy, until 1854, when it was 
again separated and instituted into the Department 
of Public Instruction. The superintendent is elected 
by joint ballot of Senate and Assembly. He holds 



430 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



office for three years; has general superintendence 
of the public scliools, visits them, inquires into their 
management, and advises and directs in regard to 
their course of instruction and discipline. He ap- 
portions and distributes the public moneys appro- 
priated by the State for the support of schools; ex- 
amines the supplementary apportionments made to 
all tlie districts by the School Commissioners, and 
sees that to each district is set apart its proportion- 
ate share, and that the same is expended by tlie 
trustees, and paid by the supervisors of towns, ac- 
cording to law. He gives advice and direction to 
school officers, teachers, and inhabitants upon all 
questions arising under the school laws. He estab- 
lishes rules and regulations concerning appeals. 
He hears and decides all a[)peals, involving school 
controversies, that are brought before him, and his 
decision is final. He is cliarged with the general 
control and management of Teachers' Institutes in 
tlie several counties of the State; is authorized to 
employ teachers and lecturers for the institutes, and 
'to pay tiiem, and to certify the accounts for ex- 
penses incurred by the commissioners in conducting 
the same. He is required by the law to visit the 
institutes, and to advise and to direct concerning 
their proper management. He establishes rules and 
regulations concerning district school libraries; he 
makes appointments of State pupils to the institu- 
tions for the instruction of the deaf and dumb and 
for the blind, upon the certificate of the proper local 
officers; and he visits and examines into the con- 
dition and management of these institutions. He is 
chairman of tlie executive committee of the State 
Normal School at Albany, and apportions among 
the counties the number of pupils to wiiicii each is 
entitled. He is one of the board for the selection 
of the places in which to establish any additional 
Normal Schools. After the schools are established, 
he has general supervision and direction of them; 
he appoints the local board to manage them ; he 
approves the rules for their government; he directs 
the form of their reports; and all payments for 
their support are paid upon his certificate. He ap- 
proves llie course of study; the number of teachers 
and their wages are subject to his approval ; he can 
cause one or more of the schools to be composed 
of males, and one or more of females, in his discre- 
tion ; and he decides upon the manner in which 
pupils shall be admitted from the several parts of 
the State. He lias similar powers over the O.swego 
Normal School, and six similar schools since estab- 
lished. He has charge of all the Indian schools in 
the State, employs local agents to superintend them, 
visits them, and directs concerning the erection and 
repair of their school-houses, and determines the 
branches of instruction to be pursued in the schools. 
He is, ex-ojfin'o, a Regent of the University and 
chairman of the committee on teachers' classes in 
academies. He is also, ex-offido, a member ot' the 
Board of Trustees of the Idiot Asylum, and the 
Cornell University. He receives and compiles the 
abstracts of the reports from all the school districts 
in tiie State, setting forth their condition and pro- 
ceedings, and the account of receipts and expendi- 
tures for each year. He makes, annually, to the 
legislature a report of the condition of all the schools 
and institutions under his supervision, and recom- 
mends sucii measures a.s, in his judgment, will con- 
tribute to tlieir welfare and efficiency. 



NORTH CAROLKVAi 

North Carolina was first settled in 1653, 
and in 1720 had on an area of 45,000 
square miles a population of 393,751 
(100,573 slaves), which in 1870 had in- 
creased to 1,071,361 (391,650 colored), 
with 1624,868,971 taxable property. 

The first official allusion to the want of 
schools in North Carolina is believed to 
have been made by Governor Johnston, a 
native of Scotland, in his address to the 
Legislature, in Edenton, in 1736; and the 
first eftectnal act for the encouragement of 
literature was a law passed in 1762, for the 
erection of a school-house in the town of 
Newbern. A similar law applicable to the 
town of Edenton was passed next year. 

In 1770, an act for founding, establishing, 
and endowing Queens College in the town 
of Charlotte, Mecklenberg County, was re- 
pealed by royal proclamation, and its 
re-enactment in the year following met with 
the same fate. In 1776 this county, in ad- 
vance of the Continental Congress at Phila- 
delphia, declared the State forever absolved 
from allegiance to the British Crown, and in 
the year following incorporated ' the Presi- 
dent and Fellows of Libert)/ Hall, in the 
County of Mecklenberg,' with the following 
preamble : * Whereas, the proper education 
of youth in this infant comniuiiit}' is highly 
necessary, and would answer the most valu- 
able and beneficial purposes to this State 
and the good people thereof; and whereas, 
a very promising experiment hath been 
made at a seminary in the County of Meck- 
lenberg, and a number of youths there 
taught have made great advancements in 
the knowledge of the learned languages, 
and in the rudiments of the arts and 
sciences, in the course of a regular and 
finished education, which they have since 
completed at various colleges in different 
parts of America ; and whereas, the sem- 
inary aforesaid, and the several teachers 
who have successively taught and presided 
therein, have hitherto been almost wholly 
supported by private subscriptions, in order 
therefore, that said subscriptions and other 
gratuities may be legally possessed and duly 
applied, and the said seminary, by the 
name of Liberty Hall, may become more 
extensively and generally useful, for the en- 
couragement of liberal knowledge in lan- 
guages, arts, and sciences, and for diffusing 
the great advantages of education upoii 
more liberal, easy, and generous terms,' &c. 



COMMON SCHOOLS AND ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 



431 



The institution was born in stormy times, 
and the enterprise, after the trustees made 
several inefFectual attempts to get a presi- 
dent from Princeton College, and sufficient 
funds, was abandoned. 

In the State Constitution, framed at 
Halifax in December, 1776, they provided 
'that a school or schools shall be established 
by the Legislature for the convenient in- 
struction of youth, with such salaries to the 
maters, paid hy the public, as may enable 
them to instruct at low prices; and all 
useful learning shall be encouraged in one or 
more universities.' The establishment of 
public schools was thus expressly enjoined 
upon the Legislature; and the order in 
which the public school and the university 
is mentioned, shows the connection and de- 
pendence which the framcrs of the Consti- 
tution thought should exist between them. 
The language was mandatory, — ' schools 
shall be established by the Legislature.' 
The schools were to be tit, ' convenient,' 
accessible to all; and the salaries to 
the masters were to be '■paid by the public.'' 
They provided, first, in the organic law, for 
tlie instruction of the children of the peo- 
ple at the public charge ; and secondly, for 
' one or more universities,' in which ' all 
useful learning ' should be encouraged. 
In 1789, the University of North Carolina 
was established and endowed, but no pro- 
vision was made for common schools. 
Speaking of this period. Judge Murphey, in 
an address in 1827, remarks : 

' The number of our literary men has 
been small when compared with our popu- 
lation ; but this is not a matter of surprise 
when we look on the condition of the State 
since the close of the Revolutionary War. 
When the war ended, the people were in 
poverty, society in disorder, morals and 
manners almost prostrate. Order was to be 
restored to society, and energy to the laws, 
before industry could repair the fortunes of 
the people ; schools were to be established 
for the education of youth, and congrega- 
tions formed for preaching the gospel, be- 
fore the pubhc morals could be amended. 
Time was required to effect these objects ; 
and the most important of them, the educa- 
tion of youth, was the longest neglected. 
Before this university went into operation 
in 1794, there was not more than three 
schools in the State, in which the rudiments 
of a classical education could be acquired. 
The most prominent and useful of these 



schools was kept by Dr. David Caldwell, of 
Guilford County. lie instituted it shortly 
after the close of the war, and continued it 
for more than thirty years. The usefulness 
of Dr. Caldwell to the literature of North 
Carolina will never be sufficiently appre- 
ciated ; but the opportunities of instruction 
in his school were very limited. There was 
no library attached to it ; his students were 
supplied with a few of the Greek and Latin 
classics, Euclid's Elements of Mathematics 
and Martin's Natural Philosophy. Moral 
Philosophy was taught from a syllabus of 
lectures delivered by Dr. Witherspoon ia 
Princeton College. The students had no 
books on history or miscellaneous literature. 
There were, indeed, very few in the State, 
except in the library of lawyers who lived 
in the commercial towns. I well remember, 
that after completing my course of studies 
under Dr. Caldwell, I spent nearly two years 
without finding any book to read except 
some old works on theological subjects. 
At length I accidentally met with Voltaire's 
history of Charles the Twelfth of Sweden, 
an odd volume of Smollett's Roderick Ran- 
dom, and an abridgement of Don Quixote. 
These books gave me a taste for reading, 
which I had no opportunity of gratifying 
until I became a student in this university 
in the year 1876. Few of Dr. Caldwell's 
students had better opportunities of getting 
books than myself; and with these slender 
opportunities of instruction, it is not sur- 
prising that so few became eminent in the 
liberal professions. At this day, when 
libraries are established in all our towns, 
when every professional man, and every 
respectable gentleman has a collection of 
books, it is difficult to conceive the incon- 
veniences under which young men labored 
thirty or forty years ago.' 

The following extract from the number 
of the North Carolina Journal for the 22d 
of June, 1795, seems to present a brighter 
•picture of the advance of public education, 
but it will be seen that the limited number 
of academies named, atid the great im- 
portance attached to the fact that they were 
able to prepare youths for an entrance into 
college — itself at that time hardly in ad- 
vance of the high schools of the present 
day, denote no very high degree of literary 
attainments, and would hardly in our times 
be esteemed worthy of a newspaper article. 

'We have the pleasure to announce to 
the public that the Academy at Thyatira, 



432 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



erected and conducted by Dr. McCorkle ; 
the Warrenton Academy, under the man- 
agement of the Rev. Mr. George ; and the 
Chatham and Newbern academies, are all 
in a very flourishing state. The high repu- 
tation and great experience of the gentle- 
men who have the direction of these sem- 
inaries will insure their establishment and 
success, and furnish annually a large number 
of students prepared to enter at once at the 
university upon the higher branches. 

From 1789 to 1825, though the 'old- 
field' or English schools were multiplied, 
and a few academies and high schools were 
established, no provision was made for com- 
mon schools. In 1816, Hon. Archibald D. 
Murphey, of the county of Orange, then a 
member of the State Senate, made an able 
and highly interesting report to that body 
on the subject of public instruction, urging 
the establishment of common schools, and 
also of an institution for the deaf and 
dumb. The report concluded with a resolu- 
tion authorizing the speakers of the two 
houses to appoint three persons to digest a 
system of public instruction, and submit the 
same to the next General Assembly. The 
report and resolution were adopted ; and 
subsequently, and it is presumed under this 
resolution, Duncan Cameron and Peter 
Browne, Esqrs., and the Rev. Joseph Cald- 
well, the President of the University, were 
charged with this duty. The committee 
never met, but a report was prepared by 
their chairman, and laid before the Assem- 
bly. In 1818, Mr. Murphey made another 
report, more in detail and more practical. 

' In 1825, the Legislature passed the first 
act on the subject, — 'An Act to create 
a fund for the establishment of common 
schools.' To Bartlett Yancey, of the county 
of Caswell, is due the high distinction of 
having conceived and penned the first act 
for the establishment and promotion of com- 
mon schools. This act set apart for the pur- 
pose certain stocks, the vacant and unap- 
propriated swamp lands, the tax on auc- 
tioneers, retailei-s of ardent spirits, &c.. — 
' the parings of the treasury,' as they were 
called by Mr. Yancey himself. But the 
funds accumulated slowly, and the friends 
of the system went to work by tongue and 
pen to increase the fund, and thus obtain 
means for starting the schools. Foremost 
among these was the Rev. Joseph Caldwell, 
a scholar, a philosopher, a statesman, and a 
christian. He wrote, and caused to be pub- 



lished at his own expense, in 1832, a series 
of ' Letters on Popular Education, addressed 
to the People of North Carolina ;' in which 
he examined the whole subject with great 
care, showed the importance of educating 
all the children of the State, and urged the 
people to instruct their representatives to 
take early and effectual steps in this, their 
highest temporal concern, 

'In 1836, another act was passed, organ- 
izing 'a Board of Literature,' — providing 
for draining the swamp lands, and still 
further increasing the school fund. The 
public mind now began to be generally 
aroused on the subject; and several able 
papers, advocating public instruction, were 
presented to the Legislature in 1838, — one 
by the president and directors of the litera- 
ry fund, and one by Mr. W. W. Cherry, of 
Bertie, being a report of his as chairman of 
the committee on education. In 1837 the 
State received on deposit from the General 
Government, under the deposit act of 1836, 
the sum of $1,433,757.39, which was in- 
vested for the benefit of common schools, 
and increased the permanent fund to about 
$1,732,000, exclusive of swamp lands. 

In 1838, a bill drawn by Mr. W. W. 
Cherry, providing for laying off" the State 
into school districts, and for submitting the 
question of 'school' or 'no school' to the 
people of the respective counties, was passed. 
The act embraced the present plan of re- 
quiring each county to raise one dollar for 
every two dollars distributed by the literary 
board. In 1839 nearly all the counties 
adopted the system; and in 1841 it was put 
into full operation. 

In 1852, C. H. Wiley was appointed 
State Superintendent, and on the breaking 
out of the war of secession, in 1861, had 
inaugurated a system of common schools 
which was adapted to the social and politi- 
cal habits of the people, but perished in the 
disturbances which followed. 

In the constitution of 1868 it is made 
the duty of the legislature ' to establish a 
general and uniform system of public 
schools, free to all the children of the State 
between the ages of 6 and 21. In 1869 a 
system was inaugurated which is yet labor- 
ing with the difficulties of a disorganized 
society — social and industrial, and with de- 
tails of organization foreign to the general 
policy and habits of the people. Out of 
99,114 persons between 6 and 21 years, 
29,303 were estimated to be in 1,398 public 
schools. 



COMMON SCHOOLS AND ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 



433 



Ohio remained a portion of the territory 
northwest of the River Ohio, in which the 
old Cono-ress of the Confederation bejran in 
1787, its beneficent policy of incorporating 
'schools and the means of education' among 
the organic elements of civil society, and 
laid the foundation of numerous States of im- 
perial dimensions and industrial resources, in 
impartial freedom, morality, and knowledge, 
until 1799, when it was organized as a dis- 
tinct territory, and admitted into the United 
States in 1802, with an area of 39,964 
square miles, and a population in 1800 of 
45,365, which had increased in 1870 to 
2,665,260, with a taxable property returned 
to the value of 11,167,731,097. 

In the plan of settlement in 1785, the pub- 
lic lands were surveyed into townships of six 
miles square, containing 36 sections of one 
mile square of 640 acres each, one of which 
was reserved for public schools. The act of 
Congress passed April 30, 1802, 'to enable 
the people of the eastern division of the 
Territory Northwest of the river Ohio, to 
form a constitution and State government, 
and for the admission of such State into the 
union, provides that section numbered 16 in 
every township, and where such section has 
been sold, granted, or disposed of, other 
lands equivalent thereto and most contiguous 
to the same, shall be granted to the inhab- 
itants of such townships, for the use of 
schools.' Other special tracts were granted 
to the State, or reserved from ordinary pur- 
chase, were vested in the legislature in trust 
for schools. The entire land surface of Ohio 
was 25,576,969 acres, the land grants and 
reservations for schools amounted to 710,500, 
exclusive of two townships reserved for a 
university. In spite of these beneficent pro- 
visions, and of the school habits of many of 
the families among the original settlers, the 
institution of public schools in a new country, 
in sparsely populated townships, with scanty 
resources, where roads and dwellings were 
of immediate physical necessity, was slow. 
The constitution of 1802 enjoins that ' re- 
ligion, morality, and knowledge being essen- 
tially necessary to good government and the 
happiness of mankind, schools and the means 
of instruction shall forever be encouraged by 
legislative provision, not inconsistent with 
the right of conscience.' Notwithstanding re- 
peated and urgent recommendations by suc- 
cessive governors in their annual messages, 
the visible benefits of such schools as the 



first settlers from New England established 
by voluntary subscription for their children, 
and the labors of a few men like Ephraim 
Cutter, Caleb Attwater and Nathan Guilford, 
it was not till 1825 that a general school law 
was passed. In this, the principles of taxa- 
tion are recognized, but no efiicieut plan of 
supervision and providing good teachers was 
adopted. In 1831 the teachers and active 
friends of schools organized an association 
called the college of teachers, which began 
in their annual gatherings the work of school 
agitation. In 1835, the legislature required 
school returns from the county auditors, and 
Prof. Calvin E. Stowe, of the Lane Theolog- 
ical Seminary at Cincinnati, who was about 
to visit Europe, was appointed to report on 
the elementary school systems of Prussia and 
other European States, which was made, and 
printed in 1837, and produced a profound 
impression, not only in Ohio, but in other 
States. In 1836, Samuel Lewis, of Cincin- 
nati (a native of Massachusetts) was appoint- 
ed State Superintendent with a salary of 
$500. With experience as a public speaker, 
with much study of the schools of Cincin- 
nati, and a participant in the discussions of 
the College of Teachers, Mr. Lewis made great 
pecuniary and personal sacrifices, and entered 
on the work of official exploration of schools 
and agitation of educational topics among 
the people, in the spring of 1 837. He found, 
' out of Cincinnati there were no public 
schools worthy of the name, practically open 
to rich and poor, and nearly half of the or- 
ganized school districts were without school- 
houses, and that not one-third of the whole 
number would be appraised at |50 each.' 
Mr. Lewis's report on the deficiencies of 
public schools in Ohio, and Prof. Stowe's 
glowing picture of elementary instruction in 
Prussia, carried triumphantly through the 
legislature, in spite of bitter opposition, an 
act, which made the ofiice of superintendent 
permanent, created a State School Fund, 
imposed a county tax of two mills for the 
support of schools, and authorized district 
taxation for school-houses, required reports 
from' school teachers, and town and county 
officers, gave incorporated towns and cities 
a board of education, with power to estab- 
lish a public school of a higher grade, and 
provided county examinations for candidates 
for the office of teacher. This was the begin- 
ning of a state system with some elements 
of vitality and efficiency in its organization. 
Mr Lewis entered on its administration in 



434 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



May, 1838, by issuing the Common School 
Director, and announcing his intention to 
visit every county, and inviting school offi- 
cers, teachers, and friends of education to 
meet liim, and as editor and lecturer, ' with 
his office and head-quarters in the saddle,' he 
did a work for 1838, for practical results, 
second to that of no other laborer in the 
educational field, before or since. In 1839, 
after making a third report, and a special 
report on a State university for teachers, Mr. 
Lewis resigned, with health impaired, Avith- 
out a dollar of compensation for three years 
hard work, his entire salary having been ex- 
hausted in travel and other expenses of his 
office, but with the consciousness that he had 
increased the number of schools reported 
from 4,336 to 7,225, and the value of school- 
houses from $61,890 to $206,445, and had 
laid the foundations of a system, which in 
1872 reported 11,565 school-houses erected 
at a cost of $17,168,196, which accommo- 
dated 694,348 pupils in enrolled attendance, 
who employed 22,061 teachers, and required 
the expenditure for the year of $7,150,856. 

The system has been wrought up to its 
present degree of efficiency mainly through 
the teachers of the State acting through the 
State Teachers' Association. In no other 
State have the teachers engineered their 
own work so successfully as in Ohio ; and 
yet the census of 1870 shows an amount of 
illiteracy in the population over 10 years 
old sufficiently alarming, viz., 92,720 who 
can not read, and 173,172 who can not 
write. 

In January 18, 1843, in Columbus, a phm 
of school improvement was presented by 
Henry Barnard of Connecticut, to the West- 
ern College of Teachers, and to members of 
the Legislature — afterwards at Cincinnati 
and Sandusky — which resulted in the pas- 
sage of an Act to facilitate the consolida- 
tion of school districts, and the organization 
of Union Schools ; the holding of a Teach- 
ers' institute at Sandusky ; the bringing of 
Dr. A. D. Lord from Kirtland to become the 
principal of the High School and Superin- 
tendent of Public Schools of Columbus ; to 
the publication of a school journal at the 
Capital, and a scries of measures which led 
finally to the employment of Lorin P. An- 
drews, as the agent of the Ohio Teachers' 
Association. The first Teachers' Institute 
was held at Sandusky, under the auspices of 
Chief Justice Lane, at the suggestion of 
Mr. Barnard, by Hon. Salem Town. 



The following items, taken from official 
documents for 1872, show the magnitude 
of the educational expenditures of Ohio ; 
State Commissioner, clerks, »kc., $5,169; 
local management and county superintend- 
ents, $129,615 ; school sites, buildings, and 
equipment, $1,428,964 ; teachers' wages — 
primary schools, $3,898,156 ; teachers' 
wages — high schools, $321,406; total 
$4,219,563; contingent expenses, $1,639,- 
214 ; total for common school purposes, 
$7,383,856; institution for deaf and dumb, 
$63,405; institution for blind, $111,816; 
institution for idiots and feeble minded, 
$52,722 ; State home for soldiers' orphans, 
$114,009; reform farm school for boys, 
$45,000 ; industrial school for girls, $26,553. 

OREGON. 

Oregon was organised a Territory in 1848, 
and admitted a State in 1859 with an area 
of 95,274, and a population in 1860 of 52,- 
405, which had increased in 1870 to 90,923, 
with $31,798i«10 of taxable property. 

By the constitution of 1857, the governor 
is made superintendent of public instruction 
for the term of five years, after which the 
legislative assembly may provide by law for 
his successor. The proceeds of all lands 
granted to the State for educational purposes, 
except the university land, all money which 
may accrue to the State by escheat or for- 
feiture, exemptions from military duty, from 
the sale of the 500,000 acres reserved by act 
of 1841, and of the five per centum of net 
proceeds of the sales of the public lands on 
the admission of the State into the Union, 
shall constitute an irreducible fund for the 
support of common schools in each school 
district, and the purchase of suitable libraries 
and apparatus therefor. The school lands 
amount to 4,475,966 acres. 

In the act of 1862, provision is made for 
the election of a school superintendent for 
each county, and for three directors for each 
district. 

According to the census of 1870 there 
were 1 8,096 persons, out of a school popu- 
lation of 29,400 attending school, and 
1,047 persons over 10 years of age who 
could not read, and 2,064 who could not 
write. Tlie same census returns 637 schools 
of all kinds, of which 4 were public high 
with 502 pupils, 590 common schools with 
27,000 pupils, 16 academies with 1,600 
pupils, 2 colleges with 298 pupils, 1 school 
of medicine, 1 agricultural college and 2 
commercial schools. 



COMMON SCHOOLS AND ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION-. 



435 



PENNSYLVANIA. 

Pennsylvania was first settled in 1638, 
and by the first national census of 1790, on 
an area of 40,000 square miles, had a popu- 
lation of 434,373, which in 1870 had in- 
creased to 3,521,790, with taxable property 
to tlie value of 11,243,367,852. 

The first constitution adopted in 1776 had 
no provision respectincr schools, and that of 
1798 enjoined ' the legislature as soon as con- 
veniently may be, to provide by law for tiie 
establishment of schools throughout the 
State, in such manner that the poor shall be 
taught gratis." In 1838, an attempt in the 
convention which framed the constitution of 
that year, to amend this provision so ' as to 
provide by law for the establishment of com- 
mon schools throughout the State, in such a 
manner that all persons resiiling therein may 
enjoy the benefits of education,' failed, leav- 
ing the provision as in 1798. 

The first general school law was passed in 
1819, expressly 'to provide for the poor 
gratis,' in which with minute definition of 
such as are entitled to the benefit of this 
act, viz., ' of children between the ages of five 
and twelve years, whose parents are unable 
to pay for their schooling, and excluding all 
children whose education is otherwise pro- 
vided.' A list of these children, made out 
by the assessors of each township, corrected 
by the commissioners of the county, is sent to 
teachers of schools within the township, with 
instructions to enter against the names of 
such children on this list as apply for tuition, 
the number of days they may attend or be 
taught, and send in their bill for the same to 
the county commissioner. 

The first act, under which any demonstra- 
tion of what public schools could become, 
was special for the city and county of Phil- 
adelphia, by which a broad and beneficent 
system of public instruction has been devel- 
oped, was adopted in 1818. By this act, in 
1871, 41 i schools (viz., 1 Boy's Central 
High School or College, 1 High and Normal 
School for Girls, 58 Grammar schools, 142 
Intermediate schools, 186 primary schools 
and 26 night schools), with 87,428 scholars, 
1,668 teachers (79 male and 1,589 female 
teachers, supported at a cost of $1,370,705. 
The valuation of school property in 1872 
exceeded $3,000,000. 

The first provision for general education 
for the State was made in 1831, which the 
supplementary acts of 1834, 1835, 1836 and 
1837 has developed into an efficient system 



of public schools, for which much is du6 to 
the wise organization and administration, 
and the judicious publications of Thomas II. 
Burrowes of Lancaster, wdio became the first 
Superintendent of Public Schools as Secre- 
tary of State in 1834. This office was made 
independent in 1857. County Superintend- 
ence were first organized in 1854, and the 
first State Normal School in 1857. The 
State Teachers' Association was organized 
in 1852 ; the first School Journal was pub- 
lished in 1836, and the Pennsylvania School 
Journal in 1852 ; the first Teachers' Insti- 
tute was held in 1849, and the attendance 
has increased from 3,704 teachers in 1866 
to 11,890 in 1871. 

The following items from the Report 
of the Suj)erintendent (J. P. Wickersham) 
for 1872, illustrate the magnitude of the 
operations of the system of common schools: 
The total expenditure was $8,345,072. This 
sum supported 15,999 schools in 2,029 
cities and towns; paid 18,368 teachers, for 
834,313 pupils, in buildings which with 
their grounds and equipments have an esti- 
mated value of $18,689,624 ; and employed 
in the district management and county su- 
perintendence, 13,541 persons. 

To the above expenditures for common 
schools in cities, villages and rural districts 
should be added |475,245 paid to thirty- 
seven institutions (existing asylums mainly 
under religious denominations) for the sup- 
port and instruction of 3,527 soldiers' or- 
phans, which has already cost the State 
|i3,467,543; $54,000 for the instruction of 
the mute, $70,000 for the instruction of the 
blind ; $28,000 for training feeble minded 
childnui; $10,000 for friendless children; 
$71,900 for juvenile off"enders ; $11,500 for 
Lincoln University ; $25,00 to the Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania. 

The following outline of the system of 
common schools in operation in 1871 is 
taken mainly from the Report of the Super- 
intendent for that year : 

{\,) Di-^tr ids and District Offi'^'ers. — Each townsbip, 
borouu;!), and city is mado by law a school district. 
Tlie districts thus formed are the only ones except a 
small number of what are called ' independent dis- 
tricts,' witli a single school, formed out of parts of 
adjacent counties, otherwise badly accommodated 
with schools. Outside of cities and boroughs, the 
school districts have from one to thirty schools, the 
average number being about seven. The power of 
levying and collecting taxes, building and furnish- 
ing school-houses, emploj'-ing and paying teachers, 
selecting text-books, and managing the schools gen- 
erally, is vested in a board of six directors, two of 
whom are elected annually at the regular local elec- 



436 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



tions. The courts have power to remove directors 
for the non-performance of duty, and the State 
Superintendent can refuse to pay a district its quota 
of the annual Slate appropriation, if its directors do 
not keep the scliools ' open according to law.' 

(2,) Superintendents for Towns, Cities, and Coun- 
ties. — The directors of a district are authorized by 
law to appoint and pay a District Superintendent, 
and to require the Teachers in their employ to hold 
a District Institute. Each board is compelled to 
make an annual report to the State Superintendent 
through the agency of the proper County Superin- 
tendent, who must approve it, accompanied by a 
sworn statement to the efifect that the schools of the 
district have been kept open and in operation ac- 
cording to law, and speciticaUy declaring that no 
teacher has been employed during the year who did 
not hold a valid certiticate, and that the accounts of 
the district have been legally settled. Failing to 
make such a statement works a forfeiture of the 
State appropriation. 

The school directors of each county, and of each 
city and borough having over 7,000 inhabitants, as 
may choose to do so, meet in convention trienuially, 
at the call of the State Superintendent, to elect a 
superintendent and tix his salary. The directors 
lix the salary of the office absolutely, but they are 
limited in their choice of a person to fill it, to per- 
sons having certain scholastic and professional 
qualifications, of the sufficiency of which the State 
Superintendent is to judge before ho issues the com- 
mission. The State Superintendent pays the sal- 
aries of the County Superintendents and fills all 
vacancies in the office by appointment. 

The duties of the superintendents of counties, 
cities, and boroughs are to examine and certificate 
teachers, visit schools, give instruction to the teach- 
ers, hold institutes, and supervise generally the 
school interests intrusted to their care. They make 
monthly and annual reports to the School Depart- 
ment. 

(3,) Teachers and their Certificates. — No person 
can be employed to teach in a common school who 
does not hold a legal certificate in one of the forms 
which are granted as follows: 

A provisional certificate, which is a mere license 
to begin to teach. It is good only in the county 
where i.ssued, and for a single year. A scale of 
figures from one to five is used in filling up this cer- 
tificate, to denote degrees of proficiency in the sev- 
eral branches. 

A professional certificate, which is a license to 
teach in the county where issued for the term of 
the Superintendent granting it, and for one year 
thereafter. It is granted to any good teacher who 
can pass an examination in orthography, reading, 
writing, arithmetic, geography, grammar, history of 
the United States, and the theory of teaching. 

A permanent certificate, which is granted by this 
department to teachers holding professional certifi- 
cates, whose application therefor is indorsed by the 
proper superintendent, the proper board or boards 
Qf directors, and by a county committee of teachers 
elected by ballot for this purpose at the Teachers' 
Institute. This certificate is good permanently in 
the county where issued, and for one year in any 
other countj\ 

A State certificate, which is issued to teachers 
who pass an examination, in a prescribed course, 
before the Board of Examiners of the State Normal 



Schools. This certificate is permanently good in 
any part of the State. 

(4,) State Normal Schools. — The State is divided 
into twelve Normal School districts. To nine of 
these the State has appropriated $15,000 each 
towards the erection of buildings for Normal School 
purposes. The balance of the money required for 
their erection either has been or must be raised by 
local contributions. The buildings when erected do 
not belong to the State, but to the stockholders or 
contributors, who, however, cannot dispose of them 
or use them for an}' other purpose, without the con- 
sent of the State authorities. The State has appro- 
priated considerable money to the several schools 
for the purchase of apparatus. No school can be 
recognized as a State Normal School until it has 
been found by the State authorities to conform to 
the requirements of law, and, when recognized, its 
ciiarges, course of study, and disciplinary regula- 
tions must be approved by the State Superintend- 
ent. The State furnishes diplomas for all graduates 
of Normal Schools, and the State Superintendent is 
chairman of the board that conducts the examina- 
tion of the graduating classes. The State pays 
each student, who is attending a Normal School for 
the purpose of becoming a teacher, fifty cents a 
week towards his expenses, and gives him a gra- 
tuity of fifty dollars at graduation. All appropria- 
tions to State Normal Schools are paid by the State 
Superintendent. A diploma of the first degree, 
given at a State Normal School, exempts the holder 
from examination in any part of the State for a 
term of two years after graduation; but at the ex- 
piration of that time he must either submit to an 
examination, or present to the Board of Examiners 
of the Normal Sciiool where he graduated, an ap- 
plication for a diploma of the second degree, in- 
dorsed by the board or boards of directors for whom 
he has taught, and by the proper superintendent. 
This, if granted, makes him a teacher for life. 

(5,) State School Department. — This department 
consists of the State Superintendent, who is ap- 
pointed by the Governor, with the consent of the 
Senate, and holds his office for three years, and ap- 
points his subordinate officers, which consisted in 
1871 of a deputy superintendent, two inspectors of 
Soldiers' Orphan Schools, four clerks, and a mes- 
senger. The work of the School Department, with 
respect to the several educational agencies of the 
State, is briefly as follows : 

With respect to Teachers : — It prepares and fur- 
nishes certificates for all the eighteen thousand 
teachers, and grants directly certificates to such of 
them as have reached the higher grades of the pre- 
fession. 

With respect to <S(7ioo?i)/?'ectors and Comptrollers: 
— It gives advice and instruction concerning their 
duties to the thirteen thousand school directors and 
comptrollers, furnishes them blanks, receives and 
tabulates their reports, reviews their accounts, 
judges whether they have kept their schools open 
according to law, and if so, pays them the State ap- 
propriation for their respective districts. 

With respect to County Superintendents: — It calls 
conventions for the election of County Superintend- 
ents in the several counties, receives the returns 
and judges of their legality, commissions the per- 
sons elected, removes the disqualified, pays their 
salaries, provides blanks for recording and tabu- 
lating their work, and receives and publishes their 
reports. 



COMMON SCHOOLS AND ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 



437 



With respect to City and Borough Superintend- 
ents : — It holds about the same relation to the City 
and Borough Superintendents as it does to County 
Superintendents, except in the matter of the direct 
payment of salaries. 

With respect to Teachers^ Instiiufes: — It furnishes 
the Teachers' Institutes — one being held in each 
county — with blanks for reports; receives, tabu- 
lates, and publishes their reports, and renders all 
the assistance possible in their management. 

With respect to State Normal Schools : — It inves- 
tigates the claims of Normal Schools to State recog- 
nition, executes all legal forms necessary to their 
becoming State institutions, examines and approves 
their courses of study, their governmental regula- 
tions and their charges to students, visits them, ap- 
points the times of examining their graduating 
classes, and assists at the examinations; furnishes 
diplomas for their graduates, receives and publishes 
their reports, and pays them their State appropria- 
tions.- 

With respect to the Soldieis'' Orphan Schook : — 
It has almo.st complete control of the forty different 
institutions in which soldiers' orphans (3,600) are 
maintained and instructed; the accommodations, 
the persons employed, the food, clothing, instruction, 
and discipline of the children being subject to the 
direction of the State Superintendent. 

With respect to Colkge-s and Academies : — It re- 
ceives, tabulates, and publishes all reports made by 
colleges and academies, as required by law. 

Besides all this, the department makes an annual 
report to the legislature, containing full information 
concerning the condition of the system of public in- 
struction in the State, and proposing plans for its 
improvement ; to give advice appertaining to their 
school interests to every citizen who asks it, and to 
decide all questions relating to those interests, with- 
out expense to the parties presenting them. 

To carry out, with the necessary system, the 
multiplied details of this immense work, the depart- 
ment prepares and issues, to the different school 
agencies and officers throughout the State, some 
thirty-five kinds of blank-books and forms, and is 
compelled to use twenty-five kinds of blank-books 
in which to keep its own records. Its correspond- 
ence reaches full fifteen thousand letters per annum. 

With all the expenditures by the State 
and municipalities, and with all the activity 
and coojieration of school officers and the 
people, the statistics of adult illiteracy and 
non-attendancce of children of school age 
are truly formidable and alarming. The na- 
tional census of 1870, returns 131,728 per- 
sons, ten years and over, who can not read, 
and 22-2,536 who can not write, and of the 
latter, 126,803 are natives. The Superin- 
tendent in his report for 1872 remarks : ' It 
is to be feared that the number of illiterates, 
both of youth (31,512 between the ages of 
10 and 21 years) and those of mature age 
(190,829), is much below the actual number. 
The number reported should be doubled, 
and more than doubled, who are growing 
ap in ignorance. 



RHODE ISLAND. 

Rhode Island was first settled in 1631, 
and in 1790 had a population of 69,122, 
which in 1870 had increased to 217,353, 
with an area of 1,306 square miles, and a 
valuation of $213,570,350 taxable property. 

Under the settled policy of its founders 
during the colonial period of its history, the 
people tolerated no legislative interference 
with religious belief or practice, or with the 
education of children, which, like religion, 
was considered strictly a parental and individ- 
ual duty. In some towns, donations in lands 
were made by individuals for the support of 
Free Schools — the endowed grammar schools 
of England. Soon after the adoption of 
the federal constitution, the subject of public 
schools was agitated in the pulpits; and in 
1798 a committee of the Providence Asso- 
ciation of Mechanics and Manufacturers ap- 
pointed a committee 'to inquire into the 
most desirable method for the establishment 
of free schools.' On the recommendation of 
this committee, a memorial and petition 
drawn up by John Ilowland, of Providence, 
was presented to the General Assembly, and 
in 1800 'an Act to establish Free Schools' 
was passed, but which met with violent op- 
position, and was repealed in 1803, before 
any town but Providence had acted on its 
provisions. That town was excepted in the 
repeal. In 1825 the town of Newport was 
authorized to raise money by tax for the 
support of a free school, and to apply to it 
the avails of certain lands which had been 
bequeathed to the town for this purpose. 

In 1828, after many years of agitation 'an 
act to establish public schools ' was passed, 
by which ' all money paid into the general 
treasury by managers of lotteries or their 
agents, by auctioneers for duties accruing to 
the State, &c.,' was set apart for the ex- 
clusive purpose of keeping public schools. 
Each town was empowered to raise money 
by tax not exceeding in any one year twice 
the amount received from the State (which 
was by law not to exceed $10,000 in any 
one year), provided special notice was in- 
serted in the warrant for the town meeting 
that such a tax would be acted on,' and such 
towns could appoint a school committee to 
manage the schools set up under this act. 
The town of Providence was authorized by 
special law to assess and collect any ainount 
of tax for free schools, and in 1836 took 
the necessary steps to put the public schools 
on a basis of organization, and with an 



438 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION'S. 



outfit of Rcliool-hoiiscs, and material appli- 
ances, and with a superintendent (Nathan 
Bishop, the first city superintendent of 
public schools in the United States), and a 
corps of well qualiiied teachers for each 
grade of scliool from the primary to the 
high (for both sexes), which in five years 
placed its system of public instruction in 
advance of all other cities in the country. 

Under this act (of 1828), supplemented 
by special acts iVom year to year to enable 
a few districts to build school-houses by 
tax, and a revision of the law in 1839, by 
which the annual State appropriation was 
increased to $25,000, and the power of the 
towns to raise money by tax was extend- 
ed to double the sum received from the 
State, and by six acts 'in addition to and 
amendments thereof down to 1843, feeble 
and altogether uns;xtisf\ictory beginnings 
w^ere made to establish public schools. In 
1843, Wilkins Updike, a member of the 
House from South Kingston, introduced a 
bill for a public act (drawn up by Henry 
Barnard of Conticcticut), ' for ascertaining 
the condition of the public schools in this 
State, and for the improvement and better 
management thereof.' The bill simply pro- 
viiled for the appointment of an agent ' to 
visit and examine the public schools, the 
qualifications of teachers, and their mode 
of instruction, and the actual condition and 
efficiency of the schools and popular educa- 
tion generally, and make report to the legis- 
lature, with such plan as his observations 
and experience may suggest.' The bill was 
explained by Mr. Updike, and in the even- 
ing before a convention of the two houses, 
by Mr. Barnard, who had then just returned 
from a tour of observation and pioneer 
work into every State in the Union, and on 
the following morning it became a law with- 
out a dissenting voice ; and before Mr. 
Barnard could leave the town the governor 
had issued a commission appointing him to 
the ofiice created by the act. The position 
was at once respectfully and firmly declined; 
but on the urgent solicitation of Mr. Up- 
dike, Hon. E. R. Potter, Dr. Wayland, Mr. 
Kingsbury, and public men of both politi 
cal parties, (and the State was widely and 
bitterly divided by the 'Dorr War' and the 
two constitutions), Mr. Barnard reconsidered 
his decision, and on the 5th of December 
entered on his work of school inspection 
and educational conference and agitation in 
Rhode Island. A citizen of another State, 



in a State proverbially jealous of any inter- 
ference from abroad in her domestic institu- 
tions, and constitutionally opposed to all 
State interference in matters which belong 
to the towns, and going among men and 
into families boastful of their individual 
liberty to do as they pleased in matters of 
religion and education, and suspicious of 
all ' college learnt men,' the agent needed 
all the cooperation solicited by Governor 
Fenner in aimouncing his appointment to 
the people of Rhode Island. 

In pursuance of an act ' to provide for ascertain- 
ing the condition of the pubhc scliools of tliis State, 
and for the improvement and better management 
tliereof,' I have secured tlie services of Henry 
Barnard, who has had several years experience in 
the discharge of similar duties in a neighboring 
State, and has observed the worliing of various 
systems of public instruction in this country and in 
Europe. Mr. Barnard will enter immediately on 
the duties of his office. His great object will be to 
collect and disseminate in every practicable way 
information respecting existing defects and desira- 
ble improvements in the organization and adminis- 
tration of our school system, and to awaken, en- 
lighten, and elevate public sentiment, in relation to 
the whole subject of popular education. "With this 
view, he will visit all parts of the State, and ascer- 
tain, by personal inspection, and inquiries of 
teachers, school committees, and others, the actual 
condition of the schools, with their various and 
deeply interesting statistical details. He will meet, 
in every town, if practicable, such persons as are 
disposed to assemble together, for the purpose of 
stating facts, views, and opinions, on the condition 
and improvement of the schools, and the more com- 
plete and thorough education of the people. He 
will invite oral and written communications from 
teachers, school committees, and all others inter- 
ested in the subject, respecting their plans and sug- 
gestions for advancing the intellectual and moral 
improvement of the rising, and all future genera- 
tions, in the State. The results of his labors and 
inquiries, will be communicated in a report to the 
General Assemblj'. In the prosecution of labors 
so delicate, difBcult, and extensive, Mr. Barnard 
will need the sympathy and cooperation of every 
citizen of the State. Witli the most cordial ap- 
proval of the object of the legislature, and entire 
confidence in the ability, experience, and zeal of 
the gentleman whom I have selected to carry it 
out, I commend botii to the encouragement and aid 
of all who love the State, and would promote her 
true and durable good, however discordant their 
opinions may be on other subjects. 

The plan of operations was to acertain by 
personal inspection and official reports the 
actual condition of the schools, and arouse 
and enlist the people in the thorough 
and entire change not only of opinion, but 
of habits in regard to schools and educa- 
tion. 

To eflFect this change, in the course of three 



COMMON SCHOOLS AND ELKMENTAUY INSTRUCTION. 



439 



years, eleven hundred school meetings were 
held in the thirty-three different towns — 
one at least, in every large neighborhood. 
One hundred and fifty of these meetings 
wore continued through the day and evening; 
one hundred through two evenings and a 
day; fifty through two days and three 
evenings ; and twelve as teachers' meetings 
through the week. 

In addition to these meetings and ad- 
dresses, having reference mainly to legal 
organization and administration, upward of 
two hundred meetings of teachers and pa- 
rents were held for lectures and discussion 
on the best methods of teaching the studies 
ordinarily pursued in common schools, and 
for public exliibitions and examinations of 
schools or of classes of pupils in certain 
branches or studies, such as arithmetic, read- 
ing, etc. Besides these formal meetings, 
experienced teachers were employed to visit 
particular towns and sections of tlie State 
which were known to be particularly indif- 
ferent or opposed to public schools, and con- 
verse freely with parents by the way-side 
and by the fireside on the condition and 
importance of these schools. By means of 
these agencies a public meeting was held 
within three miles of every home in Rhode 
Island, and it was believed that three or 
more members of every family in the State 
was directly reached and favorably impressed 
in regard to the educational movement in- 
augurated in 1843. 

To confirm the work begun by the living 
voice, the printed page was freely resorted 
to. Besides hundreds of volumes of elab- 
orate treatises, 100,000 pamphlets and tracts, 
containing at least sixteen pages of educa- 
tional matter each, were distributed gratu- 
itously throughout the State; and in one year 
not an almanac was sold in Rhode Island 
without at least sixteen pages of educational 
reading attached, including numerous wood 
cuts devoted to schools as they were, and as 
as they should be. Upward of 1,200 vol- 
umes on schools and school systems and 
the theory and practice of teaching were 
purchased by teachers, or added to public 
and private libraries; and at least thirty 
volumes of educational literature were placed 
within the reach of the school committees of 
each town, and made accessible to teachers. 

With this preparation of the public mind, 
a bill for the modification of the school sys- 
tem was introduced into the Legislature, 
and its various provisfons explained by the 



agent to the members. After undergoing 
various changes in that body, the bill was 
printed with remarks explanatory of the 
general scope as well as of the minute de- 
tails, and distributed broadcast over the 
State ; and not until the subject had been 
repeatedly discussed before the legislature 
and the people, was any attempt made to 
press final action, so that when it did be- 
come a law in 1855, it was thoroughly un- 
derstood and went at once into operation 
without friction or serious opposition, and 
no attempt was made to weaken its most 
efficient provisions. To facilitate its intro- 
duction, forms of proceeding from the first 
organization of the school district to laying 
and collecting taxes, specimen of school 
registers, district and town school returns, 
regulations as to classification, studies, 
books, examination of teachers and schools, 
were attached and distributed to every 
school officer. 

To facilitate the construction of spacious, 
attractive and convenient school -houses, the 
importance of these structures and equip- 
ment, their seating, ventilation and heating, 
was fully explained to parents and school 
officers, plans were widely distributed, and 
every cooperation desired by builders or 
committees was given by the State Commis- 
sioner, so that within five years, a complete 
revolution passed over this department of 
the field, and no State in the Union was so 
well furnished with commodious and health- 
ful structures for school purposes. 

To keep teachers up to their work, insti- 
tutes, conventions, associations (State, coun- 
ty and town) were resorted to, a monthly 
educational journal was published, and trea- 
tises on methods and discipline were brought 
within their reach for purchase or perusal. 
When the agent closed his woi'k in 1849, in 
place of unregulated, antagonistic, insuffi- 
cient in number, and poorly equipped pri- 
vate schools, a system of public instruction 
was in quiet operation in every town, reach- 
ing every neighborhood, taught by teachers 
of ascertained qualifications, supported by 
tax, and visited by intelligent and interested 
school officers. 

One of the most effective agencies in this 
reformatory movement, in enlisting teachers, 
parents and school offiers in a system of 
common efforts was the Rhode Island Insti- 
tute of Instruction, established in 1844, and 
which in 1873 held its twenty-ninth anni- 
versary in a series of meetings, in the larg- 



440 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



est public hall in Providence, with a crowded 
attendance of teachers and school officers, 
from all sections of the State. 

Evening schools, which proved an assen- 
tial feature of the plan of supplementary 
instruction in 1845, was taken up system- 
atically in 1867 by Mr. Samuel Austin, 
through whose activity the Rhode Island 
Educational Union was instituted, and whose 
untiring agent he has been since, as well as 
a worker in this field all his life. In twenty 
towns in 1872, sixty evening schools have 
been maintained, with an average of one 
hundred pupils. The legislature in 1871 
made a special appropriation in aid of these 
efforts, and several towns, as well as many 
mill proprietors and corporations now re- 
gard these schools, with their reading-rooms, 
lectures, and other facilities of instruction, as 
essential to the moral and intellectual well- 
being of manufacturing communities. 

The school authorities are: (1,) Board of 
Education, which is not merely advisory, but 
has the immediate charge of the State Nor- 
mal School, and the expenditure of such 
sums as the Legislature may appropriate 
(-.S,000 in 1871) for evening schools; (2,) 
State Commissioner of Common Schools, 
with the usual duties ; (3,) Town School 
Committee — elected for three years with the 
appointment of a superintendent for each 
town and city — membership to this com- 
mittee is open to men and women; (4,) 
district officers, wdio employ teachers. 

The support of common schools is de- 
rived from : (1,) Tlie State treasury — 190,- 
000 in 1872, derived from income of State 
School Fund ($250,000) and general tax ; 
(2,) Town treasury — $309,578 town tax, 
and $24,490 registry tax; (3,) District 
treasuries — $59,722 di'^trict taxation. 

The number of towns and cities (36) are 
divided into 423 districts, in which were kept 
682 summer schools, attended by 26,912 
pupils, and 719 winter schools attended by 
28,702 pupils— 612 female and 93 male 
teachers in the summer, and 579 female and 
177 male teachers in the winter. The aver- 
age attendance in public and private schools 
(8,000) was 38,000 out of 42,000 between 
the age of five and fifteen years. 

The national census of 1870 returns 15,- 
416 persons, ten years and over, who can 
not read, and 21,821 who can not write. 
The State board recommend an act to en- 
force attendance upon some school, public 
or private, of all children of school age. 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 

Soutli Carolina, when first settled in 1670, 
was organized ' as the County of Carteret in 
Carolina,' and was constituted a separate 
royal goverament in 1727. The first State 
constitution was framed in 1776, and the 
population in 1790, on an area of 34,800 
square miles, was 249,073 (107,094 slaves), 
which had increased in 1870 to 705,606 
(415,814 colored), with taxable property to 
the value of $183,913,337. 

The earliest efforts to establish schools in 
the State was at Charleston in 1710, and was 
confined to the English model of a free 
school, an endowed school, ' with a teacher 
to teach the Latin and Greek languages.' 
Similar 'free schools' were instituted in 
other parishes, ' for instruction in grammar 
and other sciences,' and provision was made 
in several instances ' for an usher to teach 
writing, arithmetic, accounts, surveying, 
navigation and practical mathematics.' The 
constitution of 1779, and the revision of 
1785, 1798 and 1839 are silent in respect to 
schools and education. The policy of the 
State was to leave elementary education to 
parents, and of the poor in particular, to 
private and parochial efforts, and to associa- 
tions, such as the Hibernian, the German, and 
other national societies. In 1811 the State 
instituted a fund, the income of which was 
to secure to every citizen the benefits of edu- 
cation, but in the act itself was the secret of 
its own failure, a provision that ' if the fund 
should prove inadequate for all applicants, 
preference should be given to the poor.' The 
fund originally provided was small, and was 
entirely absorbed by the preferred class. 
The rich were excluded, and the schools, so 
far as they Avere independent institutions, de- 
generated into pauper schools. No one who 
could help it, would accept an education 
which could only be granted as a charity, or 
a declaration of pauperism. The same ex- 
periment had been tried in Pennsylvania and 
in the city of New York, as well as in Vir- 
ginia. The evil was not remedied by increas- 
ing the appropriation, the confession of 
pauperism was still required. In 1843, and 
again in 1846, and subsequently by corre- 
spondence in this and all the adjoining States, 
Mr. Barnard of Connecticut, at the request 
of Gov. Allston, Mr. McCarter and otiiers, 
' set forth the practical working of public 
schools, resting on the basis of all other 
public institutions, avowedly open to all 
classes and actually resorted to by the chil- 



COMMON SCHOOLS AND ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 



441 



dren of tlie rich and poor, and having all 
the conditions of a good school in school- 
houses, classification as to studies, teachers 
of tested qualifications, and intelligent and 
constant inspection. With these conditions, 
the success of public schools in Nashville 
and New Orleans, demonstrated that these 
institutions could succeed in Charleston and 
all other large cities and villages at the 
South, as well as in New England ; and with- 
out these conditions, they never had or 
would succeed any where, no matter by what 
name they were called — common, free, or 
elementary. The public school in this 
country and in this age of the world, must 
liave those elements which make a good 
school, or parents who know what a good 
education is, and desire it for their children, 
will have nothing to do with it. If it is the 
best school of its grade, the majority of 
parents will send, while there will always 
be families in every community who will 
prefer, from conditions of health, or apti- 
tudes, or other causes, to send their children 
to private schools.' 

In 1854 the initiatory steps were taken — 
and on the 4th of July, 1856, under the lead 
of the Hon. C. C. Memminger and Jefferson 
Bennett, a common school was opened in 
Charleston, which revolutionized public senti- 
ment in that city, and was fast doing it for 
the whole State, when the mad passions of 
men consummated another revolution, which 
for the time shut up schools of every kind 
and grade. But before 1861, two public 
schools existed in Charleston, one embracing 
the usual classes and grades below a high 
school, and the other a high school for girls, 
and a normal school for female teachers for 
the whole State, were in operation under 
teachers who had held similar positions in 
Hartford and Boston, which would compare 
favorably in all the requisites of good schools 
— structures and equipment, regularity of 
attendance, classification by attainments, 
range of studies, teachers — male and female, 
of high personal character, intelligent and 
constant inspection, and the atmosphere of 
public appreciation. A demonstration more 
complete of Mr. Barnard's doctrine could 
not be made, and every credit belongs 
especially to Mr. Memminger for his constant, 
judicious and personal labors in inaugu- 
rating and consummating the work. 

In the constitution of 1868, provision is 
made for the appointment of a State Super- 
intendent, as had been recommended by 



Gov. Manning in 1853, and for the estab- 
lishment of ' a liberal and uniform system of 
free public schools throughout the State, one 
of which shall be kept open at least six 
months in each year in each school district.' 
The general assembly must also 'provide for 
the compulsory attendance, at either public 
or private schools, of all children between 
the ages of six and sixteen years not phy- 
sically disabled, for a term equivalent to 
twenty-five weeks ; ' a saving clause is added 
'that no law to the eftect shall be passed 
until a system of public schools has been 
thoroughly and completely organized, and 
facilities afforded to all the inhabitants of the 
State for a free education of their children.' 
When to this provision we add another 
clause, that ' the state normal school, the agri- 
cultural college, and all public schools, col- 
leges and universities supported in whole or 
in part by the public funds, shall be free and 
open to all the children and youth of the 
State, without regard to race or color,' it is 
pretty certain that the law of compulsory 
attendance is not likely to be passed in this 
generation, and if passed will remain in- 
operative on the statute book. 

In 1868 the educational department of 
the State was organized and a Superintendent 
appointed, but up to 1871, this officer could 
report only meagre statistical returns. In 
1870, a general system was organized and 
appropriations and taxation madefor its sup- 
port — 137,500 for the university at Columbia, 
|l 0,000 for the blind and deaf mutes, $15,- 
000 for the State orphan asylum, $150,000 
for free common schools, besides $50,000 
from the capitation tax. These are large 
amounts, and under fjxvorable conditions as 
to public opinion, and a concentration of 
population in villages, great immediate re- 
sults might be anticipated. The law pro- 
vides for the usual county and district of- 
ficers, and it remains to be seen if the slow 
process of school habits can be fostered by 
their judicious action, and if time will soften 
the asperities engendered by civil strife and 
social revolution. 

In 1840, the national census returned 20,- 
615 white persons over 20 years of age who 
could not read and write; and in 1870, ac- 
cording to the same authority, there were 
265,892 persons over 10 years of age who 
could not read, and 280,370 could not write, 
and out of a school population of 233,915 
between the ages of 5 and 18, there was a 
school attendance of only 38,249. 



442 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



TENNESSEE. 

Tennessee was originally settled in 1765 
from North Carolina, of which it remained 
an integral portion till 1796, when it was 
ceded to the United States and admitted into 
the Union with an area of 45,600 square 
miles, and a population in 1790 of 35,798, 
which had increased in 1870 to 1,268,520 
(322,338 colored), and taxable property to 
the value of 8254,673,792. 

The laws and constitution (1776) of North 
Carolina extended over Tennessee till 1796, 
and after that time the only legislation re- 
specting schools was in 1785, to incorporate 
Davidson Academy at Nashville and Martin 
Academy in Washinoton county, and in 1794, 
Blount College at Knoxville, and Greenville 
College in Green county. 

The constitution of 1796, as amended in 
1835, enjoins on the general assembly 'to 
cherish literature and science,' ' knowledge, 
learning, and virtue being essential to the 
preservation of republican institutions,' and 
to preserve inviolate the funds realized out 
of land and other appropriations for the sup- 
port of common schools. 

Down to 1825, the educational legislation 
of the State was confined to incorporating 
colleges and academies; and by the act of 
1817, 'all academies were considered as 
schools preparatory to the introduction of 
students into the colleges of this state.' 

In 1823, the first provision for public 
schools was made by devoting certain lands 
' to a perpetual and exclusive fund for the 
establishment and promotion of common 
schools in each and every county in the 
state.' In 1827, certain other sources of 
revenue were added, and the whole was de- 
signed to be protected by the constitutional 
provision of 1835, but proved ineffectual 
against the executive and legislative neces- 
sities in the early stages of the war of 
secession, at which time the fund had ac- 
cumulated to the sum of -$1,500,000. 

In 1867, a new system was inauouvated, 
but in the political revulsion which followed, 
its efficient features were stricken out, and 
the State is now trying to see how a 
vigorous administration can be established 
without authority in the law, or will in the 
hearts of the people, while the astounding 
fact in the census of 1870 confronts the 
statesmen of Tennessee that 290,549 per- 
sons over 10 years of age cannot read, and 
364,697 can not write. 

In 1873, the legislature reconsecrated the 
permanent school fund (estimated to be 



$2,112,000) to its original purpose, and ap- 
propriated the income (at six per cent.), and 
the avails of a capitation tax of one dollar, 
and a property tax of one mill on the State 
valuation, to public schools. Provision is 
also made for a State superintendent, county 
superintendent, one for each county, and 
three directors for each district. 

TEXAS. 

Texas was settled in 1792, and admitted 
as a State in 1845, with an area of 237,321 
square miles, and a population in 1850 of 
212,592, which had increased in 1870 to 
808,579 (253,475 colored) and taxable 
property to the value of $149,734,929. 

In the constitution of 1845 it is made the 
duty of the legislature to make suitable pro- 
vision for the support and maintenance of 
public schools, and as early as possible to 
establish a system of free schools through- 
out the State. It creates a school fund out 
of all funds, lands, and other property before 
set apart for the support of schools, includ- 
ing the alternate sections of land reserved 
by the State for railroad purposes, and of 
any other lands which may be derived from 
the United States government, and also em- 
powers the legislature to levy a tax for edu- 
cational purposes from year to year through- 
out the State, and reserves all sums arising 
from taxes collected from ' Africans, or per- 
sons of African descent,' for the exclusive 
maintenance of a system of public schools 
for the children of such Africans among 
whom public schools may be encouraged. 
It further authorizes the appointment of a 
superintendent of public instruction. But 
with all this wise constitutional enactment 
no efiicient law was put on the statute book 
down to 1S62, when the war disorganized 
society still more, and the census of 1870 
showed 189,423 persons over 10 years who 
could not read, and 221,703 who could not 
write. By the constitution of 1869, and 
the school law of April, 1871, school officers 
were created with all the machinery for ad- 
ministration, but the great work of awaken- 
ing parental interest, and creating a public 
opinion has not yet been attempted. 

The first report of the State Superintend- 
ent for 1871 is devoted mainly to an exposi- 
tion of difiiculties in organizing a compul- 
sory system over a vast area, with a sparse 
population, and without the inheritance of 
good school habits. The only encouraging 
feature is the existence of a permanent 
School Fund to the value of $2,267,971, 
yielding $136,096 August 31, 1871. 



COMMON SCHOOLS AND ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 



443 



VERMONT. 

Vermont was settled in 1724 largely from 
the State of Connecticut, and was admitted 
as one of the United States in 1791, with 
an area of 10,212 square miles, and a pop- 
ulation in 1790 of 85,416, which had in- 
creased in 1871 to 330,551, and a valuation 
for taxable purposes of $102,548,528. 

The constitution of 1793 declares that 
* a competent number of schools should be 
maintained in each town for the instruction 
of youths, and that one or more grammar 
schools should be incorporated and sup- 
ported in each county in this State.' Prior 
to this date, schools had been maintained in 
each neighborhood, and by a general law 
passed in 1782, provision was made for tlie 
division of towns into convenient school 
districts, and the appointment of trustees in 
eacli town for the general superintendence 
of the schools, to whom was committed the 
power of raising one-half of the money re- 
quired to build school-houses and support 
the schools by a tax on the grand list, and 
the other half, either on the list or the pupils 
of the schools, as the districts might order. 

In 1825, the State made provision for a 
State School Fund, to be reserved until the 
capital should yield an income sufficient to 
keep a free common school in each district for 
a period of two months, but after the lapse 
of twenty years the accumulations seemed 
so slow and the necessities of the State re- 
quiring a State House, the law was repealed, 
and the capital, amounting at that time to 
$250,000, was borrowed and converted into a 
granite structure ; and the schools were kept 
open quite as long eacli year in the old 
ways, which according to the census of 1840 
had reduced the amount of illiterary rela- 
tively below that of every State but one in 
the Union. In 1837, the share of the 
United States surplus revenue deposited 
with Vermont was distributed among the 
several towns, and the annual interest 
($40,000). to be divided in the same manner 
as a three per cent, assessment on the grand 
list for the support of schools in the same. 

In 1845, a State Superintendent (Gov. 
Eaton) was appointed, and teachers insti- 
tutes were held for the first time under his 
auspices in 1846. Since 1856, State super- 
vision has been exercised by a Board of 
Education, acting through a secretary ; and 
town supervision has been administered by 
a single officer. In 1870, the town superin- 
tendents in each county were required to 



meet the secretary at such place and time 
(in March or April) each year as he ma}' 
designate, to agree on a uniform standard of 
examination for all candidates for positions 
as teachers, make preliminary arrangements 
for the annual session of the institute for the 
county, and confer generally on the interests 
of education. Each town superintendent 
must hold two public examinations of can- 
didates, and the State Superintendent must 
do the same at the county institutes. 

In 1866, State Normal Schools were in- 
stituted, of which there are now three, at 
Randolph, Johnson, and Castleton, to each 
of which $1,000 is appropriated. 

The report of the secretary (Jolin M. 
French) for 1872, is a document of 566 
pages — full and instructive as to the condi- 
tion of the schools, and the difficulties of 
getting the old district system on to the 
higher plane of a true system of graded 
schools. Towns are now (since 1870) 
authorized to abolish the district system, 
and place all the public schools under the 
management of six directors, one-third 
elected each year for a term of three years. 
This board may provide for the instruction 
of all the scholars of the town, in all the 
branches, higher as well as elementary, of a 
thorough education, in a series of schools, 
located for the convenience of families, and 
adapted to the different stages of advance- 
ment of groups of pupils, under teachers 
best qualified for each stage. Towns are 
also authorized to establish central schools 
for the advanced pupils of all the districts. 

The following are among the statistical 
items for 1871-2: Towns and cities, 250; 
organized school districts, 2,160 ; fractional 
districts, 464; families, 67,162; families 
without children of school age, 46,018 ; chil- 
dren between five and twenty, 84,946 ; 
children attending common schools, 70,904 ; 
children attending academies, etc., 4,913; 
common schools, 2,503 ; male teachers, 
671 ; female teachers, 3,544; teachers with- 
out experience, 861 ; teachers teaching in 
same district, 939 ; teachers. State Normal 
graduates, 377 ; teachers who board round, 
1,313; school-houses, 3,399, and estimated 
value of same, $1,265,387 ; wages and board 
of teachers, $397,165; amount distributed 
by State, $116,678 ; amount raised by town 
tax, $69,380 ; amount by district tax, $346,- 
051; total, $526,000. Census of 1870 re- 
turned 15,185 persons over 10 years of age 
could not read, and 17,706 could not write. 



444 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



Virginia was first settlcil in 1607, and 
adopted its first constitution in 17VG, havino; 
in 1790 a population of 748,308 (293,427 
slaves). Its original area of 61,352 square 
miles was reduced by the separation and 
organization of a portion of its territory 
into a new State called West Virginia to 
38,350 square miles, with a population in 
1870 of 1,225,163 (512,841 colored), and 
taxable property to the value of ^365,439,- 
917. The constitution of 1776 contained 
no reference to education, but in a bill for 
the more general dift'usion of knowledge 
prepared by Wythe and Jcfierson in 1779, 
there is the following preamble : 

"Whereas it appeareth that however certain forms 
of government are better calculated tlian others to 
protect individuals in the free exercise of their 
natural riglits, and are at the same time themselves 
better guarded against degeneracy, yet experience 
hath shown, tliat even under tlie best forms those 
intrusted with power have in time, and by slow 
operations, perverted it into tyranny ; and it is be- 
lieved the most etlectual means of preventing this 
would be to illuminate, as flar as practicable, the 
minds of the people at large, and more especially 
thereby of the experience of other ages and 
countries, they may be enabled to know ambition 
under all its shapes, and prompt to exert their 
natural powers to defeat its purposes ; and whereas 
it is generall}' true that the people will be happiest 
whose laws are best, and are best administered, and 
that laws will be wisely formed and honestly ad- 
ministered in proportion as those who form and ad- 
minister them are wise and honest ; whence it be- 
comes expedient for promoting tlie public happiness, 
that those persons whom nature hath endowed with 
genius and virtue should be rendered, by liberal ed- 
ucation, worthy to receive, and able to guard the 
sacred deposit of the rights and liberties of their 
fellow-citizens, and that they should be called to 
the charge without regard to wealth, birth, or other 
accidental condition or circumstance. Eut the in- 
digence of the greater number, disabling them from 
so educating at their own expense those of their 
children whom nature hath fitly formed and disposed 
to become useful instruments of tlie public, it is 
better that such siiould be sought for and educated 
at the common expense of all, than that the happi- 
ness of all should be confided to the weak or wicked. 

The admirable code of which the above 
is the preamble, was not adopted, and the 
first general school law was passed in 1796, 
with the following preamble : 

Whereas it appeareth that the great advantages 
which civilized and polished nations enjoy, beyond 
the savage and barbarous nations of the world, are 
principally derived from the invention and use of 
letters, by means whereof the knowledge and ex- 
perience of past ages are recorded and transmitted, 
so that man, avading himself in succession of the 
accumulated wisdom and discoveries of his prede- 
cessors, is enabled more successfully to pursue and 



improve not only those a-'s which contribute to the 
support, convenience, and ornament of life, but 
those al-o which tend to illumine and ennoble his 
understanding and his nature. 

And whereas, upon a review of the history of 
mankind, it seemeth that however favorable repub- 
lican government, founded on the principles of 
equal libert}^, justice, and order, maj' be to human 
happiness, no real stability or lasting permanency 
thereof can be rationally hoped for if the minds of 
the citizens be not rendered liberal antl humane, and 
be not fully impressed with the importance of those 
principles from whence these blessings proceed ; 
with a view therefore to lay the first foundations of 
a system of education which may tend to produce 
those desirable purposes. 

In 1810 the Literary Fund was instituted, 
and in 1816 the directors were instructed to 
report to the General Assembly a system of 
public education to comprehend a university, 
and such additional colleges, academics, and 
schools as shall diffuse the benefits of edu- 
cation throughout the commonwealth. The 
report einbodied a scheme similar in its 
main features to that of 1779, which passed 
the House but was lost in the Senate. In 
1818 an act was passed which appropriated 
$45,000 of the revenue to the primary edu- 
cation of the poor, and $15,000 a year Lo 
endow and support a university, to be styled 
' The University of Virginia.'' 

On the basis of this law, and a special 
act of 1819, Mr. Jefferson was successful in 
establishing an institution of higher learn- 
ing, which educated, down to 1870, 8,000 
students for Virginia, and exerted a power- 
ful infiuenee on the organization, studies 
and discipline of American colleges gener- 
ally. 

The system of primary education on the 
basis of the Literary Fund in 1811, and the 
act of 1818, did not accomplish even its 
narrow and ill-aimed object, the primary in- 
struction of the poor. Governor Campbell, 
in 1839 proclaimed its failure, and that the 
utter ignorance of the white adults in that 
year was greater than in 1817, as evidenced 
by the register of marriage licenses; and 
this statement was confirmed by the na- 
tional census of 1840, which returned 58,- 
787 persons over twenty years of age, out of 
the free white population, who could not 
read and write. Well might Governor Mc- 
L)uwell say to the Legislature in 1843: 'This 
plan of common education, which reaches 
only 28,000 out of the 51,000 poor chil- 
dren, and gives them only sixty days tuition, 
is a costly and delusive nullity, which ought 
to be abolished, and another and better one 
established iu its place.' Various plans of 



COMMON SCHOOLS AND ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 



445 



modification and substitution was sugnjested 
and discussed, but they were set aside in 
the frenzy of political excitement ; and the 
national census of 1870 returns the illiteracy 
of the poor whites, with the frightful ad- 
dition of the entire colored population, over 
ten years of age, at 390,913, who could not 
read, and 445,893 who could not write — and 
of the latter number, 441,623 were natives. 

The constitution of 1867, ordains the 
outline of a system, which if it can be ac- 
cepted cordially by the people, and admin- 
istered firmly, but kindly, by officers who 
have their confidence, will in one generation 
do more for popular education than has been 
realized since Rev. Mr. Copeland, in 1621, 
first moved for the establishment of a ' Free 
School' in the Colony of Virginia, twenty- 
six years before ' Brother Purmont was en- 
treated to become schoolmaster for the 
teaching and nurturing of children' in Boston. 

Under the constitution of 1867, and the 
school law of 1870, a new system is now 
being administered by W. II. Rufi:'ncr, whose 
second annual report, dated Nov. 1, 1872, is 
an admirable document, in two parts. Part 
I. is devoted to a statistical and expository 
record of the work; Part II. is an exposi- 
tion of the general principles and methods 
of the system and institutions established 
by the earlier and later legislation of Vir- 
ginia. Both documents should have a wide 
circulation and find thoughtful readers, and 
henceforth many 'doers of the word.' The 
results of 1872, compared with those of 
1871, and especially with any year of the 
former system are very encouraging; 3,695 
public schools, with 166,337 pupils, nnder 
3,853 teachers, examined and visited by 91 
city and county superintendents, and main- 
tained at an expense of $993,318, is a hope- 
ful exhibition of two years work nnder such 
difficulties as exist in this as in the other 
Southern States. To this number of public 
schools should be added 856 private schools 
(648 primary, 187 academies, and 21 col- 
leges), with 20,497 pupils. 

In the statistical summary of the Super- 
intendent, and Auditor's Report, appear the 
following items : Capital of Literary Fund, 
$1,596,069; pay of public school teachers 
and treasurers, 1643,066 ; county superin- 
tendents, 145,295 ; central office, $6,490; dis- 
trict expenses, $289,467 ; University of Vir- 
ginia, $15,000 ; Virginia Military Institute, 
$15,000 ; Deaf, Mute, and Blind School, 
$40,000. Aid ($28,900) from the Peabody 
Fund was o^iven to three Normal Schools, <fec. 
27* 



WEST VIRGINIA. 

West Virginia was detached from the ter- 
ritory of ' Old Virginia,' the people refusing 
to be pnt out of the United States by the 
war of secession, and was admitted as a State 
in December, 1862, with an area of 23,000 
square miles and a population in 1860 of 
393,22 4, which had increased to 442,014 in 
1870, with taxable property to tlie amount 
of $140,538,273. 

Tlie Constitution, as amended in 1863, 
creates a school fund out of the State's pro- 
portion of the ' literary fund ' of Virginia and 
other sources, for the support of free schools 
throughout the State and for no other pur- 
pose whatever.' The Legislature is directed 
to ' provide as soon as practicable for the 
establishment of a thorough and efficient 
system of free schools,' for the election of a 
State Superintendent, for township taxation 
for free schools, for the proper care of the 
blind, deaf mutes, and insane, and the organ- 
ization of such institutions of learning as 
the best interests of general education in 
the State may demand. 

The system of free schools established in 
1865, provide for : (1,) A general superin- 
tendent of free schools ; (2,) county superin- 
tendents, elected by the people, for two 
years; (3,) township commissioners, three 
for each township, one elected each year for 
a term of three years; (4,) district trustees, 
appointed by the township board, from the 
residents of the district for which the school 
is provided ; (5,) State Board of the School 
Fund, for the management of any fund set 
apart for the support of free schools. 

In 1871, there were 2,357 public schools, 
with 87,330 pupils enrolled under 2,303 
teachers in 2,113 school-houses, estimated to 
have cost $2,257,744. The total expend- 
iture for the year, for all objects, exceeded 
$565,000. 

Dr. Sears applied $18,000 in aid of nor- 
mal instruction in the State University, State 
Normal School at Fairmount, and the teach- 
ers' department in Marshall College, as well 
as to the establishment of the graded 
schools, and to the Teachers' Institutes. 

Institutes were lield at twenty different 
points with manifest advantage to teachers, 
and to the school interest, of the localities 
where held. 

The support of schools falls mainly on a 
capitation tax of one dollar on each male 
inhabitant, over twenty-one years, and a tax 
of ten cents on every one hundred dollars 
of taxable property. 



446 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



WISCONSIN. 

Wisconsin was detached from the Terri- 
tory of Michigan and organized an inde- 
pendent Territory in 1836, and admitted a 
State in 1848, with a population in 1850, on 
an area of 53,954 square miles, of 305,391, 
which had increased in 1870 to 1,054,670, 
with 8333,447,568 taxable property. 

By the constitution of 1848, the super- 
vision of public instruction is invested in a 
State Siiperinteiident, to be chosen by the 
qualified electors of the State ; the proceeds 
of all lands donated by the United States to 
the State for educational purposes are se- 
cured inviolably (1,) for the maintenance of 
common schools in each school district, and 
the purchase of suitable libraries and appa- 
ratus ; (2,) for the maintenance of academies 
and normal schools, and (3,) for a state 
university ; each town and city is required 
to raise by a tax, annually, for the support of 
free common schools therein, a sum not less 
than one-half the amount received by each 
town or city for school purposes, from the 
income of the school fund. 

The first school law dates from 1849, by 
which all the territory in the organized 
towns is divided into school districts, the 
afRiirs of which are managed by three dis- 
trict officers, subject to the general super- 
vision of the town school superintendent. 

In 1857, twenty-five per cent, of the in- 
come of all swamp and overflowed hinds 
granted to the State were constituted a 
normal school fund, the avails of which was 
first applied to colleges and academies which 
supported normal classes, but in 1865, the 
entire sales constitute a special fund for the 
support of State Normal Schools, of which 
five are now located. The capital of the 
Normal Fund is now about $1,000,000; and 
the Common School Fund, $2,500,000. 

According to the last official report (of 
Samuel Fallowes) for 1872, there were 5,103 
districts (excluding cities), with 423,717 
persons of the school age (4 to 20), and the 
whole number of all ages attending public 
schools, 270,292; private schools, "l 8,020 ; 
academies and colleges, 2,831 ; benevolent 
institutions, 1,200 ; or an aggregate attend- 
ance for 1872, of 292,343. 

The number of schoobhouses returned 
was 4,920, with accommodations for 312,- 
612, valued at $3,295,268. The productive 
capital of the school fund is $2,482,771, 
and the aggregate expenditure for schools, 
$2,174,154. 



From this brief but comprehensive survey 
of the historical development of public in- 
struction, and especially of common schools 
in the different States, it appears that: 

1. The universal education of the people 
is now regarded among the primary objects 
of legislation, and a system of common or 
public schools is now ordained in the consti- 
tution or fundamental law, and organized 
and administered by legally constituted au- 
thorities in every State and Territory. 

2. In every State there is a department 
of public instruction, under either a board 
or a single officer, charged with the super- 
vision of this great interest, and in commu- 
nication with the subordinate officers in the 
remotest and smallest corporation into 
which the territory may be divided. 

3. For the accommodation and support of 
public schools, permanent funds, amounting 
in the aggregate to over $100,000,000 are 
set apart; and all property, real and personal, 
is subject to state and local taxation, and 
was assessed in 1S71 to the amount of over 
$75,000,000 for public school purposes. 

4. To provide local accommodations and 
material facilities for public schools, within 
the last twenty-five years, upwards of $100,- 
000,000 have been invested in school-houses 
and their equipment. 

5. To realize an adequate return from this 
immense expenditure, more than 100 state 
and city normal and training schools have 
been established, and a system of examina- 
tion and instruction instituted, more or less 
efficient, to exclude incompetent teachers; 
and to improve the qualifications of persons- 
actually engaged in the work of instruction, 
more than 500 institutes are now held an- 
nually, in which over 50,000 teachers spend 
from three to five days in professional 
studies and exercises. 

6. Notwithstanding this legislation and 
these expenditures, the non-school attend- 
ance and the adult illiteracy of the country is 
alarming, the national census of 1870 return- 
ing 4,528,084 persons, ten years of age and 
over, who can not read, and 5.658,144 who 
can not write ; and of the last number 
4,880,371 are native born, 

7. The national census of 1870 returns 
125,056 public schools of different grades, 
with 183,198 (109.024 females) te:ichers ; 
6,228,060 pupils (about equally divided as 
to sex) ; and a total expenditure of $64,- 
030,673, of which sum $58,855,507 came 
from taxation. 



COMMON SCHOOLS AND ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 



447 




j2 O O 3 O O O 



o -Jj ^ in ■:i -^ c: --o a — c-. ^ =: a o a ^ z^ -^ <z, =i <:s S\a^^aS?~ ^° 



o'c^'o o o ^"0":^' o .q- ITS o o'l" o c; ^' o o"o o 

1/^ »*, r^ r— 1 ^» n r^J ^rf^ iT^ J^ rr. »r5 in ^^ ^ i/5 CJ (.. r^i c^ in. 



o_= c; o =;_ci^x = lo CI o w,ct ;- - _. _ __^_ . , __ ^, 

— ."^ ^ — ^' — T— T^' Q .rti ift — : .— T.* o c; ^' o o"o o 0^0 o x' cTx' o ci o o o cs ir^ *-; j^' , 

c^ ir:. f.^ CD c^ c:; - L— I - r-. -v_ ?s ff. ?^ 'r- ,^^ i=^ X — iU 1^ *r: ' 



- N-^ »^ » ^^ w w — ' w Jl.' l^ -T -XJ 

'. ~'.", H — . ^ -^ ^. =. ", 'C l-_ C( 



o o o 
' ■ - r o^ 
at n 



X' X !C c» 



S5 — OtCOXwOOwl 



O) — -, 



SoOOOOOT^^l-OOOOO'-iOO^XOOO-.iOOCO 
o O O O O O ^^Ot O "C _J O^O Ci o_.^t^ o_o iC-_OC o^x oo- o o 
^s'o o'o o'o o'"* c» -^o 0*0 (^"o'c* o —."o .-.'o o o'o o c» o o 
oooooooxx<^so'i':r'0^o"'^'^'= = <='0oc^oo 
o^ooxr^c^^c^c*^ ^^"^ ^^ ^ " *": °^ ^^^t^^"' M ic o ;o o o 
ef ri o\ <o t-' M "'o* "' ■-< <x' <^ s» ■— '« rt" 1— 't-' -^ .^ -,' 

€0 



:o 


§^ : 

c o . 


•ct 


Is : 




OJcl . 



Ol O — I 

cc o i-^ 
o c: i^ 

w^ C» -T 



c oooo o o ; 

O O O O M O O ' 

lO CT! -r «; M Tj. c — 



OtOOXOOOOOOOt^O 

■ ^ — o -o o O O i - c o i- 



f2S!t;2S£::2'=°«5o«5oiorto 

"'SS^SSSSi^' = ="=> = c'-oo 

'T lo ■-': c':__ci_ eoot^i-cmoccnco 

C^ C» £( -^ "T ^' <?< «' "' 5<' in 




i^ cs "» -o ^ ^. — 

O ^ "-^-t X X) <f5 

" n t~^a5 c: CO r>-' 



■^ o r-; ro M o o 





383,012 

133,339 

31,716 

29,616 

23,100 

71,803 

468,593 

133,584 

127,124 

45,671 

24,550 

332,176 

276,158 

19,0.52 

135.499 

97,742 

53.127 

24,413 

313,310 

222.411 

4,861 

872 

9926 

54.687 

239.271 

397,690 

173.172 

4,427 

222,356 

21.921 

290,379 

364,697 

221.703 

17,706 

445,8ii3 

81,490 

55,441 


X) 




349,771 

111,799 

24,877 

19.680 

19.3.50 

C6,238 

418,5.53 

86,368 

86,634 

24,115 

16.369 

249.567 

257,184 

13,486 

114.100 

74,935 

34,613 

12,747 

291,718 

146,771 

2,365 

727 

7,618 

37,057 

163,501 

339.7H9 

92,720 

2.609 

131,728 

1.5,416 

265,892 

290,.549 

189.423 

15,185 

390,913 

48.802 

35.031 


to 

5? 

CO 




-*• J-- -^ -c o CT o o i-' Oiicto c* '^ot^^csi^T'occco-rio cr. ODOffiiurryj — 

■^ C: -n- C» — 4 00 CO lO tn -H lO -^ O OO X- CC i/^ 00 C» C» -r X iC or. — Cl T Cr T' 'T 

Tc 5* ■^__~;^io ^ '^^ o o^ p^ 05 r: c> ci^o\ ic i--^ oq, t--^ c. oo ^V^, ^i ^, "^. ^ '"v -- 

en f^i f^ (^» (^» -r*! m rrC *^ (rt m^ fn"^ i^ m fM m^ t^ t^f^ rri r^i 'v> r-C 



» ;i-' -H a> i-i to f^ toi6 1^ CI ci" ^ oi 



--c2*^ioot;co»o 
co'co' oo' ai cc ci t-i' c^" ^'i c>' ^» t-- 



osGDOOt^>Oh-oiorc!roi05ff*MCiecicoi'*Oir-f^ 
,:- f, ^ », t-, t^ 00 CO (- cJi 00 -^ ^ '>» i-- CI ci 1- tr L-: C5 ^ 

C-i 1-^' r-* r-*" i-T-^cTt^f-i lo" ^"r-TirflO CI rH o 



icobc-^csicGOir5SF-ij^oc;^-<rCi 




: GC o '^ o '^ o — — ; --T :r I 



lO c: o o -f T- - 



i'-:^cSfC — c^o-tSdo c^^o r? o — ^X) -r "C -co oi -* -^i ro o t-, Ci c» q :^,c:,«. en g-i_co =_^03 
{— f '-rrr'-*" ■^rcioD i'-^''V3 u-f — "i-^' — ' irf — Ti^ -j:^ ro i-'>o'ir;'Tr oJ 00 t"- o ci 'C '-C •— ' "T lO "^ o oo " c-^ 

OihobftioiOffOOOOCO'^CO^ iJ^GOTftiJi-O TTiOCQClTT ffO'«rj;---HC^(J»iJ^ 

rl I— t Ql 






S S & t .2 <=•- 5 






all il i sl^ ^ 5 III sjiiii^ £ I IIIJ l^iil £ s i.^|;5 



448 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



n. SECOXDART INSTRUCTION. 

The first public schools of the American 
colonies were the free endowed grammar 
schools and subscription grammar schools ; 
schools for secondary education. Public pri- 
mary or elementary common schools were 
of later date, both in chronological order, 
and as being a logical result of their prede- 
cessors of higher grade. 

The first school laws, those of Connecti- 
cut and Massachusetts, which were subse- 
quent to the establishment by individuals or 
towns of the classes of schools they referred 
to, recognized all three grades of education- 
al institutions, both what are at present 
termed common or elementary, and also 
secondary or superior ; that is to say, com- 
mon or neighborhood schools, grammar 
schools, and colleges. 

The class of secondary schools, since the 
very earliest period of their establishment, 
has been far less cherished and supported, 
either by public opinion or by legal provis- 
ions, than either of the other two classes. 
Almost universally, the academy, the en- 
dowed scliool, the grammar school, has been 
wholly left to the support of those wealthier 
or more learned classes who have been ta- 
citly assumed to have the only use for them ; 
and where any state assistance has been ex- 
tended to them, it has usually been in the ex- 
ceptional form of individual acts of incorpo- 
ration or individual grants of money or land. 

It may be observed that such a co-equal 
public recognition, if extended to the class 
of secondary schools, would at once produce 
a definite and important result, in throwing 
probably half of what may be termed the 
present secondary course of study back with- 
in the course of the elementary grade of 
schools, and also in bringing back a large 
number of what are termed colleges into 
their appropriate grade of secondary institu- 
tions. 

The noticeable and important fact is more- 
over thus brought out, that public opinion 
in the United States has never, up to the 
present time, demanded or recognized any 
universal privilege of education beyond that 
in the merest rudiments of it. 

This neglect has of course caused the ex- 
isting almost entire deficiency of recorded 
statistics of schools of this class. Such sta- 



tistics are not accessible at all, except in the 
single state of New York, and even there, 
only from such secondary institutions as are 
obliged to furnish them as a condition of 
their receipt of a portion of the literature 
fund. This remark is not applicable to the 
grade of schools known as public high 
schools, for boys or girls, or both, in several 
of our larger cities ; but these schools, 
few in number and of modern origin, afe 
not so much the outgrowth of popular feel- 
ling, as the creations of a few intelligent 
friends of public education, in advance of 
any general demand for this class of institu- 
tions. Although not recognized generally 
as part of our systems of public instruction, 
schools of the former class have increased 
rapidly, and now exist in almost every village 
in the land, and their aggregate number in 
1850, according to the census of that year, 
will be seen in the table on page 451. 

The progress of this class of schools, in 
respect to studies, books, and equipment 
generally, and methods of instruction and 
discipline, can be readily measured by any 
one who will look into the best academy or 
public high school in his neighborhood, and 
then read the following communications — 
the first by the Hon. Josiah Quincy, respect- 
ing one of the earliest institutions of the class 
known as academies ; and the other two 
by eminent public men, respecting the pub 
lie schools, and particularly the Latin school 
of Boston, as it was prior to or about the 
beginning of the present century, and at 
that time pronounced " the best on the 
American continent." 

" Mr. Barnard : Dear Sir — You ask brief- 
ly the position of Phillips Academy as to 
studies, text-books, methods, and discipline. 
That academy was founded in the year 1 778, 
in the midst of the war of the Revolution, 
by the united contributions of three broth- 
ers — Samuel, John, and William Phillips — 
all of them men of property according to 
the scale of that day, and all of a liberal spirit 
toward every object, religious, moral, or ed- 
ucational. But the real author and instiga- 
tor of that foundation was the only son of 
the first of the above-named, who was known 
during the early period of his life by the 
name of Samuel Phillips, Junior. He was, 
during his whole life, one of the most dis- 
tinguished, exemplary, and popular men in 
Massachusetts ; active, spirited, influential, 
and ready, and a leader in every good work,' 



ACADEMIES, HIGH SCHOOLS, ETC. 



449 



and he had the control of the hearts of his 
father and two uncles, and was undoubtedly 
the influential spirit giving vitality to the 
plan of that institution. There was only 
one academy in the state at that time — Dum- 
mer Academy at Newbury — which, although 
it had sent forth many good scholars, was 
then going to decay ; and the beautiful and 
commanding site in the south parish of An- 
dover which that institution now occupies, 
Avas unquestionably one of the causes of the 
idea of the institution as well as of its lo- 
cality. Eliphalet Pearson had been educa- 
ted at Dummer Academy, was distinguished 
for his scholarship and zeal in the cause of 
classical learning; Samuel Phillips, jr., had 
formed an intimacy with him at college, though 
in different classes, and entertained a high 
opinion both of his literary attainments and 
spirit of discipline. Phillips Academy was 
projected with reference to his becoming its 
first master; and his aid was joined with 
that of bis friend Phillips in forming the con- 
stitution of the academy, 

"The time of its foundation was unques- 
tionably most inauspicious to its success, 
but young Phillips was of a spirit that 
quailed before no obstacles. It was designed 
to be a model institution of the kind, and 
no pains were omitted to secure its success ; 
and notwithstanding the uncertainties of the 
political aspect of the time and the perpetu- 
ally increasing depreciation of paper money, 
it was sustained in great usefulness and pros- 
perity. I was sent to that academy within 
a month after its opening, in May, 1778, 
being the seventh admission on its catalogue. 
I had just then entered upon my seventh 
year, and was thrust at once into my Latin 
at a period of life when noun, pronoun, and 
participle were terms of mysterious mean- 
ing which all the explanations of my gram- 
mars and my masters for a long time vainly 
attempted to make me comprehend. But the 
laws of the school Avere imperious. They 
had no regard for my age, and I was for 
years submitted to the studies and discipline 
of the seminary, which, though I could re- 
peat the former, through want of compre- 
hension of their meaning, I could not possi- 
bly understand. I was sent to the academy 
two years at least before I ought to have 
been. But William Phillips was my grand- 
father ; it was deemed desirable that the 
founders of the academy should show confi- 
dence in its advantages ; I was, therefore, 
sent at once, upon its first opening, and I 



have always regarded the severe discipline 
to which I was subjected, in consequence of 
the inadequacy of my years to my studies, 
as a humble contribution toward the success 
of the academy, 

"The course of studies and text-books I do 
not believe I can from memory exactly re- 
capitulate ; I cannot, however, be far out 
of the way in stating that ' Cheever's Ac- 
cidence' was our first book ; the second, 
' Corderius ;' the third, ' Nepos ;' then, if 
I mistake not, came ' Virgil.' There may 
have been some intermediate author which 
has escaped my memory, but besides Virgil 
I have no recollection of any higher author. 

" Our grammar Avas ' Ward's,' in Avhich all 
the rules and explanations are in Latin, and 
Ave were drilled sedulously in writing this 
language far enough to get into the univer- 
sity. Our studies in Greek Avere very slight 
and superficial. Gloucester's Greek Gram- 
mar was our guide in that language, and a 
thorough ability to construe the four Gos- 
pels was all required of us to enter the col- 
lege. 

" These are the best ansAvers I can give to 
your inquiries on the subject of ' studies 
and text-books,' but I am not confident that 
my memory serves me with exactness. Our 
preparation was limited enough, but suffi- 
cient for the poverty and distracted state of 
the period. 

" Of * methods and discipline,' for which 
you inquire, I can only say that the former 
was strict and exact, and the latter severe. 
Pearson was a convert to thorough disci- 
pline ; monitors kept an account of all of a 
student's failures, idleness, inattention, whis- 
pering, and like deviations from order, and 
at the end of the Aveek were bestowed sub- 
stantial rewards for such self-indulgences, 
distributed upon the head and hand with no 
lack of strength or fidelity, 

" In that day arithmetic was begun at the 
university. The degree of preparation for col- 
lege and the amount of the studies within it 
are not worthy of remembrance AA^hen com- 
pared Avith the means of acquirement now 
presented to the aspiring student. 

" Your other inquiries I should be happy 
to make the subject of reply, but long ces- 
sation of familiarity with the objects to which 
they relate makes me dubious of my power 
to add any thing important to their history. 
My knoAvledge of the common schools of 
Boston Avas obtained only during the vaca- 
tions of the academy, and had chief refer- 



450 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



ence to improvement in my writing. Their 
advantages were few enongli and humble 
enough ; the education of females very slight, 
and limited to reading, writing, and the ear- 
lier branches of arithmetic. 

"The interests of schools and of education 
were, thirty years ago, subjects of my thought 
and writing; but the lapse of time and the 
interposition of other objects and new du- 
ties deprive me of the power of aiding your 
researches on these subjects, which are, how- 
ever, easily and far better satisfied by the 
active men of the day. Wishing you all 
success in these wise and noble pursuits, 
" I am, very truly, 

" Your friend and servant, 

"JOSIAH QuiNCY." 

"Boston, Dec. 1st, 1860." 

The following "Memorandum of an emi- 
nent clergyman, who was educated in the 
best schools of Boston just before the Revo- 
lution," we copy from a volume of the 
" Massachusetts Common School Journal," 
vol. xii., pp. 311, 312. The notes are by 
the editor of the Journal, Wm. B. Fowle : 

" At the age of six and a half years, I 
was sent to Master John Lovell's Latin 
school. The only requirement was reading 
well ; but, though fully qualified, I was sent 
away to Master Griffith, a private teacher, 
to learn to road, write and spell. I learned 
the English Grammar in Dilworth's Spelling 
Book by heart. Griffith traced letters with 
a pencil, and the pupils inked them. 

" Entered Lovell's school at seven j^ears. 
Loveli was a tyrant, and his system one of 
terror. Trouncing* was common in the 



* " Trouncing was performed by stripping the boy, 
mounting him on another's back, and whipping him 
with birch rods, before the whole school. James 
Loveli, the grandson of John, once related to ua the 
following anecdote, which shows the utility of cor- 
poral punishment 1 It seems that a boy had played 
truant, and Master John had publicly declared that 
the offender should be trounced. Wlien such a sen- 
tence was pronounced, it was understood that the 
other boys might seize the criminal, and take him 
to school by force. The culprit was soon seized by 
one party, and hurried to the master, who inflicted 
the punishment without delay. On his way home, 
the culprit met another party, who cried out, ' Ah, 
John Brown,' or whatever his name was, 'you'il 
get it when you go to school 1' 'No, I shan't,' 
said the victorious boy, who felt that he had got the 
start of them, 'No, I shan't, for /'ve got it' and, as 
he said this, he slapped his hand upon the part that 
had paid the penalty, thus, as the poet says, ' suit- 
ing the action to the word.' " 



school. Dr. Cooper was one of his early 
scholars, and he told Dr. Jackson, the min- 
ister of Brookline, that he had dreams of 
school till he died. The boys were so afraid 
they could not study. Sam. Bradford, after- 
ward sheriflf, pronounced the P in Ptolemy, 
and the younger Loveli rapped him over the 
head with a heavy ferule.* 

" We studied Latin from 8 o'clock till 
11, and from 1 till dark. After one or two 
years, I went to the town school, to Master 
Holbrook, at the corner of West street, to 
learn to write ; and to Master Proctor, on 
Pemberton's Hill, in the south-east part of 
Scollay's Building. My second, third, and 
fourth year, I wrote there, and did nothing 
else. The English boys alone were taught 
to make pens. Griffith was gentle, but his 
being a private teacher accounts for it. 

" The course of study was, grammar ; 
Esop, with a translation ; Clarke's Introduc- 
tion to writing Latin ; Eutropius, with a 
translation ; Corderius ; Ovid's Metamor- 
phoses ; Virgil's Georgics ; ^neid ; Caesar; 
Cicero. In the sixth year I began Greek, 
and for the first time attempted English 
composition, by translating Ca'sar's Com- 
mentaries. The master allowed us to read 
poetical translations, such as Trappe's and 
Dryden's Virgil. I was half way through 
Virgil when I began Greek with Ward's 
Greek Grammar. 

" After Cheever's Latin Accidence, we 
took Ward's Lily's Latin Grammer. After 
the Greek Grammar, we read the Greek 
Testament, and were allowed to use Beza's 
Latin translation. Then came Homer's 
Iliad, five or six books, using Clarke's 
translation with notes, and this was all my 
Greek education at school. Then we took 
Horace, and composed Latin verses, using 
the Gradus ad Parnassum. Daniel Jones 
was the first Latin scholar in iVTl or 1772, 



* " We saw this done by another Boston teacher, 
about thirty years ago, and when we remonstrated 
with him upon the danger of inflicting such a blow, 
upon such a spot, '0, the caitiffs,' said he, 'it is 
good for them !' About the same time, another 
teacher, who used to strike his pupils upon the 
hand so that the marks and bruises were visible, 
was waited upon by a committee of mothers, who 
lived near the school, and had been annoyed by the 
outcries of tho sufferers. The teacher promised not 
to strike the boys any more on tho hand^ and the 
women went away satisfled. But, instead of in- 
flicting blows upon the hand, he inflicted them upon 
the soles of the feet, and made the punishment more 
severe." 



ACADEMIES, HIGH SCHOOLS, ETC. 



451 



and he whs brother to Thomas Kilby Jones, 
who was no scholar, though a disthiguished 
merchant afterward. 

" I entered college at the age of fourteen 
years and three months, and was equal in 
Latin and Greek to the best in the senior 
class. Xenophon and Sallust were the only 
books used in college that I had not stud- 
ied. I went to the private school from 1 1 
to 12 A. M., and to the public from 3 to 5 

p. M, 

" The last two years of my school life, 
nobody taught English Grammar or Geog 
raphy, but Col. Joseph Ward (son of Dea- 
con Joseph Ward, of Newton, West Parish, 
blacksmith,) who was self-taught, and set 
up a school in Boston. He became aid to 
General Ward when the war commenced, 
and did not teach after the war. 

" I never saw a map, except in Csesar's 
Commentaries, and did not know what that 
meant. Our class studied Lowth's English 
Grammar at college. At Master Proctor's 
school, reading and writing were taught in 
the same room, to girls and boys, from 7 to 
14 years of age, and the Bible was the only 
reading book. Dilworth's Spelling Book 
was used, and the New England I'rimer. 
The master set sums in our MSS. but did not 
go farther than the Rule of Three. 

" Master Griffith was a thin man, and 
wore a wig, as did Masters Lovell and 
Proctor, but they wore a cap when not in 
full dress. James Lovell was so beaten by 
his grandfather John, that James the father 
rose and said, ' Sir, you have flogged that 
boy enough.' The boy went off determined 
to leave school, and go to Master Proctor's ; 
but he met one of Master Proctor's boys, 
who asked whither he was going, and when 
informed, warned him not to go, for he 
would fare worse." 

Hon. Edward Everett, in an address at the 
Annual School Festival in Faneuil Hall in 
1852, gives the following account of the 
educational advantages he enjoyed in early 
life :— 

"It was fifty-two years last April since I 
began, at the age of nine years, to attend 
the reading and writing schools in North 
Bennett street. The reading school was 
under Master Little, (for 'Young America' 
had not yet repudiated that title,) and the 
writing school was kept by Master Tileston, 
Master Little, in spite of his name, was a 
giant in stature — six feet four, at least — and 



somewhat wedded to the past. He straggled 
earnestly against the change then taking 
place in the pronunciation of m, and insisted 
on saying monooment and natur. But I ac- 
quired, under his tuition, what was thought 
in those days a very tolerable knowledge of 
Lindley Murray's abridgment of English 
grammar, and at the end of the year could 
parse almost any sentence in the ' American 
Preceptor.' Master Tileston was a writing 
master of the old school. He set the copies 
himself, and taught that beautiful old Boston 
handwriting, which, if I do not mistake, has, 
in the march of innovation, (which is not 
always the same thing as improvement,) 
been changed very little for the better. 
Master Tileston was advanced in years, and 
had found a qualification for his calling as a 
writing master, in what might have seemed 
at first to threaten to be an obstruction. 
The fingers of his right hand had been con- 
tracted and stiffened in early life, by a burn, 
but were fixed in just the position to hold a 
pen and a penknife — and nothing else. As 
they were also considerably indurated, they 
served as a convenient instrument of disci- 
pline. A copy badly written, or a blotted 
page, was sometimes visited with an inflic- 
tion which would have done no discredit to 
the beak of a bald eagle. His long, deep 
desk was a perfect curiosity-shop of confis- 
cated balls, tops, penknives, marbles and 
Jews-harps — the accumulation of forty years. 
I des-ire, however, to speak of him with 
gratitude, for he put me on the track of an 
acquisition which has been extremely useful 
to me in after life — that of a plain, legible 
hand. I remained at these schools about 
sixteen months, and had the good fortune in 
1 804 to receive the Franklin medal in the 
English department. After an interval of 
about a year, during which I attended a 
private school kept by Mr. Ezekiel Webster, 
of New Hampshire, and on an occasion of 
his absence, by his ever memorable brother, 
Daniel Webster, at that time a student of 
law in Boston, I went to the Latin school, 
then slowly emerging from a state of extreme 
depression. It was kept in School street, 
where the Horticultural Hall now stands. 
The standard of scholastic attainment was 
certaiidy not higher than that of material 
comfort in those days. We read pretty 
much the same books — or of the same class 
— in Latin and Greek, as are read now, but 
in a very cursory and superficial manner. 
There was no attention paid to the philoso- 



452 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION'S. 



phy of the languages — to the deduction of 
words from their radical elements — to the 
niceties of construction — still less to pros- 
ody. I never made a hexameter or pen- 
tameter verse till, years afterward, I had a 
son at school in London, who occasionally 
required a little aid in that way. The sub- 
sidiary and illustrative branches were wholly 
unknown in the Latin school in 1805. Such 
a thing as a school library, a book of refer- 
ence, a critical edition of a classic, a map, a 
blackboard, an engraving of an ancient 
building, or a copy of a work of ancient 
art, such as now adorn the walls of our 
schools, was as little known as the electric 
telegraph. If our children, who possess all 
these appliances and aids to learning, do 
not greatly excel their parents, they will be 
much to blame." 

Academy Life in Philadelphia, about 1760. 

Gray don, in ^^ Memoirs of a Life chief y 
passed in Philadelphia, within the last sixty 
[1752-1811] years," printed in Harrisburgh 
by John Wyeth, 1811, after noting his first 
teacher in Bristol, where he was born, as a 
kind, good-humored Irishman, by the name 
of Pinkerton, and his first teacher in Phila- 
delphia, an Englishman (David James 
Dove), much celebrated in his day both as 
teacher and maker of a minor kind of satir- 
ical poetry, chronicles his admission into 
the principal seminary in Pennsylvania, 
then as now bearing the name of a university. 

" I was now about eight years of age, and 
my first introduction was to Mr. Kinnersley, 
the teacher of English and Professor of 
Oratory. He was an Anabaptist clergyman, 
a large, venerable looking man, of no great 
general erudition, though a considerable 
proficient in electricity ; and who, whether 
truly or not, has been said to have had a share 
in certain discoveries in that science, of which 
Doctor Franklin received the whole credit. 
The task of the younger boys, at least, con- 
sisted in learning to read and to write their 
mother tongue grammatically ; and one day 
in the week (I think Friday) was set apart 
for the recitation of select passages in poetry 
and prose. For this purpose, each scholar, 
in his turn, ascended the stage, and said his 
speech, as the phrase was. This speech was 
carefully taught him by his master, both 
with respect to its pronunciation, and the 
action deemed suitable to its several parts. 
Two of these specimens of infantile oratory, 
to the disturbance of my repose, I had been 
qualified to exhibit : family partiality, no 



doubt, overrated their merit : and hence, 
my declaiming powers were in a state of 
such constant requisition, that my orations, 
like worn out ditties, became vapid and 
fatiguing to me; and consequently impaired 
my relish for that kind of acquirement. 
More profit attended ray reading. After 
^■Esop's fables, and an abridgment of the 
Roman history, Telemachus was put into 
our hands; and if it be admitted that the 
human heart may be bettered by instruc- 
tion, mine, I may aver, was benefited by this 
work of the virtuous Fenelon. While the 
mild wisdom of Mentor called forth my 
veneration, the noble ardor of the youthful 
hero excited my sympathy and emulation. 
I took part, like a second friend, in the 
vicissitudes of his fortune, I participated in 
his toils, I warmed with his exploits, I wept 
where he wept, and exulted where he 
triumphed. 

" A. few days after I had been put under 
the care of Mr. Kinnersley, I was told by 
my classmates that it was necessary for me 
to fight a battle with some one in order to 
establish my claim to the honor of being an 
academy boy ; that this could not be dis- 
pensed with, and that they would select for 
me a suitable antagonist, one of my mutch^ 
whom after school I must fight, or be looked 
upon as a coward. I must confess that I 
did not at all relish the proposal. Though 
possessing a sufficient degree of spirit, or at 
least irascibility, to defend myself when as- 
saulted, I had never been a boxer. Being 
of a light and slender make, I was not cal- 
culated for the business, nor had I ever been 
ambitious of being the cock of a school. 
Besides, by the laws of the institution I was 
now a subject of, fighting was a capital 
crime ; a sort of felony deprived of clergy, 
whose punishment was not to be averted by 
the most scholar-like reading. For these 
reasons, both of which had sufficient weight 
with me, and the last, not the least, as I had 
never been a willful transgressor of rules, or 
callous to the consequences of an infraction 
of them, I absolutely declined the proposal; 
although I had too much of that feeling 
about me, which some might call false 
honor, to represent the case to the master, 
which would at once have extricated me 
from my difficulty, and brought down con- 
dign punishment on its imposers. Matters 
thus went on until school was out, Avhen I 
found that the lists were appointed, and that 
a certain John Appoweu, a lad who, though 



PROFESSIONAL SCHOOLS, ETC. 



453 



not quite so tall, yet better set and older 
than myself, was pitted against me. With 
increased pertinacity I again refused the 
combat, and insisted on being permitted to 
go home unmolested. On quickening my 
pace for this purpose, my persecutors, with 
Appowen at their head, followed close at 
my heels. Upon this I moved faster and 
faster, until my retreat became a flight too 
unequivocal and inglorious for a man to re- 
late of himself, had not Homer furnished 
some apology for the procedure, in making 
the heroic Hector thrice encircle the walls 
of Troy, before he could find courage to 
encounter the implacable Achilles. To cut 
the story short, my spirit could no longer 
brook an oppression so intolerable, and 
stung to the quick at the term coward which 
was lavished upon me, I made a halt and 
faced my pursuers. A combat immediately 
ensued between Appowen and myself, which 
for some time was maintained on each side 
with equal vigor and determination, when, 
unluckily, I received his fist directly in my 
gullet. The blow for a time depriving me 
of breath and the power of resistance, 
victory declared for ray adversary, though 
not without the acknowledgment of the 
party that I had at last behaved well, and 
shown myself not unworthy of the name of 
an academy boy. Being thus established, I 
had no more battles imposed upon me, and 
none that I can recollect, of my own pro- 
voking ; for I have a right to declare that 
my general deportment was correct and un- 
offending, though extremely obstinate and 
unyielding under a sense of injustice. 

"In March, 1761, I entered the Latin 
school, and became the pupil of Mr. John 
Beveridge, a native of Scotland, who retained 
the smack of his vernacular tongue in its 
primitive purity. His acquaintance with 
the language he taught, was I believe, 
justly deemed to be very accurate and pro- 
found. But as to his other acquirements, 
after excepting the game of backgammon, 
in which he was said to excel, truth will not 
warrant me in saying a great deal. He 
was, however, diligent and laborious in his 
attention to his school ; and had he pos- 
sessed the faculty of making himself be- 
loved by the scholars, and of exciting their 
emulation and exertion, nothing would have 
been wanting in him to an entire qualifica- 
tion for his office. But unfortunately, he 
bad no dignity of character, and was no 
less destitute of the art of makinfr himself 



respected than beloved. Though not per- 
haps to be complained of as intolerably 
severe, he yet made a pretty free use of the 
ratan and the ferule, but to very little purpose. 
He was, in short, no disciplinarian, and con- 
sequently very unequal to the management 
of seventy or eighty boj^s, many of whom 
were superlatively pickle and unruly. He 
was assisted, indeed, by two ushers, who 
eased him in the burden of teaching, but 
who, in matters of discipline, seemed dis- 
inclined to interfere, and disposed to con- 
sider themselves rather as subjects than 
rulers. I have seen them slily slip out of 
the way when the principal was entering 
upon the job of capitally punishing a boy, 
who from his size would be likely to make 
resistance. For this had become nearly a 
matter of course; and puor Beveridge, who 
was diminutive in his stature and neither 
young nor vigorous, after exhausting himself 
in the vain attempt to denude the delin- 
quent, was generally glad to compound for 
a few strokes over his clothes, on any part 
that was accessible. He had, indeed, so 
frequently been foiled, that his birch at 
length was rarely brought forth, and might 
truly be said to have lost its terrors — 
it was tanquam gladkim in vagina repos- 
itum. He indemnified himself, however, by 
a redoubled use of his ratan. 

" So entire was the want of respect towards 
him, and so liable was he to be imposed 
upon, that one of the larger boys, for a 
wager, once pulled off his wig, which he 
eftected by suddenly twitching it from his 
head under pretense of brushing from it a 
spider; and tlie unequivocal insult was only 
resented by the peevish exclamation of 
hoot mon ! 

"Various were the rogueries that were 
played upon him ; but the most audacious 
of all was the following. At the hour of 
convening in the afternoon, that being found 
the most convenient, from the circumstance 
of Mr. Beveridge being usually a little be- 
yond the time; the bell having rung, the 
ushers being at their posts, and the scholars 
arranged in their classes, three or four of 
the conspirators conceal themselves without, 
for the purpose of observing the motions of 
their victim. He arrives, enters the school, 
and is permitted to proceed until he is sup- 
posed to have nearly reached his chair at 
the upper end of the room, when instantly 
the door and every window-shutter is closed. 
Now, shrouded in utter darkness, the most 



454 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



hideous j'ells that can be conceived are sent 
forth from at least three score of throats ; 
and Ovids, and Virglls, and Horaces, 
tofjether with the more heavy metal of 
dictionaries, whether of Cole, of Young, or 
of AinsAVorth, are hurled without remorse 
at the liead of the astonished preceptor, 
who, on his side, groping and crawling under 
cover of the forms, makes the best of his 
way to the door. When attained, and light 
restored, a death-like silence ensues. Every 
boy is at his lesson ; no one has had a hand 
or a voice in the recent atrocity ; what then 
is to be done, and who shall be chastised. 

Sitvit at^'oz Volsccn^, nee tcli confpicit vsguam 
j ^uctormn,, nee quo se ardens immittere possit. 

I Fierce Volscens fonms with rn^re. and gazing round 

I Descries not liiin wjio iiiin'd the fatal wound ; 

i Nor knows to fix revenge. 

" This most intolerable outrage, from its 
succeeding beyond expectation, and being 
entirely to the taste of the school, had a 
run of several days ; and was only then put 
a stop to by the interference of the facu/.t?/, 
who decreed the most exemplary punish- 
ment on those who should be found offend- 
ing in the premises, and by taking measures 
to prevent a further repetition of the 
enormity. 

" The ushers, during the term of my 
pupilage, a period of four years or more, 
wei-e often Qhanged ; and some of them, it 
must be admitted, ' were insignificant 
enough ; but others, were men of sense and 
respectability, to whom, on a comparison 
with the principal, the managemer»t of the 
school might have been committed with 
much advantage. Among these was Mr. 
Patrick Allison, afterwards officiating as a 
Presbyterian clergyman in Baltimore ; Mr. 
James Wilson, late one of the associate 
justices of the Supreme Court of the 
United States ; and Mr. John Andrews, now 
Doctor Andrews of the University of Penn- 
sylvania. It is true they were much 
younger men than Mr. Beveridge, and 
probably unequal adepts in the language that 
was taught; but even on the supposition 
of this comparative deficiency on their part, 
it would have been amply compensated by 
their judicious discipline and instruction. 

" With respect to my progress and that of 
the class to which I belonged, it was reputa- 
ble and perhaps laudable for the first two 
years. From a pretty close application, we 
were well groimded in grammar, and had 
passed through the elementary books, much 
to the approbation of our teachers ; but at 



length, with a single exception, we became 
possessed of the demons of liberty and 
idleness. We were, to a great degree, im- 
patient of the restraints of a school ; and 
if we yet retained any latent sparks of the 
emulation of improvement, we were unfor- 
tunately never favored with the collision that 
could draw them forth. We could feelingly 
have exclaimed with Louis the Fourteenth, 
mats a quoi serf de lire !. but where's the 
use of all this pouring over books! One 
boy thought he had Latin enough, as he 
was not designed for a learned profession ; 
his father thought so too, and was about 
taking him from school. Another was of 
opinion that he might be much better em- 
ployed in a counting-house, and was also 
about ridding himself Of his scholastic 
shackles. As this was a consummation de- 
voutly wished by us all, we cheerfully re- 
nounced the learned professions for the sake 
of the supposed liberty that would be the 
consequence. We were all, therefore, to be 
merchants, as to be mechanics was too 
humiliating; and accordingly, when the 
question was proposed, which of us would 
enter upon the study of Greek, the gram- 
mar of which tongue was about to be put 
into our hands, there were but two or three 
who declared for it. As to myself, it was 
my mother's desire, from her knowing it to 
have been my father's intention to give me 
the best education the country afforded, that 
I should go on, and acquire every language 
and science that was taught in the institu- 
tion ; but as my evil star would have it, I 
was thoroughly tired of books and confine- 
ment, and her advice and even entreaties 
were overruled by my extreme repugnance 
to a longer continuance in the college, 
which, to my lasting regret, I bid adieu to 
when a little turned of fourteen, at the very 
season when the minds of the studious 
begin to profit by instruction. We were at 
this time reading Horace and Cicero, having 
passed through Ovid, Virgil, Cicsar and Sal- 
lust. From my own experience on this oc- 
casion, I am inclined to think it of much 
consetjuence, that a boy designed to com- 
plete his college studies, should be classed 
with those of a similar destination." 

A picture of academy life prior to 1800 — 
its material outfit of building and apparatus, 
its teachers, studies, and students, in Georgia 
and Virginia, has already been given, and 
does not differ essentially from "the beg- 
garly elements " above described. 



ACADEMIES, HIGH SCHOOLS, AND SEMINARIES. 



455 



Public nigh Sclwols — Endoiued Academies. 

In the original organization of public in- 
struction in New England, provision was 
made for a school of a higher order than 
the common district or neigliborhood school, 
where the mother tongue, penmanship and 
arithmetic were taught to all, so that " so 
much barbarism as a single child unable to 
read the Holy Word of God, and the good 
laws of the colony could not exist." This 
School in Massachusetts and New Hampshire 
■was a town grammar school for all towns of 
one hundred families. In Connecticut the 
same original requisition gave place in 16*72 
to a school of the same grade for the head 
town of each county, and to diminish the ex- 
pense of tuition, and ultimately to make the 
instruction gratuitous, was aided by grants 
of public lands, and to some extent endowed 
by individuals. By degrees in all parts of 
New England, where there was a difficulty 
in establishing the Ipcal grammar school, 
either from paucity of inhabitants, or want 
of popular appreciation of the necessity or 
the advantages of instruction of this grade, 
either the clergyman in his own house fitted 
young men for college, or a college graduate 
at his own risk opened a temporary school 
for pupils, whose parents desired for them 
more of arithmetic and grammar than could 
be obtained in the district school. In such 
places, if there were few men, or even one 
man of public spirit and energy, sooner or 
later an academic institution would spring 
up, towards the support of which donations 
or bequests would be made, and for its better 
management, corporate powers and grants 
of public lauds would be asked and obtained 
from the legislature. In Massachusetts alone 
these charters and land grants were made 
originally, as a settled policy — only for dis- 
tricts where the grammar schools could 
not supply the wants of a higher education, 
and fur not more than one institution in a 
large extent of territory like that of a county. 
By degrees this policy was forgotten and 
disregarded, even in Massachusetts, and 
charters were freely granted, and the Acad- 
emies came to rival and supersede even the 
Town (irainmar schools — until public atten- 
tion was arrested to the fact, first by James 
G. Carter in 1824. From that time strenu- 
ous efforts have been made by the friends of 
public schools to restore the earlier and better 
policy, of Public High Schools for boys and 
girls in every city and town where the popula- 



tion was sufficient to furnish a quota of 
scholars, who could at once reside with their 
pareiits and get the advantages of the higher 
education.* To provide for children and 
youth in smaller towns and in more 
sparsely populated counties, where they are 
obliged to go away from home for a higher 
education. Academies and Seminaries have 
been largely endowed, so as to reduce the 
cost of tuition and the expense of residence. 
These schools are becoming fewer in number, 
but the few are better endowed, and better 
equipped for the work of classical and scien- 
tific teaching. 

Academies out of New England. 

Out of New England generally, where the 
township plan of settlement did not pre- 
vail, and where even neigliborhood schools 
were not provided for or made obligatory by 
law, the educational wants of the few 
families, who cared for higher, as well as 
elementary instruction for their older and 
younger children, could be most readily and 
economically obtained for them by associated 
efforts, which soon resulted in special charters 
for convenience of management; and hence 
all over the country the policy of Academies, 
not only for large districts, like one or more 
counties, but for all large towns and cities 
prevailed. In such States, the deiiiand for 
educational facilities for the more wealthy 
and educated families being thus partiall)% 
and in some cases even liberally supplied, it 
has been difficult to overcome the force of 
habit, and inaugurate a school policy large 
and broad enough to provide at once for ele- 
mentary and higher grades of schools at the 
public expense for tlie entire community. 
Without tliti higher element, the public school 
inevitably sinks down into a class institution 
— common, not only because it is rudiment- 
ary and cheap, but because it is poor and 
only for the poor. 

By degrees the Graded System of Public 
Schools, presented by Mr. Mann and Mr. 
Bainard, and particularly by the latter in 
addresses delivered before the Legislatures 
and in the principal cities of seventeen 
States between the years 1842-1848, and in 
numerous publications on this subject, of 
which over 1,000,000 copies have been print- 
ed and distributed — was established in all 
the principal cities of the country, where are 

* Accnrdins to the Report of Miissnoliiisetts Bnnrd of EHu- 
cntion for 1870 Hijh Schools were inaiolained in 162 out of 335 
towns in the State, embracing 82 per cent of the population, 
in nearly all the towns having over 2,000 inhabitants. 



456 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



now found the best specimens of our Amer- 
ican system of Public Instruction. 

Outside of the Public High School, the 
incorporated and endowed Academies and 
Seminaries, until quite recently, were avow- 
edly denominational in the religious profes- 
sion of their teachers and the general influ- 
ence of the institution. Recently, several 
schools of the secondary class have been es- 
tablished on the basis of corporate powers, 
but the instruction has been made free or 
cheap, and all sectarian preference and influ- 
ence has been disavowed and guarded 
against. Of this class are the Putnam Free 
School at Newburyport, Mass., the Free 
Academy at Norwich, and the Morgan 
School at Clinton, in Connecticut. 
Famale Seminaries and Colleges. 

Although variously designated, all the in- 
stitutiotis for female education of the highest 
grade, yet establislied in this country, belong 
properly to the depai'tment of secondary in- 
struction, these are nearly all the creation 
not only of the present century, but of the 
1 ist twenty-five years, liut before noticing 
a few of the more prominent institutions 
wliicli ai'e fast rising into grade of superior 
schools, we cite from a communication 
of Rev. William Woodbridge, an account 
of the education of girls as it was more 
than one hundred years ago. 

Girls had no separate classes, tliou^h generally 
sitting on separate benches. A merchant from B(js- 
ton, resident in my native town, who was desirous 
to give his eldest daighter the best education, sent 
her to that city, one quarter, to be taught needle- 
work and dancing, and to improve her manners in 
good and genteel company. To complete this educa- 
tion, another qu irter, the year following, was spent 
at Boston. A third quarter was tiien allowed her 
at tlie school of a lady in Hartford. Another female 
among my schoolmates was allowed to attend the 
same school for the period of tlu'ee months, to attain 
the same accomplisiunents of needlework, good 
reading, marking, and polished manners. Tlies'i 
are the only instances of female education, beyond 
that of the common schools before described, wiiich 
I knew, in a town of considerable extent, on Con- 
necticut liver, until 1776. 

You inquire how so many of tiie females of New 
England, during the latter part of the last centur}', 
acquired that firmness, and energy, and excellence 
of character f<jr which they have been so justly dis- 
tinguislied, while tlieir advantages of school educa- 
tion were so limited. 

The only answer to this question must be founded 
on the fact, that it is not the amount of knowledge, 
but tlie nature of that knowledge, and still more, the 
manner in which it is used, and the surrounding in- 
fluences and habits, which form the character. 
Natural logic — the self-taught art of thinking — 
was the guard and guide of the female mind. The 



first of Watt's five methods of mental improvement) 
" The attentive notice of every instructive object 
and occurrence," was not then in circulation, but 
was exemplified in practice. Newspapers were 
taken and read in perhaps half a dozen families, in 
the most populous villages and towns. Books, 
though scarce, were found in some families, and ti-eely 
lent; and in place of a flood of books, many of 
which are trilling or pernicious, there were a few, 
of the best character. They were thoroughly read, 
and talked of, and digested. In town and village 
libraries, there were some useful histories, natural 
and political. Milton, Watts' Lyric Poems, Young's 
Night Thoughts, Hervey's Meditations, the Tattler, 
and Addison's Spectator, were not scarce, though 
not generally diffused. Pamela, Clarissa Harlow, 
and an abridgement of Grandison, were in a few 
hands, and eagerly read ; and the Adventures of 
Robinson Crusoe, was the chief work of this kind 
for the young. 

But the daily, attentive study of the Holy Scrip- 
tures, the great source of all wisdom and discretion, 
was deemed indispensable in those days, when every 
child had a Bible, and was accustomed to read a 
portion of tlie lesson at morning prayers. This 
study, with the use of Watts' Psalms (a book, which 
with all the defects it may have, contains a rich 
treasure of poetry and thought, as well as piet}',) at 
iiome, at church, and in singing schools, I regard as 
having furnished, more than all otlier books and in- 
struction.s, the means of mental improvement, for 
forty years of the last century. 

When, at lengtii, academies were opened for 
female imMrovoment in the higher branches, a gen- 
eral excitement appeared in parents, and an emula- 
tion in daughters to attend tiiem. Many attended 
such a scliool one or two quarters, others a year, 
some few longer. From these short periods of at- 
tendance fur instruction in elementary branches, 
arose higher improvements. The love of reading 
and habits of application became fashionable ; and 
fashion we know is tlie mistress of the world. 

Wiien the instruction of females in any of the de- 
partments of science was first proposed, it excited 
ridicule. The man who devoted his time and heart 
to the work was regarded as an entliusiast. The 
cry was — "What need is tliere of learning how far 
off the sun is, wlien it is near enough to warm us?" 
— " Wiiat, will the teacher learn his pupils to make 
Almanacs?" — "When girls become scholars, who 
is to make the puddings and tlie pies?'' But these 
narrow prejudices have almost passed away. Many 
have since become equally enthusiasts on this sub- 
ject, and the results of an improved S3'Stem of 
female edu -ation have not disappointed their hopes 
or mine. By a true discipline of mind, and ap- 
plication to the solid branches of knowledge, 
our well educated females have liecome more 
agree.ible companions, more useful members 
of society, and more skillful and faithful teach- 
ers, without disqualifying themselves for domestic 
avocations. 

The first school of eminence exclusively 
for girls was the Moravian Seminary at Beth- 
lehem, Pennsylvania. This was established 
as early as 1749, but was not opened as a 
boarding-school until 1785. It enjoyed 
about that date a national reputation. About 



ACADEMIES, HIGH SCHOOLS, AND SEMINARIES. 



457 



the same period the Academy of the Visita 
tion, at Georgetown, the first Catholic Sem- 
inary for girls in the United States, was es- 
tablished, and at this date there are upwards 
of fifty under the care of different religious 
orders in the different dioceses. 

It has been claimed that President Dwight, 
in his school at Greenfield, opened in 1783, 
was the first in the country to admit pupils 
of both sexes to an entire equality of intel- 
lectual training of the highest order. 

When that famous teacher, Caleb Bing- 
ham, removed to Boston, in 1784, he did so 
with the design of opening there a school 
for gii'ls, who were, singularly enough, at 
that time excluded from the public schools. 
Mr. Bingliam's enterprise Avas successful, 
and was also the means of revolutionizing 
the unfair school system of the city, and of 
introducing a plan which, though imperfe(;t, 
provided some public instruction for girls. 
After many delays and defeats, the Girls' High 
School, in 1872, was left to occupy alone the 
largest, most costly, and best equipped school 
structure in the United States, under the di- 
rection of a principal (Samuel Eliot, LL. D.) 
who was recently a college president. 

In 1792, Miss Pierce opened a school for 
girls at Litchfield, Connecticut, which con- 
tinued in operation for forty years, and edu- 
cated large numbers of young ladies from 
all parts of the country. In the same year, 
at Philadelphia, was incorporated the first 
Female Academy in this countr}-. 

From about 1797 to 1800, Kev. William 
Woodbridge, father of the well-known au- 
thor and educator, W. C. Woodbridge, 
taught a young ladies' school, at first at 
Norwich, and afterward at Middletown, Ct. 
He had previously (in 1779) taught a class 
of young ladies in New Haven, Ct., and a 
Female Academy in 1789 at Medford, Mass. 

In 1816, Mrs. Emma Willard commenced 
her endeavors to secure for women the op- 
portunity of acquiring a grade of education 
corresponding to that which colleges furnish 
to the other sex. The eminent success and 
excellence of her celebrated school at Troy 
are well known ; and an important conse- 
quence of her labors was, that female semi- 
naries were admitted to receive aid from the 
literature fund of the State of New York, 
on the same terms with the male academies. 

From 1818 to 1830,Rev. Joseph Emerson 
conducted a young ladies' school of high rep- 
utation and efficiency, successively at Byfield 
and Saugus, Mass., and Wethersfield, Conn. 



In 1823, George B. Emerson, LL. D., opened 
a young ladies' school at Boston, probably 
with a more complete outfit than any which 
had preceded it. Soon after, the well-known 
school of Mr, Kingsbury, an institution of 
similar grade and excellence, was opened at 
Providence. Miss Z. P. Grant and Miss 
Mary Lyon, both pupils of Rev. J. Emerson, 
were associated in the conduct of an ex- 
cellent school for young ladies at Ipswich, 
Mass., in 1821. The energetic and perse- 
vering labors of Miss Lyon, with the pur- 
pose of estal)lishing a permanent Protestant 
school of high grade for young ladies, re- 
sulted in the establishment of the celebrated 
seminary at South Hadley, which was 
opened in 1837. In 1839 the first Normal 
School for female teachers was opened at 
Framingham. 

In 1822, Miss Catherine E. Beecher open- 
ed a school for young ladies at Hartford, 
Conn., which she conducted with eminent 
success for ten years. She afterward taught 
for a short period at Cincinnati, but her la- 
bors for female education have subsequently 
consisted in various publications, and in the 
management of an extended scheme for a 
system of Christian female education, in- 
cluding a national board, high schools, and 
normal schools ; which has resulted in the 
establishment of several valuable institutions. 

In 1825, at Wilbraham, Mass., was open- 
ed the first of the Methodist Conference 
seminaries — institutions whose plan has sub- 
stantially followed that of the Wilbraham 
Seminary, which was drawn up by Rev. 
Wilbur Fiske, its first principal, and ad- 
mitted young women as well as young men 
to their advantages. Ten years later, Ober- 
lin College, at first with no higher range of 
studies, but since largely increased, extend- 
ed all its courses to females as well as males, 
and fifty years later Cornell University, with 
public and private endowments out of which 
^2,000,000 will be realized, has opened all 
its optional classes and schools, and all its 
degrees to aspirants of both sexes on the 
same conditions. In the number of largely 
endowed female institutions is the Packer 
Collegiate Institute at Brooklyn, N. Y., which 
had previously existed as the Brooklyn Insti- 
tute, and received its present name in con- 
sequence of the munificent gift of $85,000 
by Mrs. Harriet L. Packer of that city ; and 
Vassar Female College at Poughkeepsie, 
N. Y., for which the vast sum of $800,000 has 
been given by Matthew Yassar, of that city. 



458 



EDUCATION AND EOUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



in. COLLEGES, OR SUPERIOR IN3TRUCTI0X. 

INTRODUCTION. 

At the close of the Colonial period of our 
educational history, we have already noticed 
the fact of the existeiR-e of seven Colleo'es, — 
Harvard, WilUam aiid Mary, Yale, Nassau 
Hall, Rutgers, Brown, and Kings — all of 
them founded on a common type, all of 
them including, as an essential part of their 
curriculum, the study of Latin and Greek, 
with special reference to the wants of the 
church, while they were all avowedly pre- 
paratory to the " learned professions of the- 
ology, law, and medicine" generally. By 
degrees the term University came to be ap- 
plied to this class of institutions — which, 
without changing in any essential particular 
the aims or studies of the American College, 
has perverted and belittled one of the most 
signiiicant and noblest terms in the annals 
of human culture. We have yet not a sin- 
gle institution which, by the independent 
test of its admission, and the optional range 
of its instruction, based on a preliminary in- 
stitutional drill in the elementary principles 
of received science, is entitled to the desig- 
nation of University in its best European 
sense. Our Universities, so called, with few 
honorable exceptions, can not, without great 
latitude of construction, be admitted into 
the cla'^sificalion of American Colleges; and 
great injury has been done to higher learn- 
ing in this country^ by the indiscriminate 
incorporation of associations, all avowedly 
sectarian in their constitution and aims, with 
power to grant academic degrees, under the 
name of a college or university. 

Condition of American Colleges about 1800. 

The following account of all the Colleges 
in operation in 1796 is taken from Winter- 
b<^tham's Historical, Geographical, Commer- 
cial and Philosophical View of the United 
States, published in four volumes in London 
in 1796. The information was obtained by 
personal inquiries, and from such sources as 
Morse, Webster, Wirtherspoon, &c. We 
have added a few paragraphs and notes 
respecting institutions omitted by the above 
author, to make the account complete to the 
beginning of this century. 

MASSACiiusiiTTS. — Harvard University 
takes its date from the year 1638. Two 
years before, the General Court gave four 
hundred pounds for the support of a public 



school at Newtown, whiidi has since been 
called Cambridge. This year (1638) the 
Rev. Mr. John Harvard, a worthy minister 
residing in Charlestown, died, and left a dona- 
tion of seven hundred and seventy-nine 
pounds, for the use of the fore-mentioned 
public school. Li honor to the memory of 
so liberal a benefactor, the General Court, 
the same year, ordered that the school should 
take the name of Harvard College. 

Li 1642, the college was put upon a more 
respectable footing, and the governor, dep- 
uty governor, and magistrates, and the min- 
isters of the six next adjacent towns, with 
the president, were erected into a corpora- 
tion for the ordering and managing its con- 
cerns. It received its first charter in 1650. 

Cambridge, in which the university is sit- 
uated, is a pleasant village, four miles west- 
ward from Boston, containing a number of 
elegant seats, which are neat and well-built. 
The university consists of four elegant brick 
edifices, handsomely inclosed. They stand 
on a beautiful green, which spreads to the 
north-west, and exhibit a pleasing view. 

The names of the several buildings are, 
Harvard Hall, Massachusetts Hall, ^Hollis 
Hall, and Holden Chapel. Harvard Hall 
is divided into six apartments ; one of which 
is appropriated for the library, one for the 
museum, two for the philosophical appara- 
tus; one is used for a chapel, and the other 
for a dining hall. The library, in 1791, con- 
sisted of upv/ards of thirteen thousand vol- 
umes; and is continually increasing from the 
interest of permanent funds, as well as from 
casual benefactions. The philosophical ap- 
paratus belonging to this university, cost 
between one thousand four hundred, and 
one thousand live hundred pounds sterling, 
and is the most elegant and complete of any 
in America. 

Agreeable to the present constitution of 
Massachusetts, his Excellency the Governor, 
Lieutenant-governor, the Council and Senate, 
the President of the University, and the 
ministers of the congregational churches in 
the towns of Boston, Charlestown, Cam- 
bridge, Watertown, Roxbury, and Dorches- 
ter, are, ex officiis, overseers of the university. 

The corporation is a distinct body, con- 
sisting of seven members, in whom is vested 
the property of the university. 

Harvard University has a President, Em- 
eritus Professor of Divinity, — Hollisian Pro- 
fessor of Divinity,— Hancock Professor of 
Hebrew and other Oriental languages, — Hoi- 



COLLEGE?, OR SUPEKIOR INSTURCTION', 



459 



lis Profesrior of Mathematics and Natural 
Philosopliy — Hersey Professor of Anatomy 
and Surgery, — Ilersey Professor of the 
theory and practice of Physic, — Erving Pro- 
fessor of Chemistry and Materia Medica, — 
four tutors, who teach the Greek and Latin 
languag-os, logic, metaphysics, and ethics, 
geography, and the -elements of geometry, 
natural philosophy, astronomy, and history ; 
and a preceptor of the French language. 

This university, as to its library, pliilo- 
sophical apparatus and professorships, is at 
present the first literary institution on the 
American continent. Since its tlrst estab- 
lishment, upwards of three thousand three 
hundred students have received honorary 
degrees from its successive officers ; about 
one-third of whom have been ordained to 
tlie work of the gospel ministry. It has 
generally from one hundred and thirty to 
one hundred and sixty students. 

This university is liberally endowed, and 
is frequently receiving donations for the es- 
tablishment of new professorships. For- 
mei'ly there was an annual grant made by the 
legislature to the president and professors, 
of from four to five hundred pounds, which 
for several years past has been discontinued. 

[Williams College grew out of the avails 
of land and other property left by will of 
Col. Ephrai.u Williams, dated July 22, 1755, 
"for the support of a Free School in a 
township west of Fort Massachusetts." The 
land was in part a grant of 200 acres made 
to him by the General Court of Massachu- 
setts for military service in the French war 
from 1740 to 1748. In 1785 a body of 
trustees to maintain a free school in Wil- 
liamstown was incol'porated by the legisla- 
ture, a building erected, and a school opened 
in the same in 1791, with two departments 
— a grammar-school or academy, with a col- 
lege course, and an English free school. In 
1793 this school, by act of the legislature, 
became Williams College, with a grant of 
$4,000 from the State to purchase books and 
philqsophical apparatus. The requirements 
for entering the college were, ability " to 
read, parse and construe, to the satisfaction 
of the president and tutor, Virgil's ^Eiieid, 
Tully's Orations, and the Evangelists, in 
Greek ; or if he prefers to become acquainted 
with French, he must be able to read, with 
a tolerable degree of accuracy and fluency, 
Hudson's French Scholars' Guide, Tele- 
mucluis, or some other approved French 
author.] 



Virginia.* — The college of William and 
Mary was founded in the time of King 
William and Qneen Mary [1692], who grant- 
ed to it twenty thousand acres of land, and 
a penny a pound duty on certain tobaccos 
exported from Virginia and Maryland, which 
had been levied by the statute of 25 Car. 
II. The Assembly also gave it, by tempo- 
rary laws, a duty on liquors imported, and 
skins and furs exported. From these re- 
sources it received upwards of three thou- 
sand pounds. The buildings are of brick, 
sufficient for an. indifferent accommodation 
of perhaps one hundred students. By its 
charter it was to be under the government 
of twenty visitors, who were to be its legis- 
lators, and to have a president and six 
professors, who were incorporated : it was 
allowed a representative in the General x\s- 
sembly. Under this charter, a professor- 
ship of the Greek and Latin languages, a 
professor of mathematics, one of moral phi- 
losophy, and two of divinity, were estab- 
lished. To these were annexed, for a sixth 
professorship, a considerable donation by a 
Mr. Boyle of England, for the instruction 
of the Indians, and their conversion to 
Christianity : this was called the professor- 
ship of Brasserton, from an estate of that 
name in England, purchased with the moneys 
given. The admission of the learners of 
Latin and Greek filled the college with 
children ; this rendering it disagreeable to 
the young gentlemen already prepared for 
entering on the sciences, they desisted from 
resorting to it, and thus tlie schools for 
mathematics and moral philosophy, which 
might have been of some service, became 
of very little use. The revenues, too, were 
exhausted in accommodating those who 
came only to acquire the rudiments of 
science. After the present revolution, the 
visitors having no power to change those 
circumstances in the constitution of the 
college which were fixed by the charter, 
and being therefore confined in the number 
of professorships, undertook to change 

* In IGl!) II gift of 500/. was miide tn the Virffinm Company 
to aid in the educMtiun of Indiiin yimths. Collections were 
tnken up in the Churches of England, by which 1(1,500/. were 
realized, and the conipiiny appropriiited 1(1,0(10 ncres of lund at 
Henrico, a little below the present site of Richmond. Rev. 
Mr. Copelnnd was made president, and Cenrge Tlior[ie, with 
.50 tenants, sent over in KSl to improve the land. These were 
all slain by the Indians in the great massacre of K)22, and the 
project of the college was abandoned. In IliUO an attempt was 
made in the Assembly ti) establish a college •' for the snpp'y of 
the ministry and the projnotion of piety." In ](i9i n charter 
was obtained from the government in England through the 
agency of Rev. James Blair, who became its [ircsident, and the 
assistance of Lieut. Governor Nicholson, and was called after 
Its royal founders, William and Mary. 



4C0 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



the objects of the professorships. They 
cxchided the two schools for divinity, and 
that for the Greek and Latin languages, and 
substituted others; so that at present they 
stand thus — a professorship for law and po- 
lice ; anatomy and medicine ; natural phi- 
losophy and mathematics; moral philoso- 
phy, the law of nature and nations, the 
line arts ; modern languages ; for the Bras- 
serton. 

Measures have been tahen to increase 
the number of professorships, as well for 
the purpose of subdividing those already 
instituted, as of adding others for other 
branches of science. To the professorships 
usually established in the universities of 
Europe, it would seem proper to add one 
fur the ancient languages and literature of 
the north, on account of their connection 
with our own languages, laws, customs, and 
history. The purposes of the Brasserton 
institution would be better answered by 
maintaining a perpetual mission among the 
Indian tribes; the object of which, besides 
instructing them in the principles of 
Christianity, as the founder requires, should 
be to collect their traditions, laws, customs, 
languages, and other circumstances which 
might lead to a discovery of their relation 
to one another, or descent from other na- 
tions. When these objects are accomplished 
with one tribe, the missionary might pass 
on to another. 

The college edifice is a huge, misshapen 
pile; "which, but that it has a root, would 
be taken fur a brick-kiln." In 1787, there 
were about thirty young gentlemen mem- 
bers of this college, a large proportion of 
which were law students. 

The academy in Prince Edward county 
has been erected into a college by the name 
of Hampden Sydney college. It has been 
a flourishing seminary, but is now said to 
be on the decline. 

Connecticut. — Yale College was founded 
in 1700, and remained at Killingworth until 
1707; then at Say brook until 1716, when 
it was removed and fixed at New Haven. 
Among its principal benefactors was Gov- 
ernor Yale, in honor of whom, in 1718, it 
was named Yale College. Its first building 
was erected in I7l7, being one hundred 
and seventy feet in length, and twenty-two 
in breadth, built of wood. This was taken 
down in 1782. The present college, which 
is of brick, was built in 1750, under the 
direction of the Rev, President Clap, and 



is one hundred feet long and forty feet wide, 
three stories high, and contains thirty-two 
chambers, and sixty-four studies, convenient 
fur the reception of one hundred students. 
The college chapel, which is also of brick, 
was built in 1761, being fifty feet by forty, 
with a steeple one hundred and twenty- 
five feet high. In this building is the 
public library, consisting of about two thou- 
sand five hundred volumes ; and the philo- 
sophical apparatus, which, by a late hand- 
some addition, is now as complete as most 
otheis in the United States, and contains 
the machines necessary for exhibiting ex- 
periments in the whole course of experi- 
mental philosophy and astronomy. The 
college museum, to which additions are 
constantly making, contains many natural 
curiosities. 

This literary institution was incorporated 
by the General Assembly of Connecticut. 
The first charter of incorporation was grant- 
ed to eleven ministers, under the denomina- 
tion of trustees, in 1701. The powers of 
the trustees were enlarged by the additional 
charter of 1723. And'by that of 1745, the 
trustees were incorporated by the name of 
" The president and fellows of Yale College, 
New Haven." By an act of the General 
Assembly " for enlarging the powers and 
increasing the funds of Yale College," passed 
in May, 1792, and accepted by the corpora- 
tion, the governor, lieutenant-governor, and 
the six senior assistants in the council of 
the State for the time being, are ever here- 
after, by virtue of their offices, to be trus- 
tees and fellows of the college, in addition 
to the former corporation. The corpora- 
tion are empowered to hold estates, con- 
tinue their succession, make academic laws, 
elect and constitute all officers of instruc- 
tion and government usual in universities, 
and confer all learned degrees. The imme- 
diate executive government is in the hands 
of the president and tutors. The present 
officers and instructors of the college are, 
a president, who is also professor of eccle- 
siastical history, a professor of divinity, and 
three tutors. The number of students, on 
an average, is about 130, divided into four 
classes. It is worthy of remark, that as 
many as five-sixths of those who have re- 
ceived their education at this university, 
were natives of Connecticut. 

The funds of this college received a 
very liberal addition by a grant of the 
General Assembly, in the act of 1792 



COLLEGES, OR SUPERIOR INSTRUCTION. 



461 



before mentioned ; which will enable the 
corporation to erect a new building for the 
accommodation of the students, to support 
several new professorships, and to make a 
handsome addition to the library. 

The course of education in this university 
comprehends the whole circle of literature. 
The three learned languages are taught, 
together with so much of the sciences as 
can be communicated in four years. 

In May and September, annually, the 
several classes are critically examined in all 
their classical studies. As incentives to 
improvement in composition and oratory, 
quarterly exercises are appointed by the 
president and tutors, to be exhibited by 
the respective classes in rotation. A pub- 
lic commencement is held annually on the 
second Wednesday in September, which 
calls together a more numerous and bril- 
liant assembly, than are convened by any 
other anniversary in the State. 

About two thousand two hundred have 
received the honors of this university, of 
whom nearly seven hundred and sixty have 
been ordained to the work of the gospel 
ministry. 

[Wansey, in his Journal of an Ejccursion 
to the United States of North America in 
1794, thus speaks of the college: I went 
over to the college, which stands in the 
market-place. It consist of two brick 
edifices, one hundred feet long and three 
stories high. It was founded in the year 
1700; it was but in bad condition when I 
saw it ; very dirty, particularly the library. 
The books were numerous, but very old and 
in bad condition ; two large globes of 
Senex's, a large electrical apparatus, a good 
reflecting telescope, and a cabinet of curiof,- 
ities, with which I was much entertained ; 
viz., Indian helmets, curiously woven with 
feathers ; warlike dresses and belts of wam- 
pum. Two large teeth of the mammoth, 
found on the banks of the Ohio, in the 
shape of human cheek teeth ; I meas>ired 
them with my handkerchief, and applied it to 
a foot rule, and found their dimensions to 
be twenty-two inches round horizontally, 
and twenty inches long when I measured 
longitudinally, over the tops and between 
the roots. The skins of two beautifully 
spotted snakes, eighteen feet long, from 
South America ; an Indian calumet or pipe 
of peace ; a young alligator, preserved in 
spirits ; instruments of war and of fishing, 
from Nootka Sound. Cloth made at 
28* 



Otaheite. A curious frog, with a long tail 
like a lizard. Several pieces of asbestos 
found in that neighborhood. But what 
most particularly struck me, was a snake 
with two distinct heads; I asked the libra- 
rian whether this was not considered as a 
monster, a lusus nnturce? He assured me 
not, and that in that neighborhood they 
had often been found alive. This one was 
preserved in spirits, in size, color, and shape, 
like our floio worm, about eight or nine 
inches long ; the two heads were of the 
same size, and every way perfect, branching 
off equally from the trunk, in opposite direc- 
tions, one inch and a quarter in length. I 
afterwards saw at Philadelphia, in Peale's 
museum, two others of this sort, only that 
one of them had three heads ; neither of 
them in a straight direction with the body. 
I did not see Dr. Stiles, the president of the 
college, he was gone to New York that day. 
The students had all been dismissed to their 
respective homes, three montlis before, on 
account of the epidemic or putrid fever 
which then raged in the town.] 

New Jersey. — There are two colleges in 
New Jersey; one at Princetown, called Nas- 
sau Hall, the other at Brunswick, called 
Queen's College. 

The college at Princetown was first 
founded by charter from John Hamilton, 
Esq., President of the Council, about the 
year 1738, and enlarged by Governor 
Belcher in 1747. The charter delegates a 
power of granting to "the students of said 
college, or to any others thought worthy of 
them, all such degrees as are granted in 
either of the universities, or any other col- 
lege in Great Britain." It has twenty-three 
trustees. The governor of the State, and 
the president of the college are ex officiis, 
two of them. It has an annual income of 
about nine hundred pounds currency, of 
which two hundred pounds arise from 
funded public securities and lands, and the 
rest from the fees of the students. 

The president of the college is also pro- 
fessor of eloquence, criticism and chronol- 
ogy. The vice-president is also professor 
of divinity and moral philosophy. There is 
also a professor of mathematics and natural 
philosophy, and two masters of languages. 
The four classes in college contain commonly 
from seventy to one hundred students. 
There is a grammar-school of about twenty 
scholars connected with the college; under 
the superintendence of the presidant, and 



462 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



tanglit sometimes by a senior scholar, and 
sometimes by a graduate. 

Before the war, this college was furnished 
with a philosophical apparatus, worth five 
hundred pounds, which (except the elegant 
orrery constructed by Mr. Rittenhouse) was 
almost entirely destroyed by the British 
army in the late war, as was also the library, 
which now consists of between two and 
three thousand volumes. 

The college edifice is handsomely built 
with stone, and is one hundred and eighty 
feet in length, fifty-four in breadth, and 
four stories high, and is divided into forty- 
two convenient chambers for the accommo- 
dation of the students, besides a dining-hall, 
chapel, and room for the library. Its situa- 
tion is elevated, and exceedingly pleasant 
and healthful. It is remarkable, that since 
the removal of the college to Princetown, in 
1756, there have been but five or six deaths 
among the students. The view from the 
college balcony is extensive and charming. 

The college has been under the care of a 
succession of presidents, eminent for piety 
and learning, and has furnished a number of 
civilians, divines and physicians, of the first 
rank in America. 

The charter for Queen's College, at Bruns- 
wick, was granted [l770] just before the war, 
in consequence of an application from a party 
of the Dutch church. Its funds, raised 
wholly by free donations, amounted, soon 
after its establishment, to four thousand 
pounds, but they were considerably dimin- 
ished by the war. The grammar school, 
which is connected with the college, con- 
sists of between thirty and forty students, 
under the care of the trustees. The college 
at present is not in a very flourishing state. 

New York. — Until the year 1745, there 
was no college in the province of New York. 
The state of literature, at that time, I shall 
give in the words of the state historian:* 
"Our schools are in the lowest order; the 
instructors want instruction, and through a 
long and shameful neglect of all the arts and 
sciences, our common speech is extremely 
corrupt, and the evidences of a bad taste, 
both as to thought and language, are visible 
in all our proceedings, public and private." 
Til is may have been a just representation 
at the time when it was written ; but much 
attention has since been paid to education. 

Kings College, in the city of New York, 
was principally founded by the voluntary 



♦Smith's History of New York, London, 1757. 



contributions of the inhabitants of the prov- 
ince, assisted by the General Assembly, and 
the corporation of Trinity Church ; in the 
year 1754, a royal charter (and grant of 
money) being then obtained, incorporating 
a number of gentlemen therein mentioned, 
by the name of " The Governors of the 
College of the Province of New York, in 
the city of New York, in America; and 
granting to them and their successors for 
ever, amongst various other rights and priv- 
ileges, the power of conferring all such de- 
grees as are usually conferred by either of 
the English univ-ersities. 

By the charter it was provided that the 
president shall always be a member of the 
clmrch of England, and that a form of prayer 
collected from the liturgy of that church, 
with a particular prayer for the college, shall 
be daily used, morning and evening, in the 
college chapel ; at the same time, no test of 
their religious persuasion was required from 
any of the fellows, professors, or tutors ; and 
the advantages of education were equally 
extended to students of all denominations. 

The building, which is only one-third of 
the intended structure, consists of an elegant 
stone edifice, three complete stories high, 
with four stair cases, twelve apartments in 
each, a chapel, hall, library, uniseum, ana- 
tomical theatre, and school for experimental 
philosophy. 

The college is situated on a dry, gravelly 
soil, about one hundred and fifty yards from 
the bank of Hudson's river, which it over- 
looks; commanding a most extensive and 
beautiful prospect (now solid warehouses). 

Kings College is now called Columbia 
College. This college, by an act of the 
legislature passed in the spring of 1787, was 
put under the care of twenty-four gentlemen, 
who are a body corporate, by the name and 
style of " The Trustees of Columbia College 
in the city of New York." This body pos- 
sess all the powers vested in the governors 
of Kings College before the revolution, or in 
the regents of the university since the revo- 
lution, so far as their power respected this 
institution. No regent can be a trustee of 
any particular college or academy in the 
State. The regents of the univeisity have 
power to confer the higher degrees, and 
them only. 

The college edifice has received no addi- 
tions since the peace. The funds, exclusive 
of the liberal grant of the legislature, 
amount to between twelve and thirteen thou- 



COLLEGES, OR SUPERIOR INSTRUCTION. 



468 



sand pounds currency, the income of which 
is sufficient for present exigencies. 

Tills college is now in a thriving state, 
and has about one hundred students in the 
four classes, besides medical students. The 
officers of instruction and immediate gov- 
ernment are a president, professor of math- 
ematics and natural philosophy, a professor 
of logic and geography, and a professor of 
languages. A complete medical school has 
been lately annexed to the college, and able 
professors appointed by the trustees in every 
branch of that important science, who regu- 
larly teach their respective branches with 
reputation. The number of medical stu- 
dents is about fifty, but they are increasing. 
The library and museum were destroyed 
during the war. The philosophical appara- 
tus is new and complete. 

[Union College, at Schenectady, received 
its charter from the Regents of the Univer- 
sity in 1795, but owing to inadequate means 
and the short administrations of its first 
three presidents, John Blair Smith, Jonathan 
Edwards and Jonathan Marcy, the institution 
did not develope into a college until its ad- 
ministration was committed to Rev. Elipha- 
let Nott, at the time pastor of the Presby- 
terian church at Albany.] 

Rhode Island. — At Providence is Rhode 
Island College. The charter for founding 
this seminary of learning was granted by the 
General Assembly of the State, by the name 
of the "Trustees and Fellows of the College 
or University, in the English colony of 
Rhode Island and Providence Plantations,"* 
in 1764, in consequence of the petition of 
a large number of the most respectable 
characters in the State. By the charter, the 
corporation of the college consists of two 
separate branches, with distinct, separate, 
and respective powers. The number of 
trustees is thirty-six, of whom twenty-two 
are Baptises, five of the denomination of 
Friends, five Episcopalians, and four Con- 
gregationalists. The same proportion of the 
different denominations to continue in per- 
petuum. The 'number of fellows (inclusive 
of the president, wh- is a fellow ex officio) 
is twelve, of whom eight are Baptists, the 
others chosen indiscriminately from any 
denomination. The concurrence of both 
branches, by a majority of each, is neces- 
sary for the validity of an act, except ad- 



•This name to be altered when "any generous benefactor 
arises, who by his Uberal donation shall entitle himself to the 
honor of giving the college a name. 



judging and conferring degrees, which ex- 
clusively belongs to the fellowship as a 
learned faculty. The president must be a 
Baptist: professors and other officers of 
instruction are not limited to any particu- 
lar denominatipn. 

This institution was first founded at 
Warren, in the county of Bristol, and the 
first commencement held there in 1769. 

In the year 1770, the college was removed 
to Providence, where a large, elegant build- 
ing was erected for its accommodation, by 
the generous donations of individuals, most- 
ly from the town of Providence. It is 
situated on a hill to the east of the town ; 
and while its elevated situation renders it 
delightful, by commanding an extensive 
variegated prospect, it furnishes it with a 
pure, salubrious air. The edifice is of 
brick, four stories high, one hundred and 
fifty feet long, and forty-six wide, with a 
projection of ten feet each side. It has an 
entry lengthwise, with rooms on each side. 
There are forty-eight rooms for the accom- 
modation of students, and eight larger ones 
for public uses. The roof is covered with 
slate. 

From December, 1776, to June, 1782, 
the college edifice was used by the French 
and American troops for an hospital and 
barracks, so that the course of education 
was interrupted during that period. No 
degrees were conferred from 1776 to 1786. 
From 1786, the college again became reg- 
ular, and is now very flourishing, contain- 
ing upwards of sixty students. 

This institution is under the instruction 
of a president, a professor of divinity, a 
professor of natural and experimental 
philosophy, a professor of mathematics and 
astronomy, a professor of natural history, 
and three tutors. The institution has a 
library of between two and three thousand 
volumes, containing a valuable philosophical 
apparatus. Nearly all the funds of the 
college are at interest in the treasury of the 
State, and amount to almost two thousand 
pounds. 

Pennsylvania. — The University of Penn^ 
sylvania, by that name, was chartered in 
1779 by an act which annulled the charter 
of the Academy and Charitable School, ob- 
tained by Franklin in 1749, and enlarged 
into a college in 1755. By an act of 1789 
the trustees and faculty of the old college 
were reinstated, and by an act of 1791 the 
two institutions were united iu the Univer* 



464 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



sity of Pennsylvania. Winteibotham, 
writing in 1795, says: In Philadelphia is 
the University of Pennsylvania, founded and 
endowed by the legislature during the war. 
Professorships are established in all the lib- 
eral arts and sciences, and a complete course 
of education may be pursued here from the 
first rudiments of literature to the highest 
branches of science. 

The college and academy of Philadelphia 
was founded by charter between thirty and 
forty years ago, and endowed by subscrip- 
tion of liberal minded persons. Though 
this institution was interrupted in its prog- 
ress for several years during the late war, 
yet being re-established since the peace, it 
has rapidly recovered its former state of 
prosperity, and to the bench of professors 
has lately been added one of common and 
federal law, which renders it in reality, 
though not in name, an university. An act 
to unite these two institutions has passed the 
legislature. By their union they will consti- 
tute one of the most respectable semina- 
ries of learning in the United States. 

Dickinson College, at Carlisle, an hun- 
dred and twenty miles westward of Phil- 
adelphia, was founded in 1783, and has a 
principal, three professors, a philosophical 
apparatus, a library consisting of nearly 
three thousand volumes, four thousand 
pounds in funded certificates, and ten thou- 
sand acres of land ; the last, the donation 
of the State. In 1787, there were eighty 
students belonging to this college : this 
number is annually increasing. It was 
named after his excellency John Dickinson, 
author of the Pennsylvania Farmer's Let- 
ters, and formerly president of the Supreme 
Executive Council of this State. 

In 1787, a college was founded at Lancas- 
ter, sixty-six miles from Philadelphia, and 
honored with the name of Franklin college, 
after his excellency, Dr. Franklin. This col- 
lege is for the Germans, in which they may 
educate their youth in their own language, 
and in conformity to their own habits. The 
English language, however, is taught in it. 
Its endowments are nearly the same as 
those of Dickinson College. Its trustees 
consist of Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Cal- 
vinists, of each an equal number. The 
principal is a Lutheran, and the vice-princi- 
pal is a Calvinist. 

Maryland. — In 1782, a college was insti- 
tuted at Chestertown, in Kent county, and 
was honored with the name of Washington 



College, after President Washington. It is 
under the management of twenty-four 
visitors of governors, with power to supply 
vacancies and hold estates, whose yearly 
value shall not exceed six thousand pounds 
current money. By a law enacted in 1787, 
a permanent fund was granted to this insti- 
tution of one thousand two hundred and 
fifty pounds a year, currency, out of the 
moneys arising from marriage licenses, 
fines, and forfeitures on the eastern shore. 

St. Johns College was instituted in 
1784, to have also twenty -four trustees, 
with power to keep up the succession by 
supplying vacancies, and to receive an 
annual income of nine thousand pounds. 
A permanent fund* is assigned this college, 
of one thousand seven hundred and fifty 
pounds a year, out of the moneys arising 
from marriage licenses, ordinary licenses, 
fines and forfeitures, on the western shore. 
This college is at Annapolis, where a build- 
ing has been prepared for it. Very liberal 
subscriptions have been obtained towards 
founding and carrying on these seminaries. 
The two colleges constitute one university, 
by the name of " the University of Mary- 
land," whereof the governor of the State 
for the time being is chancellor, and the 
principal of one of them vice-chancellor, 
either by seniority or by election, as may 
hereafter be provided for by rule or by law. 
The chancellor is empowered to call a meet- 
ing of the trustees, or a representation of 
seven of each, and two of the members of 
the faculty of each, the principal being one, 
which meeting is styled, " The Convocation 
of the University of Maryland," who are 
to frame the laws, preserve uniformity of 
manners and literature in the colleges, 
confer the higher degrees, determine ap- 
peals, &c. 

The Roman Catholics have also erected a 
college at Georgetown, [included in the 
cession for the District of Columbia] on the 
Potomac river, for the promotion of general 
literature. 

In 1785, the Methodists instituted a 
college at Abingdon, in Harford county, 
by the name of Cokesbury College, after 
Thomas Coke, and Francis Ashbury, bishops 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The 
college edifice is of brick, handsomely 
built on a healthy spot, enjoying a tine air, 
and a very extensive prospect. 

The students, who are to consist of the 

* Repealed by Legislature in 1804. 




FOL-XDiNG OP DARTMOUTH COLLEGE, ix 17G9. Engraved in 1839. 



COLLEGES, OR SUPERIOR INSTRUCTION. 



465 



sons of traveling preachers, of annual sub- 
scribers, of the members of the Methodist 
society and orphans, are instructed in 
English, Latin, Greek, Logic, Rhetoric, His- 
tory, Geography, Natural Philosophy and 
Astronomy ; and when the finances of the 
college will admit, they are to be taught the 
Hebrew, French, and German languages. 

The college was erected, and is supported 
wholly by subscription and voluntary dona- 
tions. 

The students have regular hours for ris- 
ing, for prayers, for their meals, for study, 
and for recreation : they are all to be in bed 
precisely at nine o'clock. Their recreations, 
(for they are to be " indulged in nothing 
which the world calls ^?^«y,") are gardening, 
walking, riding, and bathing, without doors ; 
and within doors, the carpenter's, joiner's, 
cabinet-maker's, or turner's business. Suit- 
able provision is made for these several 
occupations, which are to be considered, 
not as matters of drudgery and constraint, 
but as pleasing and healthful recreations 
both for the body and mind. Another of 
their rules, which though new and singular, 
is favorable to the health and vigor of the 
body and mind, is, that the students shall 
not sleep on feather beds but on mattresses, 
and each one by himself. Particular atten- 
tion is paid to the morals and religion of 
the students. 

New Hampshire. — The establishment of 
Dartmouth College [founded by Eleazer 
Wheelock, D. D., in 1769, at Hanover, in 
Grafton county, with special view to the 
education of young Indians] in the western 
border of the State, has proved a great ben- 
efit to the new settlements, and to the neigh- 
boring State of Vermont. During the late 
war, like all other seminaries of literature, 
it lay under discouragement ; but since the 
peace it is in a more flourishing situation. 

Its landed interest amounts to about 
eighty thousand acres, of which twelve hun- 
dred lie contiguous, and are capable of the 
best improvement. Twelve thousand acres 
are situate in Vermont. A tract of eight 
miles square beyond the northern line of 
Stuart town, was granted by the Assembly 
of New Hampshire in 1789, and in the act 
by which this grant was made, " the presi- 
dent and council of the State for the time 
being are incorporated with the trustees of 
the college, so far as to act with them in re- 
gard to the expenditures and apphcation of 
this grant, and of all others which have been 



or may be hereafter made by New Hamp- 
shire." 

The revenue of the college arising from 
the lands, amounts to one hundred and forty 
pounds per annum. By contracts already 
made it will amount in four years to four 
hundred and fifty ; and in twelve years to six 
hundred and fifty pounds. The income 
arising from tuition money is about six hun- 
dred pounds per annum more. 

The first building erected for the accom- 
modation of the students was a few years 
since burned. A lottery was granted by the 
'State for raising the sum of seven hundred 
pounds, wliich has been applied to the erec- 
tion of a new building, much more conven- 
ient than the former ; it was constructed of 
wood, and stands in an elevated situation, 
about half a mile eastward of Connecticut 
river in the township of Hanover, com- 
manding an extensive and pleasant prospect 
to the west. It is one hundred and fifty 
feet long, fifty feet wide, and thirty-six feet 
high, and contains thirty-six chambers for 
students. The number of students who 
were graduated in the first nineteen years, 
amounts to two hundred and fifty-two, 
among whom were two Indians. In the 
year 1790, the number of undergraduates 
was about one hundred and fifty. 

The students are divided into four classes. 
The freshmen study the learned languages, 
the I'ules of speaking and writing, and the 
elements of mathematics. 

The sophomores attend to the languages, 
geography, logic, and mathematics. 

The junior sophisters, beside the lan- 
guages, enter on natural and moral philoso- 
phy and composition. 

The senior class compose in English and 
Latin ; study metaphysics, the elements of 
natural and political law. 

The principal books used by the students 
are Lowth's English Grammar, Perry's Dic- 
tionary, Pike's Arithmetic, Guthrie's Geog- 
raphy, Ward's Mathematics, Atkinson's 
Epitome, Hammond's Algebra, Martin's and 
Enfield's Natural Philosophy, Ferguson's 
Astronomy, Locke's Essay, Montesquieu's 
Spirit of Laws, and Burlemaqui's Natural 
and Political Law. 

Besides these studies, lectures are read to 
the scholars in theology and ecclesiastical 
history. 

Kentucky. — The legislature of Virginia, 
while Kentucky made a part of that State, 
made provision for a college in it, and en- 



466 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



dewed it with very considerable landed 
funds ; and a library for its use was for- 
warded thither by tlie Rev. Mr. John Todd 
of Virginia, (after obtaining the consent of 
the Rev. Dr. Gordon) while an inhabitant 
of the Massachusetts State. This library 
was mostly formed in the following manner : 
An epistolary acquaintance having com- 
menced between Mr. Todd and Dr. Gordon, 
through the influence of their common 
friend, the Rev. Mr. Samuel Davis, long- 
since deceased, a letter was received about 
the end of 1764, or beginnmg of 1765, from 
Mr. Todd, in which he expressed a desire 
of obtaining a library and some philosophi- 
cal apparatus, to improve the education of 
some young persons, who were designed for 
the ministry. Dr. Gordon being then set- 
tled at London, upon application obtained 
a few annual subscriptions, with several do- 
nations of money, and of books, which were 
not closed till after March, 1769. During 
that period he received in cash, including 
his own subscription, eighty pounds two 
shillings and sixpence. The late worthy 
John Thornton, Esq., contributed fifty 
pounds of it, by the hand of the Rev. Mr. 
(afterwards Dr.) Wilson, who also gave in 
books ten pounds. Among the contribu- 
tors still living, beside Dr. Gordon himself, 
are the Rev. Mr. Towle, Messrs. Fuller, 
Samuel, and Thomas Statton, Charles Jer- 
dein, David Jennings, Jonathan Eade, Jo- 
seph Ainsley, and John Field of Thames 
street. 

Of the money collected, twenty-eight 
pounds ten shillings was paid to the late 
Mr. Ribright, for an air-pump, microscope, 
telescope, and prisms, thorough good, but 
not new. Cases, shipping, freight, insur- 
ance, &c., at four diflcrent periods, came 
to eight pounds eleven shillings and six- 
pence. The forty-three pounds one shilling 
was laid out to the best advantage in pur- 
chasing a variety of books, which, with those 
that were given, are supposed to make the 
main part of the Lexington Library.* 

North Carolina. — The General Assem- 
bly of North Carolina, in December, 1789, 
passed a law incorporating forty gentlemen, 
five from each district, as trustees of the 
university of North Carolina; to this uni- 
versity they gave, by a subsequent law, all 
the debts due to the State from sheriffs or 



• As this account of the librory is essentially different from 
that given by Mr. Morse, nnd every other writer we hnve met 
with, the editor thinks it right to inform the public, thiit he 
inserts the above at the desire of the Rev. Dr. Gordon hmiself. 



other holders of public money, and which 
had been due before the year 1783; they 
also gave it all escheated property within 
the State. Whenever the trustees shall have 
collected a sufficient sum of the old debts, 
or from the sale of escheated propiMty, the 
value of which is considerable, to pay the 
expense of erecting buildings, they are to 
fix on a proper place, and proceed in the 
finishing of them ; a considerable quantity 
of land has already been given to the uni- 
versity, and the General Assembly, in De- 
cember, 1791, loaned five thousand pounds 
to the trustees, to enable them to proceed 
immediately with the buildings. 

[The first college edifice was opened at 
Chapel Hill for the reception of students in 
Feb., 1795, under the faculty composed of 
Rev. David Kerr, of Trinity College, Dublin ; 
Professor C. H. Harris, in the mathematical 
chair, a graduate of Princeton, and Prof. 
Joseph (/aldwell, a native of New Jersey 
and a graduate of Princeton, in 1791. The 
latter was elected the first president in 1804.] 

South Carolina. — Gentlemen of fortune, 
before the late war, sent their sons to Eu- 
rope for education. During the late war 
and since, they have generally sent them to 
the middle and northern States. Those who 
have been at this expense in educating their 
sons, have been but comparatively few in 
number, so that the literature of the State 
is at a low ebb. Since the peace, however, 
it has begun to flourish. There are several 
respectable academies at Charleston ; one at 
Beaufort, on Poit Royal Island ; and several 
others in different parts of the State. Three 
colleges have lately been incorporated by 
law; one at Charleston, one at Winiisbor- 
ough, in the district of Camden, and the 
other at Cambridge, in the district of Ninety- 
six. The public and private donations for 
the support of these three colleges were 
originally intended to have been appro- 
priated jointly, for the erecting and support- 
ing of one respectable college. The division 
of these donations has frustrated this design. 
Part of the old barracks in Charleston has 
been handsomely fitted up, and converted 
into a college, and there are a number of 
students ; but it does not yet merit a more 
dignified name than that of a respectable 
academy. The Mount vSion college, at 
Winnsborough, is supported by a respectable 
society of gentlemen, who have long been 
incorporated. This institution flourishes, 
and bids fair for usefulness. The college at 



COLLEGES, OR SUPERIOR INSTRUCTION. 



467 



IS no more 



than 



a grammar 



Cambridge 
school. 

[The college at Charleston graduated its 
first class in 1794, but its organic connection 
with the grauimar school repressed its 
growth to meet the wants of a collegiate ed- 
ucation, which was soon liberally provided 
for in the South Carolina College, chartered 
by the State in 1 801, and was ever afterwards 
the favorite institution with both the legis- 
lature and the people.] 

Georgia. — The charter, containing their 
present system of education, was passed in 
the year 1785. A college, with ample and 
liberal endowments, is instituted in Louis- 
ville, a high and healthy part of the 
country, near the centre of the State. 
-There is also provision made for the institu- 
tion of an academy in each county in the 
State, to be supported from the same funds. 
and considered as parts and members of the 
same institution, under the general super- 
intendence and direction of a president 
and board of trustees, appointed, for their 
literary accomplishments, from the different 
parts of the State, invested with the custom- 
ary powers of corporations. The institu- 
tions thus composed and united is denom- 
inated, "The University of Georgia." 

That this body of literati, to whom is in- 
trusted the direction of the general litira- 
ture of the State, may not be so detached 
and independent, as not to possess the 
confidence of the State; and, in order to 
secure the attention and patronage of the 
principal officers of government, the gov- 
ernor and council, the speaker of the House 
of Assembly, and the chief justice of the 
State, are associated with the board of trus- 
tees, in some of the great and more solemn 
duties of their office, such as making the 
laws, appointing the president, settling the 
property, and instituting academies. Thus 
associated, they are denominated, " The 
Senate of the University," and are to hold 
a stated, annual meeting, at which the gov- 
ernor of the State presides. 

The Seuate appoint a board of commis- 
sioners in each county, for the particular 
management and direction of the academy, 
and the other schools in each county, wdio 
are to receive their instructions from, and 
are accountable to the Senate. The rector 
of each academy is an officer of the univer- 
sity, to be appointed by the president, 
with the advice of the trustees, and commis- 
sioned under the public seal, and is to attend 



with the other officers at the annual meeting 
of the Senate, to deliberate on the general 
interests of literature, and to determine on the 
course of instruction for the year, throughout 
the university. The president has the gen- 
eral charge and oversight of the whole, 
and is from time to time to visit them, to ex- 
amine into their order and performances. 

The funds for the support of their insti- 
tution are principally in lands, amounting 
in the whole to about fifty thousand acres, 
a great part of which is of the best quality, 
and at present very valuable. There are also 
nearly six thousand pounds sterling in bonds, 
houses, and town lots in the town of Augusta. 
Other public property to the amount of 
one thousand pounds in each county, has 
been set apart for the purposes of building 
and furnishing their respective academies. 

[Vermont. — In the first organization of 
the State, in 1777, the constitution of Ver- 
mont enjoined on the Legislature the found- 
ing of a University. In 1785 the Legisla- 
ture responded to a call from Dai-tmouth 
for aid, by a grant of a toAvnship of land to 
that institution. In 1791 the charter of a 
State University was granted in furtherance 
of a donation of land by Ira Allen in 1789; 
a president was elected with a salary of 
$600, a ])rofessor of mathematics with a 
salary of $350, and a tutor with $300, and 
from a prospectus issued at the time it was 
calculated that a 'poor scholar, by keeping 
school six months each winter at the average 
price of $16, could pay his college bills and 
board, and leave college with $32 in his 
pocket. The college asked only $12 a year 
for each student. Small as this sum was, 
there were academies in the State w'hich 
claimed to give as good opportunities for the 
scholarship required by the times, at as low, 
or at a lower rate, and allow the students to 
reside at home. 

Middlebury College was chartered in 
1800, and between the two institutions 
a local rivalry sprung up, which at times 
passed into belligerent legislation, and at no 
time rested simply on offering a better 
article of collegiate culture to the young 
aspirants of science.] 

To the above account by Winterbotham, 
of the number, and general organization and 
condition of American colleges prior to 1800, 
we shall, as in the case of Common Schools 
and Academies, throw light on the instruc- 
tion and discipline which prevailed in them 
from the communications of students. 



468 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



(2.) College Studies and Discipline about 1800. 

Judge Story, in a letter respecting the 
studies and discipline at Harvard between 
1794 and 1798, writes in 1840: 

" You express a desire to obtain some gen- 
eral views of the circumstances under which 
the students lived. I believe that this can 
be best done by giving you a brief sketch of 
the state of college, and the relation which 
the students had with the existing college 
government. Things are so much changed 
since that it is somewhat difficult to realize 
all the influences which then surrounded 
them. In the first place as to the course of 
studies. It was far more confined and limited 
than at present. In Greek we studied Xeno- 
phon's Anabasis and a few books of the Iliad ; 
in Latin, Sallust and a few books of Livy ; 
in Mathematics, Saunderson's Algebra and a 
work on Arithmetic; in Natural Philosophy, 
Enfield's Natural Philosophy and Ferguson's 
Astronomy ; in Rlietoric, an abridgment of 
Blair's Lectures and the article on Rhetoric 
in the 'Preceptor'; in Metaphysics, Watt's 
Logic and Locke on the Human Understand- 
ing; in History, Millot's Elements; in The- 
ology, Doddridge's Lectures; in grammatical 
studies, Lowth's Grammar. I believe this is 
near the whole, if not the whole, course of 
our systematical studies. The college library 
was at that time far less comprehensive and 
suited to the wants of students than at pre- 
sent. It was not as easily accessible, and, 
indeed, was not frequented by them. No 
modern language was taught except French, 
and that only one day in the week by a non- 
resident instructor. 

" The means of knowledge from external 
sources was very limited. The intercourse 
between us and foreign countries was infre- 
quent, and I might almost say that we had 
no means of access to any literature and 
science except the English. Even in respect 
to this we had little more than a semi-annual 
importation of the most common works, and 
a few copies supplied and satisfied the market. 
The English periodicals were then few in 
number, and I do not remember any one 
that was read by the students except the 
Monthly Magazine (the old Monthly), and 
that was read but by a few. I have spoken 
of our semi-annual importations, and it is lit- 
erally true, that two ships only plied as regu- 
lar packets between Boston and London, one 
in the Spring and one in the Autumn, and 
their arrival was an era in our coUetje life. 



"In respect to academical intercourse the 
students had literally none that was 'not 
purely official, except with each other. The 
difterent classes were almost strangers to 
each other, and cold reserve generally pre- 
vailed between them. The system of ' fag- 
ging' (as it was called) was just then dying 
out, and I believe that my own class was the 
first that was not compelled to perform this 
drudgery at the command of the Senior 
class in the most humble services. The stu- 
dents had no connection whatsoever with 
the inhabitants of Cambridge by private 
social visits. There was none between the 
families of the president and professors of 
the college and the students. The regime 
of the old school in manners and habits then 
prevailed. The president and professors 
were never approached except in the most 
formal way, and upon official occasions; and 
in the college yard (if I remember rightly) 
no student was permitted to be with his hat 
on if one of the professors was there." 

The system of fagging to which Judge 
Story alludes was one of the barbarisms 
which prevailed in the old medieval uni- 
versities,* and which still prevails in the 
" public schools," the great endowed board- 
ing schools of England, from which our 
fathers introduced it into the American 
college. In the laws for the government of 
Tale College, printed in Latin, in 1764, 
were appended in good plain Saxon English 
a code of college customs, entitled Fresh- 
man Laws, as follows : 

"It being the duty of the Seniors to teach Fresh- 
men the laws, usages and customs of tlie college, to 
tills end they are empowered to order the whole 
Freslmum class, or any particular member of it, in 
order to be instructed or reproved, at such time and 
place as they shall appoint; when and where every 
Freshman shall attend, answer all proper questions, 
and behave decently. The Seniors, however, are 
not to detain a Freshman more than live minutes 
after study-bell, without special order from the Presi- 
dent, Professor, or Tutor. 

" The Freslnnen, as well as all other undergradu- 
ates, are to be uncovered, and are forbidden to wear 
their hats (unless in stormy weather) in the front 
door-yard of the President's or Professor's house, or 
within ten rods of the person of the President, eight 
rods of the Professor, and tive rods of a Tutor. 

'•The Freshmen are forbidden to wear their hats 
in college yard (except in stormy weather, or when 
they are oliliged to carrj' sometiiing in their hands), 
until May vacation ; nor shall they afterwards wear 
them in college or chapel. 

"No Freshman shall wear a gown, or walk with 
a cane, or appear out of his room, without being 

• See Bnrnnrd's " Superior Education in different countries 
— Medieval Universities, 1873." 



470 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



completely dressed, and with his hat; and whenever 
a Freshman either speaks to a superior, or is spoken 
to by one, he shall keep his hat off, until he is bid- 
den to put it on. A Freshman shall not play with 
any members of an upper class, without being 
asked; !ior is he permitted to use any acts of famili- 
arity with them, even in study-time. 

"In case of personal insult, a Junior may call up 
a Freshman and reprehend him. A Sophomore in 
like cases must obtain leave from a Senior, and then 
he may discipline a Freshman, not detaining hfin 
more than live minutes, after which the Freshman 
may retire, even without being dismissed, but must 
retire in a respectful manner. 

"Freshmen are obliged to perform all reasonable 
errands for any superior, always returning an account 
of the same to the person who sent them. When 
called, they shall attend and give a respectful answer; 
and when attending on their superior, they are not 
to depart until regularly dismissed. They are re- 
sponsible for all damage done to any thing put into 
their hands, by way of errand. They are not 
obliged to go for the undergraduates in study-time, 
without permission obtained from the authority; 
nor are they obliged to go for a graduate out of the 
yard in study-time. A Senior may take a Fresh- 
man from a Sophomore, a Bachelor from a Junior, 
and a Master from a Senior. None may order a 
Freshman in one play-ground, to do an errand in 
another. 

" When a Freshman is near a gate or door, belong- 
ing to college or college yard, he shall look around, 
and observe whether any of his superiors are com- 
ing to the same ; and if any are coming within 
three rods, he shall not enter without a signal to 
proceed. In passing up or down stairs, or through 
an entry or any other narrow passage, if a Fresh- 
man meets a superior, he shall stop and give way, 
leaving the most convenient side — if on the stairs 
the banister side. Freshmen shall not run in col- 
lege yard, or up or down stairs, or call to any one 
through a college window. When going into the 
chamljer of a superior, they shall knock at the door, 
and shall leave it as they find it, whether open or 
shut. Upon entering the chamber of a superior, 
they shall not speak until spoken to; they shall 
reply modestly to all questions, and perform their 
messages decently and respectfully. They shall not 
tarry in a superior's room, after they are dismissed, 
unless asked to sit. They shall always rise when- 
ever a superior enters or leaves the room where 
they are, and not sit in his presence until permitted. 

" These rules are to be observed not only about 
college, but every where else within the limits of 
the city of New Haven." 

Even so late as in 1800, we still find it 
laid down as the Senior's duty to inspect the 
manners and customs of the lower classes, 
and especially of the Freshmen ; and the 
duty of the latter to do any proper errand, 
not only for the authorities of the college, 
but also within the limits of one mile, for 
resident graduates and for the two upper 
classes. By degrees the old usage sank 
down so far, that what the laws permitted 
was frequently abused for the purpose of 
playing tricks upon the inexperienced Fresh- 



men ; and then all evidence of its ever hav- 
ing been current disappeared from the college 
code. The Freshmen were formally ex- 
empted from the duty of running upon 
errands in 1804. 

That these provisions were not peculiar 
to Yale, but belonged to this class of insti- 
tutions in that and an earlier age, appears 
from the earliest laws for the government of 
Harvard College drawn up by President 
Dunstan in 1640. "They (the students) 
shall honor, as their parents, the magistrates, 
elders, trustees, and all who are older than 
themselves, as reason requires, being silent 
in their presence, except when asked a ques- 
tion, not contradicting, but showing all 
those marks of honor and reverence which 
are in praiseworthy use, saluting them with 
a bow, standing uncovered," &c. The mode 
of discipline authorized by the seventeenth 
rule is a recorded proof of what otherwise 
might have rested on obscure traditions 
only, that our fathers, with their cotempora- 
rics generally, were not well informed upon 
the characteristics of human nature and 
heart. " If any student of this college, 
either from perverseness or from gross neg- 
ligence, after he shall have been twice ad- 
monished, he shall be scourged with rods, 
if not an adult ; but if an adult, his case 
shall be taken before the overseers, that 
notice may be publicly taken of him accord- 
ing to his deserts." " No scholar shall taste 
tobacco, unless permitted by the president, 
with the consent of their parents or 
guardians, or on good reason first given 
by a physician, and then in a sober and 
private manner." " None shall pragmat- 
ically intrude, or intermeddle in other 
men's affairs." 

Mr. Everett in an address at Cambridge, in 
1857, gives the following picture of college 
life as it was at Harvard in 1807 : 

"Let me sketch you the outlines of the 
picture, fresh to my mind's eye as the 
image in the camera, which the precincts of 
the college exhibited in 1807. The Com- 
mon was then uninclosed. It was not so 
much traversed by roads in all directions ; 
it was at once all road and no road at all, — 
a waste of mud and of dust, according to 
the season, without grass, trees, or fences. 
As to the streets in those days, the ' Appian 
Way ' existed then as now ; and I must 
allow that it bore the same resemblance 
then as now to the Regina Viarum, by 
which the consuls and proconsuls of Rome 



COLLEGES, OR SUPERIOR IXSTRUCTION. 



471 



went forth to the conquest of Epirus, 
Macedonia, and the East. 

" As to public buildings in the neighbor- 
hood of the university, with the exception 
of the Episcopal church, no one of the 
churches now standing was then in exist- 
ence. The old parish church has disap-. 
peared, with its square pews, and galleries 
from which you might almost jump into the 
pulpit. It occupied a portion of the space 
between Dane Hall and the old Presidential 
House. I planted a row of elm and oak 
trees a few years ago on the spot where it 
stood, for which, if for nothing else, I hope 
to be kindly remembered by posterity. The 
wooden building now used as a gymnasium, 
and, I believe for some other purposes, then 
stood where Lyceum Hall now stands. It 
was the county court-house; and there I 
often heard the voice of the venerable Chief 
Justice Parsons. Graduates' Hall did not 
exist ; but on a part of the site, anr] behind 
the beautiful linden trees still flourishing, 
was an old black wooden house, the resi- 
dence of the professor of mathematics. A 
little further to the north, and just at the 
corner of Church street, which was not then 
opened, stood what was dignified in the 
annual college catalogue (which was printed 
on one side of a sheet of paper, and was a 
novelty) as ' The College House.' The 
cellar is still visible. By the students this 
edifice was disrespectfully called ' Wiswall's 
Den,' or, for brevity, ' the Den.' I lived in 
it in my freshman year. Whence the name 
of ' Wiswall's Den ' was derived, I hardly 
dare say ; there was something worse tlian 
* old fogy ' about it. There was a dismal 
tradition that, at some former period, it had 
been the scene of a murder. A brutal 
husband had dragged his wife by the hair 
up and down the stairs, and then killed her. 
On the anniversary of the murder — and 
what day that was no one knew — there were 
sights and sounds — flitting garments drag- 
gled in blood, plaintive screams, stridor 
ferri tractaque catence — enough to appall 
the stoutest sopliomore. But, for myself, I 
can truly say, that I got through my fresh- 
man year without having seen the ghost of 
Mr. Wiswall or his lamented lady. I was 
not, however, sorry when the twelvemonth 
was up, and I was transferred to the light, 
airy, well-ventilated room, No. 20 Hoilis ; 
being the inner room, ground-floor, north 
entry of that ancient and respectable edifice. 

" Such was the physical aspect of things 



within the university. With the exception 
of a medical department, of which the 
germ only existed, all the professional 
schools have been added since my gradua- 
tion ; and within the college proper the 
means of education have been multiplied, 
and the standard of attainment raised in 
full proportion to the progress of the 
country in all other respects. When I en- 
tered college, four tutors and three profess- 
ors formed the academic corps, — men never 
to be mentioned but with respect and grati- 
tude ; but composing an inadequate faculty, 
compared with the numerous and distin- 
guished body by which instruction is now 
dispensed. There was no instruction in 
any of the modern languages, except in 
French to those who chose to pay for it. 
The professors were those of divinity, math- 
ematics, and Hebrew ; and this venerable 
language was, I think, required to be studied 
by every student whatsoever his destination 
in life. A classmate of mine used to beat 
us all in this department, though I believe 
it sometimes happened to him to get hold 
of the wrong line in the Latin translation at 
the bottom of the page in the Hebrew 
psalter, and so made a misfit all the way 
down. I do not hesitate to assure our 
younger brethren that they enjoy ftir greater 
advantages in the means and encourage- 
ments to improvement, and more important 
than any other, a far higher standard of ex- 
cellence than were ever enjoyed by their 
fathers. And this in any department of 
knowledge, in the study of the ancient and 
modern languages, in exact science, the 
kingdoms of nature, in ethics, and the phi- 
losophy of mind." 

Dr. Dwight, in a letter written in 1813, 
and included in his Travels in New England 
and New York, published in 1822, gives the 
following summary of collegiate and superior 
education in New England in 1812 : 

The eight Colleges of New England are located 
and designated as follows : 

Harvard College, now styled the University, in 
Cambridge. 

Yale College, at New Haven, in Connecticut. 

Dartmouth College, at Hanover, in New Hamp- 
sliire. 

Brown University, at Providence, Rhode Island. 

Williams College, at "Williamstown, Massachu- 
setts. 

The University of Vermont, at Burlington in that 
State. 

Middlebury College, at Middlebury in the same 
State, and 

Bowdoia College, at Brunswick in the District of 
Maine. 



472 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



You observe that some of these seminaries are 
styled Universities, and some of them Colleo;es. 
You will not from this suppose that the name Uni- 
versity indicates any superior importance, or any 
more extensive scheme of education. The Univer- 
sity at Cambridge, is, in some respects, the most 
considerable ; and in every respect the University of 
Vermont is the least of all these literary establish- 
ments. 

The state of these institutions in the year 1812, 
was the following: 

The University of Cambridge. — A President; 
seven Professors Academical ; seven Professors Med- 
ical ; three Tutors ; a Librarian ; a Regent ; a Proc- 
tor; an instructor in the French language. 
The Academical Profe-ssnri are, 

Of Theology; of Logic, Metaphysi.es, and Ethics; 
of Rhetoric and Oratory ; of the Hebrew, otiier 
Oriental, and English languages; of Latin ; of Mathe- 
matics and iSTatural Philosophy ; of Greek ; and of 
Natural History. 

The three Tutors teach, 

The senior Tutor, Geography, Geometry, Natural 
Philosophy and Astronomj'; the second, Greek; and 
the third, Latin. 

0/ the Medical rrofe-ssorships, 

Tlie first is of Anatomy and Surgery; the second, 
of the Tlieory and Practice of Medicine; the third, 
of Cherai.^try and the Materia Medica; and the 
fourth, of Clinical Medicine. 

Tlie two remaining ones are Assistants, or Ad- 
juncts, to tliat of Anatomy and Surgery, and that 
of Chemistry, and the Materia Medica. 

The number of students the same year, was 281. 

Yale College. — A President; five Professor- 
ships Academical; and three Medical. 

The Academical Professorships are. 

Of Tlieology; of law. Natural and Political; of 
Mathematics and Natural Philosophy ; of Chemistry 
and Mineralogy ; and of Languages aud Ecclesias- 
tical History. 

The Medical, are 

Of Anatomy and Surgery ; of the Theory and Prac- 
tice of Physic; and of the Materia Medica aud Botany. 

Here also is one Professorship adjunct. 
Six Tutors. 

The particular provinces of these Instructors have 
been sufficiently explained ; [two assigned to each 
of three lower classes, to conduct the three daily 
recitations in eacli.| 

The number of students was 313. 

Dartmouth College. — A President; five Pro- 
fessorships Academical; one Medical; and two 
Tutors. 

TJie Academical Professorships, are 

Of Theology; of Civil and Ecclesiastical His- 
tory ; of Mathematics, and Natural Philosopiiy ; of 
Languages; and of Chemistry. 

r/te Medical Professorship, is 

Of Medicine. 

Tlie nuinljor of students was about 150. 

The number of Medical students, exceeded 50.* 



• By the Cntalogue of 1821, the number of students in Dart- 
mouth Ci)i;ege, WHS 

Under (iriuluates 157 

Resident do 8 

Medicul Students 63 



Brown University in 1811. — A President; 
three Professorships Academical; and two 
Medical. 

The Academical Professorships, are 

Of Law; of Moral Philosophy, and Metaphysics; 
and of Chemistry. 

T/te Medical Professorships, are 

Of Anatomy, and Surgery; and of the Materia 
Medica, and Botany. 

Two Tutors ; and a Preceptor of a Grammar 
school, connected with the University. 

The number of students was 128. 

Williams College. — A President; a Vice- 
President; a Professor of Mathematics, aud Nat- 
ural Philosophy ; two Tutors. 

The number of students was 95. 

MiDDLEBURY COLLEGE, 1812. — A President; 
three Academical Professors. 

One of Law; one of Mathematics and Natural 
Philosophy; one of Languages; two Tutors. 

The number of students was 113. 

University of Vermont. — A President; a Profes- 
of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy; a Professor 
of the Learned Languages; a Medical Professor. 

There are also four other Professorships on paper. 

The number of students from 30 to 40. 

The means of medical instruction in New Eng- 
land will be sceu sufficiently in this account of its 
seminaries. 

The Law School, heretofore mentioned in the de- 
scription of Litchfield, as being under the instruc- 
tion of Judge Reeve aud James Gould, Esquire, 
would not, it is believed, do discredit to any 
country. Law is here taught as a science ; and not 
merely, nor principally, as a mechanical business; 
not as a collection of loose, independent fragments, 
but as a regular, well-compacted system. At the 
same time the students are taught the practice by 
being actually employed in it. A court is consti- 
tuted; actions are brouglit, aud conducted through 
a regular process : questions are raised, aud the stu- 
dents become advocates in form. 

Students resort to this school from every part of 
the American Union. The number of them is 
usually about 40. 

Every Theological Professor in these Seminaries 
is destined to instruct such students as apply to him 
in the science of Theology. But the Theological 
Seminary at Andover has already engrossed most 
of the young men in New England, designed for the 
desk. Three Professors, one of Theologj^ one of 
Sacred Literature, and one of Sacred Rhetoric, are 
already established here ; and two or three more 
will probably bo added to their number within a 
short time. Fifty students may be considered as the 
average number for three years past. As this 
Seminary is richly endowed, and as the gentlemen 
employed in its instruction, are pursuing their busi- 
ness with spirit aud vigor, there are the best reasons 
to believe that it will hold a high rank among insti- 
tutions of the same nature. 

Tiiere are, also, in New England the following 
Medical societies: 

The Massachusetts Medical Society. 

The Connecticut Medical Society. 

The New Hampshire Medical Society. 

The objects of these institutions are to unite the 



COLLEGES, OR SUPERIOR INSTRUCTION. 



473 



gentlemen of the Faculty in friendship, and in one 
commou pursuit of medical science; to discourage 
by their united influence empiricism in every form ; 
to furnish a centre of correspondence for the recep- 
tion and publication of medical discoveries ; and, 
universally, to elevate and improve the art of heal- 
ing. 

A Historical Society was formed at Boston in the 
year 1791, and incorporated in the year 1794, by the 
name of the Massachusetts Historical Society. The 
object of this institution is to collect and publish 
whatever authentic documents may illustrate the 
past and present state of this country. Twelve 
volumes of its collections for this purpose have been 
already published ; wliich in a very honorable man- 
ner prove the utilit)'^ of the design. 

An Agricultural Society has been formed in Con- 
necticut, and another in Massachusetts. A small 
collection of papers, published by each, has been 
favorably received. 

There are, also, two Philosophical Societies in New 
England. The American Academy of Arts and 
Sciences in Massachusetts, which holds its sittings 
at Boston; and the Connecticut Academy of Arts 
and Sciences, wliich meets in New Haven. The 
latter was incorporated in the year 1800. The 
American Academy has published three volumes. 
The Connecticut Academy has completed one volume 
of Memoirs, and also has begun the publication of 
a statistical account of the State. Both of these in- 
stitutions are, it is believed, advancing. 

I have here given you a summary, and, as I be- 
lieve, an exact account of the means provided and 
employed for the purpose of diffusing literature, 
science, and general information among the inhabi- 
tants of New England. 

It ought, however, to be added, that in a great 
part of the towns and parishes, there are social 
libraries established. In some places they are con- 
siderable ; and in all, are of material use to the little 
circles in which they exist. The information which 
they spread is of importance. They also excite a 
disposition to read, and this employment naturally 
becomes a substitute for trifling, vicious, and gross 
amusements. It also contributes to render society, 
and its intercourse, in a good degree, intelligent and 
refined, while thought takes place of sense and pas- 
sion ; civility, of coarseness ; and information, of 
scandal. It also enables parents to give their ciiil- 
dren better instruction, and to govern them more 
rationally, and at the same time it renders the chil- 
dren more dutiful and more amiable. 

In this brief historical survey of the 
American College and University, founded 
on cotemporaneous exposition, coupled with 
other facts which can not here be presented 
for want of space in such a summary, it 
appears that : 

1. The main purpose set forth in their 
foundation was " the glory of God," " Christ 
and the Church," "the upholding of the 
Protestant religion by a succession of a 
learned and orthodox ministry," and " the 
qualifying youth for public employment in 
church and civil state." To this end all the 
earher colleges were avowedly denomina- 



tional, and all the later (except a few based 
on the national land grants, or on large 
individual endowments), are practically de- 
nominational in the constitution of the 
governing body by which the teachers are 
appointed and the departments and subjects 
of instruction determined. 

2. The instruction of the colleges, even 
the oldest and best, down to 1800 was given 
by the president and at most two professors, 
and two assistants, in theology (dogmatic and 
practical), the Latin and Greek grammars, 
and a little reading of Latin authors and less 
of Greek, a little geography, arithmetic, 
geometry, and logic, with disputations and 
declamations, and no natural science. 

3. Gradually the curriculum of instruc- 
tion was modified so as to drop the ele- 
mentary studies, and include medicine and 
law, first by special professorships, and then 
by independent schools. 

4. Still later, and recently with amazing 
rapidity, the natural sciences, and the appli- 
cation of mathematics and these sciences to 
agriculture the mechanic arts and man- 
ufacturing purposes, have been recognized 
as legitimate subjects of college education. 

5. Quite recently the entire circle of 
language, science, and the arts both ideal 
and industrial, are included in the curriculum 
of several colleges ; but as yet there is not a 
single institution out of the 400 so called 
colleges and universities chartered and en- 
dowed for purposes of superior instruction, 
in which the governing board and teaching 
corps are brought into unity of organiza- 
tion, administration, and instruction, and in 
which a broad sweep of optional studies in 
every department of existing knowledge and 
original research is open to those, and to 
those only, who shall prove themselves qual- 
ified before an independent board of ex- 
amination to enter on such studies. 

6. Following the course of secondary 
schools, the advantages of superior instruc- 
tion are now beginning to be opened to both 
sexes on equal terms. 

The tables appended will show, not strict- 
ly speaking, only our institutions of supeiior 
instruction, and not quite all which call 
themselves colleges and universities ; but 
nearly all which are chartered by the legis- 
latures of the States in which they are 
located " to confer the usual academic, col- 
legiate and university degress." Most of 
them should be classed with institutions 
of secondary instruction. 



4*74 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



IV. PROFESSIONAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. 

INTRODUCTION. 

Professional and Special Schools consti- 
tute a distinct class of institutions either in 
the studies pursued, or the persons pursuing, 
and while they are not always supplement- 
ary to the colleges, and indeed some of 
them hardly supplementary to the second- 
ary schools, they can not with propriety be 
considered except by themselves. Under 
this head we specify Military, Theological, 
Medical, and Law Schools ; Normal 
Schools, and Teachers' Institutes; Agricul- 
tural, and Commercial, or Business Colleges 
and Schools ; Scientific Schools, i. e., for in- 
struction in physical science, applied mathe- 
matics. Organic and Inorganic Chemistry, 
Practical Surveying, Natural History, Geol- 
ogy and Palaeontology, Anthropology, and 
Ethnology ; as well as schools of Language 
and Literature, i. e., Philology, Linguistics, 
Oriental and Semitic languages and Litera- 
ture, Modern languages and Literature ; 
History, Political Economy, Ethics, and 
International Law ; Schools of Engineering, 
Mining, Metallurgy, Technology and Archi- 
tecture ; Schools of Drawing, Painting, Sculp- 
ture, and Music ; Schools and Asylums for 
Orphans; Schools and Colleges for Indians 
and Freedmen; Philanthropic Schools and 
Asylums, viz., for the Deaf and Dumb, the 
Blind, and the Idiotic, and with some 
reference also to attempts to instruct the 
Insane and the Inebriates; and finally to 
Schools and Asylums for Juvenile otfenders 

Numerous as the special schools and 
institutions now are in this country, num- 
bering in all very nearly 1,000, they have 
all, with a single exception of a Medical 
School in Philadelpliia, been organized 
within the past Imndred years, and with 
but few exceptions since the commencement 
of the present century, and the most im- 
portant in the past half century. We will 
consider them in the order given above.* 

I. MILITARY AND NAVAL SCHOOLS. 

The experience of the Revolutionary war 
occasioned a very general conviction among 
the officers of the American army, of the 
necessity for such a provision for the military 
education of native oflicers as would reheve 
the United States from a dependence upon 

* For details, ?ee Burnard's Special Schools, Vol. II., United 
States. 



professionally trained soldiers of foreign 
birth. The idea of a military school of 
some kind, to be connected with each United 
States arsenal, was entertained at the close 
of the war, among the officers. 

In the spring of 1783, General Washing- 
ton requested from a number of leading offi- 
cers, statements of their views on all subjects 
connected with the peace establishment of 
the United States array. In reply to tliis 
request, Colonel Timothy Pickering, then 
quartermaster-general, drew up an able and 
interesting memoir, which contains, it is be- 
lieved, the first suggestion of a single central 
government military academy, and he also 
suggested West Point as a proper location 
for it. 

President Washington's annual address to 
Congress of December 3, 1793, asks 
" whether a material feature in the improve- 
ment of a system of national defense ought 
not to be to afford an opportunity for the 
study of those branches of the military art, 
which can scarcely ever be attained by prac- 
tice alone." 

An act of Congress of May 9, 1794, au- 
thorized a corps of four battalions of artil- 
lerists and engineers, to each of which were 
to be attached eight cadets. This was the 
first introduction into the military service of 
the United States of this term, which may 
be defined to signify a grade of officers be- 
tween the highest non-commissioned officer, 
a sergeant, and the lowest commissioned one, 
an ensign. For the use of this corps and 
cadets, the secretary of war. Colonel Picker- 
ing, was authorized to procure the necessary 
books and apparatus. The secretary, in 
1796, reports that this organization is im- 
portant, and should be as stationary as prac- 
ticable, with a view to instruction. 

President Washington's last annual speech 
to Congress, December, 1796, again urged 
strongly the establishment of a military 
academy. In April, 1798, the corps of artil- 
lerists and engineers was increased by an 
additional regiment, and the number of 
cadets enlarged to fifty-six. In July follow- 
ing, four teachers were by Congress author- 
ized to he employed in that regiment for in- 
struction in science and art. Some officers 
and men were collected at West Point, and 
a sort of military school opened, which, how- 
ever, acted with little efficiency, owing to 
the want of preparatory training, and of or- 
ganization. 

Secretary of War McHenry, in a report 



PROFESSIONAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. 



475 



on tlie organization of the army, made dur- 
ing the expectation of a war with France, 
dated December 24, 1798, lamented the 
want of engineers and artillerists trained at 
home. In January, 1800, the same officer 
laid before the President, who transmitted 
it to Congress, a plan for establishing a mili- 
tary academy. After referring to the im- 
perfect steps already taken in this direction, 
he proceeds to suggest that the proposed 
academy shall consist of a " fundamental 
school," to instruct in such departments of 
science as are necessary in common in all 
the arms of the military force; and three 
special schools, one of engineers and artil- 
lerists, one of cavalry and infantry, and one 
of the navy. The institution was to be in 
charge of a director-general, four directors, 
twelve professors, and nine other instructors. 
This school, so far as Secretary McHenry 
recommended its immediate establishment, 
was to accommodate annual classes of one 
hundred pupils each, for courses of four and 
five years 

(1.) Military Academy at West Point. 

The Military Academy at West Point, ac- 
cording to Colonel Williams' report in 1808, 
was first opened in 1801, as a "mathemati- 
cal school for the few cadets that were then 
in service," and under a private citizen. In 
1802, an act of Congress separated the artil- 
lerists and engineers, distributing the cadets 
of the former class among the twenty com- 
panies of that arm, and constituted the en- 
gineers the Military Academy, making it 
consist of seven officers and ten cadets. 

The operations of the school continued to 
be deficient in order and efficiency for some 
years, mainly from want of proper and ener 
getic administration, and a well-adjusted 
course of study. In 1812, it was much en- 
larged, and its organization quite changed. 
The period from 1817 to 1824, however, dur- 
ing which a thorough course of theoretical 
and practical studies, properly adapted to the 
military profession, was for the first time in- 
troduced, marks the establishment of the 
academy as a military and scientific school 
of high grade and value. There have been 
several modifications of the course of stud- 
ies and regulations since 1818, increasing 
the studies, and raising somewhat the 
standard of admission which is still, how- 
ever, too low. In 1859, the course of study 
was extended to five years, and the classes 
which graduated in 1859, 1860, and May, 



1861, received five years instruction. But 
the exigencies of the war demanded a larger 
number of young officers who had a military 
ti'aining, and accordingly the class next in 
order were graduated in June, 1861, and 
since that time the course of study has been 
only four years. The superintendent of the 
academy is always an officer of not lower 
rank than colonel, a graduate of the acad- 
emy who had ranked high on his gradua- 
tion, and who has seen much active service. 
Beside the superintendent there were, in 
1872, 49 professors, instructors and other 
officers employed in the work of instruction. 
The Academic Board is composed of twelve 
— ten professors, and the superintendent 
and commandant of cadets. 

The number of cadets wlio may be ap- 
pointed annually is one from each Congres- 
sional district and territory, and ten ap- 
pointed by the President, at large. The 
applicants must not be under seventeen or 
over twenty-one years, (except volunteers or 
regulars in the late war who had served 
faithfully not less than one year, who are 
eligible till they are twenty-five. All appli- 
cants must be unmarried, and are not al- 
lowed to marry before graduation. Each 
candidate must be able to read and write 
the English language correctly, and to per- 
form with facility and accuracy the various 
operations of the four ground rules of arith- 
metic, of reduction, of simple and com- 
pound proportion, and of vulgar and deci- 
mal fractions ; and have a knowledge of the 
elements of English grammar, of descriptive 
geography, particularly of the United States 
of America, and of the history of the United 
States. They are examined in June, but 
are not admitted to full cadetship until the 
following January, when they are required 
to sign an agreement that they will serve in 
the army of the United States for eight 
yeai's, unless sooner discharged by compe- 
tent authority, and take the following oath, 
the phraseology of winch has been some- 
what modified since the commencement of 
the late civil war : " I solemnly swear that 
I will support the Constitution of the United 
States, and bear true allegiance to the Na- 
tional Government ; that I will maintain the 
sovereignty of the United States, paramount 
to any and all allegiance, sovereignty, or 
fealty I may owe to any State, county, or 
country whatsoever ; and that I will at all 
times obey the loyal orders of my superior 
officers, and the rules and articles governing 



47G 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



the armies of the United States." The al- 
lowance to the cadet by the Government is 
about 8610 per annum, which is all paid out 
by the Treasurer of the academy, and 
charged to the cadets, no money being al- 
lowed in the hands of the cadets during the 
entire course. The regulations are very 
rigid, and while about 28 per cent, of the 
applicants for admission are rejected, the 
the demerit system which regulates the 
class-standing of the cadet results in the 
dismission of nearly forty per cent, in 
the four years. 

(2.) The Uiiifed States Naval Academy. 

After years of agitation in Congress, go- 
ing back to the Continental Congress of 
1775, and the recommendations of nearly 
every President, and the secretary in charge 
of naval aftairs, the Naval Academy at An- 
napolis, Maryland, was organized in October, 
1845, by the eiforts of Hon. George Ban- 
croft, then Secretary of the Navy.* Prior 
to the letter of Mr. Bancroft, which concen- 
trated all the midshipmen then attached to 
vessels at sea under a schoolmaster, or col- 
lected at the Naval x\sylums at Philadelphia, 
or stationed in the Navy yards of Boston, 
New York, and Norfolk, much was done to 
familiarize the young aspirants with the 
]>ractical duties of their profession. During 
the infancy of the academy several plans of 
an experimental character were tried, wdiich 
led gradually to the adoption of the system 
of instruction now in operation. Midship- 
men who had made a cruise at sea, were 
first sent to the academy for a term of nine 
months, to prepare for their final examina- 
tion, which practice was continued until 
1847. In that year a board of officers re- 
commended a course of four years at the 
academy, viz., two years before, and two 
years after a cruise at sea. This plan went 
into operation, but it was soon abandoned, 
owing to the constant demand for midship- 
men at sea during the Mexican war, and it 
was not until 1851, that the present unin- 
terrupted course of four years at the acad- 
emy was inaugurated. 

Candidates are appointed upon the rec- 
ommendations of members and delegates 
in Congress, to the Secretary of the Navy, 
on precisely the same terms as candidates 
for the Military Academy, and the Presi- 
dent appoints ten, at large, as in the course 
of the candidates for West Point. They 

* Barnard's Military Schools, p. 895. 



are admitted between the 20th of Septem- 
ber and the 1st of October of each year, 
and if successful in the preliminary exam- 
ination, are permitted to assume the naval 
uniform, and in the capacity of acting mid- 
shipmen begin their career on the school- 
ship "Dale," a third rate, sailing vessel of 
675 tons, now stationed at Annapolis. The 
requirements for admission are now the same 
as at West Point, and the ages for admis- 
sion from 16 to 18 years. In the autumn 
of 1872 the whole number was 260, and 
this included a class of 34 naval engineers. 
During the summer vacation two of the 
classes are drafted on board the practice- 
ship, to make a cruise at sea, to aid them in 
acquiring the duties of an officer and a sail- 
or, and becoming ftmiiliar with the rigging 
and evolutions of a ship. They are sub- 
jected to eight severe examinations, and if 
successful in all, they receive a midshipman's 
warrant, and after two years of sea service 
they return for a final examination, which, 
if successful, gives them the warrant of 
passed midshipman ; and further promotion 
depends fur its speediness upon good con- 
duct, the existence of war, naval expendi- 
tures, &c. The Superintendent of the Naval 
Academy is selected from officers not below 
the rank of commodore, and is assisted by 
an executive officer and twenty professors, 
and assistant professors. There is a valua- 
ble library of 20,000 volumes, and scientific 
apparatus, belonging to the academy. 

Connected with the Naval Academy, a 
special course of instruction for a class of 
assistant engineers, was organized in 1865, 
under an act of Congress (July 4, 1864), 
and suspended in 1868, to be again instituted 
under regulations of the Secretary of the 
Navy issued in 1871. 

(3.) State, Incorporated and Private Schools. 

In 1820, Captain Alden Partridge, who 
was one of the earliest graluates of the Na- 
tional Military Academy, and associated 
with its instruction and adnunistration, as 
assistant professor, professor, and superin- 
tent, from 1808 to 1815, began to agitate 
the subject of a union of military and sci- 
entific studies with the ordinary literary 
curriculum of the American College, and in 
September of that year opened at Norw ich the 
American Literary, Scientific, and Military 
Academy, which received in the course of 
the four years following, 480 pupils, repre- 
senting twenty-one out of the twenty-four 
States. In 1824 the institution was re- 



PROFESSIONAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. 



477 



moved to Middletown, Conn., and after 
1828, twelve hundred pupils were instruct- 
ed, for periods averaging two years, in such 
courses as they had the privilege of electing 
— but all were trained in the theoretical 
part of military science, and in the practical 
duties of the soldier, and in graduation were 
qualified to discharge the duties of a com- 
pany officer, and, if necessary, to command 
a battalion in any corps of the army. Every 
year a military march was performed, in 
some cases extending to several hundred 
miles, and frequent scientific surveys, and 
reconnaissances, were made under the direc- 
tion of the professor of civil engineering. 
The various military schools which subse- 
quently sprung up in different parts of the 
country originated for the most part with 
Captain Partridge's pupils. He was himself 
connected with the Military Institute at Ports- 
mouth, Va., in 1839, and with the Military 
College at Brandywine Springs, near Wil- 
mington, in the State of Delaware, in 1853, 
and with the revival of the Seminary at 
Norwich, Vt., after the incorporation of the 
Wesleyan University at Middletown, in 
which the Literary, Scientific, and Military 
Institute was merged. 

The most successful of the State Mili- 
tary Institutes is that at Lexington, Va., 
which was organized by Colonel Francis H. 
Smith, a graduate of the Military Academy 
at West Point, in the class of 1813, and 
professor there from 1834 to 1836. The 
State makes an annual appropriation of 
$15,000 for its support, on the basis of which 
36 cadets are admitted without charge, in 
consideration of which they are required to 
teach in some school of the State for two 
years after graduation. Any commissioned 
officer of the militia of the State of Vir- 
ginia, can become a student for a period not 
exceeding ten months, and receive instruc- 
tion in ar.y or all of the departments of 
Military science taught there, without charge 
for tuition. In the war of the Rebellion one 
tenth of the Confederate armies was com- 
manded by the students of this school, em- 
bracing three major-generals, thirty briga- 
dier-generals, sixty colonels, fifty lieutenant- 
colonels, thirty majors, one hundred and 
twenty-five captains, and over two hundred 
lieutenants. To the same armies, the Mili- 
tary Institute at Frankfort, Ky., the Cadet 
corps connected with the State arsenals in 
Norfolk, Richmond, Charleston, and other 
Southern cities, and the State Military In- 
29* 



stitutes in Alabama and Louisiana, furnished 
a large number of subordinate officers, 
which facilitated the early and better or- 
ganization of the confederate forces. 

(4.) Military Tactics in Slate Scientific Schools. 

In the act of Congress (July, 1862), mak- 
ing grants of public lands to the several 
States for the endowment of State Schools 
of Agriculture, and the mechanic arts, it is 
provided that military tactics shall be in- 
eluded in the system of instruction*; and 
by an act of March, 1869, the President is 
authorized to detail an army officer to each 
institution, to instruct in such tactics. With 
these two provisions, and more efficient 
legislation. State and National, a sys- 
tem of military instruction associated with 
scientific studies generally, will be devel- 
oped, which will at once develop the physical 
powers of the pupil, and train up a large 
body of well-educated men, ready to meet 
the exigencies of the public service as 
against foreign invasion, or domestic in- 
surrection. 

n. THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS OR SEMINAIilES. 

Before the Revolutionary war, and indeed 
for some years after, no distinct school or 
institute for theological training was known 
in this continent. In New England, New 
York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania the 
most eminent clergymen of the Congrega- 
tionalist, Presbyterian, and Reformed 
(Dutch) churches, and later of the Baptist 
and Methodist churches, were in the habit 
of receiving into their families several 
students, usually graduates of the colleges, 
who served an apprenticeship under their 
direction in exegesis, the composition and 
delivery of sermons, and in the observation 
and practice of pastoral duties. Sometimes, 
if the clergyman was very eminent either as 
a preacher or a theologian, he would have a 
considerable number of students in his 
family at the same time, and his instructions 
assumed a more formal and systematic 
character. The most noted of these gath- 
erings, suggestive of the subsequent organ- 
ization of theological schools, were Rev. Dr. 
Bellamy's classes at his home in Bethlem, 
Conn., and a little later those of Dr. Hop- 
kins in Hadley, and Dr. Emmons in Frank- 
lin, Mass. ; the " Log College " of Rev. 



* For an account of the system arlopted in the Cornell Uni- 
versity at Ithaca, N. Y., the ^tate Agriciiltiirnl College at Am- 
herst, Mass, the State University in Louisiana, see Bernard's 
"Military Scdools." In the same volume will be found no- 
tices of various private military schools, by E. L. Molineux. 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION'S. 



William Tennent at Neshaminy, Bucks Co., 
Pa., opened about 1728; a preparatory 
school opened by Rev. John Smith, and 
afterward conducted by Rev. Dr. Anderson, 
in Western Pennsylvania, about 1778 ; the 
instruction given to Baptist theological 
students in the early years of the present 
century by Rev. Dr. Staughton at Philadel- 
phia, and by Rev. J. Chajdin, D.D., at 
Danvers, Mass. The colleges, too, it must 
be remembered, provided for more theology 
than they now do. William and Mary 
College, .Virginia, had a Professorship of 
Divinity as early as 1693; Harvard, the 
HoUis Professorship of Divinity in 1721 ; 
and Yale, the Livingston Professorship in 
1746. The college of New Jersey had a 
Theological Professor in 1769, Dartmouth 
College in 1782, and Brown University in 
1791. 

The first independently organized Theo- 
logical Seminary was that of the Reformed 
(Dutch) Church at New Brunswick, founded 
in 1784 or 1785; the next was the Seminary 
of St. Sulpice (Roman Catholic) at Balti- 
more, Md., founded in 1791; a year later 
the Associated (Presbyterian) Church 
founded one at Canonsburg, Pa., now we 
believe extinct. In 1794 another branch of 
the same church (now United Presbyterians) 
established one at Xenia, Ohio. These 
were all the theological seminaries in the 
United States before 1800. In that year 
the very large Roman Catholic Seminary 
connected with Mt. St. Marys College, 
Emraittsburgh, Md., was organized. An- 
dover Theological Seminary, the largest and 
oldest of the Congregationalists, was estab- 
lished at Andover, Mass , in 1807, and the 
Moravian Seminary at Bethlehem, Pa., the 
same year. The Cambridge Divinity 
School, Cambridge, Mass., (Unitarian,) was 
founded in 1811. The Princeton Theolog- 
ical Seminary (Presbyterian) dates from 
1812; the Hamilton Theological Institute, 
Hamilton, N. Y., (Baptist,) in 1820; the 
General Theological Seminary (Episcopal) 
at New York City, in 1817; Hartwick 
Seminary (Lutheran) at Hartwick, N. Y., in 
1816 ; Mercersbnrg, now Lancaster, Pa., 
Seminary (German Reformed) in 1825; the 
General Biblical Institute (Methodist Epis- 
copal) at Concord, N. II., in 1847; the 
Seminary at Lewiston, Me., (Free Will 
Baptist) in 1830 ; the Bible Department of 
Eureka College (Christian or Disciples), 
Eureka, 111., in 1852 ; and the Canton Theo- 



logical School at Canton, N. Y., (Universa- 
lis't) in 1858. There are now (about) 120 
Theological Seminaries in the United States, 
with 400 Professors and (about) 3,400 
students. 

III. LAW SCHOOLS. 

The legal profession during the colonial 
period were, with few exceptions, very 
poorly qualified for the practice of the law. 
A few young men of the wealthier classes 
visited the mother country and entered at 
the Inner or Middle Temple in London, and 
having been admitted to the bar there, 
returned to the colonies and practiced their 
profession, and most of these received 
students in their offices, who gained some 
practical knowledge of law in the course of 
a long apprenticeship, but very few were 
familiar with the great principles which 
underlie all law, or their practical applica- 
tion to the cases which came up in their 
practice. Most of the eminent lawyers of 
the Revolutionary period (and some of them 
were men of great ability) were educated 
abroad. In 1784 the first law school in the 
United States was established at Litchfield, 
Conn., by Judge Reeve, who associated 
Judge Gould with him in 1798, and the two 
maintained the school together till 182.3, 
when Judge Reeve died. In 1827 Judge 
Gould retired, and the school was given up. 
Messrs. Reeve and Gould were both men of 
great learning and tact, and by their in- 
structions seven hundred and fifty lawyers 
were trained in the legal profession, many 
of whom have reflected the greatest honor 
upon it. There had been a Professorship 
of Law in William and Mary Colleges estab- 
lished about 1730; Brown University had 
one in 1790, but there was no law school 
connected with any college or university till 
1817, when the Dane Law School of Har- 
vard University was established. The Yale 
Law School was founded in 1820, and 
reorganized in 1843. In 1825 a law school 
was organized as a department of the 
University of Virginia, and in 1826 one at 
Washington, as a department of the 
Columbian College. There are now in the 
United States 40 law schools, with 140 
professors and nearly 2,000 students. 

IV. MEDICAL SCHOOLS. 

During the colonial period a few physi- 
cians were educated abroad, in the medical 
schools of Edinburgh, London, and Paris, 
and some who had already obtained a 



PROFESSIONAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. 



479 



medical education emigrated to the colonies 
to practice. Among the latter was John 
Winthrop, the first physician of the New 
Haven Colony, and more than one of the 
early celebrities of New York, Philadelphia 
and Boston. Among the former were Dr. 
Shippen and Benjamin Rush of Philadel- 
phia, Drs. Bard and W. P. Smith of New 
York, Drs. John Brockett and the Elder 
Munson of New Haven, and other of the 
New England Colonies. But the greater 
part of the physicians of that period re- 
ceived their only training in the offices and 
practice of the more eminent members of 
the profession, and were licensed either by 
the legislature or where these existed by 
county or colonial societies of physicians. 
The tendency of this practice of licensing 
was evident in the gradual lowering of the 
tone and culture of the profession, and its 
more eminent members lamented it. In 
1762, Dr. Shippen of Philadelphia com- 
menced lecturing on Anatomy to a class of 
young men who were studying medicine, 
and in 1765 he succeeded in making a 
sufficient degree of interest among the 
physicians of the city to organize the 
Medical Department of the University of 
Pennsylvania. Attempts were made soon 
after to organize a medical school in New 
York, but no permanent establishment was 
effected there till some years later. In 1782 
or 1783, the Medical Department of Har- 
vard University was established in Boston. 
In 1796, the Hanover Medical School, a 
department of Dartmouth College, was 
founded. Two or three short lived schools 
were set up in New York City, but none 
which had much reputation till the incor- 
poration of the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons in 1807. There are now 57 
medical schools or colleges of the regular 
practice in the United States, with about 
100 professors and 6,000 students. About 
1835 the pupils of Hahnemann began to 
introduce the Homeopathic practice into 
this country, and there are now six schools 
of this practice, with 80 professors and 
about 500 students. There are also four 
Eclectic and two Botanic Medical schools, 
with 40 professors and nearly 500 students. 
Of the regular medical schools four are 
exclusively for women, and two others 
admit both sexes. Of the Homoeopathic 
schools, one is for women and one admits 
both sexes. Under the general head of 
schools of medicine must be named, also, 



the Dental Schools or Colleges, of which 
there are nine, with 70 teachers and about 
300 students ; and the Schools or Colleges 
of Pharmacy, of which there are sixteen, 
with 50 professors and about 600 students. 
The tables appended give full particulars 
of all these schools. 

V. NORMAL SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS' INSTITUTES. 

Although teaching is not admitted with us 
to the rank of a learned profession, there has 
long been a conviction in the minds of the 
most eminent teachers and scholars that a 
process of careful training and instruction 
in the art of teaching was necessary, or at 
least desirable, for those who proposed to 
follow it as a calling. Three centuries ago 
Richard Mulcaster, upper-master of St. 
Paul's school, and afterwards head-master 
of Merchant Taylors' school, in his " Posi- 
tions '' published a plea for a college for the 
training of teachers, including a plan which 
in latter times has been but little amended. 
The teachers of tl>e colonial period, as we 
have already shown, were not trained to 
their work in any institution designed 
specially for the instruction of teachers, and 
for the want of this training, while many 
became eminent by natural aptitude, the 
majority were less successful than with their 
remarkable natural qualities they should 
have been. 

The first suggestion in this country looking 
toward the establishuient uf schools analo- 
gous to our Normal School,* was made in 
the Massachusetts Magazine for June, 1789, 
in an article by Elisha Ticknor, advocating 
the establishment of county schools " to fit 
young gentlemen for college and school 
keeping." It was just fifty years after 
(1839) that this suggestion bore fruit in a 
resolution which authorized the establish- 
ment of Normal Schools in Massachusetts. 
In 1816, Denison Olmsted, subsequently 
Professor of Mathematics in Yale College, 
in his Master's Oration proposed the estab- 
lishment by the State of Connecticut of an 
academy to train schoolmasters for the State 
common schools. In 1823, the Rev. 
Samuel Read Hall opened a select school 
at Concord, Vt , in which he advertised to 
give a course of instruction adapted to 
teachers. In 1825, two series of articles 
were published almost simultaneously, one 
in Hartford, Conn., by Rev. Thomas H. 

*See History of Normal Schools in Barnard's American 
Journal of Education, Vol. 13, p. 756. 



480 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



Gallaudet, and the other in Boston by 
James G. Carter, Esq., proposing, each 
without any knowledge of the other's views, 
among other things the estabhshment of a 
seminary or institution for the education of 
teachers. These two series of papers were 
soon after published in pamphlet form. In 
1827, Mr. Carter,* with some assistance from 
the town of Lancaster, Mass., established 
there a private seminary for the instruction 
of teachers. From 1830 to 1842 a sem- 
inary for the instruction and training of 
teachers was maintained in connection with 
Phillips Academy, Andover, under the 
charge of Rev. Samuel Read Hall.* In the 
same year, (1826,) W. R. Johnson,* then re- 
siding in Germantown, Penn., without any 
knowledge of the views of Messrs. Gallaudet 
and Carter, pubUshed a pamphlet entitled 
" Observations on the Improvement of Sem- 
inaries of Learning" in which he set forth 
the necessity and advantages of schools for 
the special training of teachers. The same 
year Governor DeWitt Clinton, in his an- 
nual message to the Legislature of New 
York, commended to their consideration the 
education of competent teachers, and in 
1826 recommended the establishment of a 
seminary for this purpose, in which the 
methods of Lancaster should be adopted. 
For several years following, this matter occu- 
pied the attention of the committees of 
education in the New York Legislature, 
and efforts were made in 1835 to provide 
normal instruction through the academies 
of the State by appropriations for that pur- 
pose from the literature fund, but these 
failing in producing the desired result, the 
State Normal School in Albany was estab- 
lished in 1844, and in 1867 provision was 
made for four more in different parts of the 
State. But Massachusetts preceded New 
York in the establishment of Normal Schools 
by five years. 

After twelve years of agitation in Mas- 
sachusetts by James G. Carter, George B. 
Emerson, Charles Brooks,f the Secretary of 
the Board of Education, Hon. Horace Mann, 
and the noble gift ($10,000) of Hon. Edmund 
Dwight, seconded by other devoted friends 
of education, three Normal Schools, at Lex- 
ington (afterward removed to West Newton, 
and later to Fraraingham), Westfield, and 

* Barnard's Normal Schools and other Institutiona for the 
Professional Training of Teachers. 

t For special notice of the labors of Rev. Charles Brooks, 
see Barnard's Jlmerican Journal of Education, Vol. I., p. 5ij7 ; 
XVI., p. 89; XVII., p. 721. 



Bridgewater, the first exclusively for women, 
the other two for both sexes, were established 
in 1839. In 1854, another, also for women 
only, was established at Salem. There are 
now in the United States between eighty 
and ninety institutions designated Normal 
Schools, aside from city training schools, 
and normal departments in colleges and 
seminaries which profess to give instruction 
in the art of teaching. In these schools 
and departments there are about 475 teach- 
ers, and nearly 12,000 pupil-teachers. The 
location, special character, and attendance 
of the more prominent of these institutions 
will be found in the table appended. 

The course of study in these schools 
extends over two or three years for those 
who wish to graduate, though those who 
are qualified to do so can enter the ad- 
vanced classes. Generally there is no in- 
struction in either ancient or modern 
languages, except English ; but in some of 
the Western Normal Schools, Latin, Greek, 
and German are optional studies. Aside 
from the languages (which are pursued by a 
very small number) the course comprises 
the studies of our best High Schools, with 
extra drilling on the elementary branches 
and the art of teaching. The instruction in 
all the branches is twofold in its character ; 
aiming to impart a thorough knowledge of 
the subjects taught to the teacher pupils, and 
displaying also the best methods of com- 
municating this knowledge to children. As 
theory and practice should go together, 
experimental and model schools are usually 
connected with the Normal Seminary in 
which the students learn by observation 
and actual practice how to organize, man- 
age, and teach ordinary graded schools. 

Normal Schools have accomplished a 
great amount of good in raising the stand- 
ard of qualifications required of the 
teachers of our public schools, and the 
range of studies taught in them, and there 
is a fair ground of hope for their still 
greater usefulness in the future ; but to this 
end certain improvements in their manage- 
ment are necessary, which we may briefly 
indicate here : 1st, There should be a 
materially higher and uniform standard of 
attainment required for admission to them. 
At present very little more than the most 
elementary knowledge of reading, writing, 
arithmetic, and primary geography, gram- 
mar, and history are demanded. With this 
advanced standard of admission, the two or 



PROFESSIONAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. 



481 



three years course would be of much greater 
service. 2d, The pupils should be induced, 
if possible, to remain through the entire 
course, as whatever may be their previous 
scholai-ship, they can not in a shorter time 
acquire the best methods of teaching what 
they may know very well. 3d, The Ger- 
man language, and perhaps also a moderate 
knowledge of Latin and French should 
form a part of the complete course. There 
should also be a more extensive or post 
graduate course, to qualify teachers for the 
higher positions, such as principals of 
higher schools or academies, professors in 
colleges, similar in character to the philo- 
logical and pedagogical seminaries on the 
continent of Europe, and at least one for 
the training of teachers and professors of 
scientific schools. It is perhaps too early 
for the organization of training schools for 
the technical arts and trades, such as for 
first-class printers, booksellers, &c., like 
those of Leipsic and the other German 
cities. 4th, The faculty of instruction is in 
most of these institutions too small for the 
number of pupils, and for efficient instruc- 
tion. 5th, There is a great necessity for en- 
dowments or of scholarships to reduce the 
expense of the prolonged residence of poor 
but promising pupils. 6th, There should 
be a better defined gradation of the pupils 
and a minimum standard of attainment pre- 
scribed in each grade, failing to attain which 
the pupil should not receive the diploma of 
his grade, whether as a teacher of primary, 
intermediate, grammar, or high schools. 
7th, The examinations should be by papers, 
and very thorough and searching, accom- 
panied by trial-lessons in the model school, 
or any ordinary public school. 

Ttachers' Institutes and Associations. 
Another less perfect but highly bene- 
ficial method of improving teachers in their 
work is the Teachers' Institute. A 
Teachers' Institute is a voluntary assembling 
of the teachers of a county, assembly, con- 
gressional or judicial districts at some 
central point, for instruction for one, two, 
three, or even six weeks, by competent in- 
structors or lecturers in the best methods of 
teaching the studies pursued in our public 
schools. The exercises are also varied by 
singing, readings, and recitations, discussions 
on school topics, and the reading of essays 
on the various methods of imparting in- 
struction, in which parents and citizens take 
part. 



The first assembly of teachers of this 
kind was held at Hartford, Conn., in 
1839, solely at the expense and on the 
suggestion of the then Secretary of the 
Board of Commissioners of Common 
Schools in Connecticut.* It was remarka- 
bly successful, and was repeated in the 
spring of 1840. The beneficial results of 
these gatherings were so evident that they 
were soon adopted and provided for by the 
Legislatures of most of the Northern and 
Western States. In Pennsylvania they 
were held in each county, and gatherings 
for a longer term (from six to twelve weeks) 
under the title of Normal Institutes, were 
held in each judicial district. These as- 
semblages, though not fully a substitute for 
Normal Schools, yet in some respects exert 
even a more beneficial influence. They 
enlist the interest and sympathies of parents 
and citizens, as well as of the children ; 
bring the teachers of a county or district 
into more intimate acquaintance with each 
other, rouse a healthy spirit of emulation, 
and develop an esprit de corps among the 
teachers which will lead to better views of 
their profession and greater zeal in it. 
Probably not less than 50,000 teachers 
annually enjoy the benefits of this inex- 
pensive course of instruction. 

Another class of organizations for the 
advancement of the teachers' profession is 
found in the State and other Teachers' As- 
sociations. One of these have been in 
existence over forty years, but the greater 
part have come into being within thirty 
years. They occupy their sessions largely 
with the discussion of methods and systems 
of teaching, text-books, apparatus, period- 
icals, &c., but find some leisure for the pro- 
motion of the financial, social, and moral 
advancement of the profession. Most of 
these associations own or control an educa- 
tional periodical, in which teachers dis- 
cuss methods of instruction with great 
freedom, and with constantly increasing 
ability. 

VI. SCHOOLS OP APPLIED SCIENCES. 

1. Agricultural Schools and Colleges. 
There have not been wanting for the 
last two thousand years writers who have 
made it their business to impart instruction 
to their readers in regard to the culture of 
their fields, the rearing of cattle, the suc- 
cession of crops, and the care of the vine. 



• See Barnard's .American Journal of Education, Vol. 17, 
p. 804. 



482 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



The writings of Cato, Virgil's Georgics, the 
Essays of Pliny, Varro and Columella, and 
later Virgil Polydore, Sir Anthony Fitzher- 
bert, Thomas Tiisser, Barnaby George, 
Walter Blithe, Richard Westen, Jethro 
Tull, Arthur Young, and Albrecht von 
Thaer, are full of instruction in regard to 
agriculture, both as a science and an art. 
The first suggestion of a school or college 
for instruction in agriculture, so far as can 
now be ascertained, was made by Samuel 
Hartlib, in an essay published in 1651. 
This was seconded by Abraham Cowley in 
1661, in a treatise on the foundation of a 
Philosophical College, and an essay on 
agriculture. These suggestions bore no 
fruit for nearly one hundred and fifty years. 
An attempt was made to establish an agri- 
cultural school in the park of Chambord in 
France, by the Abbe Rosier, in 1775, but 
owing to the impending revolution in France 
it was unsuccessful. Dc Fellenberg's Agri- 
cultural School at Hofvvyl, Switzerland, pro- 
jected in 1799, but not fully organized till 
1806 or 1807, was really a Normal School, 
with its course of lectures on agriculture 
forming one of its branches of instruction, 
and its practice of agricultural labor by the 
pupils of the school. An agricultural 
school of higher order and more directly 
devoted to instruction in both the science 
and the art, was that founded in 1799 by 
Prince Schwartzenberg at Krumau, in 
Bohemia, and which is still in existence. 
Albrecht von Thaer founded an agricultural 
school at Celle, in Hanover, in 1799, which 
was subsequently transferred to Moglin, 
and with greatly enlarged facilities became 
in 1810 the Royal School of Agriculture in 
Prussia, and is still continued. He was 
Professor of Agriculture in the University 
of Berlin from 1810 to 1828. Its course 
of instruction is very thorough, and its 
illustrative collections ample. There are 
now more than four hundred agricultural 
schools in Europe, about thirty of them of 
the highest grade, among which the most 
celebrated are those of Hohenheim in 
Wurtemberg, Schleissheim in Bavaria, 
Poppelsdorf, Glasnevin in, Ireland, Plagwitz 
in Saxony, and Cirencester, England.* 

In the United States, though there had 
been much discussion and the desirableness 
of agricultural schools was generally admit- 
ted, there was no successful effort for their 

* A full description of the schools designated will be found 
in Barnard's Scientific and Industrial Education. New 
York. Stkioer, lb72. 



establishment till about 1854, though the 
" Cream Hill Agricultural School' at West 
Cornwall, Conn, a private boarding school 
for boys, in which agricultural studies were 
mingled witb those of the usual course of 
the secondary schools, had been in existence 
since 1845; and there had been an annual 
course of about 30 lectures on agriculture 
given in Yale College since 1847. The 
Michigan State Agricultural College at 
Lansing was projected in 1850, but was not 
opened till 1857. The Farmers' High 
School of Pennsylvania, now the Pennsyl- 
vania Agricultural College, near Bellefonte, 
Center Co., Pa., was projected in 1 854, 
opened in 1856, and reorganized in 1859. 
The Farmers' College, at College Hill, near 
Cincinnati, and the Agricultural College at 
Cleveland, Ohio, both commenced their 
course of instruction about 1856, as did 
also the Westchester Farm School, a private 
institution, under the charge of Messrs. 
Henry S. Olcott and Henry C. Vail. The 
New York State Agricultural College at 
Ovid, after a struggle of four or five years, 
broke down completely, and finally was 
succeeded by Cornell University, which has 
a flourishing agricultural department. 
Maryland founded a State Agricultural Col- 
lege at Hyattsville in 1857. Iowa estab- 
lished a "State Agricultural College and 
Model Farm" in 1858, but it was in an 
embryonic state for several years. These 
were, we believe, all the agricultural colleges 
or schools giving direct instruction in the 
science of agriculture previous to 1863. 

On the 2d of July, 1862, the President 
of the United States signed an act of Con- 
gress known as the Agricultural College 
Land Grant, which provided that there 
should be granted to each State thirty 
thousand acres of the unsold and unreserved 
lands of the United States for each Senator 
and Representative such State was entitled 
to in Congress, said lands to be sold by each 
State or its assigns, and the proceeds of 
such sale to constitute a fund which should 
be safely invested, the interest to be used to 
aid in the maintenance " of at least one 
college where the leading object shall be, 
without excluding other scientific and clas- 
sical studies, and including military tactics, 
to teach such branches of learning as are 
related to agriculture and the mechanic 
arts, in such manner as the Legislatures of 
the States may respectively prescribe, in 
order to promote the liberal and practical 



PROFESSIONAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. 



483 



education of the industrial classes in the sev- 
eral pursuits and professions in life," * 

The passage of this act gave a powerful 
impulse to the organization of Agricultural 
Schools or Colleges, In 1871 thirty -four 
States had accepted the national grant, and 
thirty of these had taken measures either 
for the endowment of an agricultural de- 
partment in some existing institution or for 
the establishment of a new College of 
Agriculture and the Industrial Arts, In 
New England, four of the States, Vermont, 
New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode 
Island bestowed their share of the national 
grant on already existing historic institu- 
tions in their respective bounds, — the 
University of Vermont, Dartmouth College, 
Yale College, and Brown University, in 
each of which departments of agriculture 
and the mechanic arts have been established. 
Maine founded a " State College of Agri- 
culture and the Mechanic Arts " at Orono ; 
and Massachusetts, dividing her grant, gave 
one-third to the Institute of Technology at 
Boston, and two-thirds to a new Agricultural 
College founded at Amherst, but having no 
direct connection with the existing college 
there. In New York, after some experi- 
ments in other directions, the magnificent 
grant of 990,000 acres of land was be- 
stowed as an endowment npon the new but 
already flourishing Cornell University, 
whose curriculum embraces the widest pos- 
sible diversity of studies. In Ohio, In- 
diana, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Oregon, 
and West V^irginia new institutions have 
been founded, though that of Minnesota 
was subsequently made a part of the State 
University already in existence. In Indiana, 
the Purdue College, and in Illinois, the 
Illinois Industrial University are liberally 
endowed, and give promise of becoming 
efficient institutions. Pennsylvania, Michi- 
gan, Maryland, and Iowa, have bestowed 
their grants upon Agricultural Colleges 
already existing in their respective States, 
greatly to their advantage and usefulness. 
New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, North 
Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, 
Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Wisconsin, 
and California have intrusted theirs to 
literary institutions already existing to form 
in them departments of Agriculture and the 

* The credit of orisinating and conducting this act through 
Congress belongs to Hon. J. S. Morrill, on its first introduction 
a member of the House, and subsequently of the Senate, from 
Vermont. In 1873 he secured nn udditinnal act by which a 
portion of the land sales hereafter is assigned annually to the 
State Agricultural Colleges. 



Mechanic Arts. In all, then, there are 
thirty of these agricultural colleges, schools, 
or departments already in operation, which 
have received the national grants, and sev- 
eral others, in which agricultural science 
forms an important though somewhat sub- 
ordinate section of a scientific course. 

The course of study in agriculture varies 
in these institutions from a variety of 
causes. In some, it is wholly theoretical ; 
in others, theory and practice of agricul- 
ture are mingled in diverse propoilions. 
In some the highest scientific principles, the 
analysis of soils and products, the adapta- 
bility of natural and artificial manures to 
particular soils, the geology, mineralogy and 
botany of particular sections, the mathe- 
matics of agriculture, the requirements of 
temperature, the influence of locality upon 
crops, the laws of forest growth, and the 
sciences of draining and irrigation, occupy 
the time of the student; others, with an 
eye to more immediate results, devote their 
time and instruction more fully to practical 
details, such as the rearing of cattle, sheep, 
and swine ; the diseases to which each are 
subject ; the best methods of fjittening and 
marketing them ; the culture of the vine, 
and of small fruits ; of the different grains ; 
market gardening ; the cultivation of fruit, 
or the methods of silk, hop, or tea culture. 
Each of these systems has its advantages, 
and the accomplished agriculturalist should 
attain a knowledge of all. Agricultural 
schools, it will be seen from this brief re- 
view, are yet in their infancy in tliis country, 
and there is yet great room for progress in 
their management and instruction, 

2. Commercial Schools or Bttsinsss Colleges. 

These are entirely of modern creation, 
the oldest of them having been organized 
in 1850. Considerably more than one-half 
of them, and among the number those most 
widely advertised and most largely attended, 
are private enterprises, adventure schools as 
they would be termed in Great Britain, 
started purely as business speculations. 
The time required for their course of in- 
struction varies from thirty days to two 
years. They give instruction in penman- 
ship, book-keeping in all its branches, busi- 
ness forms and technicalities, and some of 
them in banking and finance, exchange, 
insurance, postal regulations and service, 
custom-house brokerage, and telegraphy. 
In a very few, instruction is given in French 
and German to an extent sufficient for busi- 



484 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



ness correspondence. Most of these studies 
should come into the regular course of our 
Grammar or Secondary Schools, and these 
should be supplemented by evening schools 
for those who are unable to attend in the 
daytime. In the absence of this legitimate 
school instruction they have undoubtedly 
proved of advantage to many of those who 
sought a business training. There are in all 
about ninety of these commercial schools. 
The number of teachers in them is nearly 
or quite 200, and of students about 8,000. 

3. Scientific Schools Proper* 

Under this head we include Schools of 
Technology or Science, in its applications to 
the useful arts and business ; Schools of 
pure Science, as higher mathematics, nat- 
ural history, physical science ; Schools of 
Engineering, civil or military ; Schools of 
Mines and Mining Engineering ; Schools of 
Philology and Linguistics ; Schools of Arch- 
itecture, and Schools of the Fine Arts 
(drawing, painting, sculpture, and music.) 

The first of these scientific schools in the 
order of time, and one of the first in the 
order of merit, is the Rensselaer Polytechnic 
Institute at Troy. This institute grew out 
of the efforts of the " patroon," late Stephen 
Van Rensselaer, to promote the diffusion of 
practical science among the farmers and 
mechanics of the State of New York. In 
1820 and 1821 he had caused a geological 
and agricultural survey of the counties of 
Albany and Rensselaer to be made at his own 
expense, and had also procured the services of 
the late Prof. Aner Eaton, and the late Profes- 
sor and President of Amherst College, Dr. 
Edward Hitchcock, to survey a transverse 
section from Boston to Lake Erie, noting 
its geological structure, the varieties of soil 
and analyzing the soils and crops of this 
section. In 1823 and 1824 he employed 
Prof. Eaton and a number of competent 
assistants to traverse the State on the line 
of the Erie Canal and deliver popular lec- 
tures on philosophy, chemistry, <fec., with 
experiments. In the autumn of 1824 he 
founded the Rensselaer Institute at Troy, 
for the purpose at first of giving instruction 
in Natural History, Geology, and Chemistry, 
as well as in the higher Mathematics and 
Physics. For fifteen years he sustained this 
school in great part from his own ample 
means, giving free tuition to one student 
from each county, on the recommendation 

* For details, lee Barnard'* Scientific Schools, Vol. II. 



of the County Clerk, but requiring that 
these students should teach for one year in 
their own counties. After Gen. Van Rensse- 
laer's death. Civil Engineering was made a 
prominent feature in the course of study, 
and with the pecuniary aid of the Van 
Rensselaer family, it continues its high 
position as a school of science and en- 
gineering. 

In many instances the schools organized 
under the national grants of lands, or re- 
ceiving aid from these grants, include one 
or more of these classes of schools with 
their instruction in agriculture. Instruction 
in mechanics, by the terms of the act, 
is included in all or nearly all of them ; 
and where the endowment has been be- 
stowed upon a scientific school already in 
operation, physical science, engineering, 
mining, &c., have also been included. 
There are a considerable number of schools 
which do not participate in these national 
grants, but are more or less liberally en- 
dowed from other sources. Among those 
most largely endowed we may name 
Lehigh University at South Bethlehem, 
Penn., which has received from Hon. Asa 
Packer, in all about one million dollars ; 
the Stevens Institute of Technology at 
Hoboken, N. J., whose endowment, aside 
from land and buildings, is $500,000 ; the 
Scientific Department of Lafayette College, 
Easton, Pa., amply endowed by Mr. Pardee ; 
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 
largely endowed by Dr. Walker and others ; 
the Worcester Free Institute, endowed 
by Messrs. Boynton and Washburne ; the 
Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard 
University, and the Street School of 
Fine Arts of Yale College; the Chand- 
ler Scientific School and the Thayer En- 
gineering School of Dartmouth College, 
are among the most conspicuous. One of the 
most remarkable in its practical efficiency 
for the free education of the working 
classes in mathematical and technical science 
is the Cooper Union of New York. This 
magnificent foundation, the gift of a man 
of the people, whose days were spent in 
hard and severe labor from youth to old 
age, provides for the free instruction of 
large classes in all departments of practical 
mathematics, in the various branches of 
mechanics, in chemical technology, the 
principles of natural philosophy and physics, 
in drawing and designing, in engraving, in 
painting and architecture. More than two 



PEOFESSIOKAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATIOX, 



485 



thousand students, of both sexes, are con- 
stantly attending its classes and lectures, and 
great numbers are necessarily turned away 
for want of room for their instruction. The 
Rensselaer Institute at Troy, N. Y., the 
Polytechnic College of Philadelphia, Cor- 
nell University, the Purdue College in 
Lafayette, Indiana, the Illinois Industrial 
University at Urbana, 111., and the Scien- 
tific Department of Washington College, 
St. Louis, as well as some of the younger of 
the national endowed colleges, are giving 
courses of scientific and technical instruc- 
tion which will prove of great service. As 
yet, however, very few of our scientific 
schools are prepared to give the best prac- 
tical teaching. Ten or twenty years hence, 
with still more liberal or more available 
endowments, with museums and cabinets 
replete with the material for illustrative 
instructions, and above all with thoroughly 
competent instructors in the highest depart- 
ments of scientific research, men who 
have dedicated their lives to science 
without the apprehension of an old age of 
poverty, we may expect results unsurpassed 
in the best scientific schools of Europe. 

Civil Engineering is taught in quite a 
number of our scientific schools, and is be- 
coming a very important department of 
higher education; Military Engineering is 
taught, of course, in the Military Academy 
at West Point, and Civil Engineering also 
with great thoroughness, many of our best 
civil engineers having been graduates of 
this academy, and of the State military 
institutes of the south and west. Mining 
Engineering and Metallurgy are taught in 
the Columbia College School of Mines, the 
Polytechnic College of Philadelphia, 
Lehigh University, South Bethlehem, Pa., 
and, we believe, in one of the St. Louis 
scientific schools. Philology is only made a 
distinct bvanch of instruction at Yale Col- 
lege, New Haven ; at Cambridge, and at 
Lafayette University, Easton, Pa. Archi- 
tecture is not generally taught in the scien- 
tific schools, the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology being, perhaps, the only excep- 
tion, though a department of it, Landscape 
Gardening, is beginning to receive attention 
in some of them ; but the Institute of 
American Architects in New York, and 
other similar bodies elsewhere, have estab- 
lished schools for instruction in this branch. 
Drawing, Painting and Sculpture are taught 
in the School of Fine Arts at New Haven, 



in the schools of the American Academy of 
Design, and the Cooper Union at New 
York, the Brooklyn Academy of Design, 
and in kindred institutions in Boston, Phil- 
adelphia, Baltimore, Cincinnati, St. Louis 
and Chicago. Music in its higher develop- 
ments is taught in the Peabody Institute 
at Baltimore, and in the Conservatories of 
Music found in most of our large cities, 
which depend mainly on the reputation of 
some eminent private teachers. 

Some departments of Natural History are 
taught successfully at Cambridge in connec- 
tion with the magnificent Museum of Com- 
parative Zoology, collected by the indefati- 
gable labors of Prof. Agassiz, but for the 
most part the prosecution of these studies 
is most profitably conducted in connection 
with the institutes and academies of natural 
science, of which we may mention the 
Boston Natural History Society, the Essex 
Institute of Natural History at Salem, the 
State Natural History Rooms at Albany, 
the Metropolitan Museum so auspiciously 
begun in New York, the Lyceum of Natural 
History in the same city, the American 
Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadel- 
phia, and for this and technology the 
Franklin Institute in the same city, the 
Smithsonian collections at Washington, and 
lesser but considerable collections at Wil- 
liams College and Amherst College, Mass., 
Cornell and Rochester Universities, New 
York, in Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis, and 
elsewhere. 

vn. ORPHAN ASYLUMS AND SCHOOLS. 

In all the ages since the Christian Era 
there has been manifested a tenderness 
toward the orphan, and foundations for the 
care and education of children bereft of 
one, or both parents have been established 
throughout Christendom in great numbers. 
The Roman Catholic Church, both in Europe 
and the United States has been partic- 
ularly regardful of these children, and 
has established its asylums wherever there 
was a sufficient number of orphans who 
could be gathered into them. The Mora- 
vians, Lutherans, and Reformed Churches 
on the Continent, and Churchmen and Dis- 
senters in England vied with each other in 
promoting the same good work. One of 
the largest Orphan Houses in Europe to-day 
is that of George Muller, one of the Ply- 
mouth Brethren, at Ashley Downs near 
Bristol. It is of great extent, supported 
wholly by voluntary charity, no contribu- 



486 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



tions being ever directly solicited, and 
furnishes care, food, lodging, clothing, and 
education annually to nearly 3,000 orphans. 

In the United States, Orphan Asylums 
were established by the Moravians in Penn- 
sylvania and Georgia early in the eighteenth 
century. In 1740, the celebrated preacher 
George WhitfiL'ld laid the foundation of his 
Orphan House at Bethesda, ten miles from 
Savannah, Ga. Several other Orphan Asy- 
lums were established in New England, Penn- 
sylvania, and Maryland before 1800, but the 
whole number in existence in the United 
States at that time did not exceed six or 
seven. It was the practice to a very great 
extent, among the wealthy families, to 
adopt and bring up orphan children, and 
this practice obviated in ordinary times and 
with the sparse population, the necessity of 
asylums. The first Orphan Asylum in New 
York City was organized in 1806. It was 
at first attempted to place the children in 
families, as is still done in some of the in- 
stitutions for orphans in the German States, 
but the number of orphans rendered this 
difficult, and they rented and subsequently 
erected an asylum in Bank street, whence 
they removed in 1840 to their present 
spacious edifice on the banks of the Hud- 
son, between Seventy-third and Seventy- 
fourth streets. The Lake and Watts Or- 
phan Asylum, endowed largely by the 
gentlemen whose names it bears, is a large 
and admirably managed institution. There 
are now thirteen orphan asylums in New 
York city, aside from the Randall's Island 
Nursery, where 1,700 or 1,800 children — 
orphans, half-orphans, or children of intem- 
perate or criminal parents, are cared for ; 
aside from 8,000 children, the Home for 
the Friendless, the Five Points House of In- 
dustry, Children's Aid Society, and other 
preventive institutions, a large proportion 
of whose inmates are orphans. There 
are two asylums for colored children, and 
one specifically for soldiers' orphans. In 
Brooklyn there are five asylums, all well 
sustained. In all of these institutions there 
are schools under the supervision of the 
city schools' authority, which receive their 
share of the public school money. 

Philadelphia is renowned for her munifi- 
cent foundations for the care and instruction 
of orphans. The Girard College, whose 
buildings and lands cost nearly two millions 
of dollars, and which has an endowment of 
almost a million and a half, received from 



its wealthy founder, has about five hundred 
orphans constantly under instruction. It 
was opened in January, 1848. Its course 
of instruction extends over seven years. The 
amount of annual expenditure is about 
$80,000. Several other orphan asylums and 
schools in Philadelphia are largely endowed ; 
the Burd Orphan Asylum, founded in 1859, 
for orphans between four and eight years of 
age, has an endowment of about half a 
million. The Lincoln Home for Orphans in 
Philadelphia is believed to have been the 
first endowed institution for soldiers' orphans 
in the country. There are now thirty 
orphan asylums for these children specifically 
in the State. Boston has a number of 
orphan asylums and schools, generally ad- 
mirably arranged. All our large cities have 
from two to six, and there are few towns of 
10,000 inhabitants in the country which have 
not at least one, generally in connection 
with some religious organization. It has 
proved impossible hitherto to obtain any 
full or accurate statistics of them. Not 
less than 75,000 children receive both sup- 
port and education in them, and though 
objections may be made to them on the 
ground of their formality and want of the 
family element, they relieve a vast amount 
of destitution, and impart elementary in- 
struction to a large class of children who 
would otherwise perish, or grow up in 
ignorance to vice and crime. 

VII. SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES FOR INDIANS. 

From the first settlement of the colonies 
which now constitute the United States, 
there has been on the part of benevolent 
christian men a desire to educate the 
Aborigines, or at least such of them as could 
be induced to devote their attention to 
study. Like all savagfes, the Indian is nat- 
urally intolerant of confinement and re- 
straint, and soon wearies of unremitting 
application to either study or mechanical 
employment. There have been exceptions 
to tliis rule, but they are so few as to prove 
its general truth. But the eftbrts of good 
men were unceasing to teach them the 
elements of learning and the rudiments of 
those arts which accompany civilization. 
While the Indian continued a nomad it was 
impossible to make any permanent impres- 
sion on him. Civilization requires as its 
basis a fixed home. Hence, though Eliot 
and the Mayhews, the Jesuit Fathers io 
Canada, at Detriot, Kaskaskia, St. Louis, 
Natchez, and other points, and later Count 



PROFESSIONAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. 



487 



Zinzendorf and the Moravians, took great 
pains to acquire the Indian languages, and 
to teach them the rudiments of science and 
religion, they were only successful when 
they could gather the wandering tribes into 
permanent settlements, — missions, the Jesuit 
Fathers called them, — and then erecting the 
requisite churches and school-houses, accus- 
tom them to a fixed home. In New Mexico, 
in Texas, in California and Oregon, the 
Jesuit Missionaries planted many of these 
missions, some of which are still in exist- 
ence. The education imparted, except in 
the arts of civilized life, was not extensive. 
A few were taught to read and write, most 
of them learned to repeat the prayers of the 
church, and occasionally one of their number 
more ambitious and intelligent than the rest, 
would receive sufficient education to become 
the cure of a jjueblo, or Indian village. In 
the English colonies the earliest effort 
for the instruction of the Indians was made 
in Virginia in 1618. For this purpose an 
appeal was made to England by the Virginia 
Company, and the Queen (Elizabeth), and 
many of the nobility and clergy contributed 
to the fund. At Cambridge, Mass., a 
school for the instruction of Indian youth 
was founded before Harvard College, and 
was in some sense the germ of that first of 
American Colleges. In Connecticut, there 
were schools for Indian children and youth 
as early as 1648 to 1660, at several points, 
as at Farmington, Podunk, Hartford and 
Branford, and some of these schools were 
maintained for more than a hundred years. 
In 1725 there was a school for Mohegans at 
Norwich, and the education of Samson 
Occum, an Indian, and afterward a preacher, 
in the family of Rev. Eleazur Wheelock at 
Lebanon, Conn., in 1743-1750, led to the 
founding of Moor's Indian Charity School 
in 1754, which sixteen years later was 
practically merged in Dartmouth College.* 

About the beginning of this century sys- 
tematic efforts were commenced, mostly by 
the general government, for the instruction 
of the Indian tribes within what were then 
the boundaries of the States. The Iroqnois, 
or Six Nations, who had established them- 
selves on reservations in the State of New 
York, the fragments of the Orono, Pequot, 
and Mohegan tribes who remained in Maine 
and Connecticut, and the considerable 
tribes of Cherokees, Creeks and Choctaws, 
who inhabited the northern portions of 



* See Barnurd's History of Education in Connecticut. 



Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, and the 
Seminoles of Florida, all received mission- 
aries and teachers, and made fair progress 
in learning and civilization. George Guest, 
a Cherokee, invented an alphabet, and re- 
duced the language of his tribe to Avritiiig. 
But the rapid influx of white settlers into 
the Gulf States, and their jealousy of these 
peaceful Indian tribes led to peremptory 
demands for their expatriation to lands be- 
yond the Mississippi. This removal seemed 
unjust at the time, and was carried out with 
unnecessary harshness and hardships, but 
in the end it proved of great advantage to 
the tribes which were removed, and they 
have formed the nucleus of an Indian terri- 
torial settlement in which the larger portion 
of the nomadic tribes of the western plains 
have found or will find a home and a per- 
manent settlement. The Cherokees, Creeks, 
and Choctaws have attained to a very re- 
spectable civilization ; they have numerous 
good schools, some of them of the second- 
ary grade, and have entirely abandoned 
their nomadic habits. There are now 
schools, sustained in part by the government 
and in part by the different religious de- 
nominations, in all the tribes which occupy 
distinct reservations, even though these 
tribes have not fixed settlements. There 
were in 1871, as nearly as could be ascer- 
tained, 294 schools among the Indians, with 
about 300 teachers, and about 8,000 schol- 
ars, the total Indian population being esti- 
mated at 383,130 * 

VITI. SCHOOLS FOR THE AFRICANS AND FREEDMEN.f 

Very early in the history of the colonies 
which afterwards became slave states, there 
was evident a determination to withhold 
both from the slaves and the free people of 
color all facilities for education ; and though 
for a time the instruction of house servants, 
who were often allied by blood to their 
masters, was tolerated and sometimes en- 
couraged by influential people, yet as early 
as the beginning of this century, in most of 
tlie slave states, it was forbidden under pen- 
alty of fine and imprisonment to teach a 
slave to read or write. This prohibition 
was in some, perhaps in many cases, evaded ; 
the children of a slaveholder often teaching 



* For a more pnrticulnr ncnount of the attempts to establish 
schools for the Indians, see Barnard's contributions to the 
History of Education in the United Slates. Stkiger, 1873. 

t A special Report on Schools for Colored Children and the 
educational status of the colored population in the different 
States, will be found in Barnard's Special Report on the Dis- 
trict of Columbia which constitutes Vol. XIX of the Ameri- 
can Journal of £ducatioa. 



488 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



a favorite slave what they themselves had 
been taught, but the law remained on the 
statute books, and was enforced whenever 
there was any excitement in regard to the 
slaves. As the free colored people were 
supposed to be most forward in teaching the 
slaves, the same prohibition was in many of 
the States extended to them, and in others 
the terms of a public opinion which re- 
garded, or professed to regard, the free 
colored people as nuisances, was invoked to 
prevent their instruction also. This was 
generally effected, except in three or four 
States. In the District of Columbia there 
have been schools for free negroes in exist- 
ence constantly from 1807 till the present 
time, and most of the time two, three, or 
more at the same time. The first was 
founded by the efforts of George Bell, aided 
by Nicholas Franklin and Moses Liverpool. 
These three men had been slaves but had 
attained their freedom, but neither of the 
three could read or write. Yet they built a 
school-house, and for some years sustained 
a school. In 1809, or thereabouts two 
others were started, one by a colored 
wi>man, Mrs. Anne Maria Hall, the other 
by an Englishman, Mr. Henry Potter. In 
1818, the free colored people formed an 
association under the name of " Resolute 
Beneficial Society," and established a very 
good school which was sustained for several 
years. The best of these early schools was 
one taught by Rev. John F. Cook, a colored 
Presbyterian minister, self-educated, but a 
man of rare ability and talent, who con- 
ducted an excellent school — " The Union 
Seminary " — for about twenty years, from 
1834 till 1855, and it was maintained by his 
sons, with some intermissions, till 1867. 
There were also two or three schools main- 
tained under the direction of Father Van- 
lomen and other Catholic priests, taught by 
colored women of remarkable talent. The 
Wesleyans had also a seminary from 1833 
to 1865. But the most noteworthy of these 
schools was that founded and conducted 
from 1851 to 1866 by Miss Myrtilla Miner, 
a lady of Brookfield, N. Y. This was a 
seminary of the higher class for colored 
girls. We have not space to go into the 
history of this school and her connection 
with it, but it is sufficient to say that she 
deserves as much honor, and perhaps even 
higher consideration than Mary Lyon, the 
founder of llolyoke Female Seminary. Her 
devotion to her work was as great, her sac- 



rifices were greater, and she passed through 
a fiery trial of persecution, while her life 
was one of constant and intense suffering. 
At the time of the emancipation of the 
slaves there must have been in Washington 
and Georgetown some ten or fifteen of these 
colored schools. In Delaware, the Friends 
had had in Wilmington two good schools 
for colored children since 1840. In Mary- 
land there was a Catholic seminary for col- 
ored girls, established in 1831, in connection 
with the Oblate Sisters of Providence Con- 
vent. The Wells school, endowed by a 
man of color, established in 1835, and some 
others. In Kentucky, the Berea College, 
founded in 1858 by Rev. John G. Fee, for 
the higher education of white and colored 
youth, was the only institution of its grade 
in the slave States for colored persons pre- ' 
vious to the war. 

In the Northern States there were 
schools for colored children exclusively in 
many of the large cities. One of these in 
New York was established in 1704. In 
1788 or 1789, the Manumission Society es- 
tablished colored schools which were con- 
tinued till 1834, when they were merged in 
those of the Public School Society. In 
Boston, a colored school was established in 
1798, and a public school for colored 
children in 1800. In Cincinnati they were 
established as early as 1820. A school of 
higher grade established there in 1835 
evoked a storm of persecution, but was 
maintained steadily until the public pro- 
vision for the higher education of colored 
youth was sufficient to render its further 
continuance unnecessary. 

In Philadelphia the efforts for the educa- 
tion of the colored race, of Anthony Ben- 
ezet in 1750, and subsequently of the 
Friends in 1770, and of the Pennsylvania 
Abolition Society in 1794, aided and sup- 
plemented by other benevolent organiza- 
tions at a later period, provided for the 
people of color in that city exceptional ad- 
vantages of education. In the country the 
few colored children generally attended the 
same public schools with the white children, 
though they were in most cases jealously 
excluded from the private schools. In the 
deaf mute, blind and orphan asylums they 
were generally admitted on equal terms with 
white children. But up to 1850, and in 
some of the Northern States still later, there 
was so strong a prejudice against giving to 
the colored people any opportunities ^for 



PROFESSIONAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. 



489 



higber education that no school for that 
purpose was tolerated. In 1833, Miss Pru- 
dence Crandall, a member of the Society 
of Friends and a teacher of high reputation, 
received a young colored girl into her 
boarding and day-school at Canterbury, 
Conn., that she might qualify herself to be- 
come a teacher to her own race. The girl 
was not in any way objectionable ; she was 
of pleasing appearance and manners, and of 
most exemplary conduct, a member of the 
Congregationalist church in Canterbury. 
Objection was made by the parents of some 
of the white children attending this school, 
and Miss Crandall, firm in her principles, 
determined to make it a test question, and, 
therefore, gave notice of the opening of a 
school for colored girls. This was soon 
largely attended, but the people of that and 
adjacent towns were greatly excited in con- 
sequence, and an influential citizen, afterward 
a member of Congress, and Judge of the 
United State District Court, procured the 
passage of a law by the legislature in 1833 
which prohibited such a school, under pen- 
alty of heavy fine or imprisonment. Under 
this law Miss Crandall was arrested, com- 
mitted to the Windham County jail, and 
subsequently tried ; the first time the jury 
disagreed ; the second, on Judge Daggett's 
charge, she was convicted, but an appeal 
being taken to the Supreme Court of Errors 
the action was quashed. Her school was, 
however, broken up by the constant assaults 
made on the teacher, scholars, and the 
school building. 

In 1850, Avery College, founded by 
Rev. Charles Avery, was opened at Alle- 
ghany City, Penn., as a collegiate and 
academical school for persons of color 
of both sexes. It has about 75 students, is 
well endowed, and has an efiicient faculty. 
Lincoln University at Oxford, Chester 
County, Penn., originally called Ashmun 
Institute, was founded in 1854 by the Pres- 
bytery of Newcastle, Pa., for the scientific, 
classsical and theological education of young 
men of color. It was not opened till Dec. 
31, 1856, and had in 1871, 158 students. 
It is moderately well endowed. Wilber- 
force University near Xenia, Ohio, founded 
in 1856 as a collegiate institution for young 
men of color by the Cincinnati Conference 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was by 
that conference transferred to the African 
Methodist Episcopal Church, and is now 
sustained by the people of color, one of 



their bishops. Rev. Dr. D. A. Payne, being 
President and Professor of Theology. It 
had in 1871, 176 students of both sexes, 
and 7 instructors. These three institutions, 
and Berea College, Ky., were all in exist- 
ence previous to the war, and their students 
were wholly or mainly persons of color. 
Several other colleges, however, admitted 
colored students to their classes regularly, 
and still others occasionally, Obcrlin has, 
since 1836, always had colored students. 

The escape of many who had previously 
been slaves from their masters in the first 
year of the war, and the Proclamation of 
Emancipation in January, 1863, soon de- 
monstrated the necessity of furnishing edu- 
cational advantages to these new citizens. 
The Freedmen, as the emancipated slaves 
were now called, were clamorous for ele- 
mentary education. They flocked to the 
schools which the various philanthropic and 
religious societies established for their in- 
struction, in great numbers, and though 
among the adults, whose minds had been 
hitherto wholly untrained, progress was very 
slow, yet by dint of the most undaunted 
perseverance, great numbers learned to 
read, and the colored children, in most 
cases, proved apt scholars. Great hostility 
was manifested toward these schools in 
the late slave States by a class of 
the white population, who were for 
the most part themselves illiterate, and 
jealous of the improvement of the blacks; 
and many school-houses were burned, and 
some teachers as well as a considerable 
number of the pupils were beaten, wounded 
or killed. But this opposition eventually 
died away, and now the education of the 
colored children goes on without let or 
hindrance. The amount expended by the 
various benevolent societies in the main- 
tenance of these schools can only be stated 
approximately. In the ten years ending 
October, 1871, the American Missionary 
Association reported an expenditure for this 
purpose of $1,563,756.99. The Freedmen's 
Aid Society of Cincinnati, before it was 
merged in the American Missionary Asso- 
ciation, $134,340.53, beside large amounts 
of clothing ; the General Assembly of the 
Presbyterian Church, for five years ending 
May 'l, 1872, |220,704 ; the American 
Baptist Free Mission Society, from 1862 to 
1870, when its organization ceased, about 
$165,000; the American Baptist Home 
Mission Society, in all about $260,000 ; the 



490 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



Unitarian Association, directly and through 
the Zion Methodist Church, over $100,000; 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, about 
$110,000; the Friends, directly and indi- 
rectly, over $150,000 (including a con- 
siderable amount of supplies and clothing) ; 
the Protestant Episcopal Church, not far 
from $80,000. The Freedmen's Department 
of the Western Sanitary Conunisson also 
expended large sums in aid of these schools 
in the Mississippi Valley. The Freedmen's 
Bureau, from May 20, 1865 to October, 
1871, expended in cash on these schools 
$4,711,235.04, and in other things than 
cash $1,551,276.22. The Catholics have 
also expended very considerable sums for 
the establishment of schools for freedmen, 
and have organized a system of schools for 
colored children; and there have been many 
private enterprises sustained by individual 
contributions, which are not reported. Tak- 
ing into the account all these sums, together 
with what had been done by the Freed- 
men's Bureau, the expenditure for the educa- 
tion of freedmen (including a small amount 
for refugees and poor whites) has exceeded 
nine millions. This is aside from the en- 
dowment which has been given generally 
by bequest to several schools of higher 
education for colored youth — such as the 
Howard University at Washington, Lincoln 
University at Oxford, Va., Leland and 
Straight Universities at New Orleans, 
Alcorn University at Jackson, Miss., Fisk 
University, Nashville, Tenn., the Hampton 
Normal and Agricultural Institute at 
Hampton Roads, Va., and Atlanta Uni- 
versity, Atlanta, Georgia. There are in all 
over twenty of these schools of higher 
education for young men of color ; some of 
them aiming to give substantially the ordina- 
ry college course, others only a limited Eng- 
lish and theological course to train those 
who are expecting to preach to their own 
race either here or in Africa. The Howard 
University at Washington has a theological, 
medical, and law school connected with it. 
It is but slenderly endowed, $100,000 only 
being raised for endowment purposes, though 
it receives in addition to tuition fees con- 
siderable sums in annual subscriptions. 

The munificent fund for the promotion 
of education in the South presented by the 
late George Peabody, the noblest gift ever 
made by one man to popular education, 
properly comes under consideration here, as 
in some of the States jxrants are made from 



it for colored schools. Mr. Peabody, who 
must rank as the greatest benefactoi* to 
education in ancient or modern times, and 
whose large gifts to other objects are stated 
more at length elsewhere in this volume, 
visited the United States in 1866, just after 
the close of the war, and deeply impressed 
with the condition of the Southern States 
and the great need of greater facilities for 
elementary and secondary education, then 
resolved to devote a portion of his large 
fortune for this purpose. Having matured 
his plans, he placed in the hands of trustees 
bonds and securities of the value of 
$2,000,000, the interest and a portion of 
the principal of which, if necessary, was to 
be used for the promotion of education in 
the South without regard to race or color. 
Rev. Barnas Sears, D.D., LL.D., formerly 
Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of 
Education, and at this time President of 
Brown University, was selected by the 
trustees, with Mr. Peabody's approval, to 
apply this large sum, and has done so 
with great wisdom and fairness. In 1869, 
Mr. Peabody again visited the country, and 
was so much gratified at the good accom- 
plished by his gift, that he added $1,400,000 
more to it. The revenue from this fund, 
somewhat more than $200,000 per annum, 
is divided among the schools of the South- 
ern States in such a way as to encourage 
them to greater exertions, and to confer a 
lasting benefit on the communities upon 
which it is bestowed. 

IX. CHURCH AND DENOMINATIONAL SCHOOLS. 

In discussing the character and progress 
of schools of secondary instruction and 
colleges, we have not given any special ac- 
count of those institutions which come 
under the head of Church and Religious 
Schools, partly because it is a matter of 
difficulty to separate them from the others, 
and partly because the greater part of those 
ela'm'ng these specific titles are of compar- 
atively recent origin. In New England, in 
the early history of the Colonies and States, 
all the schools were religious. The district 
or elementary schools had the Bible or 
Testament for their text-book, almost their 
only text-book. They read in it, parsed 
from it, often had their spelling lessons in 
it, and though they could not prosecute 
their arithmetical studies from it very well, 
yet occasionally a knotty problem in figures 
was drawn from it. The Lord's Prayer, the 



PROFESSIONAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. 



491 



Creed, and the Assembly of Divines' 
Shorter Catechism were tauf^ht to the 
children from the New England primer, and 
many a hard-headed theologian of the 
fi)rmer class acquired his theological training 
almost wholly in the district school. The 
Grammar schools were equally religious in 
their purpose and their teachings, and the 
colleges all had for their ultimate object and 
aim the sentiment emblazoned on the first 
seal of Harvard College, Pro Christo et 
EcclesicB—"' For Christ and the Church." 
This was equally true also of Kings (now 
Columbia) College, New York, and of the 
two New Jersey colleges at Princeton and 
New Brunswick. Farther South the col- 
legiate instruction had more of the secular 
and less of the theological character, but 
many of the schools were established by 
particular churches, and taught their doc- 
trines Avith the studies of a more general 
character. This was true of the Catholic 
Conventual and other schools of New York, 
Pennsylvania and Maryland, the Moravian 
schools of Pennsylvania and North Caro- 
lina, and the schools of the Friends or 
Quakers. As colleges were organized in the 
newer States they very generally (except in 
the case of State institutions and sometimes 
even then) were under the patronage of a 
particular denomination, and their faculty 
belonged to that denomination. Of the 375 
nominal colleges in the United States there 
are not more than thirty which are not 
directly or indirectly denominational. 

Among the schools of secondary instruc- 
tion nearly all the Female Seminaries, and a 
large majority of academies and other in- 
corporated schools in which higher studies 
are pursued, are avowedly denominational 
in their boards of government and in- 
struction. 

X. PHILANTHROPIC SCHOOLS. 

(1.) Schools for Deaf Mutes. 

The first efi'orts for the instruction of 
Deaf Mutes in England were made between 
1742 and 1760. J. R. Pereira, a Spanish 
Jew, but long resident in France, and a man 
of remarkable genius, instructed a consid- 
erable number of pupils, in 1743-1760, by 
what is now known as the method of artic- 
ulation, teaching them to pronounce words 
by imitating the motion of the lips as the 
words were uttered. He communicated to 
them also instruction in regard to the 
meaning of these words and their colloca- 



tion, and was so successful that his pupils 
conversed freely, and even had copied from 
their teacher the Spanish accent of French 
words. His system was unfortunately kept 
secret, and in the Revolution in France all 
knowledge of his method was lost. Samuel 
Heinicke, a German teacher, instructed the 
deaf and dumb, from 1754 to 1780, also by 
the method of articulation. There were 
others before and after these men who had 
attempted the instruction of deaf-mutes by 
this plan, but none of them very successful- 
ly. In 1755, the Abbe de I'Epee, a French 
philanthropist, attempted to teach deaf 
mutes by the natural language of signs, and 
proceeding from the known to the unknown, 
to indicate to them abstract ideas by the 
same method. He also invented a sign 
alphabet, by means of which they were 
taught the alphabet and enabled to spell out 
the words they wished to utter, to those 
who did not understand the language of 
signs. His processes, improved greatly by 
the Abbe Sicard, one of his teachers and 
his successor, and by Bebian, a pupil of 
Sicard, are those most generally practiced 
in the instruction of deaf mutes tbroughout 
Christendom. Some of the English schools, 
and a few of the German however, adhere 
to the system of articulation which was in- 
troduced in England in 1760 by Thomas 
Braid wood, who may have been a pupil of 
Heinicke. Braidwood kept his processes a 
profound secret, suffering none but his im- 
mediate family and relatives to know them 
for 60 years. He died in 1806, and his 
widow and her grandsons, and other rela- 
tives maintained the school and the secret 
many years. One of the grandsons came 
to the United States in 1811, under the 
invitation of a former pupil from Virginia, 
to establish a school for deaf mutes in that 
State, but he did not succeed. 

The first successful attempt to instruct 
deaf mutes in the United States was made 
at Hartford, Conn., in April, 1817. Its 
history was as follows: In 1814, Rev. 
Thomas H. Gallaudet, a young clergyman 
of Hartford, was led by his interest in Alice 
Cogswell, the little daughter of Dr. Mason 
F. Cogswell, who had lost her hearing in 
infancy, to investigate the number and con- 
dition of the deaf mutes in the State, and 
determined to devote his life to the amelior- 
ation of their condition. Dr. Cogswell, 
Ward Woodbridge, David Wadsworth, and 
other gentlemen in Hartford, furnished the 



492 



EDUCATION" AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



means for a visit to England to learn 
the best methods of teacliing these un- 
fortunates. He sailed for Liverpool, May 
25, 1815, and on arriving in England 
found that the Braidwood family, who 
held the monopoly of deaf mute instruc- 
tion in Great Britain, would not give 
him any training in their processes except 
on condition that he should pay fifteen hun- 
dred dollars, remain from one to three years 
without salary, as an assistant in their 
schools, and take a member of the family 
as a partner in the institution to be estab- 
lished in America. Mr. Gallaudet promptly 
rejected these terms, and after repeated un- 
successful efforts to obtain more favorable 
propositions, was about to return to the 
United States when he met in London the 
Abbe Sicard, by whom he was invited most 
cordially to visit his institution in Paris. 
Accepting the invitation, the good Abbe at 
once made him acquainted with all his 
processes of instruction, and after three 
months of close study, in which the Abbe 
gave him every possible assistance, he re- 
turned to America, accompanied by M. 
Laurent Clerc, an educated deaf mute, and 
one of the Abbe Sioard's most successful 
teachers. A school for deaf mutes was 
chartered by the Connecticut Legislature in 
May, 1816, and Messrs. Gallaudet and Clerc 
traveled extensively to explain the system 
of instruction and to raise the necessary 
funds for its establishment. It was opened 
in rented buildings, at Hartford, in April, 
1817, and soon after received from Congress 
a grant of a township of land in Alabama, 
when its corporate name was changed to 
*' The American Asi/lam for the Deaf and 
Dumb." By careful management this grant 
produced a fund of over $300,000, which 
enabled the directors to furnish board and 
tuition at a very moderate price to pupils 
from any part of the country. Until quite 
recently the New England States made ap- 
propriations for the support of their deaf 
mutes whose friends were unable to support 
them exclusively in this institution. 

The American Asylum was prosperous 
from the first. Mr. Gallaudet, its founder, 
was a man of rare genius and originality, 
and possessed great tact and skill in impart- 
ing instruction to a class of pupils whom it 
had been before considered impossible to 
educate. He was ably seconded by M. 
Clerc, who retained his connection with the 
institution for almost fifty years. The 



teachers whom Mr. Gallaudet drew around 
him were all men of remarkable ability ; 
and among them such men as William C. 
Woodbridge, Lewis Weld, Harvey P. Peet, 
Isaac Orr, William W. Turner, Luzern Rae, 
Samuel Porter, John A. Jacobs, O. W. 
Morris, Collins Stone, and others. His two 
sons, Thomas and Edward M. Gallaudet, 
have devoted themselves to the develop- 
ment of this class of institutions, and the 
moral and intellectual culture of deaf mutes. 

As this asylum has been directly the 
parent of all, or nearly all, the institutions 
for deaf mutes in the United States, and its 
methods have been followed with, at most, 
very slight modifications, by all the others, 
it is perhaps necessary that we should show 
in what particulars the American methods 
of deaf mute instruction differ from the 
European. It was a great blessing to the 
deaf mutes that the work of establishing a 
system of instruction for them fell to the lot 
of a man of such genius and ability as Mr. 
Gallaudet. Had he been merely a routinist, 
following implicitly the system of De I'Epee, 
Sicard, and Bebian, their intellectual culture 
to-day would be vastly below what it now is. 

The system of Pereira, Heinicke, and the 
Braidwoods had for its basis the dogma that 
ideas could only be expressed or communi- 
cated by means of spoken or written 
language ; and hence the deaf mute was 
taught, with great difficulty and pains, to 
articulate words whose meanings he did not 
understand, and then, as step by step he 
connected ideas with the simplest of thern, 
these were made the means of conveying to 
him the meaning of those more abstract and 
difficult. In this way three or four years 
were consumed before the pupil was pre- 
pared to acquire the facts of science or the 
knowledge of his moral obligations. 

The fundamental principle of the system 
of De I'Epee, as modified by Sicard and 
Bebian, was that " words have no natural or 
necessary connection with the ideas of 
which they are the signs, and that in the 
natural language of signs or pantomime, 
improved and enlarged as it can be, there is 
a complete substitute for them." No 
special attempt was made at teaching artic- 
ulation, but words were taught by means of 
signs, and these once acquired, were made 
the medium of further instruction by ordin- 
ary text-books. In order to teach words 
more readily, M. Sicard introduced what he 
denominated methodical signs^ that is, a 



PROFESSIONAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. 



493 



peculiar gesture for each word, which the 
pupil was taught. It is obvious that if the 
vocabulary of the deaf mute was to be as 
large as that of ordinary intelligent speaking 
persons, the number of these arbitrary 
signs (for it is to be understood that these 
differed almost as much from the ordinary 
signs as the latter from words, the natural 
signs representing ideas, and the methodical 
signs single words) must be very great, some 
thousands at least, and to retain them in 
memory was a very fatiguing task for both 
pupil and teacher. 

Tlie American system of deaf mute in- 
struction differs materially from both these, 
and the difference originating in its funda- 
mental principles with Mr. Gallaudet and 
the teachers trained up under him, has been 
extended and amplified as a result of the 
experience and observations of the very 
eminent teachers who have been and still 
are engaged in the work of deaf mute in- 
struction. 

In establishing the American Asylum, 
Mr. Gallaudet combined the principle of 
Heinicke, of the connection of ideas with 
words, with that of De I'Epee, that the 
natural language of signs must be elevated 
to as high a degree of excellence as possible 
in order to serve as the medium for giving 
the ideas clearly and explaining them ac- 
curately ; but he added to these another 
which had never before been applied to 
deaf mute instruction, viz., that the process 
of learning words might be greatly facili- 
tated by leading the pupils to reflect on 
their own sensations, ideas, and mental 
processes. With the earliest lessons he im- 
parted in the names of sensible objects, he 
was accustomed to endeavor to open com- 
munication with them, by means of the 
sign-language, in regard to the feelings and 
emotions excited by. these objects, and, if 
possible, to connect them with something 
in the pupil's past experience. From this, 
the deaf mute was naturally led on to think 
of the feelings and emotions of others, 
thence, by a natural transition, to the idea 
of God as a Creator and benefactor, and 
finally to a knowledge of his law, and the 
final destiny of man. The result of this 
has been that pupils in this country (for this 
plan has been generally adopted in our 
American institutions) are made acquainted 
with the simple truths of religion and 
morality in one year, a period in which, in 
the European institutions, they have scarce- 
30* 



ly advanced beyond the knowledge of 
sounds and the names of sensible objects, 
qualities, and actions, or the most common 
phrases. Apart from the high religious 
importance of this process, it brings moral 
motives to bear earlier, and renders the 
government of the pupils easier, while it 
aids them in the formation of correct habits. 
The conducting of the daily and weekly 
devotional exercises in the sign-language 
was another peculiarity introduced by Mr. 
Gallaudet. 

Methodical signs were used to a consid- 
erable extent by Mr. Gallaudet and the 
earlier instructors of American institutions, 
but were not regarded as so indispensable 
by them as by the French teachers. Of 
late years they are less employed than 
formerly, and are made to indicate phrases 
rather than words, while the manual alpha- 
bet is regarded as of more value in teaching 
than it was thirty years ago. An advance 
has also been made, of great importance, 
by the introduction, by Mr. I. Lewis Peet, 
of the New York Institution, of manual 
and written symbols for those ultimate con- 
stituents of the sentence which form so con- 
siderable a portion of spoken and written 
language. By this means written language 
is taught with much greater facility than 
formerly. The idioms and forms of ex- 
pression induced by the use of the natural 
language of signs, differ so much from those 
of our written language, which is to a 
greater extent than most people are aware, 
artificial in its construction, that it has been 
difficult for deaf mutes, in attempting to 
obtain a higher education to attain to that 
complete mastery of English, which is ac- 
quired with comparative readiness, by those 
who have not the idioms of a native lan- 
guage to unlearn ; for to the deaf mute this 
natural language is in some sort their 
mother tongue. 

The New York Asylum was chartered in 
April, 1817, mainly through the active exer- 
tions of Drs. S. L. Mitchell and Samuel 
Akerly, DeWitt Clinton, Sylvanus Miller, 
Peter Sharpe, and Rev. Dr. James Milnor, 
It was not opened till May, 1818, and the 
first twelve years of its history were years 
of struggles and difficulties, partly from the 
lack of competent teachers and assistants, 
and partly from injudicious management. 
In 1830 it was removed to buildings 
specially erected for it on the block between 
49th and 50th streets, and Fourth and 



494 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



Madison avenues, and Mr. (afterward Dr.) 
Harvey P. Peet, one of the ablest of the 
teachers of the American Asylum was elected 
Principal, Dr. Pcet had much to contend 
with at first, but he was grandly successful, 
and the present asylum on Washington 
Heights, overlooking the Hudson, with its 
noble buildings and its fine park of thirty 
acres, with accommodations for six hundred 
pupils and every advantage for successful 
instruction, is a monument to his ability and 
fidelity both as a teacher and executive 
officer. Dr. Peet remained at the head of 
the institution till 1867, when he resigned, 
and his son, Isaac Lewis Peet, was elected 
his successor; but he retained his official 
connection with the institution until his 
death, January 1, 1873, The number of 
pupils in 1871 had reached 580, under 30 
teachers. 

The Pennsylvania institution was founded 
at Philadelphia in 1820, and in 1822 Mr. 
Lewis Weld, another of the Hartford teach- 
ers, became its principal. In 1830, on Mr. 
Gallaudet's resignation as principal of the 
American Asylum, Mr, Weld was recalled 
to Hartford as his successor, and was suc- 
ceeded at Philadelphia by Mr. Abraham B. 
Hilton, who proved a highly successful 
teacher for 40 years, until his death in 
1870, The institution has been prosperous 
from the start. 

The Kentucky institution was founded in 
1823, and located at Danville. It received 
a grant of public land from Congress, but 
no considerable fund was realized out of it. 
Its first principal, who was at its head for 
forty-five years, was Mr, John A. Jacobs, 
who was previously one of the teachers of 
the American Asylum, At his death, in 
1868, his son succeeded him. 

The Ohio institution, founded in 1827, 
has been very prosperous. Its first and 
third principal, Messrs. Hubbell and Stone, 
were from the American Asylum, and its 
second, Mr. Gary, from the New York In- 
stitute, who was succeeded in 1855 by Mr. 
Collins Stone, at the time a teacher in the 
institution at Hartford, to which he returned 
to become principal in 1868, and where he 
died in 1871, 

The Virginia institution, at Staunton, Va,, 
founded in 1839, and long officered from the 
Hartford institution, was the first in this 
country to combine the instruction of the 
deaf mutes and the blind under one board 
of officers and teachers. There are now 



nine asylums in the United States where 
these two classes are educated together. 

There are in the United States thiity- 
eight distinct schools or institutes for Deaf 
Mutes, five or six of them, however, are 
small, and three day schools in Chicago, 
Boston, and Pittsburgh ; two or three teach 
by the system of articulation only, while 
most of the others give instruction in artic- 
ulation to classes of semi-mutes, i. e., those 
who have learned to speak but have become 
deaf in childhood. For those who were 
deaf and dumb from birth, the ablest 
teachers believe the time spent in teaching 
articulation can be spent in acquiring 
ideas and and the power of expressing 
them. What will be the ultimate result of 
the general use of the Bell system of Visi- 
ble Speech, introduced into the Clarke In- 
stitution at North Hampton, and to a limited 
extent in the American Asylum at Hartford, 
and the private school of A. Graham Bell at 
Boston, since 1871, can not be safely predict- 
ed. With a class of semi-mutes, it proves 
highly useful in facilitating articulation. 

Twenty-nine of the States, and the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, have each one or more 
institution for the deaf and dumb. In most 
of these the course of instruction occupies 
seven years, and those who are unable to 
pay their board and tuition are supported 
by the several States, In the American 
Asylum and the New York institution an 
advanced course occupying three years was 
established in 1854; and in 1864 the 
National Deaf Mute College was organized, 
as a department of the Columbia institution 
at Washington, It has the usual college 
classes, with a course of study occupying 
four years, closely following that of our 
best colleges. The success of the institu- 
tion in Washington, and the establishment 
of the National College, is mainly due to a 
son (E. M. Gallaudet, LL.D.) of Thomas H, 
Gallaudet, 

By the census of 1870, the number of 
deaf and dumb persons in the United 
States returned that date (July, 1870,) is 
16,205, of whom 14,869 were native, and 
1,336 of foreign birth. This is probably 
considerably below the actual number, which 
is probably not much below 20,000, or one 
to every 2,000 inhabitants. Of these 4,000, 
or a fraction more, were under instruction 
at that time, probably nearly all who were 
of school age — for the per centage of illit- 
erate deaf mutes is very small. 



ALPHABET OF THE DEAF AND DUMB. 

» b c d « 













1 m 









u V 







& 







496 



bell's visible speech. 



^ 



( 



u 



o 



/ 



I ( 



) \ 



In 18(55^ Mr. A. Melville Bell, Professor of Vocal Physiology in England, announced in a pamphlet en- 
titled '■'■\isible Speech: A JVew Fact Demonstrated,'^ that he "had discovered the true organic relations of 
speech sounds, and had invented a universal alphabet based upon his discovery. His new method of 
writing lie termed " Visible Speech," from a peculiarity in the formation of the letters. In this method, 
every letter, and every part of a letter, has a detiuite physiological meaning. The elementary lines and 
curves arc pictorial of parts of the mouth ; and these are capable of being grouped together into a com- 
pound form, just as the various parts of the mouth are arranged in uttering .sound. In this way, the 
inventor claimed he could represent any sound the human voice could make, so that another person should 
be directed how to utter it. The following diagrams will illustrate the elements of this Alphabet. 
The darkened parts of the diagram (Fig. 1,) are the Visible Speech si/mhols for the organs of which they 

\ are the outlines. These symbols are written sepa- 

*• rately, and in one line, at the lower part of the 

\ diagram. They indicate respectively, as they 

.... \ stand, beginning at the left hand, the throat, the 

back of the tongue, the top of the tongue, the point 
of the tongue, tlie lower lip, and the nose. 

The sign for the throat, (the straight line) repre- 
sents a mere chink or slit in the throat, and is 
pictorial of the vocalizing condition of the glottis. 
It is therefore used to denote " voice." 

The sign for the nose is, in reality, pictorial of 
the uvula, the pendulous extremity of the soft 

Ealate. When the soft palate is depressed, the 
reath passes up behind it, and escapes through 
the nostrils. When it is raised, the communication 
between nose and mouth is cut otf. 

Hence the application of a symbol originally 
pictorial of the soft palate to the nose. 

Its strict scientific meaning is, — " soft palate de- 
pressed ;" but it will be more popularly under- 
stood as " air passing through the nostrils." 

At the lower part of Fig. 1 are two additional 
symbols, like parenthesis laid horizontally. The 
first of these is intended to convey the idea of a 
pipe ; and the second exhibits this pipe closed at 
one end. The first is used to denote a narrow pas- 
sage in the mouth, througli which the breath may 
pass ; and the second, complete closure of the passage. 
The first compounded symbol indicates " a narrow 
passage " for the breath, over (plus) the 
'• back of the tongue." The combination 
indicated by the plus sign stands after the 
sign of equality, oeing a crescent protracted 
to three-fourths of a circle. This is the 
position of tlic mouth in sounding cA (Ger- 
man), in the word nach. 

The second symbol (lip ^?/«s closure) directs us to " close " the "lips." This position is assumed by 

the mouth in uttering a word commencing with ^, — e. ^., paper. The third symbol {W^ plus <i\o»\\r<i plus 

voice plus nose) indicates that the " lips" are to be "closed," and the voice passed through the " nose." 

The symbols in Figure 3, describe certain positions of the mouth which yield sounds. The reader can, 

it is presumed, readily analyze them from 

Cthe preceding figures. 
Key words are so variously pronounced 
eft (German) by different speakers, as to be, in many 
cases worthless as a means of identifying 
sounds. 

Tliey are, therefore, omitted in the pres- 
ent instance, except in those cases where 
they will be likely to assist the reader. 

The fact that the Visible Speech symbols 
exhibit to the eye all the relations the 
sounds themselves do to the ear, and that 
the organic relations are just as clearly 
shown, will be obvious by a comparison 
of the characters for 

P B M 

T D N 

K G NG. 

Comparing these as thus placed, Visible Speech 

and itssi<;ns sny that- 



a 



Figure 2 illustrates the combination of these signs. 




D 


U 


Blowing 
to cool. 


r (French) 
theatre. 


3 


Cj) 


u> (German) 


r (English) 
run. 


B 


Ci) 


p ID pen. 


( in (ea. 


D 


o 



I + < 



o 

English) 
Aue. 

English) 
you. 



= o 



y (English) 
you. 



€ 

G 

t in kej. 

a 



^ 



m in some. 



d in d^y. 



® CD 



G 



! P is to B, so is T to D, and K lo G. 

i B is to M, so JS D to N, anil G to NO. 

; P is 10 T, to is B to D, and M to N. 

> P is to K, so is B to G, and M to NG., Ac, Ac. 



P, B, and M have the "lip" and "shut" signs in common ; and in sounding all, the lips are shut. 

T, D, N, agree in shutting off the breath by means of the point of the tongue, and K, G, NG, in the 
closing action being performed by the back of the tongue. 

Furthermore, the sounds Pj T, K (represented by tlie same symbol turned in different directions), are 
made by the same organic action performed at different parts of the mouth ; so with B, D, G, and M, N, NG. 



PROFESSIONAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. 



497 



(2.) Schools and Institutions for the Instruction of 
ihe Blind. 

The instruction of the blind had never 
been attempted on any considerable scale, 
in any part of the world, before the Abbe 
Valentin Haiiy, in 1784, commenced in 
Paris, France, his private school for 
blind pupils. Individuals who were blind 
had indeed educated themselves by the 
assistance of friends ; bat the great ma- 
jority of those who sulTered from this 
affliction were left to a life of depend- 
ence and depression, and often became beg- 
gars. The efforts of Haiiy, and his inven- 
tion of an embossed alphabet, to enable the 
blind to read, led to the foundation of a 
school for the blind in Paris, supported by 
the French government, in 1791, and to the 
organization of similar schools in England, 
Prussia, Austria, and Russia, about the same 
period. In these schools, reading and- 
music, and some of the simpler mechanic 
arts, such as knitting, mat-weaving, basket- 
making, etc., were taught. 

The first systematic efforts for the educa- 
tion of the blind in the United States were 
made in Boston in 1829. Dr. John D. 
Fisher, a young physician of that city, while 
studying his profession in Paris had visited 
repeatedly the Institute for the Blind, and 
was inspired with the determination to at- 
tempt their instruction at home. On his 
return to America he associated himself 
with a half-dozen benevolent gentlemen of 
Boston, among whom was William H. 
Prescott, the eminent historian, who was 
himself partially blind. These gentlemen 
having heard Dr. Fisher's narrative of what 
had been accomplished in the institution at 
Paris, procured from the Massachusetts 
Legislature in March, 1829, a charter for an 
institution to be called "The New England 
Asylum for the Blind," and at once under- 
took to raise money for buildings and en- 
dowment. The gift by Col. Thomas H. 
Perkins of his valuable mansion house and 
lands in Pearl street, Boston, to the asylum, 
on condition that $50,000 should be raised 
by others, soon led to its liberal endowment, 
and to the change of its corporate name to 
" The Perkins Institution and Massachusetts 
Asylum for the Blind." It was not formal- 
ly opened until 1831, when Dr. Samuel G. 
Howe, another young physician of Boston, 
who had been actively engaged in extending 
succor to the Greeks in their efforts to throw 



off the Turkish yoke, and who passing 
tbrough Paris on his return from the East, 
had devoted careful attention to the 
methods of the French Institute for the 
Blind, took charge of it, and has continued 
in its superintendence for more than forty 
years. The institution received grants from 
the Massachusetts and other New England 
Legislatures in proportion to the number 
of beneficiaries received. These grants 
now amount to about §37,000 per annum. 
The genius and ability of Dr. Howe in the 
management of the institution, and in in- 
spiring other men with his own enthusiasm, 
and his remarkable success in educating 
Laura Bridgeman, a blind deaf mute, has 
secured for the institution the continued sup- 
port of the benevolent and the Legislature, 
for all needful modifications of the system. 

In 1831, Dr. Samuel Akerly, already 
well-known for his efforts in behalf of the 
deaf and dumb, Mr. Samuel Wood, a benev- 
olent member of the Society of Friends, 
and several other gentlemen of New York, 
became interested in the condition of blind 
children in the alms-house, and made appli- 
cation to the New York Legislature for an 
act of incorporation for an institution for 
for the blind, which was granted. Securing 
the services of Dr. John D. Russ, another 
young physician Avhose aggressive benevo- 
lence, like that of Dr. Howe, had enlisted 
him in the cause of the Greeks, they com- 
menced at first in a very humble way the 
instruction of the blind pauper children in 
the city of New York. This institution, like 
that of Boston, has grown to be one of the 
largest in the world. Dr. Russ withdrew 
from its superintendency after a few years, 
but is still its warm and efficient friend. 

In Philadelphia, Robert Vaux, a wealthy 
and benevolent Friend, and others who were 
like-minded, after two or three years of ex- 
ertion succeeded in 1833 in establishing an 
institution for the blind, which was at first 
under the charge of an able and intelligent 
Prussian, Mr. Julius Friedlander, who had 
been one of the teachers of the blind in 
Berlin under the direction of the celebrated 
Zeune. Mr. Friedlander's death, in 1839, 
was a severe blow to the institution, and for 
the next ten years, under a variety of super- 
intendents, it did not attain to a great suc- 
cess, but with the appointment of its present 
able and efficient superintendent, William 
Chapin, LL.D , it commenced a new career, 
and is now second to no institution for the 



498 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



blind in the world in its successful manage- 
ment, and the great amount of good it is per- 
forming. It has connected with it an Indus- 
trial Home for the Blind, intended for the in- 
firm and aged as well as for those who are ca- 
pable of partially supporting themselves. It 
is open under certain restrictions to graduates 
of blind institutions — those of the Philadel- 
phia institution having the preference. The 
pupils of the Philadelphia institution are 
very well educated in music, and its weekly 
concerts are largely attended by the best 
musical connoisseurs of the city, and have 
proved a considerable source of revenue. 

In 1837, the Ohio institution was estab- 
lished at Columbus, and though passing 
through many changes and vicissitudes, it 
now takes a high rank. The department 
for the blind in the institution for the deaf, 
dumb and blind at Staunton, Va., was or- 
ganized, January, 1840. Between 1842 and 
1850, six more institutions for the blind 
were established, viz., the Kentucky Insti- 
tution at Louisville in 1842, the Tennessee 
Institution at Nashville in 1844, the North 
Carolina Institution at Raleigh in 1846, the 
Indiana Institution at Indianapolis in 1847, 
the Illinois Institution at Jacksonville in 
1849, and the South Carolina Institution for 
the Deaf, Dumb and Blind at Cedar Springs 
the same year. The Wisconsin Institution 
was founded at Janesville, in 1850. There 
are now twenty-seven of these institutions 
in the United States, having an aggregate of 
about 2,200 pupils. 

The whole number of blind persons in 
the United States, according to the census 
of 1870, is 20,320, of whom 17,043 are 
natives and 3,277 of foreign birth. This 
includes, of course, many persons who have 
become blind in adult age, and who there- 
fore were not suitable candidates for in- 
struction in this class of institutions. Still 
it is believed that the proportion of blind 
youth who receive instruction to the whole 
number is not nearly so great as of the deaf 
mutes. Begging is so ready and profitable 
a resource for the blind that a very consid- 
erable proportion, especially of those of 
foreign birth or parentage adopt it. The 
table appended gives many paniculars in 
regard to the blind institutions in this 
country. 

The education of the blind in the Euro- 
pean institutions is for the most part con- 
fined to the mere rudiments of knowledge 
except in music, which is in some of them 



taught very successfully. They are gener- 
ally instructed in some handicraft by which 
they may partially or wholly support them- 
selves. In the United States, while the 
technical and musical ec'ucation have not 
been neglected, they are generally very well 
taught in the studies which belong to what 
we are accustomed to call secondary educa- 
tion. The period of instruction varies in 
the different institutions from five to eight 
years. In most of the larger and older 
institutions it is eight years, and includes a 
course of mathematics and belles-lettres, 
but does not usually include the languages, 
though in two or three French is taught. 
There is usually much attention given to 
musical instruction, both vocal and instru- 
mental, for which most of the blind possess 
a remarkable aptitude. Work-rooms are 
attached to all the institutions, in which the 
pupils are employed for some hours every 
day in the manufacture of mattresses, mats, 
tidies, baskets, paper-boxes, brooms, 
brushes, or the simpler articles of cabinet 
work. 

The first efforts of the American instruct- 
ors of the blind were devoted to the im- 
provement of the alphabet of raised letters, 
used in printing for the blind, with a view 
to the preparation of books for them. 
There were considerable difficulties to be 
overcome in the accomplishment of this 
woi'k ; the letters must have salient angles ; 
each letter must differ sufficiently from 
every other to be easily recognized bv the 
touch ; yet the size of the letters must be 
small, or the books printed for the blind 
would be too cumbrous and expensive. 
The forms of letters used in Europe did not 
answer these requirements satisfactorily. 
Haiiy's type, if well embossed, could be 
read with tolerable facility, but it was m.;ch 
too large, and its size could not be reduced 
without impairing its legibility ; Guillie's 
was not legible at all ; Gall's varied too 
much from the ordinary form of letter to be 
desirable, and the other attempts at uniting 
the requisite qualities failed. Each of the 
three American superintendents devoted his 
leisure to the work. Mr. Friedlander de- 
vised an alphabet, known in England as the 
Allston or Sans-serif Alphabet, neat in form 
and easily read, but somewhat too large ; 
Dr. Russ invented one combining the ad- 
vantages of Gall's triangular alphabet with 
the Illyrian letter, and with characters to 
make it phonetic, but it was somewhat de- 



PKOFESSIONAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. 



499 



fective in legibility ; and Dr. Howe, after 
repeated trials, constructed what is now 
known as tlie Boston letter, which in size, 
distinctness, and legibility so far surpassed 
every previous effort, that it has now come 
into general use in Europe and America. 

The great cost of printing, or rather era- 
bossing, works for the blind has rendered 
the supply scanty, and the number of books 
small. The American Bible Society has 
printed an edition of the Scriptures in the 
Boston letter, a benevolent gentleman hav- 
ing made a bequest to cover the cost of the 
plates, and from time to time grants are 
made to institutions for the blind. The 
American Tract Society has also printed a 
few of its smaller books in the same letter. 
Aside from these there are less than one 
hundred books printed or embossed for the 
blind. Among this small number are some 
text-books, a cyclopaedia to be completed in 
twenty volumes, but not yet, we believe, 
quite finished, some volumes of poems, &c. 

Owing, probably, to their high cost and 
great bulk, the blind after leaving the insti- 
tutions seldom use any of the books in the 
raised letter except the Scriptures, their te- 
nacious memory enabling them to retain 
most of what is read to them by others. 

Writing has always been a difficult and 
irksome task to the blind ; and various de- 
vices have been proposed to facilitate this 
labor, but hardly any of them have proved 
satisfactory. The plan adopted by the late 
William II. Prescott of using a frame of 
wires over the paper, enabled him to write 
in straight lines, but no corrections could be 
made, nor could the scribe read what he 
had written. The use of inks which would 
leave an elevated surface has been tried, 
but without much satisfaction ; small print- 
ing machines have also been used, but are 
not convenient. 

Within a few years past another process 
has been introduced, which, despite the ap- 
parent objections to it, proves far more 
serviceable and convenient than any other 
yet devised. By this invention, known as 
" Braille's system," from its inventor, M. 
Louis Braille, a French teacher of the blind, 
or rather by an American modification of it, 
they are soon enabled to read and write 
with great facility, and by the addition of a 
single character, music can be printed or 
copied by the blind far more readily than a 
seeing person can do it in the ordinary way. 
The plan is based upon a series of funda- 



mental signs, comprising the first ten letters 
of the alphabet ; none of these consist of 
less than two nor more than four dots. A 
second series is formed by placing one dot 
at the left of each fundamental sign ; a third 
by placing two dots under each sign; a 
fourth by placing one dot under the right 
of each. These signs designate, besides 
the alphabet, the double vowels, peculiar 
compound sounds like <A, and the marks of 
punctuation. By prefixing a sign consisting 
of three dots, the fundamental signs are 
used as numerals ; by prefixing another the 
last seven represent musical characters, and 
by a sign peculiar to each octave the neces- 
sity of designating the key to each musical 
sentence is avoided. It consists of a board, 
in a frame like that of a double slate, the sur- 
face of which is grooved horizontally and ver- 
tically by lines one-eighth of an inch apart ; 
on this the paper is fastened by shutting 
down the upper half of the frame, and the 
points are made with an awl or bodkin, 
through a piece of tin perforated with six 
holes, an eighth of an inch apart. The 
perforations are made from right to left, in 
order that the writing when reversed may 
read from left to right. Books and music 
are now printed for the blind on this system. 
Most of the larger institutions have adopt- 
ed it. 

Dr. John D. Russ, the first superintendent 
of the New York institution, has invented 
an " improved Braille system," which seems 
to possess some advantages over this, 
but it has not been adopted, so far as we 
have learned, by any of the schools for the 
blind. 

Attempts have been made to furnish em- 
ployment on a large scale to the blind and 
pay wages which should be sufficient for 
their support, or equalize their condition 
with that of seeing persons engaged in 
mechanical labor; but such efforts have 
always failed, and in the nature of the case 
must do so ; for the deprivation of sight, 
though partially compensated by the greater 
activity of other senses, is too serious a 
defect to allow the blind an even start in the 
race for a livelihood with the seeing, and so 
long as the rate of wages are such that 
only an exceptionally active and enter- 
prising mechanic, who has his eyesight, 
can make anything more than a liveli- 
hood, the blind, laboring under so many 
disadvantages, must necessarily fall behind 
in the race. 



500 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



(3.) Institutions for the Education and Training of 
Idiots and Imbeciles. 

These institutions are wholly the out- 
growth of the philanthropy of the nineteenth 
century. No successful attempt had ever 
been made before the year 1838 to rouse 
and bring into activity the arrested mental 
development of the idiotic child. It is true 
that the benevolent and philanthropic St. 
Vincent de Paul, the founder of the order 
of Lazarists, gathered into his monastery a 
number of idiotic and imbecile youth, and 
by care and tenderness sought to improve 
their wretched condition, but he had no idea 
of their real condition or of the principles 
on which alone a successful treatment of 
their cases was possible. Itard, Pinel, Es- 
querol, and other names illustrious in psy- 
chological science, had all grappled with 
this difficult problem of the true method of 
reaching the idiot and raising him up to 
self-control, and all had failed. It was re- 
served for a young French physician. Dr. 
Edouard Seguin, a pupil of Itard, to solve 
this problem. He gathered a few idiotic 
children in Paris, and proceeding on the 
principle that idiocy was an arrested devel- 
opment, a prolonged infancy, in which the 
infantile grace and intelligence having passed 
away, the feeble muscular development 
and mental weakness of that earliest 
stage of growth alone remained, he ques- 
tioned nature as to her processes of devel- 
opment of the infant, and of elevation and 
education of the physical, mental, and moral 
powers. He found in idiot children the in- 
fantile fondness for bright colors, and availed 
himself of it to teach them the distinctions 
of color and form ; he noticed their liking 
for playthings, and furnished them with 
builders' blocks, cups and balls, and other 
toys, by which he could instruct them in 
numbers, shape, and size ; he developed vo- 
lition, by simple physical movements, by 
molding the hand to grasp objects, the lips 
to utter sounds, by moving the lower limbs 
up, down, backward, forward, and laterally, 
by compelling them to take a step or raise 
hand or foot, at a signal or word of com- 
mand ; by the use of dumb-bells, and an in- 
finite variety of processes repeated almost 
an infinite number of times ; then words 
were taught with the aid of pictures, and 
new ideas, at first concrete, and afterward 
those of an abstract character, were instilled 
into their minds as fast as they could com- 



prehend them. With all these, and beyond 
them, the moral nature was gradually roused 
by the simplest instruction and the influence 
of a pure example. The process was slow, 
and the difliculties to be conquered' many, 
but Dr. Seguin persevered and triumphed. 
Ilis processes were submitted to the most 
careful scrutiny by a committee of the 
French Institute, and by numerous teachers 
and psychologists who had become inter- 
ested in it ; but all resulted in the convic- 
tion that he alone had hit upon the philo- 
sophic and only practicable mode of rousing 
and developing these dormant natures. He 
continued to teach idiotic children in Paris 
with great success for ten years, and pub- 
lished several works on the subject of their 
education. His " Moral Treatment, Hygiene, 
and Education of Idiots," published in 1846, 
was recognized by all psychologists as the 
ablest and most philosophical work on that 
subject. In 1848, Dr. Seguin came to the 
United States, and of his labors here we 
shall speak further on. In 1836, Dr. Louis 
Guggenbiihl, a Swiss physician, commenced 
his experiments on the education and train- 
ing of cretins in Switzerland ; the cretin 
being a somewhat deformed and physically 
helpless creature, his mental and moral de- 
velopment arrested in consequence of dis- 
ease, impure air and water, but really a more 
tractable subject than the idiot. These ex- 
periments were conducted on the Abend- 
berg, near the Interlaken, for fifteen or twenty 
years, with considerable success, and a num- 
ber of institutions for cretins were started ; 
but Dr. Guggenbiihl seemed to fail in com- 
prehending the true principle of rousing 
these cases of arrested development, and 
after a time his institution was given up, and 
some of his cretins went back to their old 
life of squalor and mendicity. In England 
and Scotland the fruits of Dr. Seguin's phi- 
losophical treatises and successful teaching 
were seen in the organization of schools and 
asylums for idiots at Highgate, Colchester, 
Baldovan, Edinburgh, and elsewhere. 

In the United States, attention was first 
called to the subject by the eloquent letters 
of Mr. George Sumner to one of the Boston 
papers, describing his visits to the schools 
of Dr. Seguin and M. Vallee, in Paris. 
These letters were published in 1845, and 
the attention of Dr. S. B. Woodward, of 
Worcester, Dr. F. F. Backus, of Rochester, 
N. Y., and Dr. S. G. Howe, of the Blind 
Institution at Boston, were called to them. 



PROFESSIONAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. 



501 



Dr. Backus, then a State senator in the New 
York legislature, brought in a bill to the 
vSenate for the establishment of an institu- 
tion for the training of idiots, during the 
session of 1846, and Dr. Howe procured the 
appointment of a commission to investigate 
the condition of idiots in Massachusetts, the 
same winter. Both these movements event- 
ual!)^ resulted in the establishment of insti- 
tutions for the training of idiots. — in Massa- 
chusetts in 1848, and in New York, by rea- 
son of opposition, not until 1851. Mean- 
time a young physician of Barre, Mass., Dr. 
Hervey B. Wilbur, had opened a private 
school for idiot children in his own house, 
in July, 1848, and was endeavoring to put 
in practice the principles of Seguin. The 
Massachusetts Experimental School, which 
in 1851 became a permanent " School for 
Idiotic and Feeble Minded Youth," was first 
organized in South Boston in October, 1848. 
As we have said. Dr. Seguin visited the 
United States in 1848, and after spending a 
little time at South Boston and at Barre, re- 
turned to France, but in 1851 came again 
to this country, which has since been his 
home. The New York institution, started 
at Albany in 1851, was organized by Dr. 
Wilbur, who has been for almost twenty- 
two years (1873) its head, Avhile Dr. George 
Brown succeeded him at Barre. The pres- 
ence and aid of Dr. Seguin in these schools 
at their beginning was of inestimable value. 
He imbued the superintendents and teachers 
with his enthusiasm and patience as well as 
with his principles of education, and the 
really remarkable success of the American 
schools for training idiot children, a success 
vastly greater than has been attained in 
other countries, is due, in large measure, to 
the admirable works and still more admira- 
ble drill of the teachers and pupils in their 
presence, by Dr. Seguin. Undoubtedly he 
found in these teachers and superintendents 
those who were apt to learn, and who pos- 
sessed the ability to carry out successfully 
the principles which he had imparted ; but 
very few have the good fortune to be in- 
structed by so skillful a teacher. After de- 
voting several years to the promotion of 
these institutions, and the still wider intro- 
duction of the physiological method of edu- 
cation. Dr. Seguin settled in the practice of 
his profession, at first in Portsmouth, Ohio, 
and subsequently in New York city ; but 
that he has not lost his interest in the edu- 
cation of idiots is evident from his publica- 



tions on that subject — " Idiocy and its 
Treatment by the Physiological Method " 
(1866); and "New Facts Concerning Id- 
iocy" (1868). He is now engaged in ap- 
plying the same principles to the education 
of children generally. 

The "Pennsylvania Training School for 
Feeble Minded Children," at Media, was or- 
ganized at first at Germantown, in 1853, by 
Mr. J. B. Richards, who was for a time a teach- 
er in the South Boston school, and was as- 
sisted, after its establishment in the building 
erected by the State for its accommodation 
at Media, by Dr. Seguin. It is now one of 
the largest of this class of institutions. 

The Ohio Asylum for Imbecile and Feeble 
Minded Youth," at Columbus, was founded 
in 1857, and the Kentucky Institution, at 
Frankfort, about the same time. The Con- 
necticut Institution (private), at Lakeville, was 
opened in 1858, by Dr. Knight ; and the Illi- 
nois Asylum for Idiots, at Jacksonville, in 
1865. There are now in actual operation, 
under State organization or aid, nine insti- 
tutions, and others will soon be formed. 

Dr. Seguin lays down in his work on 
" Idiocy " a distinction which is worth ob- 
serving, viz., that the imbecile, though appa- 
rently more promising, is really a more 
hopeless subject for treatment than the help- 
less and wholly undeveloped idiot. Epilepsy 
too, which often accompanies imbecility, and 
sometimes idiocy, is an almost fatal barrier 
to improvement. It is, then, an encouraging 
result that, taking, as the State institutions 
do take, all classes, from seventy to eighty 
per cent, are very greatly improved, and 
from twenty-five to thirty per cent, become 
self-supporting, and as intelligent and sound 
of mind as the average of working men. 
Several have distinguished themselves by 
fidelity and good conduct in very trying po- 
sitions. About 3,000 have been dismissed 
as decidedly improved and benefited since 
the opening of these institutions, and more 
than nine hundred are now under instruction. 

The census of 1870 gives the whole num- 
ber of idiotic persons in the United States 
as 24,527, but on this subject the returns 
are not very reliable. The demented and 
fatuous are included, and probably also 
many who, though, to use an old Saxon 
word, underwitted, are yet far from being 
idiotic. On the other hand, many eccentric, 
feeble-minded, and perhaps really idiotic 
children, are omitted in consequence of the 
pride and sensitiveness of parents and 



502 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



friends. The table appended gives many 
particulars of the Idiot Asylums. 

(4.) Hospitals and Asylums for the Insane. 

We shall not discuss here the influence 
which Education exerts in producing or in- 
creasing insanity ; that it does exert some 
influence to that effect is universally admit- 
ted ; but it will be found to be mostly in 
two directions ; one, where the culture of 
the faculties is not uniform in its character, 
and the mind is, consequently, not well bal- 
anced, some faculties being overstrained, 
and others comparatively undeveloped ; the 
other, where from too close application, or 
inordinate ambition for acquiring knowl- 
edge, the physical powers are neglected, and 
disease or infirmity of the body, induced by 
insufficient exercise and recreation, commu- 
nicates itself to the overwrought brain and 
causes the worst and most hopeless form of 
insanity. We do not believe, however, that 
hard study ever killed a man or made him 
insane unless it was coupled with violation 
of the physiological laws of life and health. 

But it is not these connections of insanity 
with intellectual culture that we have here 
to discuss. We are only called to notice the 
instances, still rare, though much more com- 
mon than they were, where the prosecution 
of some studies, the exercises of a school, or 
the use of what may be called educational 
appliances or adjuvants, have been resorted 
to as means of " ministering to a mind dis- 
eased ;" and, we may be pardoned if we 
allude incidentally to the great and benefi- 
cial influence which the wide diffusion of 
education, especially of scientific education, 
has had in the amelioration of the treatment 
of the insane, within the j)ast fifty years. 

The cruelty with which the insane were 
treated from fifty to eighty years ago may 
well excite our wonder and horror. The 
poor unfortunate, bereft of reason, was, 
while in that condition, an object of both 
terror and loathing ; the notion had gained 
credence that the mortification of the body 
by whipping and beating was the readiest 
cure for the affliction, and blows and lashes 
were rained upon him till his tormenters 
were weary with their exertions; the poor 
victim was chained, exposed to the intense 
cold of winter and the equally intense heat 
of summer with but scanty and filthy rai- 
ment; their food was coarse and repulsive, 
and their whole condition one fitted to ex- 
cite the pity of the hardest heart. The 
few asylums for lunatics, and they were very 



few in this country, resorted to chains and 
handcuffs, to harsh treatment and prison 
fare, though they were better than the alms- 
houses, jails, and private pens in which the 
great mass of the insane were confined. 
But under the lead of Dr. Eli Todd, in the 
Connecticut Retreat for the Insane, in 1823, 
a wiser system of treatment was inaugurated, 
and the blessed results of kindness and ten- 
derness, combined with a better knowledge 
of the nervous system, and its connection 
with the abnormal manifestations of insanity, 
has revolutionized the condition of institu- 
tions devoted to this class of unfortunates. 
Great efforts have been made Avithin a few 
years past to draw the thoughts away from 
the delusions and hallucinations connected 
with its disordered condition, and to cause 
it to occupy itself with some form of study 
or mental exercise. In some of the Insane 
hospitals there are classes, where often both 
teacher and taught are patients ; in others 
there are courses of scientific lectures ; in 
others the study of our own literature and 
that of other nations is encouraged ; some 
pursue art studies, or practice drawing, 
painting or designing; others are pursuing 
philological studies; for still others, physi- 
cal science in some of its branches is a favo- 
rite pursuit ; while to many horticulture, the 
care and rearing of plants and flowers, or 
the exercises and games of the gymnasium, 
aflford the needed recreation. Libraries and 
reading-rooms liave come to be a necessity 
for these hospitals, and in most cases nearly 
all the patients avail themselves of them. 
One result of this great change in the meth- 
ods of treatment has been to increase greatly 
the number of cures of insane persons. 
Another apparent but probably not real re- 
sult has been the increase of the number of 
insane patients. New Asylums or Hospitals 
for the insane are constantly erected, and no 
sooner are they completed than they are 
filled to overflowing. Yet it is not so much 
that there is such a rapid increase in the 
number of the insane, as that old cases, 
hitherto concealed, are constantly coming to 
light, under this humane treatment. There 
is undoubtedly a considerable increase in 
the number of the insane, the ratio of in- 
crease being probably somewhat greater 
than that of the general population, a con- 
sequence of the existing fast, pushing life of 
our people ; but many thousands of the in- 
sane are now treated in hospitals, who, 
under the old regime, would have been con- 



PROFESSIONAL AND SPECrAL EDUCATION. 



503 



cealed in their homes, and their disease, and 
even their existence hardly known to the 
most intimate friends of the family. The 
great desideratum now is a Training School 
for attendants and nurses for this class of 
patients, as was suggested by Dr. Todd in 
1830, and the introduction of Charitable 
Orders into their management, like that 
which has charge of the Mount Hope in- 
stitution near Baltimore, Maryland. 

The census of 1870 gives the whole num- 
ber of insane persons in the United States 
as 37,382, of whom 26,161 are natives and 
11,221 of foreign birth. This is probably 
not far from the truth, certainly not in ex- 
cess of it. The number of insane hospitals 
in the United States in 1870 was 58, and 
four or five have been opened since. The 
number of patients was in 1870 15,598. It 
is probably now (1873) at least 17,000. 
Very many incurable cases, where the in- 
sanity is of a mild type, are at large, and 
many more are in alms-houses. In Massa- 
chusetts and New York, as well as in some 
of the Western States, there are in many of 
the larger alms-houses departments for in- 
curable insane paupers. 

XI. PREVENTIVE AND REFORMATORY SCHOOLS AND 
INSTITUTIONS. 

Although there are occasional indications 
that individual philanthropists, like the be- 
nevolent Cardinal Odescalchi at Rome, and 
Sir Matthew Hale in England, had clear per- 
ceptions of the evil of leaving vagrant and 
morally endangered children as well as ju- 
venile delinquents, exposed to the tempta- 
tions to a vicious life, yet apart from a school 
established partially for them by the former 
in 1586, there seems to have been no serious 
movement in their behalf prior to the es- 
tablishment of the school and home for 
vagrant and vicious boys at Rome, by 
Giovanni Borgi, (better known as Tata 
Giovanni, or Papa John,) in 1786 or 1787, 
and the organization of the " Philanthropic 
Society for the Prevention of Crime " at 
London in 1788. This last, originally es- 
tablished on the family plan, soon became a 
large establishment, in which a great number 
of boys were congregated and employed in 
different branches of manufacture, having 
also a probationary school of reform for the 
more vicious and criminal of its inmates. 
In 1846, a large farm was purchased at Red 
Hill, near Reigate, Surrey, agriculture and 
horticulture were substituted for mechanical 
and manufacturing pursuits, and the family 



system for the congregated. Since that 
period the number of family reformatories, 
as they are called, has greatly increased in 
Great Britain. On the continent the em- 
inent success of the agricultural and horti- 
cultural reformatories of Mettray, Horn, 
Ruysselede, and many others of more recent 
origin, has attracted general attention. 

In this country the first institution in- 
tended for the reformation of vicious and 
criminal children, was the " New York 
House of Refuge for Juvenile Delinquents," 
incorporated in 1824, and opened January 
1, 1825. Its founders were John Griscom, 
Isaac Collins, James W. Gerard, and Hugh 
Maxwell, all at the time members of a 
" Society for the Prevention of Pauperism 
and Crime," which had been formed in 
1818. The institution thus founded has 
had a steady growth, as the rapid increase 
of population in the city has been attended 
by a more than corresponding augmenta- 
tion of the number of juvenile delinquents. 
At the end of forty-eight years from its first 
opening it occupies a tract of thirty-seven 
and a half acres on the southern end of 
Randall's Island, in the East River, and its 
colossal buildings, erected at an expense of 
over five hundred thousand dollars, furnish 
ample accommodations for school-rooms, 
lodging-rooms, dining-rooms, and workshops 
for 1,000 children, and usually have in the 
institution more than 900. 

In 1826, a "House of Reformation," on 
a similar plan, was established in Boston, 
and, in 1828, a "House of Refuge" in 
Philadelphia. Similar institutions have 
since been organized in New Orleans, Roch- 
ester, N. Y., Westboro', Mass., Cincinnati, 
Providence, Pittsburg, West Meriden, Conn., 
St. Louis, Baltimore, Louisville, and perhaps 
some other points in different States. 

The distinguishing characteristics of these 
institutions are, that those committed to 
them have generally been arrested for 
crime, and have either been sentenced to 
the House of Refuge, in lieu of a sentence 
to jail or state prison, or have been sent to 
these institutions without sentence, in the 
hope of their reformation. They are sup- 
ported, directly or indirectly from the public 
treasury, (the New York house receives an 
appropriation of $40 for each child from the 
state treasury, from |1 5,000 to $20,000 
from the city treasury, and a large sum from 
theatrical licenses). In most, or all of them, 
the children are employed in some branch 



JC4 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



of manufacture, or some mechanic art, for 
from five to eight hours per day, and receive 
from three to five hours' instruction in 
school. In all there is more or less religious 
and moral instruction imparted, having in 
view their permanent reformation from evil 
habits and practices. In all, or nearl}^ all, 
they are confined at night in cell-like dor- 
mitories, into which they are securely 
locked, and their labor, during the day, is 
under strict supervision, and is generally 
farmed out to contractors. High walls and 
a strict police are mainly relied on to pre- 
vent escape, and the attempt to do so, or 
an}^ act of insubordination, is usually pun- 
ished with considerable though not {perhaps 
unmerited severity. The managers gener- 
ally possess and exercise the power of in- 
denturing those children who, after a longer 
or shorter stay, seem to be reformed, even 
though the period of their sentence has not 
been completed. A considerable number 
who have been sent to the House of Refuge 
on complaint of their parents, are, after a 
time, delivered to them on application ; but 
a large proportion of these do not do well. 
Of the others, it is believed that from fifty 
to seventy-five per cent, reform, at least so 
far as to become quiet and law-abiding citi- 
zens. Of those who do not reform, some, 
after discharge at the end of their term, are 
soon recommitted ; others are sent to sea, and 
perhaps amid the hardships of a sailor's life 
become reformed ; others return to the 
vicious associations from which they were 
originally taken, and after a few months or 
years of crime, find their place among the in- 
mates of the county or convict prisons, meet 
a violent death, or fill a drunkard's grave. 

These institutions necessarily combine too 
much of the character of a prison with that 
of the school, and while their main object 
is the reformation rather than the punish- 
ment of the young offender, they retain so 
niany penal features that they are objects 
of dread and dislike to many parents and 
guardians whose children or wards would be 
materially benefited by their discipline. 

This feature of their management has led 
to the establishment of another class of re- 
formatories which, thoucjh sometimes assum- 
mg similar names, are essentially different 
both in the character of their inmates and 
in the methods adopted for their reforma- 
tion. These methods are indeed quite di- 
verse in the institutions coming under this 
general head, and are to some extent the 



reflection of the differing views of those 
who have charge of them. 

The subjects taken in charge by these re- 
formatories are somewhat younger on the 
average than those of the houses of refuge ; 
they are for the most part only guilty of 
vagrancy and the vicious habits of a street 
life, or at the worst, of petty pilferings and 
thefts; they have not been, in m()st in- 
stances, tried for any crime against the laws, 
or if they have, their tender age lias justified 
the magistrate in withholding a sentence. 

When admitted to the reformatory, which 
is usually done on a magistrate's warrant, 
they undergo a thorough ablution, and are 
clothed in plain, neat garments having no 
distinguishing mark, are well fed, and care- 
fully taught and watched over, and the ut- 
most pains are taken to eradicate their evil 
habits, and to make them feel that their 
teachers and those who have them in charge 
are their best friends and seek their good. 
Their past history is never alluded to, and is 
generally known only to the superintendent. 
In these establishments there are no dormi- 
tory cells, and severe punishment is seldom 
found necessary. The labor of the pupils is 
seldom regarded as a matter of much iin- 
portance, though in some instances three, 
four, or five hours a day aie spent in some 
light employment. From these institutions 
escapes are unfrequent, and in most cases 
the children form a strong attachment for 
their teachers. In some instances they are 
broken up into groups or fimiilies of twenty 
or thirty persons, each having its " house 
father" and mother, and its " elder brother," 
if the pupils are boys, and its matron or 
" mother," and eldest sister or aunt, if they 
are girls. These officeis teach them and 
perform the duties indicated by their titles 
in such a way as to supply, as far as possi- 
ble, the place of those natural relations of 
whose judicious influence they are deprived. 
One of these reformatories is a ship, and the 
pupils are taught all the duties required of 
an able-bodied seaman, and the oi'der and 
discipline are similar to those of the naval 
school ships. They are taught, in addition 
to ordinary common-school studies, naviga- 
tion, and after a few months' instruction are 
in demand for the mercantile marine, where 
they not unfrequently are rapidly promoted. 

In most of these institutions the pupils 
remain in the reformatory a shorter average 
period than those who are inmates of the 
houses of refuse. In the New York Juve- 



PROFESSIONAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. 



505 



nile Asylum, one of the most successful of 
these reformatories, they are usually inden- 
tured or discharged in six to twelve months. 
These institutions are usually supported by 
the large cities, though in a few instances 
they are State institutions. The labor of 
the children being of but little account, the 
expense per head per annum is somewhat 
greater than in the houses of refuge, but the 
number of reformations is also greater, and 
may with considerable certainty be esti- 
mated at from seventy to eighty per cent. 
Among these institutions we ra ly name the 
"New York Juvenile Asylum," the "State 
Industrial School for Girls " at Lancaster, 
Mass., the " Massachusetts School Ship," the 
"Asylum and Farm School" at Thompson's 
Island, Boston, the "State Reform School" 
at Cape Elizabeth, Maine, the " Reform 
School " at Chicago, the " Catholic Protec- 
tories " at West Farms, N. Y., the " State 
Reform School " at Waukesha, Wisconsin, 
the " State Reform School " at Des Moines, 
Iowa, and the " State Reform Farm " at 
Lancaster, Ohio. In the last, which is the 
earliest attempt at the introduction of the fam- 
ily or group system for boys in this country, 
fruit culture is a leading employment of the 
inmates, and the term of detention is longer 
than at most of the others. 

In our large cities there is still another 
class of children for whom special preventive 
agencies are necessary ; they are not criminal, 
they have not generally acquired vicious 
habits, but they are every way endangered. 
They are often orphans or half orphans, and 
frequently homeless ; many of them are 
children of foreign parents of the lower 
classes, and have had no opportunities of 
education ; some are the offspring of vicious 
or intemperate parents. The greater part 
of them obtain a precarious livelihood by 
begging, sweeping crossings, boot-blacking, 
selling newspapers, statuettes, fruit, or small 
wares, or organ-grinding. They are all ex- 
posed to strong temptations to evil, and 
have acquired a kind of defiant independ- 
ence from being driven so early to take 
care of themselves. 

For these children it has been felt that 
some provision must be made to prevent 
them from falling into vicious and criminal 
courses, and to give them the opportunity 
of becoming good and intelligent citizens. 
It is from the ranks of these and the two 
preceding classes that most of our criminals 
come, and the frequency of burglaries, high- 



way robberies, and crimes against the per- 
son, committed by boys and youths from 16 
to 21 years of age, shows the necessity of 
continuing a guardianship over children 
who are under vicious influences, to as late 
an age as possible. The best method of ac- 
complishing this desired end has often been 
discussed, and various plans have been tried 
with partial success. One organization, (the 
Children's Aid Society,) with its congeners 
in other cities, has taken the ground that 
these children could be saved and perma- 
nently reformed by gathering them up, and 
without any special training or attempts at 
reforming them, sending them to the West 
and placing them in good families in the 
country. With a part of these children, 
those most amenable to good influences, this 
plan has proved beneficial, but the very large 
class of reckless and morally depraved chil- 
dren, all whose associations had been impure 
and vicious, have become leaders in iniquity 
wherever they have gone. It should be 
said, in justice to the Children's Aid Society, 
that this deportation of children to the 
West has been but one department of its 
work ; that it maintains, also, numerous in- 
dustrial schools, has its boys' and girls' lodg- 
ing houses, its Newsboys' Lodging House, 
and in many ways seeks to promote the re- 
form and intellectual and moral culture of 
these morally endangered children. Other 
institutions have their schools, homes, and 
missions for these children, where they give 
them a good common school education and 
moral training, teach them the rudiments of 
music, employ them in some of the simpler 
trades, and try to rouse their ambition to 
become worthy and intelligent men and 
women. Of this class of reformatories, act- 
ing wholly voluntarily and not sustained 
by States or cities as such, are the Five 
Points Mission, and Five Points House of 
Industry, The Little Wanderers' Home, in 
New York, The Children's Aid Society and 
the Industrial Schools of Brooklyn, and 
similar institutions in all our large and some 
of our smaller cities. Many of these chil- 
dren are adopted or otherwise placed in 
families iu the country, though not usually 
at a great distance from the city. Many of 
the boys go into manufactories or learn a 
trade, and employment is also found for the 
girls in manufactories, binderies, &c. But 
even with these helps to an honest and vir- 
tuous life, there is the evil influence of 
vicious associates, and the physically and 



606 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



morally degrading surroundings of life in 
the crowded tenement houses, to undo the 
good which has been done in their instruc- 
tion aud training. 

The Homes for the Friendless, Houses of 
Shelter, Homes for Friendless Girls, Female 
Christian Homes, Houses of Mercy, &c., 
(fee, form still another class of institutions 
which give shelter, protection and instruc- 
tion to young children and friendless girls, 
who would be the prey of the destroyer but 
for their care. The work of these institu- 
tions is wholly beneficent, and though they 
may not save all from the paths of vice, yet 
they accomplish, perhaps, a larger per centage 
of good than any of the others. Still another 
class of reformatory institutions, in which, 
however, the education is almost exclusively 
moral and industrial, are those for fallen 
women and those who have been exposed to 
terrible temptations; the Magdalen Asy- 
lums, Houses of the Good Shepherd, St. 
Banabas Houses, Midnight Missions, Female 
Homes of Prison Associations, &c., &c. 
Of late years, these institutions have re- 
ceived a new impulse, and under the control 
and superintendence of philanthropic and 
able Christian women, they are meeting 
with great success in the reformation of 
these wanderers from virtue. There are also 
now associations having for their object the 
reformation and restoration to an honest 
and upright life of discharged convicts, in 
most of our large cities ; and they also look 
after those who, through ignorance, sudden 
temptation, or the malice of others, have 
been arrested and committed to our prisons 
and houses of detention. 

The number of Houses of Refuge (our 
first class) is 17, the cost of their buildings 
and grounds is somewhat more than 
$2,500,000, and the annual cost of their 
maintenance about $700,000. Of the Juve- 
nile Asylums and Reform Schools of the 
milder grade there are fourteen, the cost of 
their buildings and grounds about $1,- 
700,000, and the annual expenditure about 
$450,000. The average annual earnings of 
the inmates of the two classes of reformato- 
ries is about $260,000. The number of 
children in both is somewhat more than 
9,000. 

Of the institutions of the third class, it is 
impossible to give any approximately full 
statistics. They are not under State or 
municipal control, and though very nume- 
rous, and representing a very large amount 



of investment and annual expenditure, they 
are entirely the offspring of private benefi- 
cence. In the city of New York alone there 
are nearly forty of them, and a proportion- 
ate number in other large cities. The insti- 
tutions of the fourth class, in which the 
reformatory element dominates the educa- 
tional, are also very numerous, and wholly 
sustained and endowed by private charity. 
That the aggregate investment, as well as 
the annual expenditure, of these two classes 
of institutions exceeds many times that of 
the public institutions of the first two classes 
is obvious, and some of our most careful 
statisticians have placed the investments at 
more than twenty millions of dollars, and 
the annual expenditure in the neighborhood 
of five millions. These are at best mere 
guesses, but from what we know of the in- 
stitutions, are probably not beyond the 
truth. No institutions of the country re- 
flect more credit on the national advance- 
ment and civilization than those which have 
for their purpose the rescue and reformation 
of imperiled and vicious children and youth. 
[The whole subject of Preventive, Cor- 
rectional and Reformatory Institutions and 
Agencies, as developed in France, Germany, 
and Great Britain, with special reference to 
the immediate recognition of the family 
principle in the organization and administra- 
tion of similar institutions and agencies in 
this country, was treated quite exhaustively 
in the third volume of Bainard's American 
Journal of Education, in 1857, and the sev- 
eral articles were issued in a Supplementary 
Number, and in a separate volume entitled 
Reformatory Education, and distributed 
widely among city and state oflBcials charged, 
directly or indirectly, with the administra- 
tion or consideration of the problem of 
juvenile exposure, delinquency and crime. 
While Commissioner of Education, Dr. 
Barnard issued a circular to gather the 
material for a comprehensive survey of this 
department of educational institutions in 
different States and countries, and at the 
same time published a very valuable paper 
by Dr. Wichern, on the Reformatory In- 
stitutions of Germany, which have sprung 
up mainly on the model of the Rough 
House at Horn, of which he was the 
founder. He did not continue in office long 
enough to receive returns from his circular, 
but he will avail himself of recent publica- 
tions and personal observation to issue a 
new edition of the volume above referred to.] 



PROFESSIONAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. 



507 



V. SUPPLEMENTARY INSTRUCTION. 

INTRODUCTION. 

Besides the formal instruction given in 
institutions expressly established for Ele- 
mentary, Secondary, Collegiate, Professional 
and Special Education, there are other insti- 
tutions and agencies which can act on the 
individual in almost every stage of his intel- 
lectual development, and do act with the 
greatest effect, in a majority of instances, 
after the individual has passed beyond the 
control of regular schools of every kind. 
These institutions and agencies in various 
ways influence the national taste, attainments 
and character, and may be considered to- 
gether under the head of Supplementary 
Education. We select the two, as the most 
potential in our modern American civiliza- 
tion outside of the formal school — the 
Printed Page and the Living Voice — the 
Book and the Lecture — the Library and the 
Lyceum, to which should be added or asso- 
ciated, Occupation. 

(1.) The Book. 

The finest minds have exhausted their 
powers of language in trying to express in 
words the value of Books. To Cicero, the 
orator and statesman, the volumes which 
composed his private library " seemed to add 
a soul to his dwelling ;" to Bacon, the phi- 
losopher and man of affairs, " Libraries are 
as shrines where all the relics of ancient 
saints, full of true virtue, and that without 
delusion and imposture, are preserved ;" to 
Milton, the poet, and fervid apostle of reli- 
gious and civil liberty, "A good book is the 
precious life-blood of a master spirit, em- 
balmed and treasured up on purpose to a life 
beyond life ;" " God be thanked for books," 
says the clear, pure, and eloquent Channing, 
in his arl dress to young men and working 
men, which has found an echo in millions of 
hearts and homes — "they are the voices of 
the distant and the dead, and make us the 
heirs of the spiritual life of past ages. They 
are the true levelers. They give to all who 
will faithfully use them the society of the best 
and greatest of our race. No matter how 
poor I am — no matter though the prosper- 
ous and the fashionable will not enter my 
obscure dwelling — if the Sacred Writers will 
enter and take up their abode under my 
roof, if Milton will cross my threshhold to 
sing to me of Paradise, and Shakspeare to 



open to me worlds of imagination, and 
Franklin to enrich me with his practical 
wisdom, I shall not fwne for want of intel- 
lectual companionship." 

(2.) The Living Voice. 

But as a teacher, for rousing the dormant 
faculties, and fixing and adjusting the atten- 
tion, particularly of adults, the living voice 
is far more efficient ; and when associated 
with books used in class or in solitary 
study, and combined with observation of 
nature, or the actual processes of business 
in hand — the living voice can suggest the 
motive, the means, and the methods to sup- 
plement, rapidly and pleasantly, all defi- 
ciencies of school instruction. 
(3.) Occupation. 

No formal institution of instruction, no 
agency employed in the class or lecture- 
room, no book however rich in individual 
or accumulated wisdom, can compare in the 
work of self-education with the processes of 
the daily occupation of an individual, 
thoughtfully pursued in the field, the house- 
hold, and the workshop. This is the school 
of New England handiness and inventions. 

I. LIBRAKIES. 

At the close of the Revolution there were 
very few collections of books, either public 
or private, in this country. With the ex- 
ception of political works, and these mostly 
pamphlets, a very few text-books and hymn 
books, one or two editions of the Bible 
printed from type (stereotype plates were 
unknown till much later), and perhaps a 
dozen religious treatises, the books in the 
country were all imported from Europe, 
and generally from England, either in small 
quantities by the booksellers or in single 
copies by individuals. The Revolutionary 
War, though in the end favorable to educa- 
tion and intelligence, at first was a serious 
hindrance to both ; for with the political dis- 
entbrallment of the country from the British 
yoke, there sprang up a strong desire to be 
free from it also in all matters of trade, of 
literature, and of education ; and as there 
were very few publishers who possessed the 
requisite capital and daring to publish 
books in considerable numbers, for which, 
indeed, in the impoverished condition of 
the country, there would have been but 
little demand. A few of the twelve or 
thirteen colleges had small libraries. Of 
these the largest was that of Harvard Uni- 
versity, which, though destroyed by fire in 



508 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS, 



1764, had by great exertions brought up to 
about 10,000 volumes in 1783; Yale, 
Princeton, William anfl Mary, the Univerity 
of Pennsylvania, and Kings (now Colum- 
bia) College had each small collections, 
though containing some valuable books ; 
but none of them much exceeded, after the 
vicissitudes of the war 2,000 volumes, and 
the library of William and Mary had, prob- 
ably, not more than 1,200 or 1,400. Browni 
University, Dartmouth, and Rutgers had 
made small beginnings. There were six 
or seven small proprietary libraries, the 
largest being the Philadelphia Library Com- 
pany and Loganian Collection, founded by 
Franklin in 1731, and having in 1783 about 
5,000 volumes; the New York Society 
Library at the beginning of the war con- 
tained 7,000 or 8,000 volumes, but the 
British soldiers carried off its books by the 
kuapsackful and bartered them for grog. 
In 1795 it had only 5,000 volumes, though 
considerable additions were made to it after 
the war. The Redwood Library, at New- 
port, R. L, was not large, but had a consid- 
erable number of very choice and valuable 
b.)i)ks. The Charleston Society Library 
had been one of the largest in the country, 
but was almost entirely destroyed by fire in 
1778. The Providence, Salem, and Port- 
land Atheneums, founded respectively in 
1753, 1760, and 1765, had small collections 
but well selected. Beside these there was 
the special library of the American Philo- 
sophical Society at Philadelphia, and a State 
Library of a few hundred volumes at Con- 
cord, New Hampshire. This was, we be- 
lieve, a complete list of all the public libra- 
ries of any importance at the close of the 
Revolutionary War. Nor was the period 
from the close of the war to 1800 favorable 
to any considerable growth of either libra- 
ries or literary institutions ; for libraries 
being among the outgrowths of an opulent 
and luxurious civilization, we could hardly 
look for their increase amid the poverty and 
financial revulsions which continued till near 
the close of the last century. The eleven 
colleges, elsewhere enumerated, which were 
founded between 1781 and 1800 have now 
respectable and some of them very consid- 
erable libraries, but they are all, or mainly, 
the growth of the period since 1820. Of 
other libraries, there are only three, and 
those of inferior grade, which were founded 
during this period (1781-1800). These 
are the Boston Library Association, founded 



in 1794, and which now at the end of 
nearly 80 years has about 20,000 volumes ; 
the Byberry Library of Philadelphia, found- 
ed the same year, and one in Dublin, New 
Hampshire, in 1793, each of which now 
numbers 2,000 volumes. 

Between 1800 and 1818 there were eleven 
Colleges and seven Theological Seminaries 
founded, most of which have now good, 
and some of them large libraries. To this 
period belong also the beginnings of the 
Boston Atheneum, now the fifth or sixth 
library in the country in the number of its 
volumes; the first library of Congress, de- 
stroyed by the British in 1814, the large 
collection of the New York Historical 
Society, and the Ohio State Library at 
Columbus, the commencement of the special 
libraries of the American Antiquarian Soci- 
ety at Worcester, and the American Acad- 
emy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia, 
and ten or twelve smaller public libraries, 
mostly State, which were originally estab- 
lished at the capitals for the accommodation 
of the courts and legislators. 

Since 1818, a period of fifty -four or fifty- 
five years, about 340 collegiate institutions, 
more than 130 schools of superior instruc- 
tion for girls, fifty-six agricultural and 
scientific schools, more than one hundred 
theological institutions, 40 law schools, and 
about 90 medical and pharmaceutical schools, 
have been established, and nearly all these 
have libraries of greater or less extent, form- 
ing a grand aggregate of over 2,500,000 
volumes; more than thirty State libraries 
have been founded with about 400,000 
volumes — the largest being those of New 
York at Albany, with 90,000 volumes; 
Michigan, with about 42,000 ; Ohio, about 
40,000 ; Massachusetts, with 37,000 ; Maine, 
with 33,000, and Virginia with about 30,000. 
Within this period, too, the great free 
libraries of the country have all been estab- 
lished ; the Library of Congress in place of 
that destroyed by the British, and now 
numbering 246,000 volumes and 45,000 
pamphlets; the Astor, with about 170,000 
volumes; the Boston City Library, with 
183,000 volumes; the Loganian and Phila- 
delphia Library Company, which though 
previously founded, has had its principal 
growth since 1818, and under the recent 
bequest of Dr. James Rush is likely to be- 
come one of the largest libraries in the 
country, numbering as it now does 100,000 
volumes; the New Lenox Library of New 




BOSTON CITY LIBRARY. INTERIOR. 



PROFESSIONAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. 



509 



York, so grandly endowed, and having as a 
nucleus Mr. Lenox's own extensive and in- 
valuable collections; the Watkinson Public 
Library of Reference at Hartford, with 
about 30,000 volumes, and some sixty or 
seventy other free libraries in the Northern 
and Eastern States, ranging from 5,000 to 
28,000 volumes each. The law regulating 
the establishment and management of free 
town libraries in Massachusetts has greatly 
encouraged their growth, and most of the 
cities and many of the large towns of 
that State have ndw good, though not gen- 
erally very large public libraries sustained by 
the towns. A few brief notes respecting 
some of the largest of these libraries may 
be interesting. 

The Library of Congress has grown very 
rapidly within a few years past, the Peter 
Force Collection of American History, the 
Smithsonian Library being included with 
it, and since 1869 the issue of copyrights 
being vested in its chief librarian, which se- 
cures to it two copies of every book copy- 
righted in the United States. In its 246,000 
volumes there are at least 30,000 duplicates, 
but it is very rich in the transactions of for- 
eign learned societies, in American local and 
general history, and indeed in history gene- 
rally ; and has probably the best collection 
of works in every department of political 
science to be found in this country. It is a 
lending library only to membei's of Con- 
gress and government officials, but is free 
for reference and consultation to all others. 

The Astor Library was founded by a be- 
quest of $400,000 by John Jacob Astor, in 
1844, but was not opened till 1854, when it 
had about 80,000 books upon its shelves. 
Mr. William B. Astor, son of the founder, 
has erected a second building for its exten- 
sion, as well as expended freely in the pur- 
chase of books, to the aggregate amount of 
$200,000. Its present number of volumes 
is about 1*70,000. It is not a lending 
library, but is open for consultation, with all 
conveniences provided, for six or eight hours 
each day. The Philadelphia Library and 
Loganian Collection is one of our oldest 
libraries, but has grown rapidly within a few 
years past, and is now so largely endowed 
as to be able to take rank with the largest 
in the country, within a few years. The 
Boston City Library, now ranking next to 
the library of Congress among the free libra- 
ries, has had a wonderfully rapid growth 
since its foundation in 1848. Joshua Bates, 
31* 



a native of Boston, but long resident in 
London, has more right than any other man 
to be considered its founder, as his original 
gift of $50,000 and several thousand vol- 
umes of books, prompted the liberality of 
individuals, as well as the city authorities, 
who have done their part nobly in fos- 
tering and providing for its extension. Of 
its other benefactors we may name Jonathan 
Phillips, Josiah Quincy, Jr., J. P. IHgelow, 
Edward Everett, Robert C. Winthrop, George 
Ticknor, Theodore Parker, and others. It 
has now nearly 190,000 volumes. It is in 
part a lending library, and the fii'st great 
free library in the world which has carried 
the lending system to such an extent. It 
has, of course, its specialties, but the trustees 
endeavor to make it complete as possible 
in all departments. 

The Lenox Library, the buildings for 
which are now (1873) erecting in New York, 
will be, unquestionably, one of the most val- 
uable of American libraries. Its founder, 
with scholarly tastes and abundant means, 
has long been engaged in collecting a private 
library containing the rarest and most valu- 
able literary treasures which money could 
purchase. In its collection of Bibles, mis- 
sals, block-books, and indeed incunabula 
generally, it has no superior on this conti- 
nent, and not more than one or two in Eu- 
rope. This choice and valuable collection is 
to form the nucleus of the grand library for 
which he is now preparing a home, and in 
which his ample endowment will soon gather 
an accumulation of literary wealth which 
will make it a library worthy of the great 
American metropolis. 

There is another class of libraries, usually 
free for consultation, some of which have 
attained, within the past thirty years, to 
considerable magnitude, viz., those of the his- 
torical societies. Of these, the largest are : 
the Wisconsin State Historical Society's Li- 
brary, at Madison, of 50,500 volumes ; the 
New York Historical Society's Library, with 
31,000 volumes ; the Long Island Historical 
Society's, in Brooklyn, which in ten years 
has accumulated nearly 26,000 volumes ; 
the Massachusetts Historical Society's, with 
nearly 19,000 volumes; the Connecticut 
Historical Society's, with about 25,000, in- 
cluding Dr. Thomas Robbins' valuable col- 
lection in ecclesiastical and New England 
history ; the Maryland Historical Society's, 
with 17,000 volumes; the Minnesota Socie- 
ty, with 13,500 volumes; the American 



310 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



Antiquarian Society, at Worcester, about 
52,000 volumes; and the New England 
Historical and Genealogical Society, of 
Boston, about 12,000. There are two or 
three others, with less than 10,000 volumes 
each. Several of the Scientific Societies 
and Institutes have special libraries of great 
value and considerable magnitude, the largest 
being those of the Academy of Natural 
Sciences, Philadelphia, 23,500; the Ameri- 
can Philosophical Society, also of Philadel- 
phia, 18,000; the Natural History Society, 
of Boston, 13,000 ; and the American Insti- 
tute, New York, 10,500. 

The late George Peabody, among his 
other benefactions, provided for three or 
four considerable libraries ; that of the Pea- 
body Institute, at Baltimore, having already 
43,000 volumes ; the Peabody Institute, at 
Danvers, Mass., about 20,000 volumes ; the 
Institute at Peabody, 14,300 volumes; and 
another at Georgetown, D. C. Other men of 
public spirit have endowed similar libraries 
in various parts of the country, as, David 
Watkinson, at Hartford, Conn., Silas Bron- 
son, at Waterbury, Conn., Ezra Cornell, at 
Ithaca, N. Y., and Peter Cooper, in connec- 
tion with the Cooper Union, at New York. 

We come next to the class of Proprietary 
and so-called Mercantile Libraries, all lend- 
ing libraries, and requiring, in addition to a 
greater or less endowment, an annual or life 
subscription from all who would participate 
in the use of the library, lectures or classes. 
Some of these have attained to the highest 
rank among our great libraries, as, for in- 
stance, the Mercantile Library, of New York, 
which has over 154,000 volumes ; the Bos- 
ton Atheneura, which has 108,000; the 
Mercantile Library, of Philadelphia, 59,000 ; 
the Mercantile Library, of Brooklyn, which 
has 45,000 ; the Mercantile Library, of Cin- 
cinnati, which has 42,000 ; that of St. Louis, 
with 34,000 ; the Providence Atheneum, 
with 32,000, the New York Society Library 
with the same number, and Mercantile Li- 
braries and Young Men's Institutes in San 
Francisco, Baltimore, Hartford, Conn., Bos- 
ton, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and 
other cities, with libraries ranging from 
20,000 to 30,000 volumes each. 

The Young Men's Christian Associations 
have in many cases founded libraries which, 
though seldom large, yet supply, to some 
extent, the demand for books of their mem- 
bers. The Association in Washington, D. 
C, has, we believe, the largest of these li- 



braries, numbering about 13,000 volumes; 
the others are all under 10,000 volumes, 
though several approximate that number. 
The aggregate number of volumes in these 
libraries exceeds 150,000. 

In several of the Northern and Western 
States there are libraries of greater or less 
extent connected with the public schools ; 
not always wisely selected, and in some 
cases not much used, but in the aggregate 
forming a vast number of books. The latest 
school returns indicate that there are more 
than 5,000,000 volumes in their libraries. 

We have thus passed in review the princi- 
pal public libraries of the country. There 
are according to the latest returns : one 
library of about 250,000 volumes; three of 
over 170,000; one of over 150,000; two of 
over 100,000 ; two of over 90,000; five of 
over 50,000 ; seven of over 40,000 ; twenty- 
one of over 30,000 ; fifty of over 20,000 ; 
one hundred and thirty of over 10,000 ; and 
two hundred and seventeen of 5,000 and 
over. The total aggregate of volumes in 
college. State, national, proprietary, subscrip- 
tion, free, town, and school libraries is very 
nearly twelve millions volumes, and is in- 
creasing with great rapidity. 

There is still another class of libraries, 
containing, in their totality, a vast number 
of volumes, and in many cases of consider- 
able size and value, viz., the Sunday School 
libraries. Few of these contain less than 
200 volumes, and many of them have up- 
wards of 1,000. More than 6,000 differ- 
ent works have been published for these 
libraries within the last twenty-five years, 
by the publishing societies and private pub- 
lishers, and large drafts are also made by the 
larger schools on English publications, and 
those intended for adults. Estimating the 
number of these schools at 56,000, or about 
two-thirds the number of churches, and the 
volumes in each library at 200, we have 
more than 11,000,000 volumes collected in 
these humble libraries. 

As might have been expected, the rapid 
growth of public libraries has stimulated 
gentlemen of wealth and intellectual tastes 
to collect private libraries of considerable 
extent, and in many cases devoted to some 
specialty. In many cases these collections, 
on the death of their owners, or sometimes 
during their lives, come into the possession 
of some great public library, adding greatly 
to its value in certain directions. Thus the 
magnificent private library of James Lenox, 



PROFESSIONAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. 



511 



to which we liave ah'eady aUuded, is to form 
the nucleus of the Lenox Library ; the fine 
collection of works on the fine arts, of Rev. 
Dr. Magoon, has become the property of 
Vassar College, and the life-long accumula- 
tions of the late Peter Force, in American 
general and local history, have been incorpo- 
rated into the Library of Congress, and so 
of the collections of Spanish literature of 
Mr. Ticlcnor. There are said to be, in the 
city of New York alone, fifty private libra- 
ries, containing 10,000 volumes or more 
each, and in Boston quite as many. Phila- 
delphia has also a large number, while Cin- 
cinnati, St. Louis, and San Francisco, have 
each their foir share. So, too, had Chicago 
before the great fire destroyed the accumu- 
lations of books which her wealthy citizens 
had made in many years of liberal expendi- 
ture. Brooklyn has for some years past 
been noted for its valuable private collec- 
tions, and those of Henry C. Murphy, J. 
Carson Brevoort, T. W. Field, A. J. Spooner 
and others, in local and general history and 
geography, of Rev. Dr. Storrs, and Rev. II. 
W. Beecher in Christology and general 
English literature, and of several other gen- 
tlemen in illustrated and costly productions, 
are specially noteworthy. Of other remark- 
able collections of works illustrating Ameri- 
can history, the most valuable are those 
of George Brinley of Hartford, George W. 
Greene of Providence, George Bancroft, W. 
J. Davis, William Menzies, and J. R. Brod- 
head of New York, J. L. Motley and Robert 
C. Winthrop of Boston. The library of 
Hon. Henry Barnard, of Hartford, Conn., is 
more complete on the subject of education 
than any other in the country ; that of Rev. 
Barnas Sears, at Staunton, Virginia, is very 
full on some departments of the same sub- 
ject ; that of S. Austin Allibone, of Phila- 
delphia, is' remarkable for its collections on 
English biography, literature and criticism ; 
that of W. Parker Foulke, of the same city, 
on prisons and prison discipline ; that of C. 
L. Bushnell on numismatics ; that of J. A. 
Stevens, Jr., on the Hterature of the Middle 
Ages ; those of Messrs. W. P. Chapman, R. 
G. White, and J. W. Wallack, on dramatic 
and especially Shakspearean literature ; 
that of D. W. Fiske, on Scandinavian litera- 
ture ; that of Rev. W. R, Williams, on 
Welch Literature and Ecclesiastical History ; 
that of R. M. Hunt, on architecture ; those 
of Rev. Dr. Forbes, Rev. Dr. H. B. Smith, 
Rev. Dr. E. F. Hatfield, Rev. Dr. S. H. 



Tyng, and Rev. Dr. Morgan Dix, on theol- 
ogy, ecclesiastical biography, and patristic 
literature. 

There are, in connection with many of 
our benevolent and humane institutions, 
special libraries containing 100 to 1,000 
volumes each, devoted to the particular 
work of those institutions. Some of these 
we have already enumerated. Among the 
most noteworthy of the others are the col- 
lections of works on Deaf Mute instruction 
in the American Asylum for the Deaf and 
Dumb at Hartford, and the New York Insti- 
tution for the Deaf and Dumb ; the collec- 
tion of Bibles in all languages and of all 
dates, of the American Bible Society ; the 
early versions, codices and fac similes, and 
the extensive collections of works on biblical 
criticism and exegesis, procured by the 
American Bible Union for the use of its 
translators ; the library of the American 
Congregational Union in Boston, remarkable 
for its religious periodical literature ; that of 
the American Board of Commissioners for 
Foreign Missions, containing not only a vast 
amount of missionary literature, but nearly 
a complete set of all the publications issued 
by its missionaries; that of the New York 
Geographical Society, very full on geograph- 
ical topics ; that of the Lyceum of Natural 
History, of New York, now deposited with 
the Mercantile Library of that city, and re- 
markable for its collections of the transac- 
tions of Foreign societies ; and that of the 
National Prison Association, which, though 
recently established, has a very complete 
collection of both American and Foreign 
Works on Prisons, Punishment and Prison 
Discipline. TI.c fullowing table gives a list 
of the principal libraries of the country, 
with the date of their organization and the 
number of volumes, as near" as can be ascer- 
tained, at the close of the year 1872^. 

TI. THE LYCEUM AND OTHER LECTURE INSTITUTIONS. 

The origination of the lyceum as a means 
of mutual instruction in this country is due, 
in the first instance, to Benjamin Franklin. 
His "club for mutual improvement" was 
founded in Philadelphia in 1727, and after 
forty years' existence became the basis of 
the American Philosophical Society. There 
probably were other societies for mutual 
improvement organized in difierent towns 
and cities of the country, during the hun- 
dred years that followed the organization of 
Franklin's club ; but there are no records 
of any such in the possession of the public, 



512 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



previous to 1824, when Timothy Claxton, 
an English mechanic, succeeded in founding 
one, or rather in modifying a reading socie- 
ty, which had been in existence for five 
years, into what was really a lyceura, in the 
village of Methuen, Mass. Its exercises 
were weekly, and in the following order : 
the first week, reading by all the members ; 
the second week, reading by one member 
selected for the purpose ; the third week, 
an original lecture ; the fourth week, discus- 
sion. In 1826, Mr. Josiah Holbrook, then 
of Derby, Conn., communicated to the 
American Journal of Education^ then con- 
ducted by Mr. William Russell, his views 
on the subject of " Associations of Adults 
for the Purpose of Mutual Education,'''' 
in which were contained the germs of the 
plan of the Lyceum, as subsequently devel- 
oped by him in his lectures and publica- 
tions. From the first, his views were of 
wider scope than the organization of a mere 
local association ; they comprehended the 
establishment of such associations in every 
town and village, and their union, by repre- 
sentation, in county, state, and national or- 
ganizations. They contemplated also, not 
only mutual instruction in the sciences, but 
the establishment of institutions for the 
education of youth in science, art, and 
morals ; the collection of libraries, and of 
cabinets of minerals and other articles of 
natural or artificial production, to be in- 
creased and enlarged by mutual exchanges, 
by the diff"erent associations. Lectures and 
practical agricultural occupation, the results 
of which, it was supposed, would materially 
diminish the cost of instruction, also formed 
a part of his programme. 

The first association formed in accordance 
with this plan was organized at Millbury, 
Mass., by Mr. Holbrook himself, in Novem- 
ber of the same year, and was called " Mill- 
bury Lyceum, No. 1, Branch of the Amer- 
ican Lyceum." Other towns soon after or- 
ganized lyceums, and these were combined a 
tew months later into the Worcester County 
Lyceum. Not long after, the Windham 
County, Conn., Lyceum, with its constituent 
town lyceums, was established ; Rev. Samuel 
J. May, then of Brooklyn, Conn., rendering 
valuable assistance in the work. 

From this time onward to his death in 
1854, Mr. Holbrook devoted his whole ener- 
gies in one way and another to the promo- 
tion of these institutions, and to such 
measures in connection with the cause of 



education as should promote mutual instruc- 
tion in children as well as adults. By 
scientific tracts, by newspapers and other 
publications, by the manufacture of school 
apparatus, and by the collection of small 
cabinets of minerals, to serve as nuclei for 
larger cabinets, by scholars' fairs, by lec- 
tures, and long journeys, and by appeals to 
the members of Congress and of the State 
Legislatures, he succeeded in rousing a 
powerful and continued interest in the sub- 
ject of mutual instruction, which, if it did 
not accomplish all his own plans, at least 
gave a wonderful impulse to the general 
intellectural culture of the nation. The 
lyceums he founded have passed away, at 
least in their original form, but in their 
places, and in a great measure as an indirect 
result of his agitation, we have in every 
considerable town or village Debating Soci- 
eties, Young Men's Institutes, Mechanics' 
Institutes, Library Associations, Young 
Men's Christian Associations — the four 
latter often with circulating libraries, courses 
of lectures, and classes for instruction in 
science, art, and languages, and in many 
cases with schools and classes attached. 
We have also lecture foundations, either 
connected with our colleges or pro- 
fessional schools, or independent, in which 
courses of instruction in physical science, 
history, literature, or language, are com- 
municated to popular audiences. 

In rendering the scientific lecture a pop- 
ular institution, our country is greatly in- 
debted to the late John Griscom, LL.D., 
Prof B. Silliman, Sr., Rev. Henry Wilbur, 
and Truman W. Coe, Esq. Dr. Griscom 
delivered his first course of popular lectures 
on chemistry in New York city in the winter 
of 1808 ; they were largely attended, and 
were continued for a series of years. Prof. 
Silliman commenced popular lecturing on 
the same subject in New Haven about the 
same time, in connection with his profes- 
sional courses. He subsequently delivered 
popular courses of lectures on chemistry 
and on geology in many of the large cities 
of the country. Within the last thirty or 
thirty-five years the late President Hitch- 
cock of Amherst College, the late Prof. 
Shepard, Prof. Dana of Yale College, the 
brothers Rogers, now both dead. Prof. 
Henry, and other eminent geologists, have 
given courses on geology to popular audi- 
ences ; Prof. Guyot and others have lectured 
on physical geography; the late Horace 



PROFESSIONAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. 



513 



Mann, Charles Brooks, David P. Page, 
Henry Barnard, John D. Philbrick, S. B. 
Wool worth, T. H. Burrows, E. A. Sheldon, 
and a score of others on educational topics ; 
Hon. George P. Marsh, Profs. W. D. Whit- 
ney, S. S. Haldeman, and others, on language; 
Profs. Doremus, Draper, Silliman, Jr., 
Cooke, Richards, and others, on chemistry ; 
Profs. Agassiz, Morse, Dana, and others, on 
palaeontology and natural history ; the late 
General and Prof. Mitchel, Youmans, Eaton, 
Morse, Looniis, G. F. Barker, Young, 
Sir Charles Lyell, and Professor Tyndall, 
on astronomy, spectroscopy, and light ; 
Messrs. Bayard Taylor, Kane, Hays, Hall, 
Du Chaillu, Powell, and others, on their 
explorations ; the late Prof. Lieber, Baird, 
Walker, AVells, Perry, and others, on polit- 
ical philosophy and financial topics, and 
other eminent scholars on other subjects. 

The Lowell Lectures at Boston, founded 
by the munificence of the Hon. John Lowell, 
gives annually several free courses of lec- 
tures to large audiences on the most im- 
portant branches of moral, intellectual, and 
physical science, and from the liberality of 
its compensation to the lecturers, induces 
elaborate and conscientious preparation on 
their part ; and the benefit of this prepara- 
tion inures also to other audiences, to which 
these lectures are repeated. The Graham 
Institute ' in Brooklyn, N. Y., has a similar 
though less opulent foundation, and its 
courses of lectures have been remarkable 
for their ability and adaptation to a popular 
audience. Other foundations have been es- 
tablished for lecture courses in other cities, 
but for the most part in connection with 
colleges or theological seminaries. 

The noble Peter Cooper foundation, in 
New York city, is very broad, covering a 
very large reading room, supplied with all 
the best foreign and American newspapers, 
literary, scientific, and technological periodi- 
cals, a considerable and very valuable library, 
evening schools in mathematics, mechanics, 
languages, &c., schools of design and me- 
chanical drawing, wood engraving, painting, 
architecture and sculpture, and courses of 
lectures on practical science. 

The late George Peabody, among his 
other good works in the cause of education, 
endowed an institute in Baltimore with a 
fund of over a million dollars, to include a 
library, courses of lectures on science, art, 
and literature, prizes for scholarship in the 
high schools, an Academy of Music, and a 



Gallery of Art. He also provided for an 
Institute of Archaeology at Cambridge, with 
an endowment of $150,000, a Museum of 
Natural History at Salem with the same 
amount, and a Department of Physical 
Science at Yale College with a similar sum. 

Harvard University has also established, 
within two or three years past, courses of 
lectures of the very highest grade, open to 
all upon the payment of the fees, in which 
scholars of the first rank have discussed, at 
their leisure, topics usually considered above 
the ready comprehension of any but the 
well educated class. These lectures were 
not largely attended. 

For some years there seemed to be danger 
that the courses of lectures given under the 
superintendence of the Young Men's Insti- 
tutes and Mercantile Library Associations 
would become merely the means of amusing 
rather than instructing the audiences, and so 
would lose their character of supplementary 
means of education ; but this danger is now 
evidently passing away ; the lectures best 
attended are those which have the highest 
scientific character, provided the science is 
duly popularized. One agency in securing 
this beneficial result has been the Young 
Men's Christian Associations, which, by 
making the standard of their lectures high, 
have compelled other organizations to do 
likewise. 

Under this head of means of supplement- 
ary instruction should perhaps also be in- 
cluded those institutions, all very recently 
founded, and which do so much honor to 
their founders, which, while they contem- 
plate mainly systematic instruction, provide 
to some extent popular courses in the 
practical arts and technological science. 
Among these we may name the " Massachu- 
setts Institute of Technology," at Boston ; 
the " Museum of Comparative Zoology," at 
Cambridge ; the " Worcester Free Insti- 
tute ; " the " Horticultural School for 
Women," at Newton Center, Mass. ; the 
"Thayer Engineering School," of Dartmouth 
College ; the " Stevens Institute of Tech- 
nology," at Hoboken, N. J. ; the " School 
of Mines," of Columbia College, New York ; 
the " Scientific School of Lehigh University," 
South Bethlehem, Pa. ; the " Polytechnic 
College," of Philadelphia; the Agricultural 
Department of " Hampton Institute ;" some 
of the practical departments of "Cornell 
University;" and the "O'Fallen Polytechnic 
Institute," of St. Louis, Mo. 



514 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



yi. SOCIETIES FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, 

EDUCATION, AND LITERATURE. 

INTRODUCTION. 

As means of supplementary instruction, 
and largely in those higher walks of litera- 
ture and science not generally cultivated, the 
Scientific and Literary Societies of the coun- 
try have been of great service. They may 
be divided into two classes : those of a gen- 
eral character, which, while principally de- 
voted to the promotion of some particular 
subject, as history, local and general, geo- 
graphical science and discovery, genealogy 
and biograpliy, and in some cases natural 
history, antiquarian researches, prison disci- 
pline and statistics, ethnology and philology, 
yet admit other topics more or less con- 
nected with these, and receive as members 
persons not specially versed in these subjects, 
their object being to enlist a large clientage 
in their pursuits, and, by collecting a library 
and museum, and having courses of lectures, 
to popularize their labors and increase their 
resources. A second class are more strictly 
scientific in their character, admitting mem- 
bers only after careful scrutiny, and on proof 
of their attainments in the special range of 
inquiry to which the society or association 
is devoted. To this class belong the Amer- 
ican Academy of Arts and Sciences, the 
American Academy of Natural Sciences, the 
Boston Natural History Society, the Essex 
Natural History Society, the American Ori- 
ental Society, the National Academy of 
Science, and several peripatetic associations 
holding their annual congresses in difterent 
cities and sections of the country, every 
year. Among these the oldest, and usually 
the best attended, is the American Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Science. 

Besides these more technically scientific 
associations, there are societies of more 
strictly educational and philanthropic aims, 
both National and State, such as the Ameri- 
can Institute of Instruction, and more re- 
cently the American Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Social Science. A National 
Prison Congress has also held two sessions, 
and led to the formation of an International 
Prison Conference, which held its first ses- 
sion in London, in 1872. 

(1.) Literary and Scientific Societies. 
The Societies of the first class have been 
very useful from their exertions in collecting 



historical and archaeological documents, and 
relics and specimens illustrating the early 
condition of our country, the habits, cus- 
toms, and mode of life of the Indian tribes, 
and often, also, similar particulars in regard 
to other nations and times. This has been 
particularly true of the Historical Societies, 
of which there are now one or more in most 
of the States, and even in some of the Ter- 
ritories. As we have seen in our account of 
the libraries of the country, several of these 
societies have made very large collections of 
books, not always exclusively historical, but 
embracing a wide range of literature. Most 
of them have also museums, more or less 
extensive, and often including many objects 
of great interest and value. The earliest of 
these societies is the Massachusetts Histori- 
cal Society, founded in 1791, which has 
published over 50 volumes of Transactions 
and Collections. The New York Historical 
Society came next, in 1804, and has a fine 
library, large archaeological collections, and 
many excellent portraits and historical paint- 
ings. It has also published several volumes 
of historical collections. The American 
Antiquarian Society, at Worcester, founded 
in 1812, mainly by the efforts of the late 
Isaiah Thomas, has a fine library and an 
archaeological collection of great value and 
interest. The Connecticut Historical Soci- 
ety, established in 1825 at Hartford, and 
the Georgia Society, at Savannah, founded 
in 1839, have fine libraries and museums 
of considerable value, that of Connec- 
ticut receiving the library and collection 
of Rev. Thomas Robbins, D. D., begun 
fifty years before. The Maryland His- 
torical Society, founded in 1843, the 
Minnesota Society, at St. Paul, founded 
in 1849, the Chicago Society, founded 
in 1856, and the Long Island Society, 
at Brooklyn, L. I., founded in 1862, are 
the most efficient of the younger societies. 
All have good libraries, some of them 
very large ones, and by courses of lectures, 
by able pa]iers prepared by their members, 
and by sub-organizations within their 
membership, they succeed in enlisting 
public interest and in popularizing their 
special objects. 

There are not more than two or three dis- 
tinct Geographical Societies in the country ; 
the oldest and most efficient, the American 
Geographical Society, of New York, has 
had a hard struggle with adverse fortunes, 
but throujxh the devotion of some of its 



PROFESSIONAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATIOlf. 



515 



past and present officers, lias at last attained 
to a commanding position. It devotes itself 
exclusively to its specialty, and has collected 
an exceedingly valuable library and collec- 
tion of maps and charts, as well as other ar- 
ticles illustrative of geographical discovery. 
It has taken an active part in promoting the 
voyages and journeys of exploration which 
have been sent out to the Arctic Ocean and 
elsewhere, and it has done much to promote 
a more thorough study of geography and 
more accurate map drawing. There are two 
or three Genealogical Societies, the member- 
ship of which is mainly composed of those 
who take an interest in genealogical, bio- 
graphical and historical researches, though 
not exclusively so, as it is the aim of those 
who are the founders of tliese societies to 
awaken a more general interest in their 
pursuit. 

The Natural History Societies arc more 
numerous. Every considerable city in the 
country has more or less students of natural 
history, and these have generally associated 
themselves either in a Natural History So- 
ciety, or in a department of natural history 
connected with a historical society, or lite- 
rary society. 

Of late years, many of our larger and 
older colleges, as Yale, Harvard, Williams, 
Amherst, Union, Cornell, Michigan, (fee, 
&c., have their Natural History Societies, 
the officers of which are often members of 
the College Faculty, and several send out 
their delegations either during the vacations, 
or sometimes in term-time, on exploring ex- 
peditions. 

The American Philological Society was 
founded about the year 1860, by Rev. Na- 
than Brown, D. D., now missionary in Japan, 
having primarily two objects in view, one 
the propagation of a phonetic system of 
writing and printing not liable to the objec- 
tions which attached to others previously 
propounded to the public; the other, the 
approximation to a universal language, or at 
least the elements of one, which should 
make it easier and more practicable to mul- 
tiply copies of the Bible and religious books 
among all nations. Incidental to this was 
the accumulation of vocabularies of all lan- 
guages, which had been either partially or 
wholly reduced to writing for the purposes 
of comparison and study, and analyses of 
the language of savage tribes, to ascertain, 
as far as practicable, the elements which 
were common to them; and, also incident- 



ally, the collection of manuscripts, books, 
leaves, inscriptions, and drawings, by savage 
or half-civilized nations, as well as specimens 
of their manufactures, their idols, &c., &c. 
The Society has accumulated a small library 
and museum, and is prosecuting its purposes 
with earnestness. Its membership is oj)eu 
to all, but is practically limited to those who 
take an interest in its investigations. 

These are the most important of the So- 
cieties of the first class. Of those of the 
second class, which lay a more exclusive 
claim to the title of ' Scientific Societies,' 
we need say but little, as their names gene- 
rally give an idea of their purposes and ob- 
jects. . The American Philosophical Society, 
founded in Philadelphia in 1743, is the old- 
est of our existing Scientific Societies. The 
American Academy of Arts and Sciences 
was founded in Boston in 1780, and has 
published several volumes of Transactions. 
The Connecticut Academy of Arts and 
Sciences was founded at New Haven in 1799, 
and has made many valuable contributions 
to science. The American Academy of the 
Natural Sciences was founded in Philadel- 
phia in 1818, and though meeting with 
many discouragements in its earlier history, 
has recently erected a suitable building for 
its vast collections of fossils, animals and 
birds, and the Morton collection of skulls, 
the finest on the American continent. It is 
in a more prosperous condition, perhaps, 
than any other of the scientific societies. 
The Boston Natural History Society has a 
very fine museum. 

The Association of American Geologists, 
one of the traveling associations, founded in 
1840, was in 1845 absorbed in the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, 
which still maintains its annual congresses, 
with a session usually of two or three weeks. 
It comprises the greater portion of the sci- 
entists of the country, and its papers and 
essays are often of great merit and perma- 
nent value. The National Institute, a scien- 
tific society founded in Washington in 1840, 
after a few years- of activity, transferred its 
collections to the Smithsonian Institution. 

The Smithsonian Institution, though a 
very active organization in the diffusion of 
knowledge among men, with large resources, 
can hardly be classed as a scientific society, 
since it has no membership except its re- 
gents and officers. Its books have been 
transferred to the Library of Congress, and 
its valuable collections are open to all 



516 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



scientists, and facilities provided for the dis- 
tribution of its specimens and publications 
to such colleges, museums, and scientific so- 
cieties as will make a suitable use of them 
for promoting its objects. It was chartered 
in 1846. 

The American Oriental Society, at New 
Haven, founded in 18 — , mainly through 
the efforts of Prof. Salisbury, has, in the 
few years of its existence, contributed 
greatly to the promotion of our knowl- 
edge of Oriental languages and science. 

The National Academy of Science, founded 
by act of Congress in 1863, and limited 
to fifty resident associates, is an attempt to 
blend the French Institute with the peripa- 
tetic plan, which, in the American Associa- 
tion and other institutions, had proved so 
efficient in this country. Its meetings are 
either annual or serai-annual, and held a| 
different points. Its sessions are from one 
to two weeks, and its members are divided 
into working sections. Its meetings are 
public, and papers on different scientific 
topics are read by members, and may be 
contributed, by those not associates, through 
members. The election of new members 
to the vacancies made by death are prefaced 
by a rigid and protracted scrutiny. One of 
the conditions of its incorporation is the ob- 
ligation to investigate and report on any 
scientific subject referred by any department 
of the government for its consideration. 

The American Philological Association 
was organized in 1869, though preliminary 
meetings had been held in 1868. It is one 
of the peripatetic associations, and has for 
its objects the more perfect mastery of the 
ancient classical languages and literature, 
and investigations into the structure and 
philosophy of the Indo-European and Ori- 
ental languages. It has printed three vol- 
umes of its annual proceedings. 

The latest of these scientific societies is 
the American Union Academy of Litera- 
ture, Science, and Art, founded in 1869 in 
Washington. It embraces within its scope 
the entire circle of the sciences, and is di- 
vided into ten sections or departments, each 
of which is presided over by a supervising 
committee of three, through whom all papers 
in their several departments must be pre- 
sented, and, if approved, reported to the 
Academy, and published if the Academy so 
order. The membership is limited to such 
as are proficients in some branch of knowl- 
edge coming under one of the ten sections, 



and the ballot, after a favorable report by 
the committee of that section, must be unan- 
imous or they are not elected. Prof J. W. 
Draper, M. D., LL. D., was the first president. 
(2.) Educational Associations. 

The American Institute of Instruction, 
founded in 1830, the American Association 
for the Advancement of Education, from 
1849 to 1856, and the National Teachers' 
Association, founded in 1857, have been of 
great service in raising the standard of edu- 
cational discussion and diffusing a knowledge 
of the best methods and true aims of edu- 
cation. But far more broadly useful have 
been the State Teachers' Associations, acting 
as they do on much larger bodies of teach- 
ers in so many States from year to year. 

The earliest of the State Associations 
was that of Rhode Island, which held its 
first meeting in January, 1845. This was 
followed by that of New York on July 31st, 
and of Massachusetts on the 29th of No- 
vember of the same year. The teachers of 
Ohio, in 1847; of Connecticut, in 1848; 
of Vermont, in 1850 ; of Michigan and 
Pennsylvania, in 1852; of Wisconsin, 
Illinois and New Jersey, in 1853 ; of Iowa, 
New Hampshire and Indiana, in 1854 ; of 
Maine, in 1859; Kansas, in 1862; in Cali- 
fornia, in 1864; and within five years after 
the close of the War of Secession, the 
teachers of every State had organized as- 
sociations for the improvement of their own 
profession, and the advancement of the 
educational interests of the country. 

In most of the States, several country 
societies, and in all the large cities, local 
associations are in active operation. 

The Western College Society originated 
in the depressed condition of certain col- 
leges in the Western States (Western Re- 
serve, Marietta, Wabash and Illinois Col- 
leges, and Lane Theological Seminary,) 
which had been aided in their infancy by 
contributions from sympathizing churches 
at the East. This depression culminated in 
the financial reverses of 1837-41 — when the 
investments in buildings and other forms, to 
the amount of $400,000, seemed likely to 
be sacrificed for want of immediate aid. In 
1842, on the suggestion of Rev. Theron 
Baldwin, the plan of an association was 
discussed by various parties interested, and 
matured in 1843 by the establishment of a 
Society for the Promotion of Collegiate and 
Theological Education at the Wost, by 
which upwards of a half million dollars 



PROFESSIONAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. 



517 



have been contributed to relieve the indebt- 
edness, increase the endowments, and extend 
the usefidness of the institutions above 
named, but of more than twice that number 
of institutions of a similar character. But 
beyond these palpable results, the addresses 
and discussions which the judicious and 
indefatigable secretary and agent. Rev. Dr. 
Baldwin (the originator of the same), was 
mainly instrumental in eliciting throughout 
the Eastern States, has helped to raise the 
whole course of higher Christian education 
throughout the whole country. The society 
has recently extended the field of its 
beneficent labors, and is now engaged in 
building anew the crumbling walls of 
Southern colleges, and breathing fresh life 
into what war, always barbarous, has left of 
once flourishing institutions of learning. 

These associations are not confined to the 
male sex, or to institutions in which boys 
are primarily regarded — many associations, 
some composed exclusively of women, and 
more for the advancement of female educa- 
tion, have been started which are still active. 
Among the earliest and latest is the Ladies' 
Association for Educating Females, in Jack- 
sonville, Illinois, in 1833, and the Woman's 
Education Association, in Boston, in 1872 
— indication that a want was early felt in 
one of the newest States, which is not yet 
met in one of the oldest. 

The Sunday School Union, and the edu- 
cational societies of different religious de- 
nominations, are all incorporated associations 
for special educational purposes. 

The American Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Social Science, or, as it is 
more generally called, " The Social Science 
Association," founded in 1862, has, in its 
annual congresses in different cities, and in 
the sectional meetings at Boston, justified 
its existence by the ability with which it has 
handled many topics belonging to the vexed 
questions of educational and public economy. 

In the development of educational asso- 
ciation, the law of affinity, which finally 
governs all associations, has worked itself 
out in this wise, — first a general association 
of all interested in the main object, and by 
degrees, special associations of those only 
who are interested in some department of 
education, or class of institutions — and 
finally, a gathering of all teachers and edu- 
cators on ground common to all. In 1853 
a few college presidents gathered in an in- 
formal way to talk over the condition of 



their institutions and some of the knotty 
problems of discipline, and curriculum, until 
now there is a regular annual meeting of 
delegates from all the colleges of New Eng- 
land. In Ohio, and in the States farther 
west, larger and more public associations 
have been formed. To get opportunities of 
special discussion, the teachers of Normal 
Schools held separate meetings at the close 
of the American Institute, or National Teach- 
ers' Association, until in 1869, out of all in- 
terested as officers and teachers, the National 
Educational Association was organized in 
1869, with four departments: the first, of 
School Superintendence ; the second, of 
Normal Schools ; the third, of Elementary 
Schools, and the fourth, of Higher Instruc- 
tion, each department meeting under its own 
president, for special papers and disscussions 
and all the departments meeting together 
for general purposes. 

(3,) Industrial and Fine Arts. 

The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 
founded in 1806, holds annual exhibitions, 
and maintains a school for the study of the 
antique, of the living model, of anatomy, of 
design, and painting. 

The National Academy of Design, founded 
in New York in 1826, is an association of 
all the principal artists of the country, and 
maintains a school of instruction in art, as 
well as an annual exhibition of great excel- 
lence. Its members are divided into two 
classes or ranks, National Academicians or 
N. A. and Associates (A. N. A.), who, after 
two or three years probation, are promoted 
to the first rank. 

The Cooper Union includes a Society of 
Associates for the promotion of science and 
art. The American Institute at New York, 
organized in 1827, has maintained an annual 
exhibition of the productions of scientific 
industry, and hold monthly meetings of its 
members, for the discussion of questions of 
science as applied to the arts of life. 

Nearly every city has now an association 
to promote, by public exhibition of produc- 
tions of painting and statuary, a taste for 
the fine arts, and in all industrial exhibitions 
whether state, county or municipal, there is 
generally a department devoted to ideal art. 
The new art associations in New York and 
Boston will greatly surpass any thing yet 
attempted. 

• For history of the principnl National and State Associa- 
tions of an educational chnracter down to 1864, see Barnard's 
American Journal of Education, Vols. XV. and XVI. 



518 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



YII. EDUCATIONAL PERIODICALS AND REPORTS. 

The earliest serial devoted exclusively to 
education was The Juvenile Monitor, issued 
in New York in 1811, by Albert Picket, 
who in 1818-19 published, in connection 
with his son, John W. Picket, The Aca- 
demician, a larire octavo, issued semi- 
monthly, and containing both original and 
selected articles of great value. Here was 
issued the first notices of Pestalozzi's and 
Fellenberg's views and labors, and very 
valuable chapters from Jardine's Outline 
of a Philosophical System of Education. 

This field of labor remained unoccupied 
until the appearance of the American Jour- 
nal of Education, commenced January 1st, 
1825, at Boston, Mr. T. B. Wait publisher, 
and edited by Professor William Russell 
until 1830, when it was continued under 
the name of the American Annals of Edu- 
cation ; the Annals appeared until the end 
of 1839, completing an entire series of 
fourteen octavo volumes. At ditferent 
periods, William C. Woodbridge, Dr. Wil- 
liam A. Alcott, and Prof. Hubbard (then 
of Massachusetts, but afterwards of North 
Carolina College at Chapel Hill,) were editors. 

In 1827 the American Educational 
Society, founded in 1817 for the sole pur- 
pose to aid candidates for the ministry 
through their collegiate and theological 
studies, issued a quarterly journal devoted 
to the publication of the proceedings of the 
society, and to ecclesiastical matters. Under 
the charge of Prof B. B. Edwards from 
1831 to 1840, and of Dr. Cogswell, this 
periodical, which assumed in 1831 the 
name of Quarterly Register, devoted a por- 
tion of each number to educational intelli- 
gence, especially to the history and statistics 
of colleges, with two or three comprehensive 
surveys of the whole field of public instruc- 
tion, founded on the personal observation 
and special correspondence of the editor, ex- 
tending over the whole country. 

In January, 1836, appeared the first num- 
ber of the Common School Assistant, a 
quarto-monthly, edited by J. Orville Taylor, 
and was published at Albany, and afterward 
at New York, during four years and four 
volumes, and part of a fifth, ending in 1840. 
This periodical was energetically and use- 
fully edited, and Mr. Taylor did much for 
the cause of popular education by publish- 
ing a Comm.on School Almanac, and deliv- 



ering forcible and apt addresses on educa- 
tional subjects in many States of the Union. 
His expenses were largely sustained by 
James S. AVardsworth, of Geneseo, N. Y. 

In January, 1839, Hon. Horace Mann, 
Secretary of the Board of Education for 
Massachusetts, issued the first number of 
The Common School Journal on his private 
responsibility, and continued its publication 
monthly to the close of the tenth volume in 
1848, when he resigned his position to take 
his seat in Congress, as the successor of 
John Quincy Adams in the House of 
Representatives. The Journal was con- 
tinued through 1852 by William B. Fowle, 
who had been for several years associated 
with Mr. Mann as publisher. The fourteen 
volumes contain all the Reports of the 
Board and the Secretary during Mr. Mann's 
connection with the same, and many very 
valuable articles by himself, and such per- 
sonal friends as George B. Emerson, LL.D., 
Dr. S. G. Howe, W. B. Fowle, and others. 

In August, 1838, appeared at Hartford, 
Connecticut, the first number of the quarto 
Connecticut Common School Jou7'nal, edited 
by Henry Barnard, Secretary of the Board 
of Commissioners of Common Schools, and 
was published during four 3^ears, ending in 
consequence of the strange reactionary rally 
which abolished the board in 1842. It con- 
tained the state public educational docu- 
ments of each year beside valuable selections 
from treatises not readily accessible, and 
original articles of permanent value. A 
second series, in octavo form, w^as com- 
menced by Mr. Barnard in 1850, and 
continued by him until January, 1854, 
when he surrendered its care to the 
Connecticut State Teachers' Association. 
The interval between 1843 and 1850 was 
covered by the publication of the Journal 
of the Rhode Island Institute of Instruction, 
embodying the official documents and action 
of the editor as Commissioner of Public 
Schools in that State. In connection with 
both journals the editor issued a series of 
Educational Tracts, copies of which he ar- 
ranged with their publishers to have stitched 
to every Almanac sold in the State. 

In August, 1855, Mr. Barnard issued the 
first number of his American Journal of 
Education, published at Hartford, quarterly, 
in octavo. This great repository of educa- 
tional knowledge has been continued to the 
present time, and its twenty-fourth volume 
will be completed in 1873. It has accom- 



PROFESSIONAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION, 



519 



plished the object set forth by its founder, 
and constitutes, in the nearly 21,000 pages 
already issued, the most comprehensive 
survey of the history, of systems (national, 
state, and city), and the biography, theory, 
and practice of instruction in all classes 
and grades of schools, both in the United 
States and other countries, to be found in 
any similar publication in any language.* 
It must be for many years to come the best 
available work of reference on all educa- 
tional topics for the first three-fourths of 
the nineteenth century. It contains 130 
excellent portraits from steel plates of emi- 
nent teachers and educators, and over 1,000 
illustrations of school architecture. Since 
the date of his first Journal the growth 
of educational literature has been rapid. 
There are now in nearly every State one 
or more school periodicals of various 
titles and forms, but usually issued 
monthly, and in most cases the organs 
of the Teachers' Associations of their 
respective States. These are generally 
■well conducted, and the articles contributed 
by teachers, who are either the appointed 
editors or correspondents of the periodicals, 
discuss with much ability topics connected 
with methodology, and the practical duties 
and difticulties of the teacher. 

Of this class of periodicals the Massa- 
chusetts Teacher, the organ of the State 
Teachers' Association, now issuing its 
twenty-fifth volume ; the Rhode Island 
Schoolmaster, and the Illinois Teacher, and 
the Indiana School Journal started in 
1855 ; the Pennsylvania School Journal, for 
twenty years conducted by Hon. T. H. Bur- 
roughs, have each maintained a high and 
special reputation. 

There are several educational journals 
of a less local character devoting them- 
selves to the discussion of the principles of 
education, to the various methods of teach- 
ing and discipline, to educational biography, 
the careful criticism of text-books, and to 
the current progress of education. Among 
the best, as well as the most widely cir- 
culated of these are the American Educa- 
tional Monthly, published in New York 
city since 1862, the College Co?<m?!#, pub- 
lished in New Haven since 1865, and the 
National Teacher, edited and published by 
E. E. White, Columbus, Ohio. 

* Volume XXIV (for 1873) contains a General Index, bnsed 
on the Specinl Index of each volume, as well ns on the Special 
Treatises which have been made up out of the separate chap- 
ters and articles scattered through the entire series. 



Most of the leading publishers of school 
text-books issue, monthly, quarterly, or 
semi-annual periodicals, containing some 
educational matter, and a great deal com- 
mendatory of their own books. The daily 
and weekly secular, literary, and religious 
journals have also their educational depart- 
ments, and in the aggregate do much for 
the advancement of schools and education. 
There were in 1872 forty-five periodicals in 
the United States, monthly and quarterly, 
devoted exclusively to education, besides a 
considerable number — college periodicals, 
literary and educational papers and maga- 
zines, reviews, &c., — which w^ere partially 
occupied with educational matter. This is 
a rapid growth since a peiiod of forty years 
ago, when a single educational periodical 
found but a scanty and precarious support. 

The annual School Reports, national, state, 
city and town, it is estimated, constitute a 
library of over 100 volumes, of 600 pages 
octavo, of ordinary long primer type. 

The earliest official and legislative reports 
on the condition of public schools were 
issued in New York in 1812, and in Mary- 
land in 1826. The former did not attract 
much attention until issued by Azariah 
Flagg, and John A, Dix, who, as Secretary 
of State, were from 1827 to 1836 ex officio 
superintendents of public schools. But a 
different character was given to this class 
of documents when Hon. Horace Mann 
became Secretary of the Board of Educa- 
tion for Massachusetts, in 1837. 

The cause of education has received a 
new impetus since the close of the war, and 
especially since 1867, when a Commissioner 
of Education was provided for by Congress, 
originally independent, but subsequently as 
a bureau of the Department of the Interior. 
Its first commissioner was Hon. Henry 
Barnard, who was succeeded in 1870 by 
Gen. John Eaton, Jr. The Department has 
issued four annual reports, beside a supple- 
mentary one on education in the cities and 
the District of Columbia. These reports 
contain a vast amount of information in re- 
gard to the educational progress of the 
United States from year to year, but their 
statistics of colleges and institutions of 
secondary instruction being collected as 
unofficial answers to circulars are not always 
full and reliable, and give, in some instances, 
an undue prominence to institutions of re- 
cent origin and of mainly prospective use- 
fulness. 



520 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



VIII. SCHOOL BOOKS AND SCHOOL APPARATUS. 

(1.) Text-books. 

At the beginning of our national exist- 
ence, from 1175 to 1784, the Hornbook, 
Primer, Bible and Psalter were the universal 
instruments of school instruction till about 
1780, and in many of the district schools till 
1800. The late Dr. Noah Webster, in 
some reminiscences of his early school days, 
addressed to Mr. Barnard and published in 
the American Journal of Education for 
March, 1840, says, " When I was young 
the books used were chiefly Dilworth's 
Spelling-book, the Psalter, Testament, and 
Bible. No geography was studied before 
the publication of Dr. Morse's small books 
on that subject, about the year 1786 or 
1787 (Dr. Morse's first little compendium, 
entitled Geographij made Easy, was pub- 
lished in 1784). No history was read, as 
far as my knowledge extends, for there was 
no abridged history of the United States. 
Except the books above mentioned, no book 
for reading was used before the publication 
of the Third Part of my Institute in 1785. 
In some of the early editions of that book 
I introduced short notices of the geograpliy 
and history of the United States, and these 
led to more enlarged, descriptions of the 
country. In 1788, at the request of Dr. 
Morse, I wrote an account of the transac- 
tions in the United States after the Revolu- 
tion ; which account fills nearly twenty 
pages in the first volumes of his octavo 
editions. Before the Revolution, and for 
some years after, no slates were used in 
common schools; all writing and the opera- 
tions in arithmetic were on paper. The 
teacher wrote the copies and gave the sums 
in arithmetic, few or none of the pupils 
having any books as a guide. The intro- 
duction of my spelling-book, first published 
in 1783, produced a great change in the de- 
partment of spelling ; and from the infor- 
mation I can gain, spelling was taught with 
more care and accuracy for twenty years 
or more after that period, than it has been 
since the introduction of multiplied books 
and studies. No English grammar was 
generally taught in common schools when I 
was young except that of Dilworth. 

President Humphrey, of Amherst College, 
writing of the period between 1790 and 
1810, in a letter to Mr. Barnard, says, " Our 



school-books were the Bible, Webster's 
' Spelling-book ' and ' Third Part,' mainly. 
One or two others were found in some 
schools for the reading classes. Grammar 
was hardly taught at all in any of them, 
and that little was confined almost entirely 
to committing and reciting the rules. Pars- 
ing was one of the occult sciences in my 
day. We had some few lessons in geogra- 
phy, by questions and answers, but no maps, 
no globes ; and as for blackboards, such a 
thing was never thought of till long after. 
Children's reading and picture books we 
had none ; the fables in Webster's Spelling- 
book came nearest to it. Arithmetic was 
hardly taught at all in the day schools. As 
a substitute there were some evening schools 
in most of the districts. Spelling was one 
of the daily exercises in all the classes." 

Hon. Joseph T. Buckingham, whose 
school days extended from 1786 to 1800, 
gives the following list of the school 
books in use at that time, Webster's and 
Dilworth's Spelling-books, Webster's Third 
Part, Dilworth's Schoolmaster's Assistant, 
and the Bible. The late S. G. Goodrich 
(" Peter Parley ") describing a school of his 
native town as it was from 1803 to 1806, 
gives the following as the school books, the 
Catechism (probably the New England 
Primer), Webster's Spelling-book, the 
Bible, DaboU's Arithmetic, (which held its 
place in the schools for nearly thirty-five 
years), Webster's Grammar — which even 
the master did not understand — and 
Dwight's Geography, which had neither 
maps nor illustrations, and was merely an 
expanded table of contents of Morse's 
Universal Geography. The late Salem 
Town, describing the school in Bclchertown, 
Mass,, which was exceptionally well taught 
by Mr. S. Greene (fatlier of Prof S.^ S. 
Greene, of Brown University), from 1793 
to 1800, gives the following list of text- 
books, Webster's Elementary (this was prob- 
ably the " American," as the " Elementary " 
was not published till later), Spelling-book, 
Alexander's English Grammar, an abridg- 
ment of Pike's Arithmetic, the Columbian 
Orator, Nathaniel Dwight's and Jedediah 
Morse's small Geographies, this latter hav- 
ing four maps about the size of a man's 
hand, and a little later, Murray's English 
Grammer, and English Reader. 

We give on the next page the titles of 
school books printed in this country prior to 
1800. 



BOOKS FOR TEACHERS AND PUPILS — SCHOOL APPARATUS. 



521 



American Text-books Printed prior to 1800. 



Abel, Thomas, Plane Trigonometry, Philadelphia, 1761. 
Adam, Alex., Rudiments of Latin Grammar, Boston, 1793 
Adams, Hannah, History of New England, Dedham, 1791). 
Alden, Abner, Introduction to Spelling, Boston, 1797. 
Alsop's Tables, Latin and English. 
Ale.xaiider, Caleb, Intro, to Speaking and Writing English, 

" Spelling-book, Worcester, J7SI9. [Boston, 1794. 

" Grammatical System, Boston, J792. 

" Latin Language, fVorcester, 1794. 

" Grecian Language, Worcester, 1796. 

" Virgil, translated, with notes, IVorcester, 1796. 

American Latin Grammar, Providence, 1794, 
Andrews, John, Sheridan's Gram, of Eng. Lang., Phil., 1789. 
Arithmetic, Vulgar and Decimal, Boston, 1724. 
Ash, John, Dictionary of English Language, Boston, 1794. 

" Grammnticiil Institute, Philadelphia. 1778. 

Best, W., Logic in Question and Answer, jVew York, 1796. 
Bingham, Caleb, Young Ladies' Accidence. Boston, 1785. 

" American Preceptor. Bof^ton, 1789. 

" Columbian Orator, Boston, 1797. 

" Child's Companion, Boston, 1798. [1799. 

" Geographical and Astronomical Catechism, Boston, 

" Juvenile Letters, to assist Composition, Boston, 1799. 

" Historical Grammar, translated for La Croze, Boston. 

" Copy-Slips, Boston, 1796. 

Burr, Jonathan, Compendium of English Gr„ Boston, 1797. 

" American Later Grammar, Providence, 1794. 

" English Grammar, Boston, 1797. 

" New American Latin Grammar, JVew York, 1784. 

CsEsar, Commentaries, Worcester, 1784. 
Campbell, George, Philosophy of Rhetoric, London, 1776, 
Carroll, Jumes, Am. Criterion of Eng. Gr, JVew I^ondon, 1795. 
Catechism, or Supplies from the Tower of David, Boston, 17-'l. 
Catechism, printed for Dorchester, JUass., 1650. 
Catechism in the Negro Christianized, Boston, 1693. 
Cheever, Ezekiel, Short Int. to Latin Tongue (4th Ed ) Boston, 
Child's New Plaything, a Spelling-book, Boston, 1744. [1734. 
Cicero's Orations, Boston, i72'2. 
Clap, Thomas, General View of Philosophy, 1743. 

" Foundation of Morals, JVew Haven, 1765. 

Clark, John, Introduction to Latin, Worcester, 1786. 
Collection of Psalm Tunes, Boston, 1753. 
Comly, John, English Grammar Made Easy, Philadelphia. 
Compendium LogicsB, Boston, 1735. 
Comprehensive Grammar, Philadelphia, 1789. 
Colles, C, Geographical Ledger, JVew York. 1794. 
Cook, David, American Arithmetic, JVew Haven, 1799. 
Oorderius, Colloquies, Boston, 18th edition, 1789. 
Culmnn, Sentences for Children, Boston, 1723. 
Daboll, Nathan, Schoolmaster's Assistant, JVew London, 1800. 
Dana, Joseph, Lessons in Reading and Speaking, Boston, 1792. 
Davidson, James, Introduction to Latin Tongue, Phila., 1798. 
Dawson, W., Entertaining Amusement, Philadelphia, 1754. 
De Hensch, H., Practical French Grammar, JVew York, 1796. 
Dearborn, Benjamin, Columbian Grammar, Boston, 1795. 
Dilworth, Thomas, New Guide to English Tonsue, Boston, VI&7. 

" Schoolmaster's Assistant, Hartford, 1786. 

Dixon, Henry, English Instructor, Boston, 1736. 
Doddridge, Philip, Friendly Instructor, Boston, 1749. 
Duncan, William, Elements of Logic, Philadelphia, 1792. 
Dwight, Nathaniel, System of Geography, Hartford, 1795. 
Eliot, John, Indian Grammar, Cambridge, 1664. 

" Indian Grammar Begun, Boston, 1666. 

" Indian Logic Primer, 1672. 

" Primer in Indian, 1687. 

" Catechism in Indian, 1687. 

Enfield, William, The Speaker, Hudson. 1778, 
English and German Grammar, Philadelphia, 1748. 
English Tongue — Art of Spelling Improved, Boston, 1757. 
Ensell, G., Dutch Grammar of English Language, 1797. 
Erasmus' Colloquia, Worcester, 1785. 
Euclid's Elements of Geography, Worcester, 1784. 
Evans, Lewis, Geographical and Historical Essays, Phila.,Y755. 
Penning, Daniel, L'niversal Spelling-book, Boston, 1769. 

" Youth's Instructor, Dover, 1795. 

Ferguson, James, Astronomy Explained, Philadelphia. 1799. 
Fisher, George, American Instructor, Philadelphia, 1748. 
Fraser, David, Young Lady's Assistant, Danbnry, 1794. 
Fox, George, Instructions for Right Spelling, JVewport, 1769. 

'' Plain Directions for Reading, Boston, 1743. 

Fisfce, Moses, New England Spelling-book. 
Gay, Anthelme, Prosodical Grammar, JVew York, 1795. 
Gordon, John, Mathematical Traverse Table, Philadelphia, 1758. 
Gough, John, Treatise of Arithmetic, Boston, 1789. 

American Accountant, Philadelphia. 1796. 
Gros, John D., Moral Philosophy, JVew York, 1795. 
Guide to Arithmetic, Boston, 1794. 
Guthrie, W., Modern Geography, Philadelphia, 1795. 



Hale, Enoch, A Spelling-book, JVorthampton, 1799. 

Haddie, James, Liitin Grunimtti, JVew York, 1794. 

Hill, John, Speedy Guide to Learning, Boston, 1745. 

Holy Bible, common edition, Worcester, 1784. 

Horace, Odes, Worcester, 1784. 

Hodder, James, Arithmetic Made Easy, Boston, 1719. 

Indian Primer, by which children may leurn to read the Indian 
language,, Boston, 1720. 

Introduction to History of America, Philadelphia, 1787. 

Janeway, James, Token for Children, Boston, 1718. 

Johnson, S., Compendium of Logic nnd Ethics, Phila., 1752. 
" Elementu Philosophica, Boston, 1746. 

King's Heathen Gods. 

Kinnersley, Ebenezer, Experiments in Electricity, Phila., 1764. 

Latin Grammar, for the use of the College, Philadelphia, 1773. 

Latin Tongue, for Grammar School nt Nassau Hall, Phila., 1767. 

Lake, John, Maury's Principles of Eloquence, Jilbany, 1797. 

Lavoisier, Elements of Chemistry, Philadelphia, 1799. 

Lee. C. A., American Accountant, I.ansingburgh, 1797. 

Livius, HIstoriarum Libri quinque priores, Eoston, 1778. 

Logan, James, Cicero's Cato Major, Philadelphia. 1744. 

Lowth, Robert, Introduction to English Grammar, Phila., 1775. 

Macpherson, John, Moral Philosophy, Philadelphia, 1791. 

Massachusetts Psalter, Indian nnd English, Boston, 1709. 

McDonald, Alexander, Youth's Assistant, lAtchficld, 1789. 

Martinet, Catechism of Nature, Boston, 1790. 

Mennye, J., An English Grammar, JVew York, 1785. 

Miller, Alexander, Grammar of English Lang., JVew York, 1795. 

Milne, W . The Well-bred Scholar, JVew York, 1797. 

Morning nnd Evening Prayer and Church Catechism in Indian, 
Bo- ton, 1703. 

Morse, Jedediah, Geography Made Easy, JVew Haven, 1784. 
" " " " " Boston. 1790. 

" American Geography, Elizabethtown, 1789. 

Murray, Lindley, English Grammar, JVero York, 1795. 

Negro Christianized, for instruction of negro servants, Boston, 

New England Primer, Boston, 1692. [1706. 

New England Primer Enlarged. Boston, 1737. 

New England Primer Improved, Boston, 1770. 

New England Primer, much improved, Philadelphia, 1797. 

New England Primer Enlarged nnd Improved, Charlestown, 1799. 

New and Complete Guide to the English Tongue, Phila., 1740. 

New Book of Knowledge. Boston, 1762, 1772. 

New [ntroduction to Music, Boston, 1764. 

Nomenclatura Breves Anglo Latina, Boston, 1752. 
Otis, James, Latin Prosody, Boston, 1760. 
Ovid, Metamorphoses. 

Parent's Gifts, ^o.^'io?!, 1741. [1798. 

Perry, William, New Pronouncing Spelling-book, Worcester, 
Pierce, Spelling-book. 

Philadelphia Vocabulary (Latin), Philadelphia, 1796. 
Pike. Nicolas, New System of Arithmetic, JVewburyport, 1788. 
'' Abridged, Worcester, 1795. 

" Revised by E. Adains, Worcester. 1797. 

Primer, or the Child's New Plaything, Philadelphia, 1757. 
Practical Penman, Jllbany, 1727. 
Protestant Teacher for Children, with verses mnde by Mr. John 

Rogers, martyr in Marie's reign, Boston, 1685. 
Psalter, or Psalms of David, Worcester. 1704. 
Root, Erastus, Introduction to Arithmetic, JVorjnich, 1795. 
Ross, Robert, American Griimmar, Hartford, 7th Ed., 1780. 
Royal Primer, Worcester, 1787. 
Rudiments of Latin Prosody, Boston, 1760. 
Ryland, John, English Grammar, JVorthampton, 1767. 
Saunderson, Nicholas, Elements of Algebra, Cambridge, 1740. 
Scott, William, Lessons in Elocution, JVew York, 1799. 
Sheridan, Thomas, Dictionary of Eng. Lang., Phila., 1796. 
Shorter Catechism, wMh Proofs, Boston, l&'^l. 
Shorter Catechism, Boston, 1739. 
Testament, common edition by the dozen. Worcester. 
Thomas, Alexander, Jr., Orator's Assistant, Worcester, 1797. 
Ticknor, Elisha, English Exercises, Boston. 1792. 
Todd, John, American Tutor's Assistant, Philadelphia, 1797. 
Token for the Children of New England, Boston, 1700. 
Tuft, John, Easy Method of Singing by Letters, Boston, 1723. 
Venema, Pieter, Arithmetic of Coffer Konst, JVew York. 1730. 
Vinall, John, Student's Guide in Arithmetic. Boston, 1792. 
Virgilius, Opera, with Translation, Worcester, 1796. 
Ward's Latin Grammar. 

Watts, Isaac, Catechism and Prayers, Boston, 1749. 
Webster, Noah, American Spelling-book, Boston, 1794. 

'' Grammatical Institute of Eng. Lang., Hartford, 1783. 

" " " Part II., Boston, 1790. 

" " " Part III., Hartford, 1792. 

Whittenhall, Latin Grammar, Philadelphia, 1762. 
Young Clerk's Guide to Learning, Boston, 1708. 
Youth's Instructor, Philadelphia, 1745. 
Youth's Instructor in the English Tongue, Boston, 1726. 



522 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIOXAL INSTITUTIONS. 



(3.) School Apparatus. 

In the schools of the early period (1775 
to 1820) there was little in the way of 
school apparatus beyond the birchen rod, 
the strap, the raw-hide, or the ferule, which 
answered the double purpose of discipline 
and of a-^sembling the school. The black- 
board was not introduced into even the city 
schools earlier than from 1825 to 1830, and 
did not find its way into the best country 
schools till after 1840. Globes, imported 
from England, were found in a few of our 
colleges perhaps as early as 1800, but did 
not make their appearance in the public 
schools before 1850. The orrery, or plani- 
sphere, or some other mode of representing 
the motion of the planets around the sun, 
were mentioned in some of the books, and 
heard of as belonging to the college proper- 
ties of some great institution, but was con- 
sidered, even as late as 1840, far beyond the 
reach of a public school. Outline maps, 
first made by J. H. Mather & Co., though 
bearing the name of S. A. Mitchell, were 
introduced in 1840. They were rude com- 
pared with those now in the market, and 
there was a long struggle before they were 
very generally introduced. Now, one or 
other of the fifteen or sixteen sets of outline 
or wall maps are found in all the principal 
schools ; and this plan of illustrating the 
sciences by wall maps and cliarts has been 
extended to physical geography, geology, 
chemistry, botany, natural philosophy (in a 
new process of printing on oil-cloth, in 
Johnson's Philosophical charts), to anatomy 
and physiology, and even to orthography, 
phonetics, and grammar. 

The earliest, at least one of the earliest, 
manufacturers of philosophical apparatus in 
this country was Timothy Claxton, an Eng- 
lish mechanic who came to this country in 
182.3, and worked as a mechanic in a 
machine-shop connected with a cotton 
factory in Mcthuen, Essex County, Mass. 
In 1826 he removed to Boston, taking with 
him an air-pump of simple construction, 
made by himself of a piece of gas-tubing, 
with a ground brass plate, on a mahogany 
stand. In a little volume of autobiography 
entitled Memoir of a Mechanic^ published 
in 1839, Mr. Claxton introduces the subject 
as follows : 

" After I had been in Boston three or 
four years, Mr. Josiah llolbrook, a gentle- 
man much engaged in the establishment of 



lyceums, came to me to see about apparatus, 
as he was trying to introduce such cheap 
and simple instruments into schools, and 
other seminaries of learning, as would come 
within their means. He had already several 
articles for illustrating geometry, astronomy, 
&c.; but air-pumps were not then simplified 
enough to form a part of the lyceum appa- 
ratus. At this interview, I introduced to 
his notice a small air-pump for exhausting 
and condensing, and several articles of appa- 
ratus to be used Avith it, which I had made 
for the amusement of myself and my ♦ 
friends. He frankly acknowledged it to be 
the very thing that was wanted in the 
smaller establishments for education. He 
wished me to make some for sale, and 
promised to recommend them, which he did 
not fail to do. From this interview I may 
date the commencement of my making 
philosophical instruments as a regular 
business." 

In the summer of 1835 Mr. Claxton had 
his shop and warerooms destroyed by fire ; 
but as he was fully insured, he resumed busi- 
iness promptly, taking into partnership his 
principal workman, Mr. J. M. Wightman, who 
had been from the first his "right hand man," 
and who in 1837 took the business oft" his 
hands, — Mr. Claxton going to England in 
the same year. There his zeal for popular 
education led him to getting up lyceums, 
and lecturing before mechanics' institutes, 
and finally to an engagement with the 
Central Society of Education in London, to 
superintend the manufacture of school appa- 
ratus, similar to what he had been making 
in Boston. In the meantime Mr. Wight- 
man went on extending his manufacture of 
apparatus, and by his interest in the better 
education of mechanics, and the improve- 
ment of popular education generally, became 
an influential member of the school com- 
mittee, and Mayor of the City of Boston. 

The first systematic attera[)t to supply 
the Grammar Schools of Boston with a set 
of philosophical apparatus was made in 
1847, under the lead of George B. Emerson, 
LL. D., the most eminent teacher in the 
city, and at that time in the school com- 
mittee. The set was classified and con- 
structed by Mr. Wightman, and was very 
generally adopted in schools of the same, 
grade in other cities. 

The first school apparatus proper for illus- 
trating geography, astronomy, geometry, and 
arithmetic, which came within the reach of 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



523 



SCHOOL APPARATUS. 



.!!i!!" 



iiiliii 



fr i\. 



i 



il inVi'li 




APPARATUS AND EQUIPMENT OF THE DISTRICT SCHOOIi AS IT WAS. 




»-<v"Mll|ll|| ■ 1 

BPECIMENS OP APPARATUS OF THE SCHOOL AS IT IS. 



524 



PROFESSIONAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION, 



public schools, was that devised by 
Josiah Ilolbrook, and mannfiictured for 
hirn after 1835 by his sons, and subse- 
quently by the Ilolbrook Manufacturing 
Co. It consisted at first of a five or 
six inch globe, a three inch globe in 
halves, a very simple tellurion, a few geo- 
metrical forms in wood, and a numeral frame 
or arithmeticon. These were all at first rude 
and imperfectly manufactured, but were sub- 
sequently greatly improved and other articles 
added. Competition presently brought sev- 
eral good 6, 8, 10, 12, 18, and 20 inch 
globes into the market, at reasonable prices, 
and spelling frames, large slates and frames 
with wooden panels, covered with liquid 
slating, slated walls, chalk-rubbers, crayons 
and crayon-holders, drawing-frames, chemi- 
cal and philosophical apparatus, planispheres, 
tellurions, concentric globes, geotellurions, 
celestial indicators, globe timepieces, micro- 
scopes, magic-lanterns, &c., &c., followed in 
rapid succession, until the furnishing of a 
school-house cost more than twice or three 
times what the old school-house, furniture 
and all, would have required fifty years ago. 
This, of course, demanded that the school- 
liouses should be more roomy and better 
built, better arranged, and supplied with 
better and more comfortable desks and seats 
than they had been, as will be hereafter de- 
scribed. 

There is another improvement of which 
our fathers had no notion, but which 
to-day is recognized all over the country, — 
— a supply of reference books for a 
school and where it can be procured, a 
district library. No school would now be 
considered furnished, without Webster's or 
Worcester's large Dictionary, Lippincott's or 
some other Gazetteer, Johnson's, or Col- 
ton's Atlas, and Johnson's, or Appleton's 
popular cycloptedias, for reference by 
both teachers and scholars. If they have a 
library of choice reading for the pupils and 
their families, so much the better, and the 
city and many of the village schools do have 
this additional means of instruction. In 
many of the schools, also, there is a cabinet 
of minerals and geological specimens, not 
very extensive, but sufficiently so to enable 
the children to recognize the principal strata, 
minerals, and elementary bodies which enter 
into the geology of the neighborhood and 
the globe. In these matters of apparatus, 
cabinets, libraries, &c., we are perhaps going 
to the opposite extreme from that of our 



fathers, and introducing to the mind of the 
child so great a variety of objects of thought 
and study, that no one of theui will be 
completely mastered. 

In our city schools, particularly, and to 
some extent in all the public schools, this 
multiplicity of studies and objects of thought 
has put so much work upon the children 
that there is danger of their more delicately 
organized and ambitious pupils breaking 
down under it ; and this danger is obviated 
in a way characteristic of our time, not by 
abundant and invigorating exercise in the 
open air, but by exercises which are known 
as "light gymnastics," the device in part 
of Mr. Dio Lewis, and in part of Prof. 
Watson. The apparatus for this purpose 
consists of wands, wooden rings, wooden 
dumb-bells, Indian clubs, &c. The Manual 
of Gymnastics prescribes a great variety of 
exercises with these, which are so arranged 
as to keep up the interest of the pupils in 
them for a long time. These " light gym- 
nastics" unquestionably do something to- 
ward invigorating the muscles, and increas- 
ing the litheness and dexterity of the pupil, 
but they are liable to the objection that the 
mental faculties, already overwearied by the 
multiplicity of lessons, are still further taxed 
to remember and go through these calis- 
thenic exercises in their proper order, when 
the mind should be relaxed from all care 
and fatiguing thought, while the body is re- 
invigorated by open air sports and pastimes. 
Still, in default of any thing better, the 
"light gymnastics" serve a tolerable pur- 
pose. The regulation of the temperature in 
the school-rooms by a thermometer, and the 
introduction of good and sufficient means 
of warminof and ventilation, the systemiza- 
tion of the school exercises, recitations, &c., 
by a programme regularly adhered to, and 
indicated by the stroke of the teacher's bell, 
the general abolition of cruel and unusual 
punishments, the great decline in the use of 
the rod, strap, or ferule, and the substitution 
of merit rolls and records, and tokens of 
honor, are all steps in the progress of edu- 
cation in our public schools, which indicate 
the impi'ovement which has been made since 
the days of the vigorous and stern peda- 
gogues of eighty or a hundred years ago. 

Among the constructors of apparatus for 
schools, academies, and colleges should be 
noticed N. B. Chamberlain and A. Ritchie 
of Boston, Mr. B. Pike of New York, J. W. 
Schermerhorn & Co., and the Holbrook Ap- 
paratus Company, 




DESK AND SETTEE, COMBINED. 



DESK AND SETTEE, INDEPENDENT. 



The Nbw Amebioan Desks, with Allen's Opera Seats. 




PbincipaIj's Platform Desk, (beab view.) 





Assistant Tkachek's Desk. 



FPC IT i I n 

Timbt's Globe Timk-Pikck. 




Tut; New School Globk 




The Eureka Wall-Slates. 







I1a.-M.M<iND liLACKBOAUD Sl'PPOUT. 




The New C'uAYoN-HoLDKn. (full size.) 




The "Assemblt" School Desks and Settees. 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



525 



IX. SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 
(1.) School-houses as they were. 

Our illustrations give some idea of the 
exterior appearance of the rural school- 
houses of eighty or a hundred years ago, 
which cast not only their shadows, but pro- 
jected themselves into our own times. 
They were generally either log buildings or 
frame, though occasionally these perversions 
of architecture were perpetuated in brick or 
stone. The location, almost invariably 
chosen for convenience of access to children 
from widely separated homes, was at the 
crossing of the roads, and if possible on 
some knoll, without tree, shrub, or inclosure. 
If the building was of logs, it was rarely 
chinked and of course never painted ; if a 
frame building, the weather-boarding was 
cheap, generally warped, and often detached 
for fuel or other purposes, and the building, 
if painted at all, was either red or yellow. 
We have given elsewhere in this volume de- 
scriptions of the interior of some of these 
school-houses, in different parts of the coun- 
try, from the pens of the late Dr. Humphrey, 
S. G. Goodrich, Judge Longstreet, and others. 
The improvement in these edifices did not 
begin till after the first quarter of the pres- 
ent century. A writer in the Educational 
Monthly, in 1871, describing a New England 
school-house, where he had attended school 
from 1828 to 1830, in a large and wealthy 
village, gives the following pen-picture : 

" It stood upon a little knoll, close to the 
street, with no inclosure, no trees, and no 
protection from the gaze of the passers-by. 
It was a square frame building of one story, 
about twenty by twenty-five feet, covered 
with clapboards (except where these had 
been torn off to aid in kir.dling the fire) and 
shingled. The clapboard.^ had at some re- 
mote period been painted red, but this now 
alternated with weather-stains, and gave the 
building a sort of brindled appearance. As- 
cending two or three stone steps to the 
weather-beaten door, the entry, as it was 
called, presented itself, a square closet where 
the boys and girls hung hats, bonnets, and 
dinner-pails. The school-room, into which 
we next passed, was nearly square ; it had 
.been lathed and plastered, but the walls 
were much broken, and some artistic genius 
'had adorned the wall overhead (the room 
was hardly seven feet high) with wreaths 
and festoons and comic figures executed in 
32* 



lamp-smoke, so completely that hardjy a 
vestige of white wall remained. The tradi- 
tional style of writing-desks, a board attached 
to the wall and running round three sides of 
the room, was in use here, but the building 
committee had kindly provided a shelf be- 
low, where our school-books could be stored, 
when not in use. The seats for the older 
scholars were of slab, with legs sawed from 
some sapling about two inches through, and 
were without backs. The smaller children 
had similar but lower benches. In the mid- 
dle of the room was a huge rusty box-stove, 
which could take in two-foot wood ; while 
on the side unoccupied was the master's 
chair and a square cross-legged pine table. 
The teacher's table, the writing-desks, and 
the benches, bore evidence of the whitthng 
propensities of the boys, and many was the 
fly-prison and pin-box carved and excavated 
in the desk-board, while the less expert had 
cut holes through it, and would amuse them- 
selves with dropping crumbs to the hungry 
mice which tenanted the school-house." 

Henry Ward Beecher thus describes his 
reminiscence of the school-house and school 
of his boyhood. 

" It was our misfortune, in boyhood, to 
go to a District School. It was a little 
square pine building, blazing in the sun, 
upon the highway, without a tree for shade 
or sight near it ; without bush, yard, fence, 
or circumstance to take off" its bare, cold, 
hard, hateful look. Bcfui' tlio door, in 
winter, was the pile of woud tor fuel, and 
in summer, there were all the chips of the 
winter's wood. In winter, we were squeezed 
into the recess of the farthest corner, among 
little boys, who seemed to be sent to school 
merely to fill up the chinks between the 
bigger boys. Certainly we were never sent 
for any such absurd purpose as education. 
There were the great scholars — the school 
in winter was for them, not for us picanninies. 
We were read and spelt twice a day, unless 
something happened to prevent, which did 
happen about every other day. For the 
rest of the time we were busy in keeping 
still. And a time we always had of it. 
Our shoes always would be scraping on the 
floor, or knocking the shins of urchins who 
were also being ' educated.' All of our 
little legs together, (poor, tired, nervou.s, 
restless legs, with nothing to do,) would fill 
up the corner with such a noise, that every 
ten or fifteen minutes the master would 
bring down his two-foot hickory ferule on 



526 



PROFESSIONAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. 



the desk with a clap that sent shivers 
through our hearts, to think how that would 
have felt, if it had fallen somewhere else ; 
and then, with a look that swept us all into 
utter extremity of stillness, he would cry, 
' silence, in that corner !' It would last for 
a few minutes ; but, little boys' memories 
are not capacious. Moreover, some of the 
boys had mischief, and some had mirthful- 
ness, and some had both together. The 
consequence was that just when we were the 
most afraid to laugh, we saw the most 
comical things. Temptations, which we 
could have vanquished with a smile out in 
the free air, were irresistible in our little 
corner, where a laugh and a spank were 
very apt to woo each other. So, we would 
hold on, and fill up; and others would hold 
on and fill up too ; till by-and-by the 
weakest would let go a mere whiffet of a 
laugh, and then down went all the precau- 
tions, and one went off, and another, and 
another, touching the others off like a pack 
of fire-crackers ! It was in vain to deny it. 
But as the process of snapping our heads, 
and pulling our ears went on with primitive 
sobriety, we each in turn, with tearful eyes, 
and blubbering lips, ' declared we did not 
mean to,' and that was true ; and that ' we 
wouldn't do so any more,' and that was a 
lie, however unintentional ; for we never 
failed to do just so again, and that about 
once an hour all day long. 

" A woman kept the school, sharp, pre- 
cise, unsympathetic, keen and untiring. Of 
all ingenious ways of fretting little boys, 
doubtless her ways were the most expert. 
Not a tree to shelter the house, the sun beat 
down on the shingles and clapboards till the 
pine knots shed pitchy tears ; and the air 
was redolent of hot pine wood smell. The 
benches were slabs with legs in them. The 
desks were slabs at an angle, cut, hacked, 
scratched ; each year's edition of jack-knife 
literature overlaying its predecessor, until 
it then were outtings and carvings two or 
three inches deep. But if we cut a morsel, 
or stuck in pins, or pinched off splinters, 
the little sharp-eyed mistress was on hand, 
and one look of her eye was worse than a 
sliver in our foot, and one nip of her fingers 
was equal to a jab of a pin ; for we had 
tried both. 

" We envied the flies — merry fellows ; 
bouncing about, tasting that apple skin, 
patting away at that crumb of bread ; now 
put of the window, then in again; on your 



nose, on neighbor's cheek, off to the very 
school-ma'am's lips ; dodging her slap, and 
then letting off a real round and round buzz, 
up, down, this way, that way, and every 
way. Oh, we envied the flies more than 
any thing except the birds. The windows 
were so high that we could not see the 
grassy meadows ; but we could see the tops 
of distant trees, and the far, deep, boundless 
blue sky. There flew the robins ; there 
went the bluebirds ; and there went we. 
We followed that old Polyglott, the skunk- 
blackbird, and heard him describe the way 
that they talked at the winding up of 
the Tower of Babel. We thanked every 
meadow-lark that sung on, rejoicing as it 
flew. Now and then a ' chipping-bird ' 
would flutter on the very window-sill, turn 
its little head side-wise, and peer in on the 
medley of boys and girls. Long before we 
knew it was in Scripture, we sighed : ' Oh 
that we had the wings of a bird ' — we would 
fly away and be out of this hateful school. 
As for learning, the sum of all that we ever 
got at a district-school, would not cover the 
first ten letters of the alphabet. One good, 
kind, story-telling, Bible-rehearsing aunt at 
home, with apples and ginger-bread pre- 
miums, is worth all the school-ma'ams that 
ever stood by to see poor little fellows roast 
in those boy-traps called district-schools." 

There was some improvement, but not 
much, in the external construction of school- 
houses in the large cities of the country, 
prior to 1840; but the advance (and it has 
been a great one, amounting to a revolution, 
though there are even now in all the States 
too many school-houses answering very 
nearly to the preceding description) has been 
mainly since 1838. The progressive devel- 
opment of the literature of this subject 
is thus given by Hon. E. R. Potter, of 
Rhode Island, in a report to the National 
Educational Convention held in Philadel- 
phia in October, 1847, in which he, as the 
organ of a committee of that body, recom- 
mended for general circulation in the United 
States a small treatise on the location, 
size, ventilation, warming, and furniture 
of buildings designed for educational pur- 
poses, prepared, at the request of the 
committee, by Hon. Henry Barnard of 
Connecticut. 

The earliest publication on the subject in this 
country, which has met the notice of the Committee, 
may be found in the School Magazine, No. 1, pub- 
lished as au appendage to the Journal of Educa- 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



527 



tion, in April, 1829. In 1830, Mr. W. J. Adams, 
of New York, delivered a lecture before the Amer- 
ican Institute of Instruction, " On School-houses and 
School Apparatm" which was published in the first 
volume of the transactions of that association. 
Stimulated by that lecture, the Directors of the In- 
stitute in the following year offered a premium of 
twenty dollars for the best ^^ Essay on the Construc- 
tion of School-houses." The premium was awarded 
by a committee of the Institute to the 'essay by Dr. 
William A. Alcott, of Hartford, Conn., then residing 
in West Newton, Mass. This "Prize Essay" was 
published in the second annual volume of lectures 
before the Institute, as well as in a pamphlet, and 
was widely circulated and read all over the country. 
In 1833, the Essex County Teachers' Association 
published a '■^ Report on School-houses " prepared by 
Rev. G. B. Perry, which is a searching and vigor- 
ous exposure of the evils resulting from the de- 
fective construction and arrangement of .school- 
houses. From this time the subject began to attract 
public attention, and improvements wore made in 
the construction and furniture of scbool-rooms, 
especially in large cities and villages. 

In 1838, Hon. Horace M.mn submitted a "B:'port 
on School-houses,''' as supplementary to his First 
Annual Report as Secretary of tlie Board of Educa- 
tion in Massachusetts, in which the whole subject, 
and especially that of ventilation, is discurred with 
great fullness and ability. This Report was widely 
circulated in a pamphlet form, and in the various 
educational periodicals of the country, and gave a 
powerful impulse to improvement in this department, 
not only in Massachusetts, but in other States. In 
the same year, Hon. Henry Barnard prepared an 
^' Essay on School Architecture" in which he 
embodied the results of much observation, e.xperi- 
ence and reflection, in a manner so systematic and 
practical as to meet the wants of all who may have 
occasion to superintend the erection, alteration, or 
furnishing of school-houses. This essay was original- 
ly prepared and delivered as a lecture in the course 
of his official visits to different towns of Connecticut, 
as Secretary of the Board of Commissioners of 
Common Schools. It was first published in 1841, 
in the Connecticut Common School Journal, and in 
1842 was submitted, with some modifications and 
numerous illustrations, as a ^^ Report on School- 
houses," to the Legislature. It may be mentioned 
as an evidence of the low appreciation in which the 
whole subject was regarded at that time, in a State 
which prides herself on the condition of her common 
schools, and on the liberality with which her system 
of public education is endowed, that the Joint 
Standing Committee on education, on the part of 
the Senate and House, refused to recommend the 
publication of this Essay, although it is by far the 
most thorough, systematic and practical discussion 
of the subject which has appeared in tliis country 
or in Europe. And it was only through the 
strenuous efforts of a few intelligent friends of 
school improvements that its publication was secured, 
and then, only on condition that the author should 
bear the expense of the wood-cuts by which it was 
illustrated, and a portion of the bill for printing. 
Since its tirst publication, more than one hundred 
thousand copies of the original essay have been 
printed in various forms and distributed in different 
States, without any pecuniary advantage to the 



author. * * * In 1838, Mr. Barnard republished 
his essay, with plans and descriptions of ntmierous 
school-houses which had been erected und^'r his 
direction in Rhode Island and Connecticut, and after 
his suggestions in other States, and including all of 
the plans of any value which had been published 
by Mr. Mann, Mr. Emerson, Mr. Bishop (the Provi- 
dence plans), and other laborers in this field at home 
and in England, with tiie title of " School Archite':- 
lure, or Contributions to the Improvement of School- 
houses in the United States." 

Without the remotest thouglit of ignor- 
ing the great services of others in securing 
local action in this line of improvement, or 
in extending and perfecting the work in any 
State, we are satisfied that the first and 
highest honor in this department of labor 
belongs to Hon. Henry Barnard,* not only 
for his early, but for his masterly and ex- 
haustive treatnrent of the whole subject in 
1838, not only to meet the immediate de- 
mand, but to leave little or nothing in the 
wa}' of principles, or details of internal ar- 
rangements, to be developed and perfected 
afterwards. To the following summary of 
principles set forth in 1838, to be regarded 
in the location, construction, arrangement of 
seats and desks, lighting, ventilation, warm- 
ing, and equipment generally, we find noth- 
ing essentially important in the structures 
erected within the past year. 

School-houses as they shoidd be. 

1. A location, healthy, accessible from all parts of 
the district ; retired from the dust, noise and dan- 
ger of tiie highway; attractive, from its choice of 
sun and shade, and commanding, in one or more 
directions, the cheap, yet priceless educating influ- 
ences of fine scenery. 

2. A site large enough to admit of a yard in 
front of the building, either common to the whole 
school, or appropriated to green-sward, flowers, and 
shrubbery; and two yards in the rear, one for each 
sex, properly inclosed, and fitted up with means 
of recreation and exercise. 

3. Separate entrances to the school-room for each 
sex ; each entrance distinct from the front door, and 
fitted up with scraper, mats, and old broom for the 
feet ; with hooks, shelves, &c., for hats, over-coats, 
over-shoes and umbrellas ; with sink, pump, basin 
and towels, and with brooms and duster, and all the 
means and appliances necessary to secure habits of 
order, neatness and cleanliness. 

4. School-room, in addition to the space required 
by aisles and the teacher's platform, sufficient to 
accommodate with a seat and desk, not only each 
scholar in the district who is in the habit of attend- 
ing school, but all who may be entitled to attend ; 



* It should be said in justice to Dr. Barnard, whose name 
appears as the author of this article, that this chnpter was 
written by another hand, and was never seen by him till it was 
in print. In the Preface to his Principles of School .'Architec- 
ture, Dr. B. gives a chronological history of the previous efforts 
which had been made to improve the designs, construct on and 
equipment of school-houses. In the revised edition (1873) of 
the School Jlrchitccture are upwards of 200 illustrations of 
builduigs recently erected in diiferent parts of the country. 



SCHOOL-HOUSES AS THEY WEEK 





SCHOOL-HOUSES, APPARATUS, AND TEXT-BOOKS. 



529 



SCHOOL HOUSES AS THEY ARE. 









COUNTRY DISIRICT SCHCOL-HOUSE. 




^cziffi-..^ — => ^ t.3iJfS0» ' 



yXLLAGE SCIIOOL-HOUSK 



PACKER FEMALE COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE. 




Fig. 3. Interior of Chapel. 



PROFESSIONAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. 



535 



with verge enough to receive the children of indus- 
trious, thoughtful and religious families, who are 
sure to be attracted to a district which is blessed 
with a good scliool-house and a good school. 

5. At least one spare room for recitation, library, 
and other uses, to every school-room, no matter how 
small the school may be. 

6. An arrangement of the windows, so as to 
sei'ure one blank wall, and at the same time the 
ciieerfulness and warmth of the sunlight, at all times 
of the day, witii arrangements to modify the same 
by blinds, shutters, or curtains. 

7. Apparatus for warming, by which a large quan- 
tity of pure air from outside of the building can be 
moderately heated, and introduced into the room 
without passing over a red-hot iron surface, and dis- 
tributed equally to different parts of the room. 

8. A cheap, simple, and etiieient mode of ventila- 
tion, by whicli the air in every part of a school- 
room, which is constantly becoming vitiated by res- 
piration, combustion, or other causes, may be con- 
stantly flowing out of the room, and its place filled 
hy an adequate supply of fresh air drawn from a 
pure source, and admitted into the room at the 
right temperature, of the requisite degree of mois- 
ture, and without any perceptible current. 

9. A desk with at least two feet of top surfice, 
and in no case for more than two pupils, inclined 
toward the front edge one inch in a foot, except two 
to three inches of the most distant portion, which 
sliould be level, — covered with cloth to prevent 
noise, — fitted with an ink-pot (supplied with a lid 
and a pen-wiper) and a slate, with a pencil-holder 
and a sponge attached, — supported by end-pieces 
or stanchions, curved so as to be convenient for 
sweeping, and to admit of easy access to the seat, 
— and of varying heiglits for small and large pupils, 
the front edge of each desk being from seven to 
nine inces (seven for the lowest and nine for the 
higliest, I higher than the front edge of the seat or 
chair attached. 

10. A chair or bench for each pupil, and in no 
case for more than two, unless separated by an 
aisle, with a seat hollowed like an ordinary chair, 
and varying in height from ten to seventeen inches 
from the outer edge to the floor, so tliat each pupil, 
when properly seated, can rest his feet on the floor 
without the muscles of the thigh pressing hard upon 
the front edge of the seat, and with a proper sup- 
port for the muscles of the back. 

11. An arrangement of the seats and desks, so 
as to allow of an aisle or free passage of at least two 
feet around tlie room, and between each range of 
seats for two scholars, and so as to bring each 
scholar under tiie supervision of the teacher. 

12. Arrangements for the teacher, such as a 
separate closet for his over-coat, &c., a desk for his 
papers, a library of books of reference, maps, appa- 
ratus, and all such instrumentalities by which his 
capacities for instruction may be made in the highest 
degree useful. 

13. Accommodations for a school library for con- 
sultation and circulation among the pupils, both at 
school and as a means of carrying on the work of 
selfeducation at their homes, in the field, or the 
workshop, after they have left school. 

14. A design in good taste and fit proportion, in 
place of the wretched perversions of architecture, 
which almost universally characterize the district or 
public school-houses. 



15. While making suitable accommodation for the 
school, it will be a wise, and, all things considered, 
an economical investment, on the part of many dis- 
tricts, to provide apartments in the same building, 
or in its ueigliborhood, for the teacher and his 
family. This arrangement will give character and 
permanence to tlie office of teaching, and at the 
same time secure better supervision for the school- 
house and premises, and more attention to the 
manners of the pupils out of school. Provision for 
the residence of the teacher, and not unfrequently 
a garden for his cultivation, is made in connection 
with the parochial schools in Scotland, and with the 
first class of public schools in Germany. 

16. Wlienever practicable, the privies should be 
disconnected from the play-ground, and be ap- 
proached by a covered walk. Perfect seclusion, 
neatness, and propriety sliould be strictly observed, 
and can easily be done wherever w;tter is supplied. 

17. A shed, or covered walk, or the basement 
story paved under feet, and open for free circulation 
of air for the boys, and an upper room with the 
floor deafened and properly supported forcalislhenic 
exercises for the girls, is a desirable appendage. 

In 1857, Mr. Burro vves, who had been 
State superintendent of schools in Penn- 
sylvania, after trying- in vain to obtain 
an appropriation for the distribution 
of Dr. Barnard's " School Architecture,''^ 
to every district in Pennsylvania, pre- 
pared a similar work, -which was circu- 
lated extensively in that State. In 1858, 
Mr. James Johonnot published a very good 
treatise on Country School Houses, with nu- 
merous illustrations, and in 18*72 another 
with the simple title of " School Houses,^'' 
the architectural designs in which weie 
drawn by S. E. Hewes, architect, and 
which contained, as an appendix, Messrs. 
J. W. Schermerhorn & (Jo.'s Illustrated 
Catalogue of School Furniture, Appa- 
ratus, and Appliances, unquestionably 
the largest and most complete in the 
country. In 1861 or 1862, Mr. George 
E. Woodward, architect and publisher, 
who had previously published many 
designs and plans of school-houses, is- 
sued a large and elaborate work, Eveleth's 
School-house Architecture. Several other 
architectural writers have also published 
many designs for school-houses very pleas- 
ing to the eye, but occasionally defective in 
their internal arrangements from want of 
knowledge of the actual requirements of the 
school. On the subject of ventilation, partly 
with reference to school-houses, there have 
been several special treatises by Reid, 
Gouge, Leeds, &c. Upwards of 1 100,000,- 
000 have been invested in the construction 
and equipment of school-houses in the dif- 
ferent States since 1838 



536 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



X. BEXEFACTORS OF EDUCATION. 

No nation, by itself or its citizens, ever 
dealt so munificently for educational 
purposes as our own, especially within 
the past fifteen or twenty years. Prof. 
Tyndal, in his speech just before his de- 
parture from our shores, said : " The willing- 
ness of American citizens to throw their 
fortunes into the cause of public education 
is without a parallel in my experience." In 
our early history our people were poor, and 
the gift of large sums for this purpose was 
impossible unless the donor lived abroad. 
Moreover, a moderate sum at that time, with 
the cheapness of land and the low price of 
labor and building materials, went farther 
than a much larger endowment would now; 
and if the endowment was in lands, and 
they were retained for many years, there 
■was a greatly enhanced value in the gift. It 
is not withiu the limits of our space to name 
all the early, even, much less of the multitude 
of later benefactors to education who have 
done so much to benefit and bless their coun- 
try ; we can only enumerate the more con- 
spicuous among them. 

Of the earliest benefactors of education in 
this country, such men as John Howard, 
who gave £750 ($3,750) to convert a feeble 
and ill sustained grammar-school into the 
first permanent college in America; Thomas 
Hopkins, whose £2,800 ($14,000) founded 
three grammar-schools and helped to endow 
a college ; Elihu Yale, whose gift of £500 
($2,500) laid the foundations of Yale col- 
lege : Bartlett and Dummer, and Whitfield, 
and the long list of worthies who, in colo- 
nial times, gave from their moderate means 
what was perhaps as truly a bounteous gift 
as the hundreds of thousands or millions of 
our merchant princes of to-day, we do not 
propose here to speak. The entire en- 
dowments, ex(rept lands, of Harvard Col- 
lege up to 1772, were not over $120,000, 
and a part of these had been destroyed by 
fire. Vale College had received from 1701 
to 1780 from the State and individuals only 
about $29,000. But the present century 
lias witnessed a constantly swelling tide of 
educational donations and bequests, whose 
magnitude is scarcely computable by ordi- 
nary figures. The mind takes in only a very 
imperfect comprehension of the idea of mil- 
lions of money expended for a particular 
object, however grand and magnificent in its 



scope that object may be. The following 
table, prepared by Dr. Brockett, gives a fist 
of the principal donors of money, in sums 
exceeding $20,000, to educational purposes 
within the past hundred years. The list is 
necessarily imperfect, for there are no data 
for a complete one, and in many instances 
donors of large sums have so guarded them 
with restrictions and conditions that they 
are unavailable, or the amount can not be 
ascertained. When we consider that all the 
375 colleges and universities, so-called, at 
least 350 of the schools of secondary in- 
struction, and about 300 professional schools, 
have been endowed, some of them largely, 
and all to some extent, and that in most in- 
stances these endowments have been raised 
by contributions varying from $100 to $20,- 
000, we shall realize that this table does not 
cover half, perhaps not a third, of the edu- 
cational benefactions of the last hundred 
years. Thus no part of the $500,000 sub- 
scribed for the endowment of Syracuse Uni- 
versity ; of the $305,000 additional endow- 
ment of Tufts College ; of the $300,000 ad- 
ditional for Brown University ; of the $500,- 
000 now raising by the Alumni of Yale col- 
lege toward its endowment ; of the $500,- 
000 for Union Theological Seminary ; of the 
$260,000 called for by Harvard in conse- 
quence of the Boston fire ; the $600,000 
added to the funds of Trinity College, 
by Hartford; the $300,000 or more for 
liobart College, Geneva ; of the $250,000 
for Lewisburg University ; the $200,000 
for Georgetown College, Ky.; the $300,000 
now nearly raised for the endowment 
of the Southern Baptist Theological Sem- 
inary at Louisville, and scores of other 
college and school endowments, which 
might be named. Yet the benefactions 
named in this table form an aggregate of 
over $40,000,000, and we are certainly 
within bounds if we state the aggregate en- 
dowment, including real estate, of our 
schools, colleges and professional schools, in- 
cluding the State and national grants to 
them, as exceeding one hundred and fifty 
millions of dollars; of which not less than 
one hundred millions is the gift or bequest 
of individuals. 

With such abundant liberality on the 
part of our citizens, we ought to have all the 
material conditions of the best schools of 
secondary and higher instruction ; and when 
we are as well supplied with able and 
specially trained teachers as with money, we 



PROFESSIONAL AND SPECIAL EDUCATION. 



537 



shall have an educational system to meet the 
demands of the age and the country. At 
present we have too many colleges whose 
instruction is not above that of good second- 
ary schools, and too many secondary 
s'diools whose principal work is elementary. 
Were the present endowments concentrated 
on one-half the number, and these thus 
enabled to give such salaries as would com- 
mand the highest order of talent, we should 
see a rapid improvement in our colleges, and 
out of the dead level of half-manned and 
half-equipped institutions would rise a few 
Universities in fact as well as in name. 

There are many lessons to be drawn from 
the history of endowments, as well in this 
country, as in Europe, some of which will 
ere long suggest appropriate legislation to 
protect the principal, and at the same time 
admit of such application of the income as 
to promote and not defeat the evident in- 
tention of the donor. While benefactions 
are useful in providing for educational wants, 
not generally felt, they not unfrequently 
prove hindrances in the progressive devel- 
opment of institutions, by being placed 
beyond the control of their natural guard- 
ians, who should be at liberty, under proper 
restrictions, to apply the same to such 
studies as new discoveries in science, or 
new developments in art may require. 

The contrast' between the slow but grad- 
ual accumulation of educational endowments, 
begun early and continued from year to year, 
and the recent rapid growth of the funds of 
of an institution under the joint liberality 
of the State and a few individuals, is shown 
in the following statement taken from Bar- 
nard's Educat'onal Biography, Volume TIL, 
Benefactors of American Schools and Col- 
lege.:* — Ezra Cornell, and John Howard : 

'The rapid growth of Cornell University, 
both in pecuniary resources, cabinets, profes- 
sorships, and students, is one of the marvels 
of educational historj^ In 1865, on the 
failure of the attempt in 1856 to establish a 
State College of Agriculture at Ovid, on 
Seneca Lake, and of the " People's College " 
to realize a great State Industrial University 
at Havana, Mr. Cornell proposed to the 
legislature of New York, to devote the State 
share (989,920 acres) in the Congressional 
land grant of 1862 for the benefit of agri- 
culture and the mechanic arts, to an insti- 
tution in Ithaca, to the endowment and 



maintenance of which he would devote -the 
sum of $;500,000, and two hundred acres of 
land, with buildings, as a farm to be at- 
tached to the agricultural department. The 
proposition was accepted, trustees appointed 
and the institution opened in 1868, under 
the name of the Cornell University, with 
Hon. Andrew D. White as president. In 
1872, there were 525 college students (ex- 
clusive of over 400 in the introductory de- 
partment), classified in various courses of 
science, literature, arts, agriculture, archi- 
tecture, chemistry, engineering, mechanic 
arts, natural history, and optional studies, 
under 54 professors, assistant professors, and 
special lecturers; realizing the idea of the 
founder — ' an institution where any person 
can find instruction in an)' study.' 

Cornell University, in 1873, possessed the 
avails, realized and to be realized, of the 
State appropriation of the Congressional 
land grant estimated at present prices, at 
over $2,000,000, and, 

donations by 

Ezra Cornell $692,000 

Henry VV. Sage, college biiiUlin?, &c 300,000 

John McGraw, librnry buildin?, &c 140,000 

Andrew I). White, president's house 95.9'.28 

Hiram Sibley, building and niiichinery 58,000 

Cascadilla Company, building 3.5,000 

Gold win Smith, libriiry, &c 11,800 

Dean Gage, scliobirship 30.000 

British Government, Puteut Office collection, &c. 11,000 

Green Smith, ornitliologiciil cullectioii 5,100 

Miss Jennie McGraw, chime of bells » 3,1.j0 

Mrs. a. D. White, great bell 2,.570 

William Kelley, rnaUiemnticnl library 2.000 

Lewis Morris, live stock for fiirin 2,500 

R. Hoe & Co., printing press , 3,'i2j 

.1. E. Sweet, type-setting mucliine 2.j00 

Stewart L. VV'oodford. prize scheme l.-'iOO 

Samuel J.May, bouks 500 

These amounts, with thirty benefactions in 
small sums, make an aggregate of $1,402,- 
614, in less than ten years, since the first 
announcement of Mr. Cornell's intention. 

John Harvard was one of the earliest 
benefactors of American education. Harv- 
ard College, to which he left half his prop- 
erty (1750), has been the recipient of mure 
benefactions than any similar institution in 
the country, a list of which will be found 
in Barnanl's Bm factors of American 
Schools, and in his History of Superior In- 
struction in the United Slates. We give on 
the following page the condition of the 
property as it stood on the treasurer's book, 
Aug. 31, 1872, amounting to $2,508,256. 
The grounds, building, museum, apparatus, 
&c., represent not less than ^3,000,000.' 

[N. B. — Table referred to on preceding page is not printed.] 



538 



GRANTS AND DONATIONS TO HARVARD COLLEGE. 



Condition of Productive Property, Awj. 31, 1872. 



UNIVERSITY FUNDS. 

Stock Account (so called) $154,016.08 

Insurance and Guurunty Fund (so culled) 74,730.01 

Sami'ki- D. Bradford Fund 5,000.00 

Israel Munson Fund 15,000.00 

Leonard Jarvis Fund 16,757.11 

Petkr C. Brooks Fund for President's house 4,921. 9ii 

Thomas Cotton Fund 150.95 

Total $270,576.68 

COLLEGE FUNDS. 
Alford Professorship $26,427.28 



26,988.00 

2l)..590.00 

(Jon. Phillips's gift 1 i.OOO.Oi) 

a.3:j:t.34 

34,277.13 

16,677.13 

(Mathemutics) 3,568.89 

41,012.31 

20,000 00 

23,828 75 

50.(.'0J.00 

54,31.5.46 

22,037.93 



boylston 
Eliot 

Ervino 

Fisher 
Hersey 

HOLLIS 

McLean 

Perkins 

Plum.mer 

Pope 

Rimford 

Smith 

Fund for Permanent Tutors 15.467.03 

Thomas Lee Fund for the Hersey Professor 1L02966 

Class Subscription Fund 50.000 00 

Mollis Professorship of Divinity 17,639.10 

Paul Dudley Fund for Lectures L040..55 

Jonathan Phillips Fund (unrestricted) 30,(R)0 00 

Henry Flynt's Bequest 335.44 

John Thornton Kirkland Felluwship 6,313.30 

Harris Fellowship ]0,i>76.72 

Abbot Scholarship 2,338 14 

Alford " 654.5ii 

BioELOw " 11,279.72 

BowDiTCH " 90,310.4) 

Browne " 2.426.32 

Class of 1802 Scholarship 6.518.36 

18J4 

1815 

1817 
" 1835 

1841 
Graduates' 
Mollis 
Morey 
Pennoyer 
S.vltonstall 

Sever 

Sewall 

Shattuck 

Story 

GoRHAM Thomas 

Toppan 

Townsend 

W'alcott 



2,873.98 

(Kirkland) 4,346.45 

3,311.57 

2,381.16 

2,156.40 

22.975.96 

4,166.38 

7,375.81 

5,X3126 

(Mary <k Leverett) 4,103.74 

(Dorothy) 326 70 

2,765.84 

8,261.60 

23.829.32 

2,445 09 

3,665.10 

5,425.49 

22 987.64 

3,374.74 

B. D. Greene's Bequest for Scholarship 1,775.96 

Exhibitions 10,321 89 

Senior Exhibition 1,345.50 

Samuel Ward Fund 1,200.00 

John Glover '' 544.28 

Rebec^ca a. Perkins Fund 1.161 34 

Lee Prizes for Readin» 14.124 89 

Boylston Prizes for Elocution 4.011.73 

BoWDOlN '• '' Dissertations 7,937.()2 

Hopkins Gift for " Deturs," 400 13 

Biitanic Garden Fund 20,2.37.83 

Mass Fund for Botanic Garden 15,126.01 

Merbariiim Fund 12..)50.07 

Total $833,227.04 

LAW SCHOOL FUNDS. 

Dane Professorship $1.'<,000.()0 

BrssEY " 13837.92 

RovALL " 7,943.63 

Total $36,781.55 

MEDICAL SCHOOL FUNDS. 



Jackson Medical Fund $18,278. 

Geo. C. Shattuck Fund 13,.579, 

Warren Fund for .Anatomical Museum 7,441 

Boylston Fund for Medical Prizes 3,.529, 

Books 1,167 

Medical Library Fund 1.478. 

Total $45,476.14 



DIVINITY SCHOOL FUNDS. 

General Fund $27,487.58 

BussEY Professorship 35,7!)4 04 

Parkman " l.'),2.)3.15 

Hancock " 5,722 31 

De.\ter Lectureship 19,314.65 

Henry Li enow Fund 8.747.32 

Mary P Townsend Fund .5,000 01) 

WiNTHROP Ward " 2.OCO.00 

Samuel MoAR " l.OUO.OO 

Abraham W. Fuller " 1.000 00 

Caroline Merriam " 1,000 00 

Jackson Foundation 18,"0:)39 

('LAPP. Pomeroy, and Andrews Funds .5.487.33 

J. Henry Kendall Fund 2,000.00 

Nancy Kendall '' 2,000 00 

Lewis Gould " 807.94 

Adams Ayer " 1.000.00 

Total $152,374.71 

LAWRENCE SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL FUXI S. 

Professorship of Engineering ,$36,959 21 

Professorship of Chemistry 2.724.29 

James Lawrence Fund 50,01)0 00 

Abbot Lawrence " 58,rO:>.I2 

Gray Fuml for Zoological Museum 51.750.00 

Total $200,039.62 

LIBRARY FUNDS. 



Subscription for Library $11,268. 

Fund 1,895 

" 76. 



Bowditch 

BOYDEN 

Farrar 

Hall 

Haven 

Hayward 

Mollis 

Homer 

Lane 

MlNOT 

Salisbury 
Shapleioh 
Ward 
Wales 



5,405, 

1 

2,349. 

5.032 

2.295, 



4,988. 

63,124, 

4.983, 

3,363 

5,065 

474 

Toted $112,912.61 

OBSERVATORY FUNDS. 

Edward B. Phillips Fund $104,292.13 

James Hayward " 20.0(H).(I0 

Sears " I."),.5ii5.45 

OuiNCY " 10,74M.28 

Anonymous Observatory Fund 10 (Hll).OO 

Total $160,635.86 

FUNDS FOR THE ERECTION OF AN ALr.M.M HALL. 

Charles Sanders Gift $20,000.00 

Bequest 3.3,417.20 

Gift of Class OF 1807 7.817.0/ 

Total $61,234.21 

FUNDS FOR SPECIAL PURPOSE.S. 

BussEY Trust (V to Bussev Inst., J to Law School, 

nnd \ to Divinity School $410,709 18 

BussEY Institution 2,< .54. 10 

BussEY Building Fund 28.4,'".(5.r,7 

James Arnold Fund (Arboriculture) 101,022.68 

Gray Fund for Engravings 19 0(;8.«4 

Gore Annuity Fund 19.882.^4 

Mary Osgood Fund (char^'ed with an Annuity) . . . 6,247.75 

Gospel (^HURCH Fund 1,295.17 

John Foster Fund (Law, Div., Med. Sch'I, in turn) 3.( 20 48 
Suiidry Special Purposes 9>?,2=i2.63 

Total $614,639.44 

FUNDS IN TRUST FOR NON-COLLEGE PURPOSES. 
Daniel Williams Fund, conversion of Indians.. 5>15.6."7,85 
Sarvh Winslow Fund, Minister at Tvngsboro- cb. . 4 rog.ro 

Total $?0,S56.15 

Grand Total $2,508,254.01 



(2.) Expenses for year ending Jliia 31, 1872. 



Sch. 



1. Prrsident's Salary, Ac. .$iS,lS.') «. Lawrence S 

2. Professors' Salaries, 9:i,Sl>9 7. Ohservalory 

Scholarshii)S, Prizes, &o., W.O'.'fl 8. Library • 

Botanic Garden, IfC.,... 4.2:t9 9. Bu««ey Inst., hull., Ac. 
Gymiiasiuni, 1,»45 111. Gray Eagiav'if Cabinet, 

3. Divinity School, 19,007 11. Arnold Arborelnni,. . . . 

4. Law School -.'T.'-W. 14. Annnily 

B. Medical & Dental, 4i,(i'.i6 Vi. Repaiis, 



f36,9D7 
13,419 
5!,738 
69,165 
1,«23 
565 



96:1 



SCHOOL-HOUSES, APPARATUS, AND TEXT-BOOKS. 



539 



SCHOOL-BOOKS. 

The improvement in the authorship and manufacture of text-books, from the Primer 
to the Manuals of our colleges and scientific schools, within the last half century is im- 
mense. We will refresh the memory of some of our readers by reproducing a few 
of the tough subjects and illustrations with which they or their fathers were painfully 
familiar. 

The Horn-hook. 

Few of us have had the satisfaction of learning our letters after the manner de- 
scribed by Prior : — 

"To master John llie Enorlish maid 
A Horn-book gives of gingerbread; 
And that the child may learn tlie better, 
As he can name, he eats the letter." 

To many, even a picture of the old-fashioned Horn-book — the Primer of our ancestors, 
consisting of a single leaf pasted on a board, and covered in some instances with thin 




HORN-BOOK OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



tr.insparent horn to preserve it from being torn or soiled — will be new. The following 
description and the accompanying cut we copy from Barnard's American Journal of 
Educdtixm, for March, 1860: — 

Shcnstone, who was taught to read at a dame school near Halesowen, in Shropshire, in 



540 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



his delightfully quaint poem of the Schoolmistress, commemorating his venerable precep- 
tress, thus records the use of the Horn-book : — 

" Lo 1 now with state gho utters her command ; 
]<'>ftsooiis the urchins to tlieir tasks repair; 
Their boolis of staiure small they take in hand, 
"Which witli pehucid horn secured are 
To save t'roin linger wet the letters fair." 

Cowper thus describes the Horn-book of his time : — 

" Neatly secured from being soiled or torn 
Beneath a pane of thin translucent horn, 
A book (to please us at a tender age 
'Tis called a book, though but a single page), 
Presents the prayer the Saviour deigned lo teach, 
Which children use, and parsons — when they preach." 

Tirocinium, or a Review of Schools, 1784. 

In " Specimens of West Coiintrj/ Buthct," the use of the Horn-book is thus shown : — 
" Commether Billi/ Chubb, an breng the hornen book. Gee ma the vester in tha 
windor, yor Pal came! — What! be a slecpid — I'll wfike ye. Now, Billy, there's a good 
bway ! Ston still there, and mind what I da za to ye, an whaur I da point. Now ; criss- 
cross, girt a, little a — b — c — d. That's right, Billy; you'll zoon lorn the criss-cross- 
lain ; you'll zoon auvergit Bobby JiftVy — you'll zoon be a scholard. A's a pirty chubby 
bway — Lord lov'n !" 



J^ew England Primer. 



Of the New England Primer we can give 
no earlier specimen than the edition of l77Y, 
embellished with a portrait of John Han- 
cock, Esq., who was at that time President 
of the Continental Congress. 




The Honorable JOHN HANCOCK, Efq; 
Prefident of the American Congress. 



H;^^»^,^;^i^^^ 



We must not omit the painfully interest- 
ing group of John Rogers in the burning 
faggots, with his wife and nine or ten chil- 
dren — including the one at the breast — a 
problem which has puzzled many a school- 
boy's brain : 




'R. JohnRogers, minifler of the 
gofpel in London, was the firlt mar- 
tyr in Queen M a k v ' s reign, and was 
burnt at Smtthfield, February 14, 1554.— His 
wife with nine small children, ard one at 
her breast following liiin lo the ftiike ; with 
which foTOwful lijihi he wrs not in the 
leaft daunted, hut wuh wonderful patience 
died courageoully for the gofpel o.'' Jesus 
Christ. 



SCHOOL-HOUSES, APPARATUS, AND TEXT-BOOKS. 



541 



We are fortunate in being able to present our readers with an exact transcript of the 
four pages of the first illustrated alphabet printed in this country. Some of our readers 
may recognize their old friends of the later editions of the Primer, in which " Young 
Timothy" and ''Zaccheus he" were drawn to nature less severely true. The whole 
belongs to that department of literature which " he who runs may read, and he who reads 
will run." 




In A D A M ' s Fall 
We fmned all. 



Heaven to find, 
The Bible Mind. 



Chrifl crucify'd 
For finners dy'd. 



The Deluge drown'd 
The Earth around. 



Elijah hid 
By Ravens fed. 



The judgment made 
Felix afraid. 




Noah did view 
The old world & new 

Young Ob adias, 
David, Jo. s IAS 
All were pious. 

Peter deny'd 
1 1 IS Lord and cry'd. 

Queen Esther fues 
And faves the Jeu\y. 



Young pious Ruth 
Left ail lor Truth. 



Young S a M ' L dear 
I'he l.ord did lear. 




As runs the Glass, 
Our Life doth pass. 

My Book and Heart 
Must never part. 



Job feels the Rod,- 
Yei bleffes GOD. 



Proud Korah's troop 
Was fwallowed up 

Lot fled to Zoar, 
Saw fiery Siiower 
On Sodom pour. 

MosEs was he 
Who IsraeFs Hoft 
Led thro' the Sea. 



y 



33* 




Young T I BI O T H V 
Learnt fin to fly. 



V a s T H I for Pride, 
Was fet afide. 



Whales in the Sea, 
GOD's Voice obey. 



Xerxes did die. 
And fo rauft L 

While youth do chc^r 
Death may be near. 

Z A c c H E tj s ho 
Did climb the Tree 
Our liOrd to fee. 



542 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



WEBSTER'S SPELLING BOOK. 

Few books have done more to give uniformity to the orthography of the language or 
to fill the memory of successive generations with wholesome truths than Webster's Spell- 
ing Book. Who can forget his first introduction to those four-and-twenty characters, 
standing in stiff upright columns, in their roman and italic dress, beginning with little a^ 
and ending with that nondescript '■'■and per se;" or his first lesson in combining letters, 



bii 



bj 



ba be bi bo 

Or his joy in reaching words of two syllables, 

ba ker bri er ci der 

Or his exultation in learning to "know his duty" in those "Lessons of Easy Words" be- 
ginning, 

No man may put off the law of God : 
Or the more advanced steps, both in length of words and stubborn morality, in pursuit of 

The wicked flee 
And closing his spelling career with 



And 



Om 
Mich 

Ail 
Ale 



pom 
il 



pa noo 
li mack 



sue 
a nack 



to be troubled 
malt liquor 



In this liasty glance at this famous text book, we have designedly passed over the fa- 
bles commencing with the Rude Boy and ending with Poor Tray, that we might intro- 
duce them all unabridged with their unique illustrations. 

Of the Boy thatjlok Apples. 

AN old man found a rude boy upon 
one of his trees dealing Apples, and de- 
iired him to come down; but the young 
Sauce-box told him plainly he would 
not. Won't you ? faid the old Man, 
then I will fetch you down; fo he pulled 
lip fome tufts of Grafs, and threw at 
him; but this only made the Youngfter 
hugh, to think the old Man fhould pre- 
tend to beat him down from the tree 
\ni\\ grafs only. 

Well, well, faid the old Man, if nei- 
ther words nor grafs will do, I mull try 
\vhat virtue there is in Stones; fo the 
Id Man pelted him heartily with ftoncs; 
n. .he tree and beg the old Man's pardon. 











,h»ch foon made the _,^,^ng Chc^p h^-ften do,, n i. 



MORAL. 

If good words and gentle means will not reclaim the wicked, they mull be dealt with in a 
more fevere manner. 



WEBSTER S SPELLING BOOK. 



543 



The Country Jilaid and her Milk Pad. 

WHEN men fufFer their imagination 
to amufe them, with the profpedl of dif- 
tant and uncertain improvements of their 
condition, they frequently fuftain real 
lofles, by their inattention to thofe affairs 
in which they are immediately concern- 
ed. 

A country Maid was walking very de- 
liberately with a pail of milk upon her 
head, when fhe fell into the following 
train of reflexions : The money for 
which 1 fliall fell this milk will enable 
me to increafe my ftock ot eggs to three 
hundred. Thefe eggs, allowmg for what 
may prove addle, and what may be de- 
ftroyed by vermin, will produce at leaft 
two hundred and fifty chickens. The 
chickens will oe fit to carry to market about Chriftmas, when poultry always bears a good 
price ; fo that by May Day I cannot fail of having money enough to purchafe a new Gown. 
Green — let me confider — yes, green becomes my complexion beft, and green it fhall be. In 
this drcfs I will go to the fair, where all the young fellows will drive to have me for a part- 
ner; but I fhall perhaps refufe every one of them, and with an air of difdain, tofs from 
them. Tranfported with this triumphant thought, fhe could not forbear adling with her head 
what thus pafTed in her imagination, when down came the pail of milk, and with it all her 
imaginary happinefs. 

The Cat and the Rat. 





A CERTAIN Cat had made fuch 
unmerciful havoc among the vermin of 
her neighbourhood, that not a fmgle Rat 
or Moufe ventured to appear abroad. 
Pufs was foon convinced, that if affairs 
remained in their prefent fituation, fhe 
muft be totally unfupplied with provif- 
ions. After mature deliberation, there- 
fore, fhe refolved to have recourfe to 
ftratagem. For this purpofe flie fuf- 
pended herfelf to a hook with her head 
downwards, pretending to be dead. 
The Rats and Mice, as they peeped 
from their holes, obferving her in this 
dangling attitude, concluded fhe was 
hanging for fome mifdemeanour ; and 



with great joy immediately Tallied forth in quefl of their prey. Pufs, as foon as a fufficient 
number were colleded together, quitting her hold, dropped into the midft of them; and 
very few had the fortune to make good their retreat. This artifice having fuccecded fo well, 
fhe was encouraged to try the event of a fecond. Accordingly fhe whitened her coat all 
over, by rolling herfelf in a heap of flour, and in this difguife lay concealed in the bottom of 
a meal tub. This flratagem was executed in general with the same effeft as the former. But 
old experienced Rat, altogether as cunning as his adverfary, was not fo eafily enfnared. ^ I 
I't much like, faid he, that white heap yonder : Something whifpers me there is mifchief 



an 
don 



concealed under it. 'Tis true it may be meal ; but it may likewife be fomething that I fhould 
not relifli quite fo well. There can be no harm at leaft in keeping at a proper diftance ; for 
caution, I am fure, is the parent of fafety. 



544 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 




The Fox and the Swallow. 

ARISTOTLE informs us, that the 
following Fable was spoken by Efop to 
the Samians, on a debate upon chang- 
ing their minifters, who were accufed 
of plundering the commonwealth. 

A Fox fwimming acrofs a river, 
happened to be entangled in fome 
weeds that grew near the bank, from 
whicli he was unable to extricate him- 
felf. As he lay thus expofed to whole 
fwarms of flies, which were galling him 
and fucking his blood, a fwallow, ob- 
ferving his diftrefs, kindly offered to 
drive them away. By no means, faid 
the Fox ; for if thefe fhould be chafed 
away, which are already iufficiently 
gorged, another more hungry fwarm would fucceed, and I fhould be robbed of every re- 
maining drop of blood in my veins. 

The Fox and the Bravible. 

A FOX, clofely purfued by a pack 
of Dogs, took fhelter under the covert 
of a Bramble. He rejoiced in this 
afylum ; and for a while, was very 
happy ; but foon found that if he at- 
tempted to flir, he was wounded by 
thorns and prickles on every fide. 
However, making a virtue of necef^ity, 
he forbore to complain ; and com- 
forted himfelf with reflefting that no 
blifs is perfefl ; that good and evil are 
mixed, and flow from the fame foun- 
tain. Thefe Briers, indeed, faid he, 
will tear my fkin a little, yet they keep 
off the dogs. For the fake of the good 
then let me bear the evil with patience ; 

each bitter has its fweet ; and thefe Brambles, though they wound my flefli, preferve my life 

from danger. 

The Partial Judge. 

A FARMER came to a neighbour- 
ing Lawyer, exprefling great concern 
for an accident which he faid had juft 
happened. One of your Oxen, con- 
tinued he, has been gored by an un- 
lucky Bull of mine, and I fhould be 
glad to know how I am to make you 
reparation. Thou art a very honefl 
fellow, replied the lawyer, and wilt 
not think it unreafonable that I ex- 
pert one of thy Oxen in return. It 
is no more than ]ufl;ice, quoth the Far- 
mer, to be fure ; but what did I fay ? 
— I miftake — It is your Bull that has 
killed one oi viy Oxen. Indeed ! fays 
the Lawyer, that alters the cafe ; I 





WEBSTER S SPELLING BOOK. 



545' 



mufl: inquire into the affair ; and if— And if ! faid the Farmer — the bufinefs I find would 
have been concluded without an if, had you been as ready to do juftice to others, as to exadl 
it from them. 

The Bear and the two Friends. 

TWO Friends, fetting out togeth- 
er upon a journey, which led through 
a dangerous foreft, mutually promifed 
to aflift each other if they fhould hap- 
pen to be aflaulted. They had not 
proceeded far, before they perceived 
a Bear making towards them with 
great rage. 

There were no hopes in flight; but 
one of them, being very adive, fprung 
up into a tree; upon which the other, 
throwing himfelf flat on the ground, 
held his breath and pretended to be 
dead ; remembering to have heard it 
alTerted, that this creature will not 
prey upon a dead carcafs. The bear 
came up, and after fmelling to him fome time, left him and went on. When he was fairly 
out of fight and hearing, the hero from the tree called out — Well, my friend, what faid the 
bear ? he feemed to whifper you very clofely. He did fo, replied the other, and gave me this 
good piece of advice, never to aflbciate with a wretch, who in the hour of danger, will defert 
his friend. 




The Two Dogs. 

HASTY and inconfiderate con- 
nections are generally attended with 
great difadvantages ; and much of 
every man's good or ill fortune, de- 
pends upon the choice he makes of 
his friends. 

A good-natured Spaniel overtook a 
furly Maftiff, as he was travelling up- 
on the high road. Tray, although 
an entire ftranger to Tiger, very civ- 
illy accofl:ed him; and if it would be 
no interruption, he faid, he fhould be 
glad to bear him company on his way. 
Tiger, who happened not to be alto- 
gether in fo growling a mood as ufual, 
accepted the propofal; and they very 
amicably purfued their journey together. In the midft of their converfation, they arrived at 
the next village, where Tiger began to difplay his malignant difpofition, by an unprovoked 
attack upon every dog he met. The villagers immediately fallied forth with great indig- 
nation, to refcue their refpedive favourites; and falling upon our two friends, without dif- 
tinftion or mercy, poor Tray was moll cruelly treated, for no other reafon, but his being 
found in bad company. 




546 



REPORT OP THE COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION, 



STATISTICS OF COLLEGES AOT) COLLEGIATE DEPAllTMENTS IN THE UNITED 

CENT INFORMATION IN THE POSSESSION OP 

NoTEl. — Institutions not fully reported are to be understood as not bein,!' in recent correspondence 

NoTi''. 2. — For statistics of the professional schools or departments connected with any of these instita 

cultural, &.C., in this report. 

Note 3. — In the columns of " Cost of tuition per term," and "Board per month," statistics marked 

Note 4.— In this tablo the abbreviations in the column of " Denominations " are as follows : K. C, 

copal; Consj., Congregational ; Pres., Presbyterian ; Chr., Christian; U. P., United Presbyterian; C. P., 

tists; Univ., Universalist; Unit., Unitarian ; Mor., Moravian; N. Ch., New Church; G. R., German 

pal; E. A., Evangelical Associations ; M. P., Methodist Protestant ; C. and P., Congregational and Prea 

■ JfoTF 5. — The existence of those colleges marked with an interrogation point (?) is considered doubt 



^Tame. 



Location. 



President 



East Alabama Male College 

Florence University (?) 

Wesleyan College (?) 

Southern University 

La Grange College (?) 

Howard College 

Spring HiU College 



Talladega College 

Univer.sity of Alabama. . 

Cano nillColloge 

St. John's College 

College of St. Augustine. 



Auburn, Ala 

Florence, Ala 

do 

Greensborough, Ala 

La Grange, Ala 

Marion, Ala 

(Spring Hill,) near Mobile, 
Ala. 

Talladega, Ala 

Tuscaloosa, Ala 

Cano HiU, Ark 

Little Rock, Ark , 

Benicia, Cal 



J. T. Dunklin 



1830 
1841 
1835 



A. S. Andrews, D. D. 



J. F. Murfee 

Rev. J. Montillot, S. J 



St. Vincent's College 

Marvsville College 

Odd Fellows' College (?) 

University of California 

Petaluma College 

St. Ignatius College 

St. Mary'n CoUoge 

Union College 

University College 

San Rafafi College 

Franciscan College 

College of our Lady of Guada- 
lupe. 

Santa Clara College 

University of the Pacific 

Pacilic Methodist College 

Sonoma College 

Pacific Methodist College 

California College 

Hesperian College 

Colorado College (?) 

Trinity College 

"Wesleyan University 



Tale College 

BrandywLuo College. . . 

Delaware College 

University of Georgia. 

Atlanta University 

Bowdon College 

Oglethorpe College . . . 

Mercer University 

Christ's College , . . 

Montpelier College 

Emory College 



Los Angeles, Cal . . . 

Marysville, (Jal 

Napa Citv, Cal 

Oakland.'Cal 

Petaluma, Cal 

San Francisco, Cal . 

do 

do 

do 

San Rafael, Cal 

Santa Barbara, Cal. 
do 



1832 
1852 
1857 

18G8 

1867 



N. T. Lupton, A. M 

Rev. F. R. Earle, A. M . . . . 

Col. O. C. Gray, A. M 

Rev. W. P. Tucker, A. M . 

Rev. J. McGill, C. M 



1855 
1866 
1855 
1863 



H. Durant, A. M . 



Rev. J. Bayma, S. J. 
Brother Justin 



1859 
1869 

1868 



Rev. "Wm. Alexander 

Alfred Bates 

Rev. J. J. O'Keefe, O. S. F. 



.(?) 



Santa Clara, Cal 

do 

Santa Rosa, Cal 

Sonoma, Cal 

Vacaville, Cal 

do 

■Woodland, Cal 

Golden City, Col. Ter. 

Hartford, Conn 

Middletown, Conn 



New Haven, Conn 
Brandy wine, Del.. 

Newark, Del 

Athens, Ga 

Atlanta, Ga 

Bowdon, Ga , 

Atlanta, Ga 

Macon, Ga 

Montpelier, Ga 

Oxford, Ga.!!!..'... 



1851 
1851 
18C1 
1858 
1851 
1871 
1869 



Rev. A. Varsi, S. J 

Rev. T. H. Sinex, D. D 

A. L. Fitzgerald 

Rev. "W. N. Cunningham 

Rev. J. R. Thomas, D. D., LL. D.. 

M.Bailey, A. M 

J.M. Martin, A. M 



1823 
1831 



1701 



Rev. Abner Jackson, D. D., LL D 
Rev. Joseph Cummings, D. D., 

LL. D. 
Rev. Noah Porter, D. D., LL. D. 



1869 
1801 
18G7 
1856 
1835 
1838 



W. H. Pumell, A. M 

A. A. Lipscomb, D. D 

E. A. Ware, A. M 

Rev. F. II. M. Henderson, A. B. .. 

Rev. D. Wills, D. D 

Rev. A. J. Battle 



46 Abingdon College 

47 Illinois Woslevan University. 

48 St. Viatur's College 

49 Blackburn University 

50 Chicago University 

51 St. Ignatius College 

52 St. Aloysius College 

53| Eureka College 



Abingdon, 111 

Bloomington, HI 

Bourbonnais Grove, HI. 

Carlinville, HI 

Chicago, HI 

do 

East St. Louis, HI 

Eureka, HI 



1837 

1853 
1852 
1866 



1859 
1870 
1866 
1852 



Rev. L. M. Smith, D. D 



J. W. Butler, A. M 

Rev. O. S. Munsell, D. D 

Very Rev. P. Beaudoin 

Rev. J. W. Bailey, D. D 

Rev. J. C. Burroughs, D. D., LL.D 

Rev. A. Damen 

Rev. F. H. Zabel, D. D., D. C. L . . 
a W. Everest, A. M 



STATISTICAL TABLES. 



54Y 



STATES AUTHORIZED TO CONFER DEGREES EST ARTS, COMPILED FROM THE MOST RE- 
THE UNITED STATES BUREAU OP EDUCATION. 

■with tho office. 

tions, reference is made to the appropriate tables, theological, le^al, medical, normal, commercial, agri- 

"a" mean the given amount per annum ; "6" signifies board and tuition per annum. 

Roman Catholic; Bapt., Baptist; Mas., Masonic; M. E., Methodist Episcopal; P. E., Protestant Epis« 

Cumberland Presbyterian ; Lnth., Lutheran; Fr., Friends; U. B., United Brethren; F. B., Free Bai)- 

Reformed; Ref., Reformed, (Dutch;) L. D. S., Lattor-Day Saints; A. M. E., African Methodist Episco 

bvteriau ; M. E. S., Methodist Episcopal, South. 

fill. 





1 
a 

a 



§ 
p 


Pi 

3 
(-< 

G 



M 
a 

7 


Students. 


Cost of— 


1 


1 

hi 

.a 

a 




1 


© 

a 

1 
p. 

p 

ca 
a 

a 


d 

a 


10 

£ 

a 


1 


03 




(6 


A 

1 

. 

a 









a 


3 


H 


a 


H 


"S 



s 

0. 


Time of commencement. 


1 


M.E.S. 


15 






28 


55 




98 




98 


a$70 


$18 




Last "Wednesday in Jouew 


«? 








T 
































4 


M.E... 


5 




























5 




























r, 


Bapt... 
R.C ... 


5 

18 

8 
11 
3 
C 

7 

4 














142 
52 




142 
52 

386 
64 

104 
67 
90 

50 


50 
6328 




2,500 
8,0C0 


Last Thursday in June. 




40 


6 


c 










4th Tuesday ija August. 


f! 










q 
















64 
104 
C7 
90 

50 




aSO 

a50 

a50 

20-50 

a250 


also 
13 
18 
25 

25 


3,000 

"i.'ioo 
1,000 


Last "Wednesday in June. 


10 




77 










27 




11 


Mas ... 
P.E ... 

R.C... 












12 


49 


10 


14 


8 


9 




Thursday after 1st Wednes- 
day of' June. 
August 16. 


14 
















I'l 
































17 


State .. 
Bapt 


18 


174 


32 


13 


2 


5 


26 


247 


5 


252 


Free . . . 


a200-320 




3d "Wednesday in July. 


IP 


R.C... 
R C 


19 














559 




559 


36 






June 5. 


10 




















"0 
































"1 




7 




























oo 






























"? 


R.C ... 


G 


30 






30 


30 


2 


92 




92 


also 




2,000 


March 2. 


04 






"') 


R.C ... 
M.E... 
M. E . . . 


17 

C 
C 














225 
55 

78 


CO 
72 


225 
115 
'50 


6350 
a30-G0 
O30-70 


'26-25 
20 


12, 000 

2,000 

500 


1st Tuesday in June, 


2G 
27 

OR 


86 
115 


2 

20 


2 
10 


2 
3 


3 

2 


20 


May 30. 
Middle of May. 


29 
10 


M.E... 
Bapt... 
Chr.... 


7 
4 

7 


68 
32 

87 


23 
8 
11 


C 


8 
2 
14 


C 


96 


119 
25 

82 


88 
17 
71 


207 
42 
153 


a30-83 

25-40 

15i-34i 


20 
20 
22 


300 

150 


May 18. 

3d Wednesday in May. 


31 

19 


4 


37 


2d Friday in May. 


33 
34 

35 

in 


i'. E ... 
M.E... 

Cong . 


IG 
10 

25 




49 
49 

130 


42 
42 

134 


42 
42 

135 


30 
30 

128 




163 
163 

527 




1G3 
163 

527 


a90 
a33 

30 


10 
18 

22 


15, 000 
20, 000 

90, 000 


2d Thursday in July. 
3d Thursday in July. 

Last Thurs. bitt two in July. 


17 


State .. 
State . . 


C 
12 
7 
5 
6 
5 


44 


28 
14 










72 
231 
HI 

102 
150 

82 


'59 


72 
231 

170 
102 
150 

82 


aGO 
6300 


IG 


'26,066 


1st Wednesday in July. 


18 


59 




33 


125 


Ist Wednesday in August. 


IP 






40 




51 

75 


25 


12 


8 


6 


"75 


b54 

75 

alOO 


also 

18-25 

18 


'5," 666 

5,000 


l.st Wednesday in July. 


41 


Pres . . . 
Bapt... 


1st Wednesday in July. 


4'2 
41 


14 


24 


24 


20 


2d Wednesday in July. 


44 
































45 

46 


M. E. S. 
Chr 


7 


34 


28 


47 


41 


23 


13 


186 




186 


35 


18 


7,000 


Wednesday aft« 3d Hon 
day in July. 


47 

48 


M. E... 
R.C... 
Pres . . . 
Bapt . . . 
R.C.... 
R.C... 
Chr... 


6 
9 
8 
14 
6 
4 
G 


132 


6 


4 


1 


1 


56 


200 




200 


a33 
6207 
6150 
a50 
060 
a40 


19 


1,500 


Juno 20. 


40 


28 
186 
64 


G 
26 
43 


5 
IG 


2 
15 


10 


231 
24 


181 
277 
107 
50 
100 


93 
'35 


274 
277 
107 
50 
135 






2d Thursday in June. 


SO 

■il 


10 


4,000 


Last Thursday in Juno. 
About the end of Juna 


59 










16 


300 


1st Monday in September. 


»3 




... 










Ist Wednesday in Juna 



)48 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION. 

STATISTICS OF COLLEGES AND COLLEGIATB 



2fame. 



Location. 



President. 



90 
91 
92 
93 
94 
95 
96 
97 
98 
99 
100 
101 
102 
103 
104 
105 
106 
107 
108 
109 
110 
111 
113 
114 
115 
116 
117 

iiel 



(«) 



Nortliwestern University 

Lombard University 

Knox College 

Marshall College 

Illinois College 

McKendreo College 

Liucoln University 

Mendota College 

Moumouth College 

Korthwesteru College... 

Aiigustaua College 

Quincy College 

J ubilec College 

St. Patrick's College 

Shurtleff College 

Westtield College 

Wheaton College 

Illinois Industrial University. 

Duukard t oUego (?) 

Indiana University — 



(?) 



Brookville College 

Wabasb College 

Franklin College 

Fort Wayne College 

Concordia College 

Indiana Asbury University. . . 

Hanover College 

Ilartsville University 

Korthwesteru Christian Uni- 
versity. 

Union Christian College 

Moore's Ilill College 

Salem College 

Universitv of Notre Dame . . . 

Earlbam College 

St. Meinrad's College 

Valparaiso College 

Smithson College 

Howard College 

Burlington University 

Griawold College 

Norwegian Luther College . . . 

Parson's College (?) 

Fairlield College 

Upper Iowa University 

Iowa College 

Simpson Centenary College. . 

Iowa State Lniversity 

Iowa Wfsleyan University.. 

Cornell College 

Central University of Iowa. . 

Whittier College '. (?) 

Humboldt College 

Tabor College 

St. Benedict's College 

Baker University 

Highland University 

State University 

Ottawa University 

Washburn College 

Lane University 

Berea College 

Cecilian College 

Centre College 

Kentucky Military Institat« 



Evanston, HI 

Galesburgh, HI 

, do 

Henry, HI 

Jacksonville, 111 .. 

Lebanon, 111 

Lincoln, 111 

Mendota, 111 

Monmouth, 111 

Naperville, 111 

Paxton, 111 

Quincy, 111 

Kobiu's Nest, HI . . 

lUima, 111 

Upper Alton, 111 . . 

Westfield, 111 

Wheaton, HI 

Urbana, 111 

Bourbon, Ind 

Bloomington, Ind . 



Brookville, Ind 

Crawfordsville, Ind 

Franklin, Ind 

Fort Wayne, Ind — 

do 

Greencastle, Ind — 

Hanover, Ind 

Hartsville, Ind 

Indianapolis, Ind . . 



1855 
1852 
1841 
1855 
1830 
1835 
1865 



E. O. Haven, D. D., LL. D . 
Itev. J. P. Weston, D. D . . 
Eev. J. P. Gulliver, D.D.. 



1850 
1865 
1860 
1854 
1847 



Eev. J. M. Sturtevant, D. D 

Eev. Pt. Allyu, D. D 

J. C. Bowdou, D. D 

Eev. J. W. Corbet, A. M 

D. A. W allaco, D. D., LL. D 

Eev. A. A. Smith, A. M 

Eev. T. N. Hasselquist 

G. A7. Gray, A. M 

Et. Eev. H. J. Whitehouse, D. D. 



1832 
1861 



Meroni, Ind 

Moore's Hill, Ind 

Bourbon, Ind 

Notre Dame, Ind 

Eichmoud, Ind 

St. Meinrad, Ind 

Valparaiso, Ind 

,Ind 

Kokomo, Ind 

Burlington, Iowa 

Davenport, Iowa 

Decorah, Iowa 

Des Moines, Iowa 

Fairfield, Iowa 

Fayette, Iowa 

Grinnell, Iowa 

Indianola, Iowa 

Iowa City, Iowa 

Mount Pleasant, Iowa . . 

Mount Vernon, Iowa 

Pella, Iowa 

Salem, Iowa 

Springvale, Iowa 

Tabor, Iowa 

Atchison, Kans 

Baldwin City, Kana 

Highland, Kana 

Lawrence, Kans 

Ottawa, Kans 

Topeka, Kans 

Lecompton, Kans 

Berea, Kv 

Cecilian Post OfiBce, Ky. 

Danville, Ky 

Near Fraukifost, Ky 



1868 

i828 

1851 
1834 
1843 
1846 
1850 
1837 
1833 
1850 
1855 

1859 
1853 
1870 
1842 
1860 
1860 



J. Bulkley, D. D 

Eev. S. B. Allen, A. M ... 
Eev. J. Blanchard, A. M. 
J. M. Gregory, LL. D .... 



Eev. C. Nutt, D. D 

Eev. J. P. D. John, A. M -. 

Eev. J. F. Tuttle, D. D 

H. L. Wayland, D. D 

Eev. L. Beers, A. B 

Eev. W. Sihler, Ph. D 

Eev. T. Bowman, D. D 

Eev. G. C. Heckman, D. D . 

J. W. Scribner, A.M 

W. F. Black, A. M 



Eev. T. Holmes, D. D 

Eev. J. H. Martin, A. M 

O. W.Miller, A.M 

Very Eev. W. Corby 

J. Moore, A. M 

Eev. J. Hobie, O. S. B 

Eev. T. B. Wood 

Eev. P. E. Kendall 



1854 
1859 
1861 



J. Henderson 

Eev. E. Lounsbery, A. M . 
Prof. L. Larsen 



1858 



186' 
18C0 
1851 
1657 
1854 
186' 



1859 
1858 
1859 
1864 



Eev. A. Axline, A.M 

B. W. McLain, A.M 

Eev. G. T?. Magouu, D. D . . . 

Eev. A. Bums, D. D 

Eev. G. Thacher, D. D 

John Wheeler, D. D 

Eev. W. F. King, D. D 

Eev. L. A. Dunn 

J. H. Pickering 

Eev.S. H.Taft 

Eev. W. M. Brooks, A. M.... 

Very Eev. G. Christoph 

Eev. J. A. Simpson, A. M. . . 

Eev. J. A. McAfee 

John Eraser, A. M 



1865 
1865 
1858 
1860 
1823 
1846 



Eev . P. McVicar, D. D 

N.B.Bartlett 

Ee V. E. H. Fairchild , 

H. A.Cecil 

O. Beatty, LL. D 

Col. E. T. P. AUon, A. M., C. E 



STATISTICAL TABLES. 



549 



DEPARTMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES, &c.— Continued. 





r 

§ 

n 

i 
a 

o 

n 


1 
o 

s 

a 

o 

M 
a 


Students. 


Cost of - 


1 

a 

to 

V 

i 

1 

<o 

a 




1 


a 

a 
1 




S3 


S 
-§ 

1 




i 



_o 

'3 

1-5 


1-1 
_o 

'a 

» 

CO 


6 

Pi 



d 

.a 



1 
'3 


03 

"3 

a 


'3 

H 


1 


"S 



e 

n 


Time of commencemont. 


54 

55 
56 
57 


M. E... 

Univ.. . 
Cong... 


30 
9 
15 


185 
107 
127 


40 

18 
20 


2- 

le 
9 


20 
4 
13 


15 
11 
13 


20 

"78 


289 
156 
156 


18 

iio 


307 
156 
266 


67 

33 

030 


$20 
18 
18 


27, 000 
3,500 
6,200 


4th Tuesday in June. 
3(1 Wednesday in June. 
4th Thursday in June. 


"ifl 


Cong... 
M.E... 
C.P... 
Luth 


12 

7 














324 

218 
140 




3"4 










59 
60 
61 


39 

98 


14 
13 


14 

8 


10 
18 


6 
11 


178 
58 


432(31 
66 206 


8 
a26-40 


18 
16-18 


8,500 


3d Thursday in June. 
2d Thursday in June. 


62 
63 
64 


U.P... 
E.A .. 
Luth .. 
M. E . 


13 
10 
3 


147 
21 
31 


19 
10 

7 


13 
6 

2 


27 
8 


18 
4 


117 

195 


218 
164 
58 


i23 
£0 


341 

244 

58 


a30 
6-8 


17 
12-16 


1,500 

600 

7,000 


Last Thursday in Jnna 
Last Wednesdaj' in June. 


65 














66 


P.E. .. 






























67 
































6K 


Bapt. . 






























69 
70 


U.B .. 


7 


3 


4 


1 


1 




160 


128 


41 


169 


a24 


14 




2d Wednestlay in June. 


71 


State . 






























7?^ 
































73 

74 

75 
76 


State .. 

M.E... 
Pres . . . 
Bapt . . . 


13 

6 
10 


50 
138 


46 
'33 


26 

'27 


27 

io 


23 

'is 


136 


277 

80 
226 


31 

70 


308 

150 
226 


Free . . . 

9 
10 


16 

16 
14 


5,000 

2,000 
12, 000 


Thursday preceding 4th of 

July. 
Juno 7. 
3d Thursday in June. 


77 
78 
79 
80 
81 
82 

83 

84 


Melh .. 
Luth .. 
M.E... 
Pres . . . 
U. B . . . 
Chr ... 

Chr ... 
Meth .. 
Bapt... 
R.C ... 
Fr 

Pv.C ... 


7 

'9 

7 

7 

22 

5 
6 
9 

29 

8 
7 


29 
CO 

47 

17 

113 

16 


84 
41 
C8 
25 
2 
13 

2 


4 
15 
39 
9 
1 
5 

2 


6 
19 
32 
16 

"3 

2 


4 
13 
33 

7 
2 
9 


34 

"84 

53 

201 

156 

129 


105 

148 
298 
157 
149 
219 

100 
195 


56 

35 

■74 
80 

51 
115 


161 

143 
333 
157 
223 
299 

151 
310 


4-15 

a24 

10 

Free . . . 

18 

14 

6-10 


15 

am 

14-20 

al44 

072-117 

18 

16 


"'3,' 600 
10, 000 
6,400 

300 


June 21. 
September 1. 
June 21. 

4th Thursday in Juno. 
2d Tuesday in June. 
June 24. 

2d Wednesday in Juna 


85 














7-15 

6150 

6300 

15 


14 


"ii,'66o 

3,300 
4,000 




flfi 














421 
131 
56 


'77 


421 

208 
56 


Last Wednesday in June. 
June 26. 


87 


135 
19 


7 
7 


10 

8 


4 
15 


1 
7 


51 




88 


15 


Last Thursday in June. 


90 


Univ. . . 






























91 
































99, 


Bapt . . . 






























93 
94 
95 


P.E ... 
Luth... 


7 
G 


103 
86 


4 

28 


3 
12 


5 
5 


2 
5 




117 
136 




117 
136 


16 
Free . . . 


14 

7 


4,000 
1,000 


3d Wednesday in June. 
About June 15. 


96 


Luth... 
M.E... 
Cong... 
M.E... 
State... 
M.E... 
M.E... 
Bapt. . . 
Fr 


2 
10 
12 
13 
30 
16 
9 
7 














53 
86 
174 
86 
229 
159 
253 


65 
84 
108 
73 
116 
109 
HI 


118 
170 
282 
159 
345 
268 
3G4 










97 


141 

48 
122 
136 
118 
102 


17 
13 
4 
52 
15 
31 


7 
13 

3 
42 
14 

6 


5 
6 
2 

28 
6 
6 






9 

20 

9 

5 

Free . . . 

7 


13 

8-16 
10-16 
12-20 
12-16 
12-16 


4,000 
7, 0:0 
200 
5,000 
1,500 
4,00G 


4th Tuesday in June. 
2d Wednesday in July. 
2d Wednesday in June. 
Last Wednesday in June. 
3d Wednesday in June. 
3d Tuesday in June. 


98 
99 
lOO 
101 
102 
101 


9 
2 
9 
11 
5 


193 

2G 

78 

104 

214 


104 




























105 


Unit . . . 






























106 
107 


Cong... 
R.C"... 
M.E... 


6 

8 


8 


9 


4 


2 


... 


176 


114 
51 


85 


199 
51 


7 
6200 


16 


2,500 
1,200 


2d Wednesday in Jon^ 


108 


















109 
110 


Pres . . . 
State .. 
Bapt . . . 


C 
9 


77 


10 


6 


4 


3 


.... 


55 
97 


45 
116 


100 
213 


7-12 


3-4 


4,000 


June 20. 


111 






















113 
114 


Cong... 
U. B . . . 


8 
3 
12 

9 

7 
7 


25 


6 




3 




35 


53 


15 


68 
130 
295 
162 
165 
112 


o30 
O30 
3 
6200 
040 

aioo 


16-20 


2,000 


3d Wednesday in June. 


115 


22 


9 


5 






259i«ftin7 


7-10 


600 


2d Wednesday in July. 
2d Friday in June. 
Last Thursday in June. 
Ist Mondfiy in September 


116 


II.C.... 




162 
165 
112 




117 Pres . . . 

118 State... 


95 
15 


17 
43 


20 
34 


8 
11 


7 
9 


18 


16-20 
a250 


5, 500 



550 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OP EDUCATION. 

STATISTICS OF COLLEGES AND COLLEGIATE 



Name. 



Xocatioo. 



Prusidont 



119 

120 
121 
123 
123 
124 
125 
126 
127 
128 
12!) 

130 
131 
132 
133 
134 
135 
13G 
137 
138 
139 
140 
141 
142 
143 
144 
14f. 
14 i 

14 r 

148 
149 
150 
151 
152 
153 
154 
155 
156 
157 
158 
159 
160 

IGl 
162 
163 
164 
165 
166 
167 
168 
169 
170 
171 
172 
173 
174 
175 
176 
177 
178 
179 
ISO 
181 
182 
183 
184. 

isa 



Georgetown College 

Kentucky University 

St. Marv's College 

Bethel CoUcRB 

Thompson Universitj' 

Louisiana State University. . . 

Baton Rouge College 

St. Charles College 

Centenary College 

Mount Lebanon University. . . 
College of the Immaculate Con. 
ception. 

Leland University 

Straight University 

Jefferson College 

Bowdoin College , 

Bates College 

Colhy University 

St. John's College 

Loyola College 

Washinirton College 

Rock Hill College 

St. Charles College 

Mount St. Mary's College 

Mount St. Clement's College .. 

Calvert College 

Borromeo College 

Freilcrick College 

Western Maryland College 

Amlierst College 

Boston College 

Harvard College , 

Tufts College 

Williams CoUeM 

College of the Holy Cross 

Adrian College 

Albion College 

Michigan University 

St. I'hilip'.s College 

Ilillsdah^ College 

Hope College 

Kalamazoo College 

Olivet College 



St. John's College 

Carleton College 

University of Minnesota. 
Simple Broaddus College . 

Mississippi College 

Sliaw Lhiiversity 

Alcorn University 

Oakland College 

University ot Mississippi. 

Pass Christian College 

Madison College 

Toiigaloo University 

JeilVrs(m College 

St. Vincent's College 

University of Missouri 

Central College 

Westminster College 

Lewis College .., 

Jefferson City College 

William Jewell College 

Palmyra Co ege 

St, Cliarles College 

Grand River College 

.Woodland College 

Lincoln College 



Georgetown, Ky 

Lexington, Ky 

Marion County, Ky. 

Ivussellville, Ky 

Baldwin, La 

Baton Rouge, La 

do ... 

Grand Coteau, La. . . 

Jackson, La 

Mount Lebanon, La. 
New Orleans, La 



Clinton, Minn 

Northfield, Minn 

St. Anthony, Minn . . . 

Centre Hill, Miss 

Clinton, Miss 

Holly Springe, Miss.. 

-Jackson. Miss 

Oakland, Miss .. 

Oxford. Miss 

Pass Christian, Miss. 

Sharon, Miss 

Near Tongaloo, Miss . 
Washington, Miss . . . 
Cape Girardeau, Mo. . 

Columbia, Mo 

Fayette, Mo 

Furton, Mo 

Glasgow, Mo 

JefTerson City, ]\Io. . . . 

Liberty, Mo 

Palmvra, Mo 

St. Charles, Mo 

Edinburgh, Mo 

Indepen<lence, Mo 

Greenwood, Mo . . 



183S 
1859 
1820 
1856 
1867 
1860 
1838 
18.12 
1845 
1853 
1848 



do 

do 

St. Michael, La 

Brunswick, Me 

Lewiston, Me 

Waterville, Me 

Annfpolis, Md 

Baltimore, Md 

Chestertown, Md 

Ellicott Citj% Md 

do 

Emmittsbnrgh, Md 

Ilchester, Md 

New Windsor, Md 

Pike.sville, Md 

Frederick City, Md 

Westminster, Md 

Amherst, Mass 

Boston, Mass 

Cambridge. Mass 

College Hill, Mass 

Williamstown, Mass 

Worcester, Mass 

Adrian, Mich 

Albion, Mich 

Ann Arbor, Mich 

Dctroii, Mich 

Hillsdale, Mich 

Holland, Mich 

Kalamazoo, Mich 

Olivet, Mich 



1869 



1802 
1863 
1820 
1784 
1852 

'82 
1857 
1848 
1830 
1808 
1852 
1860 
1706 
1867 
1821 
1863 
1638 
1855 

93 
1843 
1858 
1800 
1841 



1855 
1855 



1866 

1868 
1857 
1851 
1871 
1871 
1830 
1848 
186G 
1850 
1870 
1813 
1843 
1843 
1854 
1853 
1867 
1807 
1848 
1848 
1850 
18.58 
1869 
1869 



Basil Manly, jr., D. D 

J. B. Bowman, A. M., regent . 
Rev. L. Elend, C. R., LL. D. . 

N.K.Davis, LL. D 

W.S.Wilson 

D.F.Boyd 



Rev. J. Roduit, S. J... 
W.H. Watkins, D.D. 
S. C. McCormickle . . . 
Rev. J. Gautrelet 



E.E.S. Taylor, D.D. 



J. L. Chamberlain, LL. D 

Rev. O. B. Cheney, D. D 

J. T. Champlin, D.D 

J.M. Garnett, M. A 

Rev. S. A. Kelly, S.J 

R. C. Berkeley, A. M 

Brother Bettelin 

Rev. S. F6rt6,D.D 

Very Rev. J. McCaffrey, D. D. . 
Rev. F. Van de Braak, C. S., S. K 

A. H. Baker, A. M 

Rev. E. Q. S. Waldrou 

J.S.Bonsall, A. M 

J.T.Ward,D.D 

W. A. Steams, D. D., LL. D . . . . 

Rev. R. Fulton, S. J 

C. W. Eliot, LL. D 

A.A.Miner, D.D 

Rev. M. Hopkins, D. D., LL. D. . . 

Rev. A. F. Ciampi 

A. H. Lowrie, A. M 

G. B. Jocelyn, D. D 

J. B. Angell, LL. D 



D. M. Gr.aham, D. D 

Philip Phe'.ps, D. D 

Rev. K. Brooks, D. D 

Rev. N. J. Morrison, D. D. 



Rev. J. W. Strontr, D. D 

W. W. Folwell, il. A 

W. W. Hawkins, A. M 

Rev. W. Hillman, A. M 

Rev. A. C. McDonald, A. M 

Rev. H. R. Revels 

W. L. Breckenridcre, D. D 

J.N. Waddell, D.D 

Brother Isaiah 

Rev. J. M. Pugh, A. M 

E.Tucker, A.M 

Prof. Hamilton 

Rev. J. Alizeri 

D.iniel Read, LL. D 

Rev. J. C. Wills, A. M 

Rev. N. L. Rice, D. D 

Rev. T. A. Parkei , A. M., M. D. . . 

Rev. W. H. D. Hatton 

Rev. T. Rambaut, LL. D., S. T. P. 

Rev. J. A. Wainwright, A. M 

J. J. Potts, A. M 

J. E. Vetrees 

W. A. Buckner 

G.S.Bryant - .... 



STATISTICAL TABLES. 



551 



DEPAETMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES, &C.— Continued. 





1 ■• 


Students. 


Cost of— 


1 

.9 
S 

a 




1 


2 1 

H 

3 5 


■s 

1 


o 

1 

.a 
p, 
o 

Xt 


s 

o 

'3 


1-5 




o 
Pi 

o 

05 a 
0.2 

II 

1 

o 


•a 

1^ 


GO 

1 


1 




.2 
H 


1 
I 
1 


Time of commencement. 


119 


Bapt . . . 

State... i 
K. C 


7 47 

8 . 


43 


36 


11 


8 


.... 


145 
216 
58 
60 
30 
184 


'25 


145 
216 
58 
60 
55 
184 


a$45 
a3'J 
l>200 


$18-20 
20 


5,500 

10, 000 


2d Thursday in June. 
2d Thursday in June. 
1st Thursday in September, 


1"! 














•jtX) 


Bapt . 


















101 


M. E... 
State... 1 


2 55 

8 28 












'""am 


" ' " 0266 


1,000 
7,000 




124 
1-'5 


10 


8 


5 


5 


128 


Last "Wednesday in June. 


1% 


R.C....1 

Meth .. . 


1 ... 












85 




85 


6200 






2d Wednesday in Angnst 


197 


















198 


Biipt 




























19<» 


K. C . 




























no 


Bapt 




























ni 




.. 
















1054 










n-' 




























133 
134 
135 

13fi 


Coug . . 2 
F.R... 
Bapt... 
State .. 1 
K.0....1 
State . . 
E.G.... 2 
K.C....1 
R.C....1 
E.C ... 


G... 
9 ... 
7 .. 
7C 
3138 
2 16 
2 . 


60 
24 
20 
24 
8 
9 


38 
23 
13 
22 
7 
5 


37 

27 
11 
10 
2 

1 


26 
14 
8 
6 
3 
2 


.... 


161 

87 
51 
138 
1>8 
33 
1G6 
160 
129 


"1 

1 


161 
88 
52 
138 
158 
33 
166 
160 
129 


a60 
a36 
10 
6250 
o75 
40-60 
6260 
6180 
6310 


10-lC 

a76-114 

12 


34, 150 
7,100 

12, 000 
3,000 

21, 500 
1,000 


2d "Wednesday in July. 
Last Wednesday in June. 
Last Thursday in July. 
Last "Wednesday in July. 
Last Wednesday in June. 
2d Wednesday in July. 
Last Thursday in Juna 
July. 
Last Wednesday in June. 


137 




138 


16 


140 


2 .. 














4,000 
5,000 
1,200 


141 


1 92 


18 


7 


7 


5 


.... 




14" 




14'^ 


R.C.... 
E.C 


8 .. 












59 




59 


6240 




Last Tuesday in Jtine. 


144 


















145 


State .. 
M.P...1 
Cong... 2 
E. C .. 1 
7 


3 












103 
84 
261 
140 
643 
74 
141 
140 
99 
108 
458 


43 

6i 

69 
25 


103 
127 
261 
140 
643 
74 
141 
140 
160 
177 
483 


a30 

020-110 

25 




1,200 

2,100 

35, 000 




146 
147 

14H 


74 
0... 
0118 
6... 

4 ... 

1 ... 
96 
9 86 
6137 

5 .. . 


30 
71 
9 

189 
14 
32 
20 
1 
11 

160 


13 

76 

2 

139 

15 

26 

11 

5 

7 

93 


6 
49 

9 
122 
17 
40 
11 

3 

9 
77 


4 
65 

iss 

8 

43 

2 

5 

13 

84 


""2 
35 
20 

"60 
69 


18 
14-24 


3d Thursday in June 

2d Thursday in July. 


14t) 


also 

a60 

25 

6250 

a20 

Free... 

Free . . . 


O152-304 
al36 
14-24 


187, 000 
12, 000 
12, 000 


Last Wednesday in June. 
3d Wednesday in July. 
Last Thursday in June. 
Last Thursday in Juno. 
3d Thursday in June. 
Last Thursday in June. 
Last Wednesday in June. 


150 
151 
IS" 


TTniv .. 1 
Cong .. 1 
E.C ...1 
M. P . . . 
M. E .. 
State . . 3 


153 
154 
155 

15fi 


12 
12 

8-20 


'"i',m 

25, 000 


157 

1=iR 


F. W. B i 


4 313 


19 


15 


9 


9 


220 


365 


220 


585 


alOO 


8-12 


3,000 


2d Thursday in June. 


lit) 


Bapt ... 1 
Cong . . 1 


2175 
I 27 


8 
14 


4 
17 


4 
6 


11 

3 


7 
166 


138 
134 


71 

99 


209 
233 


6 

7 




2,000 
4,000 


3d Wednesday in June. 
Last Thursday but one ia 
June. 


160 
161 


14-20 


169 


Cong... 
State .. 
Bapt. . 


5 52 


3 


1 








41 

242 


15 
93 


56 
335 


8 


11 
16 


968 
3,558 


Last Wednesday in Juno. 


16T 








Last Thursd-iy in June. 


164 
















165 
166 


K- 


?120 


12 


11 


7 


3 




153 




153 


o50 


15-17 




Last Tuesday in Jane. 


16', 






























16R 


Pres . . . 




























169 
170 


State . . 1 
E.C ...1 


3 11 


15 


20 


13 


18 


34 


111 
142 

47 


... 


111 

142 
47 


Free . . . 

6330 

O30-50 


18 




Last Thursday in Jane. 
3d Friday in July. 
3d Thursday in July. 
June 28. 


171 


I 40 


5 


2 






.... 


50-20 
10 


540 


179 


( 


173 


























174 


E.G.... 




























175 

176 


State .. 1 
M.E.S. ( 
Pres . . . 
M. E... 
P. E 


2118 
3 13 


48 


20 


22 


9 


"91 


177 

1C4 
90 

58 


40 
34 


217 
104 
90 
92 


o40 

25 

O50 

o40 


12-20 

16 

13 

O150 


5,000 

"'2,' 666 


Last Wednesday in Jona 
Opens September 21. 
3d Thursday in June. 
4th Thursd.iy in Juno. 


177 










178 














179 














1st Wednesday in Juna 


180 
1S1 


Bapt... 
P.E ... 
M.E.S. 












.... 


152 




152 
60 


a60 


12-16 


4,000 
800 


ire 
























183 


















100 
93 
40 










184 





r. 
























1851 




i... 




... 


... 








... 











552 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION. 

* STATISTICS OF COLLEGES AND COLLEGIATE 



I7ame. 



Locajtion. 



President. 



186 
187 
168 
189 
190 
191 
10: 
1C3 
194 
195 
106 
197 
108 
199 
£00 
201 
202 
203 
204 
205 

206 
207 
208 
209 
210 
211 

212 
213 
214 

215 
216 
217 
216 
219 
220 
221 

222 
223 
221 



2i*- 

2^9 
230 
231 
23: 
233 
234 
235 
236 
237 
238 
239 
240 
241 
242 
243 
244 
245 
246 
247 
S43I 



St. Paul's College 

Bethel CoUejie 

Hannibal College 

McGee College 

Jolinson College 

St. Joseph's College 

St. Louis University 

Washington University 

College of the Cbrist'n Brothers 

Congregational College 

Nebraska College 

Dartmouth College 

Burlington College 

Kutgers College 

College of Now Jersey 

Seton Hall College 

Ali red University 

Franciscan College 

St. Stephen's College 

Brooklyn Collegiate and Poly 
techiiic Institute. 

St. John Baptist's College 

Canisius College 

St. Joseph's College 

Martin Luther College 

St. Lawrence University 

Hamilton College 



Palmyra, Mo 

Palmyra, Mo 

Hannibal, Mo 

College Mound, Mo 

Macon City, Mo 

St. Joseph, Mo , 

St. Louis, Mo 

do 

St. Louis, Mo 

Fontenelle, Nebr 

Nebraska City, Nebr. . 

Hanover, N. H 

Burlington, N. J 

New Brunswick, N. J . 

Princeton, N. J 

South Orange, N. J . . . 

Alfred, N. Y 

Allegheny, N. T , 

Annandalo, N. Y 

Brooklyn, N.Y 



do 

Buffalo, N. Y . 

do 

do 

Canton, N. Y . 
Clinton, N. Y . 



1869 
1848 
1868 
1834 
1868 
1667 
1832 
1857 
1857 



Rev. E. Eose, A. M 

Eev. W. B. Corbin 

J. F. Hamilton 

J.B.Mitchell 

E. W.HaU 

Brother Agatho 

Eev. J. G. Zealand, S. J . 

W. G. Eliot, D. D 

Brother Edward 



1868 
1769 
1846 
1770 
1746 
1856 
1836 



Eev. J. McNamara. D. D 

Eev. A. D. Smith, D. D., LL. D. .. 
Et. Eev. W. H. Odenbeiraer, D. D. 
Eev. W.H.Campbell, D.D.,LL.D. 
Eev. J. McCosh, D. D., LL. D . .. 
Very Eev. M. A. Con-igan, D. D. 
Eev. J. Allen 



St. John's College 

Hobart College 

Madison University 

Cornell University 

Genesee CoUege 

Collegeof the City of New York 

College (if St. Francis Xavier.. 

Columbia College 

Manhattan College , 

University of the City of New 
York. 

St. Joseph's College 

University of Eochester 

Union College 

Syracuse University 

Eensselaer Polytechnic Insti- 
tute. 

Uuiver.sity of North Carolina. . 

Wake Forest College 

Euthcrford College 

Olin College 

Davidson College 

North Carolina College 

Trinity College 

Buchtel College 

Ohio U ui versify 

Baldwin University 

German Wallace College 

St. Xavier College 

Mount St. Mary's of the West 

Farmers' College 

Capitol University 

Kenyon College 

Donison University 

Harlem Sjirings College 

■Western Eeserve College 

St. Louis College 

Marietta College 

Mount Union CoUege 



Fordham, N. Y 

Geneva, N. Y 

Hamilton, N.Y 

Ithaca, N.Y 

Lima, N. Y 

NowYorkCity, N. Y. 

do 

do 

do 

do 



1860 
1854 

1670 
1870 
1602 
1853 
1856 
1612 

1646 
1825 
1619 
1868 
1649 
1854 
1647 
1754 
1863 
1631 



Eev. E. B. Fairbairn, D. D 

D. H. Cochran, Ph. D., LL. D . . 



Eev. J. T. Landrv, CM 

Eev. W. Becker, S. J 

Brother Frank 

Eev. J. F. Winkler 

E. Fisk, jr., D. D 

Eev. S. G. Brown, D. D., LL. D. 



Rhinecliff, N. Y 

Eochester, N. Y 

Schenectady, N. Y. 

Syracuse, li. Y 

Troy,N.Y 



1850 
1795 
1870 



Chapel Hill, N. C 

Forestville, N. C 

Happv Home P. O., N. C. 

Iredcil Count v, N. C 

Meckleiiliuri^h County.N.C 

Mount I'li'asaut, N. C 

Eandolph County, N. C 

Akron, Ohio . . . *. 

Athens, Ohio 

Berea, Ohio 

Cincinnati, Ohio 

do 

do 

College Hill, Ohio 

Columbus, Ohio 

Gambler, Ohio 

Granville, Ohio 

Harlem Springs, Ohio 

Hudson, Ohio 

Louisville, Ohio 

Marietta, Ohio 

Mount Union, Ohio 



1795 
1834 

1870 
1653 
1837 
18.50 
l850 



1804 
1856 
1663 
1842 
1851 
1846 



1824 
1831 
1867 
1826 
1866 
1835 
1846 



Eev. J. Shea, S. J , 

Eev. J. Eankino, D. D . . 
E. Dodge, D. D., LL. D . 
A. D. White, LL. D 



A.S.Webb, LL. D 

Eev. H. Hudon, S.J 

F. A. P. Barnard, S. T. D., LL. D, 

Brother Patrick 

Howard Crosby, D. D 



Eev. M. J. Scully 

M. B. Anderson, LL. D . 
Eev. E. N. Potter, D. D. 
D. Steele, D. D, (acting) . 



S.Pool 

W. M. Wingate, D. D 

Eev. E. L. Aberuethy, A. M 

J. Southgato 

Eev. G. W. McPhail, D. D., LL. D 

Eev. L. A. Bikle, A. M 

Eev. B. Craven, D. D 

Eev. H. F. Miller, Sec 

Eev. S. Howard, D. D., LL. D. . .. 

W. D. Godman, D. D 

W.Nast,D.D 

Eev. T. O'Neil > 

F. J. Pabish, D. D., LL. D., D.C.L 

CD. Curtis 

Eev. W. F. Lehman 

E. T. Tappan 

Eev. S. Talbot, D. D 



C Cutler A. M 

F. Hours 

L W. Andrews, D. D 

Key. 0. N. Hartshorn, LL. D. . 



STATISTICAL TABLES. 
DEPAHTMENTS DT THE UNITED STATES, &C.— Continued. 



553 





C 

C 

g 1 

cj C 

.9 <- 
^ 1 

p ^ 


Students. 


Cost of— 


1 

in 
.9 

1 

1 


1 




! 


1 

& 

>> 


1 

P4 


d 

a 


CO 


S 


.a 


'3 



'3 


. 

11 

.a "^ 




5 


o3 

1 




e 


3 
5 


a 

.2 

1 
a 
_o 

■3 
H 


1 

r3 


Time of commencement. 


IRR 




=i 
















70 
80 
80 
213 
60 










1R7 




5 ... 
























169 




4 
























1R0 


1 


1 






















V 


100 




1 
























1P1 


R. C 


























IHO 


E.C ...2 




2124 

7J10.4 


21 
10 


6 
6 


7 
5 


3 

4 


iss 


161 

314 




161 
314 


6280 
a45 




16, 000 
6,000 


Last Thursday in June, 
3d Thursday in June. 


I*)? 




101 


E C 




10"! 






























196 
197 
108 


P.E ... 
Con?... 2 
P.E ... 
Eef....l 
Pres... 1 
E.C ...1 
Bapt...2 


5 9 
i ... 
5 ... 












20 
3C0 




29 
360 


6^280 




1,500 
44, 900 


Last Thursday in June. 
Last Thursday in June. 


60 


75 


78 


69 


78 


$10-16 


199 
200 
'>01 


3195 

8... 
5 58 
1 90 


54 
87 
14 
33 


47 
106 

8 
27 


56 

87 
8 
15 


33 

95 

12 

5 


'"5 

30 

328 


385 
380 
130 
160 


222 


385 

380 
130 

408 


a75 

al40 

6400 

10 


16-24 
16-24 


"36,' 060 

8,000 
6,000 


3d "Wednesday in June. 
Last Wednesday in June. 


202 
"01 


6-12 


1st "Wednesday in July. 


204 


P.E ... 

2 


8 27 
6 438 


14 


10 


15 


8 


124 


74 
562 




74 
562 


Free .. 
al20 


a225 


1,800 
3,000 


1st Thursday in July. 
3d "Wednesday in June. 


V(H^ 


E.C 












"07 


E.C ... 
R.C ...1 

Luth 


6 .. 












62 
291 




62 
291 


a50 
6220 








oOfl 


4 














2,000 


July 2. 


909 
















210 
2il 

010 


Univ .. 1 
Pres... 1 

K.C ...2 
P.E ... 
Bapt... 1 
3 


3... 

2... 

1 


11 
45 


14 

39 


C 
39 


10 
41 


6 


27 
164 

265 
39 
165 
490 
48 
723 
477 
117 
631 
107 


20 

"b 


47 
164 

265 
39 
165 
490 
56 
723 
477 
117 
631 
107 


a25 
20 

6300 

15 

a30 

a45 


12 
all4-190 


6,000 
12, COO 


Last "Wednesday in June. 
Thursday after last Tues- 
day in'june. 
Last "Wednesday in June. 
2d Thursday after 4 th July. 
3d "Wednesday in June. 
4th Thursday in June. 
2d Thursday in July. 


213 
214 
9T) 


9... 
2 51 

8... 
4... 

6 410 

5-271 
2 . . . 
3448 
5 .. . 


14 
34 

10 

8 

153 

37 

31 

27 
27 


3 

24 
22 
6 
72 
29 
32 
29 
31 


15 

40 
4 
10 
49 
17 
25 
15 
21 


7 
16 
5 
7 
39 
10 
29 
11 
28 


'449 
25 

107 

ioi 


16-20 
12 

a220 


13, 000 
10, 454 
30, 000 

5,300 
20, 000 

14, 000 
2,000 
6,500 
3,000 


'>^f, 


M.E... 
City ... 3 
E.C ...2 
P.E ... 1 
E.C ... 4 
3 


917 






918 


a60 
Free 




Last Monday in June. 
Last Wednesday in June. 
Juno 30. 
2d Thursday before July 4. 


919 




220 
Wl 


o50 


30 


«>oo 


E. C 






223 
224 
225 
9«fi 


Bapt... 
Pres ... I 
M.E... 
1 


9 ... 
6... 
7... 
9 


23 
20 
29 


22 

25 
8 


19 

25 

6 


24 
19 
17 


33 


121 
89 
51 


"9 


121 

89 
60 


20 
15 

20 


14-20 
13-20 
18-20 


"19,' COO 
1,395 


Last "Wednesday in June. 
"Wednesday before 4th July. 
4th Thursday in June. 


007 


State .. 
Bapt... 
Meth .. 


6 . 












55 
100 
95 


'28 


55 
100 
123 


a40 
a70 
o50 


12 
10-12 

7-10 


21, 700 

8,000 

200 


2d Thursday in June. 


OOR 


6 .. 












ogq 


7 14 










109 


1st "Wednesday in August. 


'>^0 










231 
232 
233 
934 


Pres . . . 
Luth .. 
M.E.S. 


7... 
5 70 
C 22 


22 

6 

34 


36 

6 

21 


16 

'is 


32 
2 
16 


6 
"54 


112 

84 
165 




112 

84 
165 


a45 

a20-40 

a65 


14 
8-10 
10-13 


3,000 
1,200 


Last Thursday in June. 
Last Thursday in May. 
3d Thursday in June. 


935 


State . . 
M.E...1 
M.E... 
R.C ...1 
E.C ...1 
Meth . . . 


5 67 
1 20 
5 


9 

5 


6 
3 


5 
3 


5 
6 


29 
109 


121 
116 

74 

269 

80 


'90 
19 


121 

206 
93 

269 
60 


10 
o21 
4-9 

a60 




5,000 
1,000 
600 
12, 000 
10, 000 


Last Friday in .Tune. 


93fi 




9'i7 




Second Thursday in June. 
Last "Wednesday in June. 
June 24. 


938 


7188 
6... 


34 


21 


17 


9 


.... 




239 
940 


16 


941 


Luth 




























242 
243 
9A4 


P.E...] 
Bapt . . . 


S 47 
8 49 


13 

22 


13 
14 


9 
13 


10 

7 


"97 


92 
202 


... 


92 
202 


a42 
a34 


12-16 
12 


18, 320 
10, 500 


Last Thursday in June. 
Last Thursday in June. 


245 




1 42 


10 


17 


20 


14 


.... 


109 


... 


109 


a30 


10-16 


10, 000 


Last "Wednesday in June. 


24fi 


E.C .. 


247 
248 


C.& P. 
M.E...] 


9 92 
9 30 


35 
172 


26 
93 


13 
40 


17 

54 


275 


183 

418 


246 


183 
664 


o38 
13 


10-16 
al08 


23, 350 
3,400 


"Wednesday before July 4. 
Last Thursday in July. 



554 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION. 

STATISTICS OF COLLEGES AND COLLEGIATB 



Name. 



Location. 



President, 



249 
250 
2.-.1 
252 
253 
254 
255 
25C 
257 
258 
259 
2C0 
2C1 
262 
263 
264 
265 
2(16 
268 
269 
270 
271 
272 
273 
274 
275 
276 

277 
278 
279 

280 
281 

282 
283 
264 
285 

286 
28' 
2S: 
289 
290 
291 

292 
293 
294 
295 
296 
29' 

298 
299 
300 
301 
S02 
303 
304 
305 
306 
307 
308 
309 

310 



Franklin Collofio 

Muskingum College 

Oberlin (College 

!Miami University 

lUchmontl College 

Wittenberg College 

Heidelberg College 

Uibana University 

Otteibein University 

Willougliby College 

Univeisit V of Wooster 

Antioch College 

Wilbeifurco University 

Xenia College 

Obio Wesleyan University . 

New Market College 

Obio Central College 

llirani College 

Pacific University 

Oregon College 

Willamette University . .. . . 

Holy Angels College 

Pbiioiuath College 

Avery College 

Mublcnberg College 

Andalusia College 

Lebanon Valley College — 



Moravian College 

Dickinson College 

Augustinian College of Villa- 
nova. 

Lafayette College 

Pennsylvania College 

Franklin and Marshall College. 

Lewisburgb University 

St. Francis College 

Allegheny College 

^lercersburgb College 

Palatinate College 

Westminster College 

Lineoln University 

Maimnnidea College 

Department of Arts, University 
of Pennsylvania. 

La Salle College 

St. Josepb's College 

Western University 

Leliiu'b University 

Swarthmore College 

Washington and Jefferson Col- 
lege. 

Waynesburgh College 

Haverford College 

St. Vincent's ( College 

Ursinus College 

Brown University 

Clollege of Cli.irle'ston 

Univer.sity of South Carolina. . 

Furnian University 

Claflin University 

Wofford College .' 

Newberry College 

East Tennessee Wesleyap 
University. 

King College 



New Athens, Ohio . . . 
New Concord, Ohio. . . 

Oberlin, Ohio 

Oxford, Ohio 

Richmond, Ohio 

Springfield, Ohio 

TilUn.Ohio 

Urbana, Ohio 

Wcstervillo, Ohio 

Willougbby,Ohio.... 

Wooster, Ohio 

Yellow Springs, Ohio. 

Near Xenia, Ohio 

Xeni.a, Obio 

Delaware, Ohio 

Scio P. O., Ohio 

Iberia, Ohio 

Hiram, Ohio 

Forest Grove, Oreg. . . 

Oregon City, Oreg 

Salem, Oreg 

Vancouver, Oreg 

Philomath, Oreg 

Allegheny City, Pa. . . 

Allentown, Pa 

Andalusia, Pa 

Annville, Pa 



182i 

183' 

1834 

1809 

1835 

1844 

165U 

185ii 

1857 

1855 

1870 

1854 

1803 

1850 

184-2 

1859 

1854 

1867 

1859 

1850 

1853 



Bethlehem, Pa 

Carlisle, Pa 

Delaware County, Pa. 



Fasten, Pa 

Gettysburgh, Pa 

Lancaster, Pa 

Lewisburgh, Pa 

Loretto, Pa 

Mcadville, Pa 

Mereersburch, Pa 

Myerstown, Pa 

New Wilmington, Pa. 

Oxford, Pa 

Philadelphia, Pa 

do 



1807 
1861 
1866 

1807 
1783 

1848 

1820 
1832 
1853 
1847 
1850 
1815 
1865 



1852 
1854 



do 

do 

Pittsburgh, Pa 

South Bethlehem, Pa. 

Swarthmore, Pa 

Washington, Pa 



Waynesburgh, Pa 

West Haverford, Pa 

Westmoreland County, Pa 

Freeland, Pa 

Providence, It. I 

Charleston, S. C 

Columbi.a, S. C 

Greenville, S. C 

Or;uii;cburL,'h, S. C 

Si>arUiiibur-h C. n., S. C. . . 

Wallialla, S. C 

Athens, Tenn. , . . 



Bristol, Tenn 



1755 

180: 
185: 
1819 
1866 
1869 
180: 

1850 
1833 
1846 
1869 
1704 
1787 
1801 
1851 
1869 
1851 
1859 
1867 

1869 



A. F. Pvoss, LL. D 

Bov. D. Paul, A. M 

Rev. J. H. Fairchild, D. D . 

Rev. A. D. Hepburn 

L.W.Ong,A.M 

Rev. S. Sprecher, D. D 

Rev. G. W. Willard, D. D. . 

Rev. F. Sewall, A. M 

Rev. L. Davks, D. D 

L.O.Lee 

Rev. W. Lord, D. D 

G. W. Eosmer, D. D 

Rt. Rev. D. A. Payne, D. D 

Wm. Smith, A.M 

Rev. F. Merrick, D. D 

A. D.Lee, A.M 

E.F.Reed 

B. A. Hinsdale, A. M 

Rev. S. H. Marsh, D. D . . . . 

G. C. Chandler, D. D 

T. M. Gatch, A. M 



Prof. Biddle 



Rev. F. A. Muhlenberg, D. D . 

Rev. H. T. Wells, LL. D 

L. H. Hammond, A.M 



Rt. Rev. E. de Schweinitz, D. D. . 

Rev. R. L. Dashiell, D. D 

Very Rev. P. A. Stanton, O. S. A 



Rev. W. C. Cattell, D. D . . 

M. Valentine, D. D 

Rev. J. W. Nevin, D. D . . . 
Rev. J. R. Loomia, LL. D . 

Rev. A. J. Brownam 

Rev. G. Loomia, D. D 

Rev. E. E. Higby, D. D . . 
Rev. H. R. Nicks, A. M... 

R. A. Brown, D. D 

Rev. I. N. RendaU, D. D . . 



C.J.Stm6,LL.D. 



Brother Oliver 

Rev. P. A. Jordan, S. J. 

G. Woods, LL.D 

H. Coppee, LL. D 

E. H. McGill 

Rev. G. P. Hays, D. D . 



A. B. Miller, D. D 

S. J. Gummere, A. M 

Rev. A. Hoimler, O. S. B 

J. H. A. Bomberger, D. D 

Rev. A. Caawel^-D. D., LL. D. . 

N. R. Middleton 

Hon. R. W. Barnwell, LL. D. . . 

J.C. Furman, D. D 

A. Webster, D. D 

Rev. A. M. Shipp, A. M., D. D . 

Rev. J. P. Smeltzer, A. M 

Rev, N. E. Cobleigh, D. D 



Kev. J. D. Tadlock. 



STATISTICAL TABLES. 

DEPARTMENTS W THE UNITED STATES, &C.— Continued. 



555 





1 

a 

1 
g 


1 


a 

Vi 



Ch 

-a 

a 

a 
C 


Students. 


Cost of— 


1 

.a 

« 

1 




1 


a 
U 
& 



g 

a 
P. 


a 

a 

1 




a 


p. 


CO 




s 

.2 
'3 


i 

p< 

§1 



s 


3 




n 
a 


3 
s 


.2 

i 




a 

« 


Time of commencement. 


fJ4q 


U. P... 














58 


13 


71 


o$30 


$12-16 




Last Thursday in June. 


*''')0 














251 
252 
9=13 


Cong .. 
State . . 


20 
8 
4 
7 
9 


078 
45 
20 
90 

120 


01 

17 
31 

24 

18 


30 

18 
14 
19 

18 


30 
17 

7 
19 

5 


40 
19 
4 

17 
16 


328 
23 
25 

8 


056 
139 
55 
177 
147 


517 
'52 
■30 


1173 
139 
107 
177 
177 


3 

a45 

10 

a30 

a26 


10 

18-20 
12 
10 
10 


10, 000 

9,000 
"e.'ooo 

4,800 


First 'Wednesday in Aug. 
Last Thursday iu June. 
Third Wednesday in Jnno. 
Last Thursday in June. 
June 21. 


254 

255 


Luth. . . 

Ilef . . . 
N. Ch.. 


257 

958 


U. B . . . 


7 
8 
9 
10 

8 
7 
9 


20 

27 


14 
33 


10 

18 


12 
11 


10 
4 


70 

18 


87 
49 


49 
02 


130 
111 

72 
215 
100 
170 
417 
155 

92 
109 

98 


alO 

8 

15 

a38 

5-7 

12 

o54 

15 

6130-200 

6200-300 

033 


12 

12-16 

16 

ol33 

6-12 

16 

14-18 

10 


"3,600 

2,500 

4,700 

3,500 

350 

13, 030 

500 

500 

?,000 

5,000 


1st "Wednesd'y after May 26. 


""0 


Pros . . . 
Uuit... 
A.M.E. 

Mcth . . 
M.E... 


Last Wednesday in June. 

Last "Wednesday in June, 

Juuo 21. 

Juno 19. 

Last Thursday in June. 


2G0 
201 
20:2 
203 
"6'! 


65 

88 
27 
74 
20 


12 

2 

'04 
100 




'40 
21 


4 
4 

'37 
14 


3 
4 

'45 


125 

149 
151 


110 
62 
39 

417 

105 
63 

125 
64 


99 
38 
137 

'56 
23 
44 
34 


'>fiT 


U. P . . . 

Chr.... 


4 

10 

7 








Ofifi 
















Juuo 22 


908 


33 


4 


2 


2 




57 


0I8O 


First Wednesday in Jun& 


9fi<) 


Bant . . . 


270 
971 


M.E... 


13 


188 


9 


10 


1 


3 


45 


129 


127 


256 


15 


16-2 


650 


Third Thursday in Junn. 


97?t 






















70 










971 






























274 

97 f> 


Luth... 
P. E . . . 
U.B... 


9 
11 

7 


10 
55 
20 


18 
"'6 


18 
13 
5 


13 
5 
5 


14 
4 


63 

'ei 


142 

77 
93 


'24 


142 

77 
117 


a45 
6300 
a47 


ol50 


2,800 
400 


Last Thursday in June. 


270 
"77 


10 


Last Thursday but one in 
June. 


278 
07C) 


M.E... 
R. C... 

Pres . . . 
Luth .. 
G. Pv... 

B;ipt . . . 
R. C . . . 


8 
15 

11 

7 





20 


31 


20 


18 


30 


125 
110 

231 
177 
124 
156 


io 


125 
110 

231 

177 
134 
150 


a40 
6250 

15 

13 

13 

a30 


10-16 


25, 563 
4,000 

8,000 
17, 830 

8,000 
5,000 


Last Thursday in June. 
Last Wednesday iu June. 

3d Wednesday in June. 
Last Thursday in June. 
Last Thursday in June. 
Last Tuesday in June. 


280 

281 
282 
283 

984 


'03 
59 
30 


83 
34 
17 

29 


67 
20 
10 
15 


32 
31 

28 
10 


38 
23 
14 

20 


11 

'46 


20-24 
al37 
14-18 
12-16 


283 
980 


M.E... 
G.R... 
G. R... 
U.P... 
Pres . . . 






18 


25 
63 


21 
19 


15 
10 


11 

8 


20 
2 


'"'s 


85 
96 
233 
100 
158 


7 
14 

50 
04 


192 
210 
283 
130 
158 


""6200 

033 

025 

10 


16 


12, 000 


June 20. 

2d Wednesday in Juna 


087 


ol54 

8-10 
10 


COO 

1,500 

28, 000 




288 
289 


52 
71 


35 
34 


32 
22 


10 

18 


31 
15 


04 


Lasc Thursday in June. 
3d Wednesday in Juno, 


9C)1 


State .. 

R. C... 
R.C ... 


30 

15 

8 
10 
15 




31 


30 


38 


26 


62 


187 

212 

340 
217 

lie 

134 
118 


94 


187 

212 
340 
217 
116 
228 
118 

275 

51 

227 

120 

225 

50 

70 

50 

103 

136 

86 










000 


060-80 

""18-25 

Free . - 

6350 

8 

al2 




3,000 

7,500 
2,000 
2,000 




9Q3 














10-15 

10-24 

20 


Ist Monday in July. 
Last Tuesday in Juno. 
Last Thursday iu Juno. 


9<f4 


'48 
173 
39 


11 

38 
30 
30 


27 
13 
18 
14 


17 
9 

7 
10 


9 

8 


153 


295 
•JOO 


P. E . . . 

Fr 


297 


Pres . . . 

C.P... 

Fr 

R. C . . - 
Rcf .... 
Bapt. . 


10 

10 
5 

22 

"e 
13 


19 




9-10 
12-14 


'"7,' 857 
6,000 

"38,' 666 

8,000 

27, 000 


Wednesday before July 3. 

2d Thursday in September. 
July 12. 


91)0 


'23 
98 


8 


10 


20 


13 


'204 


51 
227 
120 
225 
50 
70 
50 
73 
130 
80 
100 

162 


'36 
'43 


1(10 


10 
048 
a75 
040 
o45 


10 

15 

13-32 

i4 




;ini 


13 

50 


3 

78 


6 
41 






302 


50 




Last Wednesday iu June. 
Last Tuesday iu March. 
Last Monday in Juna 


304 


State .. 
Bapt - . . 
M.E... 
M.E.S. 
Luth... 
M.E... 


14 
4 

7 
4 
9 

6 














SO') 














3or 


















200 
2,000 

366 




307 
308 


42 
79 
35 


22 
2 
14 


24 
3 
11 


22 
2 
5 


15 


11 


32 


15 
12 
12 

14 


Last Wednesday in June. 
Last Thursday in June. 


309 


5 


73 


143 o46 
162 i20 


2d Wednesday in June. 
Last Wednesday but oneio 


















•"1 n 


Mfty. 



556 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIOJIER OF EDUCATION. 

STATISTICS OF COLLEGES AND COLLEGIATE 



ITame. 



312 

313 

314 

31 

31C 

317 

318 

319 
320 
321 
32: 
323 

324 

32j 
320 
327 
328 
329 
330 
331 
332 
333 
334 
335 
33G 

337 

338 
339 
340 
341 

342 

343 

344 

34 

346 

34 

348 

350 

35] 

352 

353 

354 

355 

356 

35 

358 

359 
360 
301 
362 
363 
364 
305 
366 
36' 
368 
369 
370 
371 
372 



Greenville and Tu senium Col- 
lego. 

"West Tennessee University . . . 

Jonesborough Collego 

East Tennessee University - - ■ 

Presbyterian Synoilical College 

Cumberland University 

Lookout Moimtain Educational 
Institution. 

Hiawassee College 

Mar^-villc College 

Union University 

Central Tennessee College 

College of Arts, University of 
Nashville. 

risk University 

Franklin Cnllego 

University of the South 

St. Joseph's College 

Colorado College 

University of St. Mary 

Aranama College 

Henderson College 

Baylor University 

St.'Mary's CoUeg'o 

"Waco University 

University of Vermont 

Middlebui-y College 



Location. 



Greenville, Tenn. 



Norwich Univeisity 

Randolph Macon Cldlege 

University of Virgiuia 

Emory and Henry College 

Washington and' Lee Univer- 
sity. 

Hampden Sidney College 

Eiehni(md College 

Koanoko College 

College of William and Mary. 
Virginia Military Institute — 

St. John's College 

Bethany College 

West Virginia University 

St. Vincent's College 

West Virginia College 

Lawrence University 

Wavland University 

Beloit College 

Galesvillo University 

Jancsville Colleao 

University of Wisconsin 



Pio None College 

Milton College 

Racine College 

Ripon College , 

St. John's College 

Northwestern University 

Carroll College 

Georgetown College 

Columbian College 

Gonzaga College 

Howard University 

Santa 1''6 University 

University of Desefot 

Washington University , . 



Jackson, Tenn 

Jonesborough, Tenn 

Knoxvillo, Tenn 

Lagrange, Tenn 

Lebanon, Tenn 

Lookout Mountain, Ten. . 

Madisonville, Tenn 

Mary ville, Tenn 

Murfreesborough, Tenn.. 

Nashville, Tenn 

do 



.do 



1869 



I860 
1807 
1850 

184: 
1866 



1810 
1848 
18G6 
1806 



186' 
1844 

1808 



Near Nashville, Tenn 

Sewanee, Tenn 

Brownsville, Texas . . 

Columbus, Texas 

Galveston, Texas 

Goliad, Texas 

Henderson, Texas . . . 
Independence, Texas 
San Antonio, Texas .. 

Waco, Texas 

Burlington, Vt 

Middlebury, Vt 179' 



Presidents 



Rev. W. S. Doak, A. M . 



Rev. E. L. Patton, A. M 

H. Presnell, A. M 

Rev. T. W. Humes, S. T. D .... 



B. W. McDonnald, D. U., LL. D 
Rev. C. F. P. Bancroft, A. M 



J. B. Greiner, A. M 

Rev. P. M. Bartlett, A. M. 

G. W. Jarman, A. M 

Rev. J. Braden, A. M 

E. K. Smith 



185' 
1850 
1852 
1871 
1845 



1861 



Northfield, Vt . . . . 

Ashland, Va 

Univ. of Va. P. 0- 

Emory, Va 

Lexington, Va 



Prince Edward County, Va. 

Richmond, Va 

Salem, Va 

Williamsbursih, Va 

Lexington, Va 

Norfolk, Va 

Bethany, W. Va 

Morirantown, W. Va 

Wheeling, W. Va 

Flemington, W. Va 

Apple ton. Wis 

Beaver Dam, Wis 

Beloit, AVi8 

Galesville, Wis 

Janesville, Wis 

Madison, Wis 



1831 
1831 

182 
1838 
1782 

1770 
1841 
1853 
1093 
1839 



St. Francis, Wis 

Milton, Wis 

Racine, Wis 

Ripon, Wis 

Prairie dti Chien, Wis 

Watertown, Wis 

Waukesha, Wis 

Georgetown, D. C 

Washington, D. C 

do 

.... do 

SantaF6, N. M 

Salt Lake City, Utah Ter 
SeatUe, Wash. Ter 



1841 

1808 
1805 

iei 

1854 
1847 
1859 



A. K. Spence, A. M. 

A.J. Fanning 

Gen. Gorgas 



Rev. J. J. Scherer, A.M.. 
Brother Boniface, S. S. C 
J. E. C. Doremus, D. D . . . 

G.H.Gould 

W. C. Crane, D. D 



Rev. R. C. Burleson, D. D. 

M. H. Buckham 

Rev. H. D. Kitchel, D. D . 



Rev. R. S. Howard, D. D 

Rev. J. A. Dunc;;n, A. M., D. D. 

C. S. Venable, LL. D 

Rev. E. E. Wilcv, D. D 

Gen. G. W. C. Lee 



B. Puryear, A. M 

B. PurVcai, AM 

Rev. D'; F. Bittle, D.D. 

B.S.EW0II 

Gen. F. H. Smith 



1848 

1871 

1844 

185: 

1863 

1805 

1864 

1846 

1792 

1822 

1848 

1867 

1870 

1868 

leoi 



W. K. Pendleton 

Rev. A. Martin, D. D 

Rev. A. Louage 

Rev. W. ColecTove, A. M . 
Rev. G. M. Steele, D. D . . 

A. S. Hutchcns 

Rev. A. L. Chapin, D. D . . 
Rev. H. Gilliland, A. M. . . 

A. L. Reed 

J. U. Twombly, D. D 



Rev. J. Salzmann, D. D 

Rev. W.C. Whitford, A.M.., 

Rev. J. De Koven, D. D 

Rev. W. E. Merriman, A. M. . 

Brother Benedict 

Rev. A. F. Ernest, A. M 

Rev. W. D. F. Lummis A. M 

Rev. J. Earlv, S. J 

J. C. Welling, LL. D 

Rev. J.Clark 

Gen. O. O. Howard, LL. D . . . 

Rev. D. F. McFarland 

J.RPark, M.D 

J.H.Hall 



STATISTICAL TABLES. 

DEPARTMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES, &c.— Continued. 



557 





1 

p 


Students. 


Cost of— 


1 

"I 
1 

'A 




(4 


m 

" s 

2 1 

g i 
s s 

1 2 
a ^ 
s £ 
A ^ 


a 

o 

a 
■g 

1 


a 

o 

1 


.1 


S 

'3 


1 

o 

II 

o 

ID 

O 


7i 

6: 


a 


3 
o 
H 

65 


1 

% 
Pi 

g 

■p. 


1 

a 

1 


Time of commencement. 


312 


Pres . . . 


5 










313 






















314 


M.E... 


3 








^ 




16- 


6C 


65 
167 










315 


12 ii: 


2f 


15 


£ 


A 


.... 


a$3f 


%i 


1,000 


3d "Wednesday in June, 


316 


Pres . . . 


317 
318 


C.P. ... 


9 IOC 

6 44 


3C 
C 


29 
2 


2S 


2i 


30 
53 


23E 

73 


26 


23fl 
105 


a0O-7C 
b20C 


14-20 





2d Thursday in June. 
3d Tuesday'in Jane. 


319 


Lnth .. 







320 
321 


Pres . . . 
Bapt. .. 


6 24 


g 




A 


5 


59 


71 


2S 


100 


a20 


8-12 


2,000 


Last Thursday in May. 


322 
323 


M. E... 
State... 1 

Cong .. 
Chr ... . 


6 9 
0... 

7... 










211 

239 


115 
271 

524 


105 


220 
271 

524 


a9 
6150-175 


10-12 


450 
10, 000 


May 17. 

2d Tuesday in June. 


15 


10 


5 


2 


3^4 




325 










326 


P. E . . . 


8 












180 




180 










327 






















328 


Luth. .. . 




























329 


E.C.... 


9 78 










84 


102 




102 


3-6 


c30 


500 


Last Thursday in June. 


330 










831 




7 












173 
113 


142 


315 


al30 
a30-60 






September 4. 

2d Wednesday in June. 


a32 


Bapt... 


6 












...113 


12-50 


2,500 


333 














334 


Bapt... 1 
State . . 1 
Cong .. 

P.E.... 1 
M.E.S. 
State.. . 1 
M.E.S. 
2 


1 








9 
13 
10 

8 


230 

24 


140 
69 

56 

74 
142 
317 
180 
305 

81 
144 
151 

76 


105 245 


15-25 

a45 
a45 

6350 

a40-75 

70 

a60 

a60 

a50 

a70 

a50 

50 

Free . . 


12-15 
14-lG 
al42 


'is.'ooo 

11, 000 

4,000 
10, 000 
37, 000 
13, 580 

6,000 

3,500 

'"e.'eoo 

5,000 


Last "Week in June. 
1st Thursday in August. 
Thursday following 2d 

"Wednesday in August. 
2d Thursday in July. 
Last Thursday in June. 
Thursday before July 4. 
1st "Wednesday in June. 
4th Thursday "in Juna 

2d Thursday in June. 
July 1. 

3d "Wednesday in Juno. 
3d Monday in June. 
July 4. 


335 
336 

337 


5 ... 
1 ... 

0... 
7 


11 
14 

12 


7 
10 

24 


14 

18 

30 




69 
58 

74 
142 
317 
180 
305 

81 
144 
151 

76 
386 


338 


10-18 

16-20 

13 

16 

al60 

10 

al40-205 

16 

15 


339 


q 












340 
341 


5 83 


27 


25 


25 


15 


.... 


.842 
843 


Pres ... 
Bapt . . 1 
Luth . . . 1 
P.E ... 1 

State .. . 


5... 
1 


18 


16 


21 


10 


16 


344 
345 


1 69 


11 


14 


16 


7 


34 


316 












386 


?fifi 


347 


R.C 














348 
350 
3'il 


Chr.... 
State. . . 1 
II.C.... 1 
1 


9... 
3 99 


22 
25 


16 

8 


11 
12 


15 
2 


43 


107 
146 
120 

48 
185 


'28 

87 


107 

i26 

70 
272 


a30 

5-8 
a30 
6-8 
5-7 
a25 
a36 
a21-30 


20 
16 

a200 
12 

8-11 


'"i.'soo 

3,500 

'"o.'ooo 


3d Thursdav in June. 
3d "Wednesday in June. 
Ist Monday in September. 
July 12. 
Last Thursday in June. 


352 


f1 












353 
3=)4 


M. E . . . 
Bapt . . . 
Cong... 
M. E . . . 


1 57 


29 


24 


11 


13 


138 


355 
3'i6 


)133 


14 


20 


14 


11 


5 


197 
62 
161 
B38 

20 
141 

85 


'•44 
22 
124 

'96 
147 
'4 


197 
106 
183 
462 

20 
237 
185 
321 
130 
132 


a80-160 


7,200 
4,500 


2d "Wednesday in July. 


3'>7 


i 
















358 
3W 


State... 2 

RC 

Bapt... ' 
P.E.... K 
1-; 


n3i 


7 


5 


10 


6 


303 


6 

O160 
8-11 
6400 

8 


12 


5,000 

7,200 
1,310 


"Wednesday preceding last 

Tuesday in June. 
July 1. 

Last "Wednesday in June. 
2d "Wednesday in July. 
Last "Wednesday in Juno. 


SCO 
361 


ri63 

)131 
! 54 


32 
13 
6 


26 
21 
5 


10 
4 
5 


6 

7 


9 


13 


369 


2441741 


10 


1,500 


363 


R.C....11 

Lnth... ' 
Pres .... 




130 

128 


364 














10 


al20-150 


1,500 


July 4. 


3(15 














366 
367 
368 


R.C....1( 
Bapt... i 
R.C.... £ 
Cong 


139 
70 


36 
13 


15 

8 


11 

8 


11 

10 


... \ 

1 


212 
'j9 
43 




212 
U)9 
143 


6325 
a60 
a44 


16 


33, 000 

8,000 
400 


Last Thursday in June. 
Last "Wednesday in June. 
1st Monday in July. 


360 
















370 


Pres ... 4 
L.D. S. 13 
5 














34 

86 i 
10 


17 

294 

88 


51 

580 
198 


40-60 

a60 

14 


o225 40 
20-32 

14 MWi 


September 11. 


371 












£■ 


sn 












1 






















1 





34* 



658 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION. 



STATISTICS OF THEOLOGICAL 
[Compiled from the most recent reports sent 



Name. 



Location. 



Denomination. 



1 

2 

3 

4 
5 

6 

7 
8 

9 

10 

11 
12 

13 
14 
15 
16 
17 
18 

19 

20 

21 

22 

23 
24 

25 
26 

27 
28 
29 

30 
31 
32 
33 
34 
35 
36 

37 

36 

39 
40 
41 
42 
43 
44 
45 
46 
47 
48 

49 
50 
51 
52 
53 
54 



Theological department of Howard College. 
Eeclcfiastical Seminary of Diocese of Mo- 
bile. 

Saint Augustine College 

Theological Seminary 

Pacific Theological Seminary 

Theological Institute of Connecticut 

Theological ilcpartment of Yale College.. 
Berkeley Divinity School 



Theological department of Mercer Uni- 
versity. 
St. Joseph's Ecclesiastical College 



Theological Seminary of the Northwest. . . 

Theological school of Blackburn Univer- 
sity. 

Gan-ett Biblical Institute 

Chicago Theological Seminary 

Theological Seminary of the Northwest. . . 

Baptist Theological Seminary 

Bible department of Eureka'College 

Theological department of Shurtletf Col- 
lego. 

Theological department of Augustana 
College. 

Theological School of HartsviUe Univer- 
sity. 

Wartburg Seminary 

Theological department of Griswold Col- 
lego. 

German Theological Seminary 

Theological Department of Iowa "Wes- 
leyan University. 

Norwegian Theological Semin.iry 

Theological dopartmeut of Georgetown 
College. 

Western Baptist Theological Institiito . . 

St. Joseph's Ecclesiastical Seminary 

College of the Bible, of Kentucky Univer- 
sity. 

Danville Theological Seminary 

Diocesan Theological Seminary 

Theological school of Bethel College 

Thomson Biblical Institute 

Theological Seminary 

Theological Seminary 

Theological school of Bates College 



Marion, Ala 

South Orange, Ala . 



Benicia, Cal 

San Francisco, Cal . 

Oakland, Cal 

Hartford, Conn 

New Haven, Conn. . 
Middletown, Conn . 



Macon, Ga 

Teutopolis, HI . 

Monmouth, HI . 
Carlinville, lU . 



Evanston, 111 

Chicago, 111 

do. , 

do 

Eureka, HI 

Upper Alton, HI , 



Genesee, 111 

HartsviUe, Ind. . . 

St. Sehald.Iowa.. 
Davenport, Iowa. 



18G8 
1871 
18C6 
1834 
1823 
1854 

1833 



1839 
1857 

1854 
1855 
1859 
18C6 
1852 
1832 



1857 
1859 



Dubuque, Iowa 

Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. 



Decorah, Iowa . . 
Georgetown, Ky 



do 

Bardstown, Ky. 
Lexington, Ky . 



Theological Seminary of St. Sulpice 

Theological department of Mt. St. Mary's 
College. 

Theological Seminary 

Divinity school of Tufts College 

Divinity school of Harvard University.. 

Bost on Theological Seminary 

Andover Theological Seminary 

Episcopal Th.Milogical School 

Newton Thccilogicp.l Institution 

Now Jerusalem Theological Scliool 

Theological department of Adrian College 

Theological department of Hillsdale Col- 
lego. 

Scandinavian Theological Seminary 

Concordia Siniinary 

Vandeiinan Seliool of Theology 

Theological school of Westminster College 

St. Vincent's Tlu^ological Seminary 

Theological Seminary of the Keformed 
Church. 



Danville, Ky 

Shelbyv)Ile,'Ky . . 
Russell ville, Ky. . 
New Orleans, La. 

do 

Bangor, Me 

Lewiston, Me 



1840 

1820 
1805 

1853 
18G5 
1853 
18C5 



Baltimore, Md 

Near Emmittsburgh, 
Md. 

Woodstock, Md 

College Hill, Mass . . . 

Camhridgo, Mass 

Boston, Mass 

Andover, Mass 

Cambridge, Mass 

Newton Centre, Mass 

Waltham, Mass 

Adrian, Mich 

Hillsdale, Mich 



Chicago, HI 

St. Louis, Mo 

Liberty, JIo 

Fulton', Mo 

Capo Girardeau, Mo. . 
New Brunswick, N. J 



1816 
1830 



1791 
1800 



l^'68 
1811 
1847 
1808 
1807 
1820 
1806 



Baptist 

Roman Catholic. 



Protest.xnt Episcopal. 

Presbyterian 

Congregational 

do 

do 

Protestant Episcopal. 



Baptist 

Roman Catholic. 



United Presbyterian . 
Presbyterian 



Methodist Episcopal . 

Congregational 

Presbyterian 

Baptist 

Christian 

Baptist 



Lutheran . 



United Brethren. 



Lutheran 

Protestant Episcopal . 

Presbyterian 

Methodist Episcopal . 



Lutheran . 
Baptist . . . 



do 

Roman Catholic. 
Christian 



Presbyterian 

Protestant Episcopal. 

Baptist 

Methodist Episcopal. 

Roman Catholic 

C(mgregatioiial 

Free Baptist 



Roman Catholic. 
, do 



... do 

Uuiversalist 

No tests 

Methodist Episcopal 

Congregational 

Protestant Episcopal 

Bapti-st 

New Jerusalem Church 



Free Baptist. 



Lutheran 

1840 do ... 

1808 Baptist . . , 



1844 Roman Catholic. 
1 785 Reformed 



STATISTICAL TABLES. 



559 



BEMINAEIES IN THE UNITED STATES. 
to the United States Bureau of EducatioD.] 





President or senior professor. 


2 

ai 


P^ 



d 





1 
« 

ti 
SI 


1. 

og 

1 


n 

a 

a 

0.0 
a 

!■= 


P a 
ca 

a g 

N p. 


Time of commencement. 


1 


Rev. S. K. Freeman, D. D 


1 


4 






2,500 


$105 


Last Thursday in Jane. 


p 






"^ 


Rt. Rev. "Win. I. Eiip, D. D 


6 


7 












4 












5 
C 

7 


Rev. James A. Benton, D. D . . . 

William Thompson, D. D 

Noah Porter, D. D., LL. D 

Rt. Rev. John Williams, D. D., 
LL.D. 


2 
3 

7 
10 


7 

25 
55 
38 


290 
8G5 
149 


$50, 000 

'308,' 666 

40, 000 


1,500 
7,000 


150 
80 


3d Thursday of Aujinst. 
Last Thursday in June. 
3d Thursday in May. 
Ist week in June. 


8 






q 








10 

11 
12 

13 


Very Rev. P. Maurice Kloster- 

man, 0. S. F. 
Rev. Alexander Tounff, D. D . . . 
Rev. John W. Bailej', D. D 

H. Bannister, D.D 


7 

3 

1 

4 
6 


106 

15 

20 

90 
55 


527 
208 

256 
125 
171 


15, 000 
16, 000 

300, 000 
100, 000 
100, 000 
112, 000 


700 

2,050 
700 

3,300 

3,700 
8,000 
10, 000 


180 

150-175 
180 

150 

150 

125-150 

150 


Last Thursday in March. 

Last Thursday in June. 
Last Thursday in ApriL 
1st Thursday in April. 


14 


Rev. S. C. Bartlett, D. D 


16 








17 










2d Thursday in June. 
Do. 


1R 


Rev. J. Bulkley, D. D 


3 

2 

1 






65, 000 




150 


10 


Rev. T. N. Hasselquist 


18 
7 






90 


Rev. J. Woodbury Scribner, A. 
M. 








93-150 

256 

150 


2d Tuesday in June. 


"1 


67 
15 

75 


3,400 
40, 000 

10, 000 


1,045 
5,000 

5,000 


22 
93 


Rt. Rev. Henry W. Lee, D. D., 
LL.D. 


2 

2 
1 


7 
16 


3d week in June. 


^4 


John Wheeler, D. D 




9=) 
















96 


Rev. N. M. Crawford 


1 










200-250 


2d Thursday in June. 


07 












9ft 




7 
2 


68 
122 






3,000 


1,50 
125 


Last Tuesday in June. 
2d Friday in June. 


5^ 


Rev. Robert MUligan 


110 
194 




?0 




218, 000 


8,000 


31 








2d Thursday in June. 


39 
















33 


















34 




2 
4 
4 

6 
3 

7 
3 
5 
14 
11 
4 
5 
4 


30 
24 
21 

70 
29 

75 
20 
37 

90 
88 
11 
50 

8 












35 

36 


Rev. Enoch Pond, D. D 

Rev. Oreu B. Cheney, D. D 


640 


120, 000 


13, 000 
2,000 


150 


1st Thursday in June. 
Tuesday before the last 

Wednesday in June. 
July 1st. 
3d Monday in Juno. 


37 






38 
30 


Very Rev. Jno. McCaffrey, D. D 


320 




15, 000 


150 


40 


Rev. Alonzo A. Miner, D. D 

Charles W. Eliot, LL. D 

Rev. William F. Warren, D. D. . 
Rev. Edwards A. Park, D. D. . . . 

Rev. John S. Stone, U. D 

Rev. A 1 vah Hovcy, D. D 

Rev. Thomas Worcester 

Rev. A. Mahan D. D 






12, 000 

16, 000 

4,000 

30, 000 

"i,'266 

500 


256 
300 
140 
150 
350 
200 
175 




41 
42 
43 
44 
45 
41) 
47 


432 

605 

2,606 

'536' 
9 


240, 000 
250, 000 

125, 666 
335, 000 

27, 000 


Last Tuesday in June. 
2d Wednesday in June. 
1st Thursday in August. 
1st Wednesday in July. 
2d Wednesday in Juno. 
Not fixed. 


48 


Rev. James Calder, D. D 


4 


32 












40 












50 


Rev. C. F. W. Walter 


4 
4 
3 








5,000 
3,000 


310 


1st September. 

1st Wednesday in Juna 


51 


Rev. T. Rambaut, D. D 


52 
6 




00, OCO 


5?1 


Rev. Nathan L. Rice, D. D 

Rev. J. Alizeri 


53 












54 




4 


22 


779 


175,000 


16, 000 


300 


September 20. 



560 EEPOET OP THE COMMISSIONER OF EDHCATION. 

STATISTICS OF THEOLOGICAL SEM 



Name. 



90 
91 
9i 

93 

94 

95 

96 
97 
98 
99 
ICO 
101 
102 
103 



106 
107 



Theological Seminary 

Drew Theolojrical Seminary . . . 
Auburn Theological Seminary. 



Rochester Theological Seminary. 
Union Theological Seminary 



Location. 



Princeton, N.J. 
Madison, N. J . . 
Auburn, N. Y . . 



Hartwick Theological Seminary 

Theological seminaryof Madison University 

Theological school "of St. Lawrence Uni- 
versity. 

Martin Luther (theological) College. ...... 

Newburgh Theological Seminary 

St. Joseph's Provincial Seminary 

Theological Seminary 

Do Lancy Divinity School 

Theological Seminary of Our Lady of 
Angels. 

Theological school of Trinity College 

Biblical department of Baldwin University 

Theological Seminary 



Theological school of Ohio "Wesleyan Uni- 
versity. 

Theological department of Wilherforce 
University. 

Theological department of Oberlin College 

Ueidelbprg Theological Seminary 

Theological seminary of St. Charles Bor- 
romeo. 

Wittenberg College 

Mount Saint Mary's of the West 



Eochester, N. Y 

Now York City, N.Y. 



Hartwick, N. Y 
Hamilton, N. Y 
Canton, N.Y... 



Buffalo,N.Y 

Newburgh, N. Y 

Troy,N.Y 

Now York City, N.Y. 

Geneva, N. Y 

SuspensionBridgCjN.Y 

Trinity College, N. C 

Berea, Ohio 

Gambler, Ohio 



Delaware, Ohio . . , 
Near Xenia, Ohio 



Lane Theological Seminary 

Theological department of Capital Univer- 
sity. 

Theological Seminary 

St. Mary's Ecclesiastical Seminary 

Crozer Theological Seminary 

Mead ville Theological School 

Theological Seminary 

Divinity School 



Lutheran Theological Seminary 
Missionary Institute 



"Western Theological Seminary 

Theological Seminary 

Biblical department of Allegheny College 

Theological department of Lincoln Uni- 
versity. 

Chair of Biblical language and literature, 
Dickinson College. 

Theological Seminary 



St. Michael's Theological Seminary 

Theological Seminary 

Protestant Episcopal" Mission House 

St. Charles Borromeo Seminary 

Theological Seminary of Ursinus College. . 

Theological Seminary 

Theological Seminary 

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary . 

Theological department of Cumberland 
University. 

Theological department of Central Uni- 
versity. 

Theological department of Baylor Uni- 
versity. 

Colvcr Institnte 

Union Theological Seminary 



Oberlin.Ohio 

Tiffin, Ohio 

Carthagena, Ohio. 

Springfield, Ohio . 
Cincinnati, Ohio. . 



do 

Columbus, Ohio . 



1812 

18G7 
1821 

1850 
1836 

1B16 
1820 

1858 

1854 
1865 
1864 
1817 
1861 
1856 



Denomination. 



Pres"byterian 

Methodist Episcopal. 
Presbyterian 



Baptist 

Presbyterian 



Lutheran 

Baptist 

Universalist . 



Xenia, Ohio 

Cleveland, Ohio . . 

Upland, Pa 

MeadviUo, Pa 

Lancaster, Pa . . . 
Philadelphia, Pa . 



.do 



Selin'8 Grove, Pa 

Allegheny City, Pa . . . 

do 

Meadville, Pa 

Oxford, Pa 



Carlisle, Pa 

Bethlehem, Pa . 



Pittsburgh, Pa 

Gettysburgh, Pa 

West Philadelphia, Pa, 

Philadelphia, Pa 

Freoland, Pa 

Columbia, S. C 

do 

GroenvUle, S. C 

Lebanon, Tenn 



Nashville, Tenn. 



Independence, Tex . . 



Kichmond, Va 

Hampden Sidney, Va. 



1864 

1835 

1850 
1869 

1845 
1849 

1829 



Lutheran 

United Presbyterian. 

Ivomau Catholic 

Protestant Episcopal. 

do 

Iloman Catholic 



1794 



1868 
1844 
1825 
1862 

1864 

1858 

1825 

1865 



1807 

1847 
1825 
1864 
1858 
1870 
1831 
1859 
1859 
1842 

1866 



1867 
1824 



Methodist Episcopal.. 
do 

Protestant Episcopal . 

Methodist Episcopal.. 

African Methodist 
Episcopal. 

Congregational 

Reformed 

Roman CathoUc 



Lutheran 

Roman Catholic. 



Presbyterian 
Lutheran 



United Presbyterian. 

Roman Catholic 

Baptist 

Unitarian 

Reformed 

Protestant Episcopal. 

Lutheran 



-do 



Presbyterian 

Unitetl Presbyterian . 



Presbyterian 

Methodist Episcopal. 
Moravian 



Roman Catholic 

Lutheran 

Protestant Episcopal. 
Roman Catholic 



Presbyterian. 

Lutheran 

Baptist 

Presbyterian. 



Methodist Episcopal . 
Baptist 



do 

Presbyterian. 



STATISTICAL TABLES. 



561 



INAEIES IN THE HOTTED STATES-Continued. 



President or senior professor. 



Rov.Charlcs Hodge, D.D., LL.D 
Ilandolpb S. Foster, D.D., LL.D 
S. M. Hopkins, D. D 



Rev. E. G. Robinson, D.D 

Rev. Henry B. Smith, D. D., 
LL.D. 

Rev. T. T. Titus, A. M 

Rev. Geo.W.Eaton, D.D., LL.D 
Rev. Ebenezer Fisher, D. D 



Rev. J. A. A. Grabau 

A board of superintendents . . 
Very Rev. H. Gabriels 



Rev. James Rankine, D. D . . . 
Very Rev. Robert E. V. Rico. 



Rev. B. Craven, D. D 

Rev. W. D. Godman, D. D 

Rt. Rev. C. P. McHvaine, D.D., 

D. C. L., LL. D. 
Rev. Frederick Merrick 



Rt Rev. Daniel A. Payne, D. D, 

Rev. James H. Fairchild, D. D. 

Rev. J. H. Good, D. D 

Rev. Henry Drees, D. D 



Rev. S. Sprecher, D. D 

Rev. F.J. Pabi8ch,D.D.,LL.D., 

D. C.L. 
Rev. Henry Smith, D. D 



Rev. S. Wilson, D. D. 



Rev. Henry G. "Weston, D. D 

Rev. A. A. Livermore 

Rev. E. V. Gerbart, D. D . . . . 
Rev.D.R.Goodwin, D. D.,LL.D 

Rev. Charles F. Schaeffer, D. D. 

H. Zeigler 

Rev. M."W. Jacobus, D.D.,LL.D 



Rev. Georpe Loomis, D. D . 
Rev. L N. Rend;dl, D. D . . . 



Rev. Robert L. Dashiell, D. D. . 

Rigbt Reverend Edmund de 
Schweinitz, D. D. 

Rov.S.Wall 

Rev. J. A Brown, D. D 

Rev. "Washington Rodman. . . 



Rev. J. H. A. Bombercer 

Rev. George Howe, D. I) 

Rev. A. R. Rndo 

Rov. James P. Boyco, D. D. . . 
Rev. B. "W. McDonnold, D.D. 

LL.D. 
Rov. J. Braden, A. M 



Rev. "Wm. Carey Crane, D. D. 

Kev. Charles H. Corey, A M. . 
Eev. E. L. Dabney, D. D 



is 



122 2,927 
97 189 
40 



|5C0, 000 
500, 000 



476 
935 

100 
860 
142 



260 
812 



150 
20 

"ioi 



288 
130 



109 
533 



166 
270 
133 

52 

52 

1,005 



233 

130 
426 
30 



185 
40 



73 

59l 400 



267, 000 
375, 000 

15, 000 

180, 000 

60, 000 



30, 000 



200, 000 
20, 000 



100, 000 



60, 000 
21, 000 



160. 000 
200, 000 



50, 000 



140, 000 
60, 000 



88,000 
184, 000 



42,000 



100, 000 



145, 715 
29, 000 
50, 000 
35,000 



196,000 



"I 

•" is 



21, 804 

10, 000 

8,500 

8, COO 
30, 000 

2,000 
10, 000 
6,000 



3,400 



13, 845 

'3,' 566 

400 

"7,'6o6 



10, 000 
2,400 
3,500 



10, 000 
12, 000 



2,000 



11,000 
8,000 
6,100 

1,800 

2,000 



4,100 

4,000 

12, 000 

600 

10, 000 



18, 340 
4, COO 

10, 000 
5,000 

400 

400 

1,000 
6,000 



«s 



$175 
150 
250 

175 

250 

175 

200 
240 



160 

225 
400-500 



262 
125 
"366 



150 

150-225 

175 

Free.. 

150 
225 

150 



100-150 



225 

200 

250-300 

240 



200 
'98^113 



200 

200 
l.-iO 
300 
300 
200 
150 
150 
110 
100 

100 

100 

60 
SSO-300 



Time of commencemosti 



Last "Wednesday in ApriL 
3d Thursday in May. 
Thursday aifter 1st fjnnday 

in May. 
3d week* in May. 
Monday before 2d Thnrs* 

day in May. 
4th AVednesday in Jane. 
3d Tuesday in June. 
1st Thursday in July, 



Last "Wednesday in March. 
Last Thursday in June. 
Last Friday in June. 

Last "Wednesday in June. 

Last Thursday in June. 

Last Thursday in Jnne. 

Third "Wednesday in Jane. 

1st "Wednesday in August. 
Last "Wednesday in June. 
4th week in June. 

June 30. 
June 24. 

2d Thursday in May. 
1st Thursday in October 



3d Thursday in June. 

Last "Wednesday in May. 

Thursday after 3d Tues- 
day in June. 

"Week before Trinity Sjm- 
day. 

"Week before Trinity Sun- 
day. 

Last Wednesday in ApriL 



3d Wednesday in Jume. 



1st Wednesday in Sept. 

Last of June. 

4th Thursday in June. 

3d Thursday in September 

1st Monday in Septembta; 

Last Thursday in Junet 

2d week in May. 

1st Thursday in OctoboR 

Last Saturday in April. 

1st Thursday in June. 

3d week in May. 

3d Thursday in Jona 

3d week in Ma: 



2d Tuesday in 



May. 



562 KEPORT OP THE COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATIOIT. 

STATISTICS OF THEOLOGICAL 8EM 



ITame. 



Location. 



Denomination. 



108 
109 
110 
111 
112 
113 
114 
115 
116 

IIT 



Theological SemiDary 

St. John's Theological Seminary 

New nampton Theological Seminary 

St. Vincent's College 

Nashotah Theological Seminary 

Mission House 

The Salesianum 

Augsburg Seminary 

Theological department of Howard Uni- 
versity. 
Wayland Theological Seminary 



Fairfax Cotanty, Va . . . 

Norfolk, Va 

Fairfax, Va 

Wheeling, W. Va 

Nashotah Lakes, Wis 
Howard's Grove, "Wis 

St. Fiancis, Wis.. 

Marshall, Wis 

Washington, D. C 



.do 



1823 
18C9 
1825 
1865 
1647 
18C4 
1856 
18G9 
1870 

1865 



Protestant Episcopal 

Koman Catholic 

Baptist 

Roman Catholic 

Protestant Episcopal 

Reformed 

Roman Catholic , 

Lutheran 

Union Evangelical. . , 

Baptist 



STATISTICAL TABLES. 



663 



INARIES IN THE TjmTED STATES-Continned. 



President or senior professor. 



,0^ 
g s 






Mft 



Time of commencoment. 



108 
109 
110 
111 
112 
113 
114 
115 
116 

117 



Rt. Kev. John Johns,D.D., LL. D 
Rev. M. O'Keefo 

Rev. A. Lonaze 

Rev. A. D.Cole, D.D 

Rov. H. A. Mnehlmeyer 

Rev. Jose^ih Salzmann, D. D. . . 

Rev. A. Wcenaas, A. M 

Gen. O. O. Howard 

Rev. G. M. P. King 



599 
3 



9,500 
3,0C0 



$200 
150-250 



56 
216 

35 

416 

6 



$100 



1,500 
5,000 
1,400 
7,200 
1,000 



50 

150-180 

100 

150 



250 



Last Thnrsday in June. 
Second Thorsday in Jnly. 

June 29. 

First Monday in Sept. 

July 1. 

Last Tuesday in June. 

Last Wednesday in May. 



664 REPORT OP THE COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION. 

. 1 STATISTICS OF LAW 



Xame. 



Law Bchool of Talo College 

Law department of University of Georgia 

Law school of University of Chicago 

Law department of McKendree College 

Law school of University of Indiana 

College of law of Northwestern Christian University.. 

Law department of the University of Notre Dame 

Law department of Iowa State University 

Law department of Iowa Wesleyan University 

College of law of Kentucky University 

New Orleans Law School 

Law school of Harvard University 

Law school of the University of Mississippi 

Law department of Michigan University 

Iaw school of Washington University 

Law school of the University of Albany 

Law department of the University of New York 

Law school of Columbia College 

Law school of Hamilton College 

Law school of St. Lawrence University 

Law school of Trinity College 

Law school of Cincinnati College 

Ohio State and Union Law College 

Law department of Wilberforce University 

Law department of the University of Pennsylvania ... 
Law school of the Western University of Pennsylvania 

Law department of Lincoln University 

Law department of Dickinson College 

Law department of South Carolina University 

Law department of University of Nashville 

Law department of Cumberland University 

Law department of Baylor University 

Law school of Richmond College 

Law department of Washington and Lee University . . 

Law department of the University of Virginia 

Law department of the University of Wisconsin 

Law department of Columbian College 

Law department of Howard University 

Law school of Georgetown College 

Law school of National University 



Location. 



City or town. 



New Haven 

Athens 

('hicago 

Lebanon 

Eloomington 

Indianapolis 

Notre Dame 

Iowa City 

Mount Pleasant. . 

Lexington 

New Orleans 

Cambridge 

Oxford 

Ann Arbor 

St. Louis 

Albany 

New York 

New York 

Clinton 

Canton 

Near High Point. 

Cincinnati 

Cleveland 

Near Xenia 

Philadelphia 

Pittsburgh 

Oxford 

Carlisle 

Columbia 

Nashville 

Lebanon 

Independence 

Richmond 

Lexington 

Charlottesville. . . 

Madison 

Washington 

Washington 

Georgetown 

WasEington 



State. 



Connecticut .. 

Georgia 

Illinois 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Indiana 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Iowa 

Kentucky .... 

Louisiana , 

Massachusetts 
Mississippi . . . 

Michigan 

Missouri 

New York 

New York 

Now York 

New York 

New York 

North Carolina 

Ohio 

Ohio , 

Ohio , 

Pennsylvania . 
Pennsylvania . 
Pennsylvania . 
Pennsylvania . 
South Carolina 

Tennessee 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Virginia 

Virginia 

Virginia 

Wisconsin 

Dist. Columbia 
Dist. Columbia 
Dist. Columbia, 
Dist. Columbia. 



STATISTICAL TABLES. 



665 



SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED S FATES. 





^1 


President or senior professor. 


n 


a, a 

3 ^ 


o . 

1^ 


'S.S . 

0.= 


Time of commencement. 


1 

9 


1843 

1867 
1809 
1800 
1843 
1870 

"'i865' 
1871 
18G5 
184G 
1817 
1854 
1859 
18G7 
1851 

"'"i859' 
1853 

1856 

'"'i832" 
1856 
1859 
1850 
1871 
1854 
18G4 
1847 

"""i84-y 

1845 
1870 

"'i825' 
1868 
1826 
1868 
1870 


Noah Porter, D. D., LL. D 


4 

3 

4 
1 
2 
2 
6 
3 
4 
3 
4 
7 
2 
4 
9 
3 
4 
6 
1 

2 
1 


23 
19 
52 
5 
53 
11 


"'261" 

23 

229 


2,150 
731 

""850' 
1,099 


Last Thursday but two in July. 
August 2d. 

Last Thursday in June. 
First Thursday in June. 

27th day of March. 


3 
4 
5 

6 


J. C. Burroughs, D. D., LL. D . . 

neury H. Ilorner, A. M 

David McDonald, LL. D 

Horatio C. Newcomb, LL. D . . . 
Eov. W. Corby, S. S. C 


7 






R 




50 

"'28' 
54 
154 
7 
321 
53 
86 


91 
12 

"853' 
1,6S9 

i.'oao' 

33 


2,000 

"i,'666' 
3, o;;o 

15, 000 

500 

3, ICO 

2,000 


Last Thursday in Juno. 
June 18. 


«) 


John Wheeler D. D 


10 




11 

12 


Christian Eosclius, LL. D 

Chai lea W. Eliot, LL. D 

John N. Waddel, D. D 


First Monday in ApriL 
Last Wednesday in JunOi 


14 
15 
10 


James B. Angell, LL. D 

Henry Hitchcock, A. M 

Ira Harris, LL. D 


Second Monday in May. 


17 


Henry E. Davies, LL. D 

F. A. P. Barnard, D. D., LL. D - 
S. G. Brown, D. D., LL.D 

Richmond Fisk, jr., D. D 

B. Craven, D. D 








18 
19 

20 
91 


59 
14 

11 


690 
65 

15 


'5,' 666' 

600 


Thursday after last Tuesday 
in Juno. 


W, 


Bellamy Storer, LL. D 










93 




2 
1 

2 
3 
9 
1 

1 
3 
2 
4 
2 

2 
2 
6 
5 
3 
3 
3 


28 




2,500 




94 


B. F. Howard, A. M., B. L 

E. Spencer Miller, A. M 

George Woods, LL. D 




95 


62 








96 








87 


L N. Pvamlall, D. D 

James H. Graham, LL. D 

R. W. Barnwell, LL. D 

Nathaniel Baxter, LL. D 

B. W. McDonnohl, D. D 

William Carey Crane, D. D 

B. Puryear, A. M 


3 

12 
3 








9.R 






First Thursday in SeptemDor. 


S<) 






30 








»1 


86 
10 
13 
31 

117 
23 

167 
55 
25 
87 








32 






First Wednesday in June. 
First Wednesday in July. 


33 


8 




34 


J. W. Brockenbrough, LL. D . . 


35 






Thursday before 4tb of July. 


3fi 


H. S. Orton, LL. D 






37 


J. C. Welling, LL. D 








38 
39 


John M. Langston, A. M 

Rev. John Early, S.J 


13 






•40 


1870 


W. B. Wedgwood, LJ-. D 






Last Thursday in May. 











566 REPORT OP THE COMMISSrONER OP EDUCATION. 

STATISTICS OF MEDICAL, DENTAL, AND 



10 
11 

12 
13 
14 
15 
10 
17 

18 
I'J 
20 
21 
22 
23 
24 
25 
26 
27 
28 
29 
30 
31 
32 
33 
34 
35 
36. 

37 

38 

39 
40 
41 
42 
43 
44 
45 
46 
47 
48 
49 
50 

51 
52 
53 
54 
55 
5fi 

87 



I^ame. 



I. MEDICAL AND 6UEGICAL. 

1. ''Regular." 



Medical College of Alabama 

Toland Medical College 

Medical department of University of the Pacific 

Medical dejiartmont of Yale CoUego 

Medical College of Georgia 

Savannah Midiral College 

Atlanta Medical College 

Kush Medical Ci illege 

Chicago Medical College, (medical department of 
the Northwestern Univei sity.) 

Woman's Hospital Medical College* 

Indiana Medical College, (medical department of 
the State University.) 

College of Physicians'and Surgeons 

Medical department of Iowa State University 

Medical department of the University of Louisville 

Louisville Medical College 

Medical department of the University of Louisiana. 
Medical School of Maine, (medical department of 
Bowdoin College.) 

Medical department of Wa.shington University 

School of medicine of the University of Maryland . . 

Medical school of Harvard University 

Kew England Female Medical College ■* 

Medical department of Michigan University t 

Detroit Medical College 

Missouri Medical College 

St. Louis Medical College 

Medical College of Kansas City 

Kansas City College of Physicians and Surgeons 

Medical department of Dartmouth College 

College of Physicians and Surgeons 

Albany Medical Cullego 

Medical dciinrtmcut of the University of Now York 
Woman's Medical Ccillegoofthe New York Infirmary' 

Medical dcjiaTliiieiit of the University of Buffalo 

Long Islanil Coll cue Hospital 

BcUevue Hospital Midical College 

Geneva Medical College, (medical department of 

Hobart College.) 
Medical College of Ohio 

Cleveland Medical College, (medical department of 
University of Wooster.) 

Starling Medical College 

Ciucinn;iti CulleKe of Medicine and Surgery 

Miami Medical College 

Medical department of Willamette University 

Medical department of University of Pennsylvania. . 

Jefferson Medical (Jidlego 

Woman's Medical Co lego of Penn.sylvania* 

Medical department of Lincoln University 

Medical College of the State of South Carolina; 

Medical department of University of South Carolina 

Medical department of the University of Nashville 

Memphis Medical College, (medical department of 
Cumberland University.) § 

Galveston Medical College 

Medical ilejiarl ment of Vermont University 

Medical tlci)artment of the University of Virginia.. 

Medical College of Virginia 

Medical department of Georgetown College 

National Medical College, (medical department of 
Columbian College.) 

Medical department of Howard University t , 



Location. 



Mobile, Ala 

San Francisco, Cal. 

do 

New Haven, Conn . 

Augusta, Ga 

Savannah, Ga 

Atlanta, Ga 

Chicago, HI 

, do 



do 

Indianapolis, Ind 



Keokuk, Iowa ... 
Iowa City, Iowa . 
Louisville, Ky . . . 

do ....:... 

New Orleans, La. 
Brunswick, Me. . . 



Baltimore, Md 

do 

Boston, Mass 

do 

Ann Arbor, Mich 

Detroit, Mich 

St. Louis, Mo 

do 

Kansas City, Mo 

do 

Hanover, N. H 

New York City, N. Y. . 

Albany, N. Y 

New York City, N. Y. . 

do 

Bufi-alo, N. Y 

Brooklyn, N. Y 

Now York City, N. Y . . 
Geneva, N. Y 



Cincinnati, Ohio 
Cleveland, Ohio. 



1856 
1864 
1839 
1013 
1832 
18."j0 
1855 
1842 
1859 

1870 
1869 

1849 
1870 
1837 



Columbus, Ohio 

Cincinnati, Ohio ... 

do 

Salem, Oreg 

Philadelphia, Pa . . . 

do 

do 

Oxford, Pa 

Charleston, S. C 

Columbia, S. C 

Nashville, Tenn 

Memphis, Tenn 



Galveston, Tex 

Burlington, Vt 

Charlottesville, Va. . 

Richmond, Va 

Washington, D. C . . . 
do 



1836 
1820 

1867 
1807 
1783 
1843 
1850 
1808 
1840 
1842 
1870 
1868 
1796 
1807 
1838 
1841 
1805 
1816 
1860 
1801 
1834 

1819 
1843 

1847 
1851 
1852 



1765 
1826 
1850 



1850 

1847 



1868 



.do 



1825 
1638 
1850 
1821 

1867 



$25 
5 
5 
5 
5 
5 
5 
5 
5 

5 
10 

5 
5 
5 



$30 
40 
40 
25 
30 
30 
25 
25 
20 

20 
25 

30 
25 
30 



30 



•For female students only. 

ICollogo not yot opened, (November 10, 1871,) on aooonnt of prevailing yellow fever and the snspen. 

§ After the war, reorganized in 1808; in 1871 bocamo medical department of Cumberland University, 



STATISnCAL TABLES. 



567 



PRAEMACEUTICAL INSTITUTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES. 



President or dean. 



"William H. Anderson, M. D 

K. Beverly Cole, M. D., deau 

Henry Gibbons, jr., M. D., dean. . 
Chas. A. Liudslcy, M. D., dean .. 
L. A. Dugas, M. 1)., LL. D., dean. . 

"W. Duncan, M. D., dean 

J. G. Westmoreland, M. D., dean. 
Joseph W. Freer, M. D., president. 
N. S. Davis, A. M., M. D., dean . . 

W. H. Byford, A. M., M. D., pres 
J. A. Comingor, M. D., secretary. . 



J. C. Hughes, M. D., dean 

"W. r. Peck, M. D.. dean 

J. M. Boiline, ^I. D., dean 

E. S. Gaillard, M. I)., dean 

T. G. Ilichardson, M. D., dean. . . 
C. F. Brackett, M. D., secretary. 

Chas. "W. Chancellor, M. D., dean 
Julian J. Chisolm, M. D., dean. . 

Calvin Ellis, M. D., dean 

Stephen Tracy, M. D., dean 

Abram Sager,' M. A., M. D., dean 
Theo're A. McGraw, M. D., secr'y 

John S. Moore, M. D., dean 

J. T. Hodgson, M. D., dean 

Joseph Chew. M. D., dean 

S. S. Todd, M. D., president 

A. D. Smith, D. D., LL. D 

Jas. W. McLane, M. D., secretary 

J. V. Lansing, M. D 

J. W. Draper" M. D., LL. D., pres't 
Emily Black well, M. D., secretary 

Juliiia F. Miner, M. 1)., dean 

S. G. Aumor, il. D., dean 

Austin Flint, jr., M. D., secretary, 
John Towler.M. D., dean 



James Graham, M. D., dean... 
J. LangCascels,M. D.,LL. D.,dean 



Francis Carter, M. D., dean 

B. S. Lawson, M. D., dean 

George Mendenhall, M. D., dean 

Daniel Payton, M. D 

R. E. Bogers, M. D., dean 

B. Howard Band, M. D., dean 

Ann Preston, M. D., dean 

L N. Kendall, D. D., president 

George E. Trescot, M. D., dean . . . 



22 
35 
103 



213 
107 



12 

100 



57 
242 



250 
67 

170 

172 

301 

26 

315 

CI 

40 

1C2 

18 

22 

44 

320 



251 
36 
101 

420 
20 



101 

42 
100 
180 

14 
310 
411 

60 
3 



44 



1,100 



1,483 
320 



577 



Free . . 

IIOO 00 
130 CO 
100 00 
105 00 
105 00 
ICO 00 
55 CO 
50 CO 

50 00 
Free . . 



2, 042 



1,458 



67 

720 

1,089 



1,040 
506 

1,634 



138 



40 00 
20 00 
50 00 



140 00 
70 00 

120 00 
126 00 
120 00 
75 00 



50 00 
105 00 
lv5 00 

50 00 
105 00 

77 00 
140 00 



140 00 
105 00 

75 00 
100 00 
140 00 

72 00 

40 00 
40 00 

60 00 
25 00 
40 CO 

no OJ 

140 00 
140 CO 
105 00 



120 00 



2, ceo 
5,000 
4,000 



1,000 



4,000 



2,000 
4,000 



2,000 



1,100 
1,200 
4,500 



800 
1,500 



1,300 



Commencement of lecture 
course. 



July 

1st Monday in Juno 

2d Thursday in September. 
IstMonday'in November.. 
1st Wednesday in Nov'ber., 
1st Monday in May 



1st Monday in October. 



October 17. 



November 1 . . 

October 11 

October 3 

October 3 

November 13 . 
February 15. . 



October 1 

October 2 

September 23 

l.st Wednesday in Nov'ber. . 

October 2 

March 1 

1st Monday in October . . . 

2d Monday in October 

2d day of October 

2d day of October 

1st Thursday in August. . 

October 1 

1st Tuesday in September 

October 12 

1st Tue.sday in October. . . 
1st Wednesday in Nov'ber. . 

5th day of March 

September 13 

1st Wednesday in October.. 



1 st week in October 

Ist Wednesday in October. 



October 5 

October 5 

1st Tuesday in October . . 
1st Friday in November.. 

September 4 

2d Monday in September . 
1st Thursday in October. . 



lr,t Monday in November. 



T.B.Buchanan, M. D., secretary. 
A. Erskine, M. D., dean 



203 
23 



1,383 



G. Dowell, M. D., dean 

Peter Collier, Ph. D., M. D. 

S. Maupin. A. M., M. D 

James B. McCaw, M. D., dean 

Johnson Eliot, M. D., dean 

John C. Eiley, M. D., dean 



G. S. Palmer, M. D., dean. 



880 



50 CO 
60 00 



Octobers.. 
October 16. 



70 00 
100 00 
120 00 
135 00 
135 00 

100 00 



3.5, 000 
1,200 



Ist Thursday in March. 

October 1 

October 2 

October 2 

1st Monday in October. . 

October 11 



f Both sexes admitted, 
eion of the habeas corpus in a portion of the State. [Note by Dr. Trescot.] 
Lebanon, Tenn., stiU at Memphis. [Note by Dr. Erskine.] 



568 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION. 

* STATISTICS OF MEDICAL, DENTAL, AND PHAEMA 



Name. 



2. '^Eclectic." 

Bennett College of Eclectic Meilicino and Snrgery. . 

Eclectic Medical Institute 

Eclectic Medical College 

Electic Medical Collego 



3. "Botanic. 



Physio-Medical Institute . 
Physio-Medical College*. . 



4. "Homceopathic." 



nahnemann Medical College 

Hoinosopi'.tbic Medical College 

Ilomoeopathic Medical Collego 

New York Medical Cdlh-^^o lor Woment. 

noiiioeopathio Hospital CollegeJ 

Hahnoiuaun Medical Collego 



n.— DENTAL. 

Baltimore College of Dental Surgery 

Dental school of Harvard University 

Boston Dental College 

Missouri Dental Collego 

Xcw York Collego of 'Dentistry 

Ohio Collego of Dental Surgery 

Pennsylvaiiia Collego of Dental Snrgery. 
Philadelphia Dental Collego 



New Orleans Dental College . 



Location. 



III.— PHARMACEUTICAL. 



Chicago ColleTC of Pharmacy 

Depaitmeiit ofPharmacy, Iowa WesloyanUniver'y. 

Kansas Collego of Pharmacy 

Louis\il!i' Cdllego of Pharmacy 

Maryland ( 'ollcgo of Pharmacy 

School of Plianuaey, University of Michigan 

Massachusett s College of Pharmacy 

Mississippi Collego of Pharmacy 

St. Louis Collego of Pharmacy 

College of Pharmacy of the City of Now York 

College of Pharmacy of Baldwin University 

Cincinnati Collego ofPharmacy 

Philadelphia Collego of Pharmacy 

School ofPharmacy of Colurahian College 

School of Pharmacy of Georgetown College 

Now Orleans College of Pharmacy 



Chicago, ni 

Cincinnati, Ohio 

New York City, N. Y. 
Phdadolphia, Pa 



Cincinnati, Ohio 
do 



Chicago, HI 

St. Louis, Mo 

New York City, N. Y. 

do .: 

Cleveland, Ohio 

Philadelphia, Pa 



Baltimore, Md 

Boston, Mass 

do 

St. Louis, Mo 

New York City, N. Y. 

Cincinnati, Ohio 

Philadelphia, Pa 

do 



New Orleans, La. 



Chicago, ni 

Moiuit Pleasant, Iowa. 
Leavenworth, Kans... 

Louisville, Ky 

Baltimore. Md 

Ann Arhor, Mich 

Boston, Mass 

Jackson, Miss 

St. Louis, Mo 

New York City, N. T. 

Berea, Ohio 

Cincinnati, Ohio 

Philadelphia, Pa 

Washington, D.C 

do 

New Orleans, La 



18G8 
1844 
18C6 
1848 



1859 
1851 



1839 
18j8 
16j9 
18C3 
1849 
1847 



1839 

1868 



18G6 
18C5 
1845 
1856 
1863 

1867 



1859 
1871 

18G9 



1041 

1SC8 
1867 



1829 
1865 



1821 



1870 
1865 



$25 
25 
30 



25 



30 



10 

20-35 



10 



■At present in .iheyanco ; formerly (1851-58) devoted to the medical education of both sexes; thia 
open the college duriiig the present eession, 1871-'72. [Note by Dr Cnrtis.J 
JBoth Boxes admitted. 



STATISTICAL TABLES. 

CETJTICAL INSTITUTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES— Continned. 



569 



J^resident or dean. 



Milton Jay, M. D., dean 

Jolin M. Scudder, M. D., dean 

Eobort S. Newton, M. I)., pres't.. 



103 

213 

76 



$50 00 
70 CO 
105 00 



a 



500 



Commencement of lecture 
course. 



Octobers.. 
October 16 
October 12. 



"Wm. H. Cook, A. M., M. D., dean. 
A. Curtis, A. M., M. D., dean 



75 00 



October 10. 



F. A. Lord, M. D., rpgistrar . 

J. T. Temple, M. D., dean 

Carroll Dunham, M. D., dean . . 



113 



85 00 



2d Thursday in October 



16 



H. F. Bigjiar, M. D., registrar. 
H. N. Guernsey, M. D., dean . . 



134 



F. J. S. Grorgas, M. D., dean. 
N. C. Keep, M. D., dean 



100 00 
105 00 
00 00 
100 00 



100 00 
110 00 



2d Tuesday in October. 



Last Wednesday in Sept- 
2d Monday in October... 



October 15 

First "Wednesday in Nov'ber 



OctoVr 16... 
October 15... 
October 16... 
November 1. 
November 1 . 



Ilomer Jndd, ^l. D., D.D,S.,dean. 

Frank Abbott, M. D., dean 

J.Taft,D.D. S., dean 

E. Wildmar, M. D., D. D. S., dean 
J. H. McQuillen, M. D., D. D, S., 

dean. 
Jas. S. Knapp, D. D. S., dean 



A. E. Ebert, dean 

Jobn Wheeler, D. D., president. 

B. W. Woodward, president 

F. C. Miller, secretary 

J. Brown Baxlev, president 

A. B. Prescott, il. D 

George T. H. Markoo, dean 

Matt. F. Ash, president 

W. n. Crawford, president 

H. A. Cassebeer, jr. secretary . . 
W. D. Godman, D. D., president. 

E. S. Wayne, dean 

Eobort Bridges, M. D., dean 

John C. Eiley, M. D 

Johnson Eliot, M. D., dean 

S. Logan, M. D., dean 



190 
23 



100 00 
150 00 
100 00 
100 00 
100 00 

100 00 



30 00 
35 00 



November 27. 



800 



First Monday in October. 
December 13 



36 CO 
'3606 



October 10. 
October 1 . . 
October 2. . 



90 



157 
22 



242 
12 
20 



10 00 
30 00 
45 00 
30 00 
36 00 
40 00 
40 00 



550 
"2,' 500 



October 2 

September 25 . 
November 15 . 



October 1 

Ist Monday in October. 

October 2 

October 15 



gave rise to the preceding No. 1 "Botanic;" charter has not been surrendered, audit la proposed to 
f For female students only. 



670 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION. 



■r[ m eatnn 
■jo JO .loqtun^ | 



■me JO aaqcanjj 



mo t~ uj 



■H 00 (OC 



•BJoptlJ (9 

■UT JO jaqninij 



ooo -^fn to i^o oooiH 






P 



.-r ^ h 



4> a 

1^ 









2" RpL,'^,_g ;g 



1-1 



P S 






^ IJ 



dP ".pfS 



fs 






"=^5 

<1?^ 



i- CO o "O 

00 00 OU 00 






CD C3 
CO 00 



o r- o cm « 

CD C3 CO CD C3 CD O CO 

00 oooocoooco 



Clr-1 — (M ^ 






!^ l-3l^Wpm-3 






S3 



o oo o o 

o o o o o 
ooo oo 



ooo o 



o o o o o 



<-l IH (N 



o o o o 

t-i CD -^ C? 
CJ C< CO C< rl 



^H 1-H t-l CD - 



rs 



oo ooo ooo 
oo ooo ooo 
oo ooo ooo 



o oo ooo ooo 
1-H mo — c. t^ C5Q0CI 



.2 o| 






• a 

CO 



«2 



=? 3 



55 



jf '£'"!.« "So " 



•c 


o 






p 


















,13 


c 


a 


cS 


o 

C3 




a 



s- ^ 



3 •> 



^^M g 



■StJ5 
-2 oj ° a 



iis 

P 2 M 



: m M 

: a o 

■ ars 

aT 



O oW 



- CO 

^ n 
•2t5 









«> 2 
tta 

'-CM 

® o 
^^ 

'Si 



:;: a 



ccp 



a M 

o a 






M P 



5'cP 



^ t 



oO 






I'^B^ 



•r "^ - ■« ' 

i: tit fct"^ g o 



E a c3 -»d*3 



"^^ Z5 



S^ 






^<1 

a '^ 

So 



«a — 










'^ «^^-''•a 
tl:SD— 



& HS^i 



r^i^i<^0 CO 



_; ^ a "^ 



• a"3 



2 a 5 J- a 
3~ tcSP 

a «C{v g 

o - O "S ;j 
= ■= o ^« 
;E S St St--- 

^.-&.°^^^ 
c s-^P Sow- 



•jgqninx 



T-< ff»« 



mor-oooj 



1-1 (N «■«• 



r^ 00 Ci O rH c* 



;h r-( rtr-li-crt r1 rliH t-lC*<U 



S3S 



STATISTICAL TABLES. 



571 



•*■* -Ci 



n ojto 'CO 



nstnn'O 



t-ncJrHto cor-io 



:a 

. o 

:^ 












OP ■^• 

r .-Or 



:p 



pp^.^- 

.■S .ti "C s-' 

sa°-g 

PP h^ 

c3 c3 nW 



pg 

BOS 






pp. 






.■S „' O 1-1 






CO CO GO 00 



S-" r r 
<13 I I 



2 1 



Oi4 



o o o oo 

go'o" o"o~ 

n 1-1 CO r1(M 



:;> -3 



5-9 ft =3 






^•5 



O CS 

S3 



2 tf.. 



3 g'S- S 

. o-K a S 5 fe 



iSS.S 















o o c o-^ 



cO o 
O 3 o 

O .^'' o 
O 0) <0 



•a 

_ =s 



±;as 






I^ckPh 



g -p « -IJ fc£) 

i? "m 'E a '(3 

S C3 O C3 s 



I 



fcca 
.6" 



1>° 



£■■5 2^2(^2 



■" '^ fc o 

_^ O CO o 

o fe c o -M 



u 'E -*. = ^ 






tu t> oo 



&^^ 



•S p a _ 



P3 fH 

. o o 









J? p 3 s 



o m O*:^ S17 <^/-^ o<^^-*^P >";:^ ^ 



aat^-gs-spS^^.o-a-^ 



^ 1 



^t^ta 



'"""o^s-SHsa^. 



t- c 












o3 

o 

o 



a eco a 
P t>P -^H 




c5,a 

o ."^i^ a o 
c e a a a a 

a s^ a g ^a 

p.a E|p p, 

oj a *^ It.— I li) >- D 

Pgpp 2P.-^-p 

<o. o o 2 o t^ o 
-rcn ="7' « « S ta 1J« 

■ "■ ;2 .:; '-S 

a a fi 



p< 



>^'^ 'a .21 -si 

^ a; oi fH o [-J ' 



C4 G4CI OIC< 






572 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION. 







CO w CO CO w CO 



STATISTICAL TABLES. 



573 



CO ■ i-l • 1-1 



o n-TO 



000-S>OJ JO 

CO 3D Qo GO rr: 00 



OOOLOOCSOO 
O O iO ^ y; C3 ^- tH 

c-5 CO I e e !M -^ 



CO I -2 CD O 



c< o o o o o 



COM 



coo 
coo 

eco 



S^OOtHO 
c* 00 m wo 

rH rH T-l 1-t C^ 



inocjioouo 



rH • OOt~ t 



r^ »o CO i-- ic -^ 

o in c* 'T in ■* 



<-l«?Ot-lCOt00300Tt<C50COmO) 



ODO aoo t-« 



CI COrt 






t3« 



W3 



P.rt 



SB it 

o n 
o o 



WP^O 



ci t) 









"3 o o a s 

P^M^r=H 









;:3 cj 












S a 8 



"IhI. 



^Ofq"|a 



1-1 <1 
1-4 £ 

Re 

Jo 

3m 



3 

la .^ 

!« ^- a < 
Ph<1'<1R 



P ; o'p 

-^pI 

t>" p > -2 > g > 
ai . o «) o a:) o 
P^ <i fn Oi fn Cj P! 









c ca 
P 



to O O O O (TJ :X) -^ C? ■^ to CJ O • . lO n O O ^ O *0 CO O 

GocoajrooL-QOooajojajcococo ■ .oocoocoococoo-jixix) 



_ _ . _ . lO •^ lO li"^ '-O GO CO lO LO O O 

c» o o lO . r^t o i.T rt o -^o CO L-5 cr: J- o 
ccaooooy .cogucooliqocdguoo odgogo 



CO-- 



ti) 






o 

Ph ^ S! ,M 









■^.2.t:o s 










c s E.g-s t.'-'.S (Cis^ 
O^I^JG'MaPHHiJw 



afs;s;£ 

'^ 5j :r o 



c « c „ 



i£ o;2 q S S aM 



C5 m g," g- 



«coeoco'j'«r^'«''i'^'>"'*'V'»'Oinu5inwoino>nif3tow»««io«oo«<aj--r-t-r-t-t--Pr-r-t-Qo 



35^ 



5U 



REPORT OF THE COMMIBSIONEE OF EDUCATION. 



ui eamnpA jo jaqtmiii 



ITS .m rt rl 





o 


o 


oo .0 • 












o 


o 


00 .10 . 














"" 




■^ 


1.-) 






























B 


B 




8 8 8; 



'q'jnota aad pjcoq jo !}80o 

















8 


8 



8 8 



■nua:) jad noijm^ jo ^eo-g 



OOOOOGOOO 
^-00 iX- O 00 iO 10 
I I ro 8 "J* 8 c^ t^* 



00 o o o o :^ CO o o in o irs o 'O 



i": '^ o o i-T CO 



I cj e " 8 ■ 



O 1- i- rH 






O O CIO 

I I f c» 

00 TiJa 



•e!>u9pn:js jo joqnmjj 



LT O O O O 

I- o 'J' o ro 

i-KMrlTHrH .CJiHr- 



_. . _ -< o TJO 100 CI C»CI 

t- 1-1 1- O Tf <» _ t- I- I- O) Ci3 OQ O 



• Ci -r o 

1 1- O Tf 
rHrH CI 



•ejOifoni^snt jo jaqranj^ 



or-->a'MMO>ocJoo-*OT 



t-OOCKOOXirSO-^Cl 
m r-l 1-1 iH r-lOl 



•noijuniraongQ; 






^3 



Win ooHH " 






;6^i 






^ 



<io 



"Sl^ ^ o » 
§ a;^S, § 

tea. • .w 

O QJ .". • 

Ph'w t; > > 
. .000 



O 

of 









Q ; 

; 
gap 






W m l>" >■ >■ 
. j- o o o 



a^P 

i^pf4 
t^ >■ > 

o © o 









P:^t-5GsP:i37Mopgi^p;o<1 



•noiiczitrei) JO jo e^jno; 




.s-sa 



t-'a 






© soffit? Hi g-_ 

M5 p o o y g s -s 

33 g o^ §53 B 



!=1 

« = = •= o« 






■^3 






a 
>, : g 

« a fl 

Coo • 

3-g^ S 






£ 3 Str" 

til S iJ^f^ 

^ „ ^ ^' 



►3 S-.-^S'^ g^ g 

rtrT ^t; CiT' O ^■-^T' 



S " a g 






« = st:'sSs,af^i 

P-?oT'r'Son 

v: r—I^ a o K n, ^ 

^ii wt^ a a a a a 
J .ti s o !^ a 3 3 



•aaqranx 



r-QOOSOT-*CQPO'5«tncOi-OOCrjOW(MfO'<}^ir5CCt--OOOOr-IC^irJ-g'lCOt-QOC10t^ 



cowctiOiOiaoaiaGiCii 



:;0000000000' 



STATISTICAL TABLES. 



woooooooo 

^ H ii CI C-» (M Ct 

c$ s s cs e ci e 



§"^ 



OOOOOCMOl/OOOO 

i5 e I I I I e I "-ICO 






CO CO ooooow 



CO o CO CO ;o C3 






^« 



1o 

Mf4 






!o fen 






o 5 o 






. o 






K.*H)-Hk2 ^ V.' <" °2 

t> . H H "J^ ^ ." -S 



ooooco'-joioi-'^rj •cooiciC(?^Tj< 



m CO o m CO tp - 



. LO t- to CO CO 1 



030Oi^CDG0r/:)CCGO .cocooocococ 



J d "H 

fl S o I' 



fcX) 



s > 






P.C 



-:=-S t> 



© c3i5:- 



0-2 



P^Sf 



:> : : : 

b'5 ^-o fcfig 2 

£ a o g oii^ g 









tj:.S ^ o a •« 

^ g c3 tr. g .2 






3 =r 



©H-3 ^.S E5 



mil 



c« CO -r lO o r- 



CO c: o ^ CI CO -^ lo c 

OCICOCOCOCOCOCOC 



576 



REPORT OP THE COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION. 



SUMMARY OF EXAMTNTATIONS FOR ADMISSION TO THE TTNITED STATES 
MILITARY ACADEMY FOR FIFTSEN YEARS, FROM 185C TO 1870, INCLUSIVE. 







1 

i 


Rejected. 




1 


On what account. 






Literary incompetency. 


Appointed from— 


In the year — 


C3 

a 



1 


d 

11 
2 
3 
6 
5 

"9' 

7 

19 
4 
3 

17 
3 
4 
5 
1 
8 
2 
7 

15 
1 
6 
1 
1 

25 


27 
1 

20 

'4 
12 
3 

1 

11 
3 
5 
1 
2 
1 

'4 

io' 


Deficient in — 


•■6 







g 





d 

'2 

i 

'2 
I 
1 

i 
i 
i 


d 
2; 

'2 
2 

'2 


1 

d 

i 

1 
1 
1 

'2 


. 

c 

•a 

1 

'i 

2 

2 
2 


id 

d 

3 
1 

i 


'd 
_ 
d 

i 

1 

i 
2 
1 

i 

"2 

2 
i 

i 

i 
i 


d 

'2 
"2 

"2 
'2 


X 

•-= 

d 
>^ 

3 

1 
2 

4 
3 
1 

"3 

'3 
1 

i 

'4 

1 
1 

i 


c 

•a 

1 
3 


d 

. 
■I 

'2 

5 
1 
2 

i 

6 
4 

2 

"i 

'5 
'c 

i 

1 

"4 


i 

"7 


= p. 

.2 a 

" 

>.s 

d 

5 

1 


a 

;^ 
d 

3 

1 






a 

.£3 

< 

6 
"A 

9 
3 
2 
3 


1 

d 

7 
1 
3 

1 
3 

'4 
2 
3 

2 

7 
1 
3 
1 


a 
a 

7 
2 
2 
2 

3 

"3 
4 
3 

i 

6 
1 
1 

1 
1 
2 

"5 
6 
1 


1 

3 




d 


6 
'A 


1 


d 


d 


d 
1 

'2 
i 

1 

2 

'2 
i 

i 

i 


d 

•a 

"2 
i 

i 

1 

"i 
i 

'2 
1 

'2 
i 

i 


d 

.1 

\\ 

'3 

i 
3 

'" 

'2 
i 
'2 

i 
i 

'i 


d 

i 

i 
1 

2 

'2 
i 
i 


6 

'A 


ALvbama 


33 
10 
15 
23 
11 

4 
33 
55 
67 
24 

6 
60 
18 
26 
33 
43 
29 
11 
24 
48 

5 

7 
14 
27 
157 
33 
111 

4 
127 

7 
23 
48 

46 
10 
27 
6 
4 
5 
3 
4 
3 
o 

4 

1 

1 

192 


20 

7 

12 

14 

6 

4 

23 

47 

46 

19 

3 

43 

14 

25 

43 

20 

9 

16 

32 

4 

1 

13 

25 

128 

20 

80 

3 

101 

7 

17 

33 

5 

12 

34 

6 

20 

5 

2 

4 

3 

4 

3 

...... 

1 

170 


12 
3 
3 

8 
5 

"""9' 
8 

21 
5 
3 

17 
4 
4 
7 
1 
9 
2 
8 

16 
1 
6 
2 
2 

29 
6 

31 
1 

26 
....„ 

15 
3 

1 

12 
4 
7 
1 
2 
1 

...... 

22 


1 
1 

"2' 


1 




3 


Connecticut 


1 

"7' 

5 

17 

4 

2 

8 
2 
3 
3 


'2 

1 

8 
3 

5 
'2 


2 
4 








5 




1 
2 

1 


1 
1 


1 




» 








1 


Kentucky 

Louisiana 


.... 
"2' 

i 

"{' 
1 

.... 

1 
4 

.. 
4 

Q 

"\ 

3 

"\ 
1 
2 

'3 


1 

i 

1 

2 
1 
3 

i 

'3 
i 


6 

1 
2 




1 








6 
2 
4 
13 


4 




3 
1 
4 

7 


6 

1 


3 


Minnesota 

Mississippi 


'5 
3 




1 




1 

1 




3 


1 


3 


1 


New Hampshire . . 

New Jersey 

New Yorl£ 

North Carolina . . . 
Ohio 


1.. 


1 




1 
6 
4 
9 
1 
10 

"3' 
3 
3 

"e 
1 

3 
.... 

"3' 

"s 


1 


15 
2 
18 


1 
1 

13 


6 

1 
3 

'4 

i 
3 

2 

'3 
1 

i 

2 

6 


10 

"e 
"5 

2 
2 
1 

3 

1 
1 

i 

3 

'9 


6 
1 

4 






Pennsylvania 

Rhode Island 

South Carolina 

Tennessee 

Texas 


13 


10 

1 
1 
8 
2 

3 

1 
1 
1 

"2' 
'7 


4 

'4 

1 
1 

i 

■■ 

"7 


4 

'2 
2 
1 








3 


"West Virginia 

Wisconsin 

Dist. Columbia . . . 

Colorado Ter 

New Mexico 

Utah Tor 




Washintrton Ter . . 

Dakota Ter 

Arizona Ter 

Idaho Ter 


9 






Wyoming Ter 


'« 






Grand totals . . 


1,459 


1,133 


326 


41 


16 


16 


14 


1 


M 


" 


8 


13 


1 


15 


14 


!! 


23 


70 


385 


173 


70 


133 


80J98 


81 



STATISTICAL TABLES. 



577 



Continued.-SUMMART OF EXAMINATIONS FOR ADMISSION TO THE UNITED 
STATES MILITARY AND NAVAL ACADEMIES DURING THE YEAR 1871. 





U. S. MH.ITARY ACADEMY. 


U. S. NAVAX ACADEMY. 




Is 
'a 

6 


"a 
o 
ri 
-S 

s 

< 
J 


EEJECTED. 


d 

1 
1 


3 


1 

<i 

6 


REJECTED. 




3 


1 


On what acconnt. 



H 

6 


On what account. 


STATES 

AND 

TERRITORLES. 


1 
1 


'm 




For deficiency in— 


s 

1 

''3 

^. 
6 


For deficiency in— 


fcb 

a 


M 

d 
!2i 


g c 

1! 

6 


_c5 

a 


p. 

(^ 
fct 


0, 
es 

6 

3 


e 
i 


6 

2 

1 




s 

6 
21 

3 

1 


fcb 

_g 

S 
d 


.5 ^ 
d 

!2i 


d 



d 
2i 


,a 
p. 

tc 



d 


a 
a 

G 


a 


Alabama 




1 


3 
1 








1 
1 




Arkansas 






















■" 


California 
























Connecticut 




1 
1 


1 








1 




1 




1 
1 




1 








1 








Delaware 














■" 


Florida 


































Georgia 


4 
3 

4 
4 


'"'2 
3 
2 
1 

4 
2 

1 


4 
1 
1 
2 


1 






2 

1 
1 


2 
i 


2 

i 
1 


3 

i 


3 

5 
6 


3 
3 


















Illinois 






2 
2 






2 


2 
2 


'2 

1 


1 

2 




Indiana 








Iowa 


1 












Kansas 
































ILeutncliy 


3 




2 


3 


2 


2 


3 


2 


2 
1 
1 
4 
2 
1 
1 
3 
3 


2 

2 

"i 

2 

3 


1 








1 








Louisiana 








■ 


Mfinn 




















































2 






1 


1 






■■ 


Massachusetts 




3 


1 


1 


















■■ 


Michigan 














1 








1 




1 




Minnesota 






























Mississippi 




3 
1 


















1 






1 


1 




1 




Missouri 


3 






2 






1 


2 








Nebraska 


























Kevada 




1 






































New Hampshire 


















1 
2 
11 

2 
5 


1 
2 
9 


















New Jersey 


2 
15 


1 
10 


1 
5 












1 
3 


1 
2 


















New York 


2 








2 


2 

1 
2 






2 
1 
1 


2 
1 
2 




2 




North Carolina 






' 


Ohio 


9 

1 

13 

2 


8 
1 

8 

1 


1 








.... 




1 










Oregon 














5 
1 


2 

1 


1 




1 




3 

1 


2 


5 
1 
2 

5 


4 
1 
1 
2 


1 
1 




3 


3 




2 




Rhodclsland 




South Carolina 






















Tennessee 


4 
2 
1 
5 
1 
2 


3 

1 

1 

\ 


1 








1 








1 








Texas 




















Vermont 


















2 
1 




1 






1 










Virginia 


4 








2 




2 


2 








AVest Virginia 


















Wisconsin 


1 






1 


1 




1 




2 

1 




















Arizona Ter 






















Colorado Ter 


1 


1 


































Dakota Ter 






































District of Columbia 










































Idaho Ter 










































Montana Ter 






















1 

1 




















New Mexico Ter 


1 

1 


1 
1 


































Utah Ter 


































Washington Ter 


















1 




















Wyoming Ter 






































Foreign 






















*1 
17 

97 


15 
71 


















At large 


13 
119 


10 

77 


3 

42 


2 
11 






1 
15 


u 


24 


22! 


2 
26 






1 

15 


2 
21 


1 
11 


1 

10 




Total 


3 


10 


3 





- 







*A Japanese student. 



5T8 EEPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION. 

STATISTICS OF NOKMAL 



l^ame. 



Location. 



Principal. 



1 

2 
3 

4 
5 
6 

■7 
;8 

9 
10 
11 
12 
.13 
14 
15 
16 
17 
18 
19 

20 

21 

22 

23 

24 

25 

26 

27 

28 

29 

30 

31 

32 

33 

34 

35 

36 

37 

38 

39 

40 

41 

42 

43 

44 

45 

40 

47 

48 

49 

50 

51 

52 

53 

54 

55 

56 

57 

58 

59 

60 

01 

C2 

63 

64 

65 

66 

67 

68 

69 

70 

71 

72 

73 

74 

75 



State Normal School 

Arkadelpbia Normal School 

Girls' Normal School 

State Normal School 

State Normal School 

Normal University 

East Florida Seminary 

West Florida Seminary 

Normal dep't Atlanta 'University — 

State Normal University 

Cook County Normal fechool 

Normal class of Westfield College. . . 

Normal dep't of Eureka College 

Addison Teachers' Seminary 

County Normal School 

Southern Illinois Normal University 

County Normal Schools 

City K'ormal School 

Northwestern German-English Nor- 
mal School. 

State Normal School 

City Training School 

City Training School 

Normal dep't of lovra Collet 

Teachers' dep't of Tabor College 

Normal dep't ot Iowa University 

City Training School 

State Normal School 

Ely Normal School 

Normal course of Georgetown Coll .. 
Normal department Berca College. .. 

New Orleans Normal School 

Normal dep't Straight University. . . . 

Eastern State Normal School 

Western State Normal School 

State Normal School 

County Normal School 

State Normal School 

State Normal School 

State Normal School 

State Normal School 

City Normal School 

Cit v Normal School 

Girls' High and Normal School 

State Normal School 

First State Normal School 

Second State Normal School 

Third State Normal School 

State Normal 

Normal and Manual Labor School 

North Missouri State Normal School 

Fruitland Normal School 

State Normal School 

Coll.of Normal Instruct'n,Univ.of Mo. 

Central Normal School 

City Normal School 

State Normal School 

State Normal School 

Farnum Preparatory School 

State Normal School 

State Normal School 

State Normal School 

Liberty Normal Institute 

State Normal School 

State Normal School 

State Normal School 

State Normal School 

State Normal School 

State Normal School 

Normal College of City of New Tork . 
Normal departm't Ingham University 
Noi-mal College, University of N. C . . 

St. Au;jtistino Normal School , 

Central Normal School 

Western Keservo Normal School...., 
Northweslern Normal School 



TaJladcfca, Ala 

Arkadelphia, Ark . 
San Francisco, Cal . 

San Jos6, Cal 

New Britain, Conn . 
Wilmington, Del . . . 

Gainsviile, Fla 

, Fla 



Atlanta, Ga . 

Normal, 111 

Englewood, lU 

Westfield, 111 

Eureka, 111 

Addison, HI 

Peoria, 111 

Carbondalo, 111 

Bureau County, lU. 

Chicago, 111 

Galena, 111 



18C9 
1869 
18G2 
1849 
1867 



Ilcv. John Jordan ... 

Ellia n. Holmes 

W.T. Lucky,A.M.,D.D 
Isaac N. CaVlcton, A. M. 
John C. Harkues.s ... 



1857 
1868 



E. A. Ware, A. M 



D. S. Wentworth 

a. W. Everest, A. M. 



1868 
1869 



A. Ethridgo . 



1860 

1807 
1867 
1807 



1806 
1863 
1864 



1858 
1869 
18G7 
1H63 
1805 



Terre Haute, Ind 

Fort Wayne, Ind 

Indianapolis, Ind . . 

Grinnell, Iowa 

Tabor, Iowa 

Iowa City, Iowa 

Davenport, Iowa 

Emporia, Kans 

Louisville, Ky 

Georgetown, Ky 

Be jea, Ky 

New Orleans, La 

New Orleans, La 

Castine, Me 

Farmington, Me 

Baltimore, Md 

Alleghany County, Md. 

Westfield, Mass 

Framingham, Mass 

Salem, Mass 

Bridgewater, Mass 

Boston, Mass 

Worcester, Mass 

Boston, Mass 

Ypsilanti, Mich 

Winona, Minn 

Mankato. Minn 

St. Cloud, Minn 

Holly Springs, Miss 

Tugaloo, Miss 

Kirksville, Mo 1807 

Fruitland, Mo If 09 

~ " "" 1871 
1807 



1839 
1839 
1854 
1840 



1852 
1847 



J. Wernli 



W. A. Jones, AM 

Mary 11. Swauu 

Amanda F. Fuunell 

George F. Magoim, D. D 



S.N.FcUows 

Mrs. M. A. Mcgoncgal 
George W. Hoss, A. M. 



N. M. Crawford, D. D . . 
E. H.Fairchild.D.D... 

Mrs. K. Shaw 

J.W. Healcv 

J. T. Fletcher, A. M ... 

C. C. Hounds. M. S 

M. A. Newell 



J. W. Dickin.son, A.M.- 
Annie E.Johnson ... 
D.B. Hagar, A.M ... 
A. J. Boydcn. A. M . . 



Warreusburgh, Mo. 

Columbia, Mo 

Sedalia, Mo 

St. Louis, Mo 

Peru, Nebr 

Trenton, N.J 

Beverly, N. J 

Plymouth, N. H 

Aibany.N.T 

Oswego, N. Y 

Liberty, N.T 

Brockport, N. Y 

Cortland.N.Y 

Fredonia, N. Y 

Potsdam, N. Y 

Buffiilo, N. Y 

Geno.seo, N. Y 

New York, NY 

Lelloy, N. Y 

Chapel Hill, N. C 

Raleigh, N. C 

Worthington, Ohio 

Milan, Ohio 

Ada, Ohio 



1857 
1807 



1870 
1841 
1801 

1866 
1866 

i8i;7 

1RG6 
1S07 
1807 



1857 



Ephraira Hunt 

D. P. Mavho w 

Wm. F. Phelps, A. M 

Geo. M. Gage 

Ira Moore 

S. W. Gariuen 



J. Baldwin 

J.H.Kerr 

Gen. P. Beard, A. M. . . 
D.llead,LL.D 



Anna C. Brackett 

II.H. Straight, A.B 

Lewis M. Johnson, A.M. 
Lewis M. Johnson, A.M. 
Prof. S. H. Pearl, A. M.. 
J. Allien, D.I)., LL.D... 

E. A. Sheldon 

M.B.Uall 



Henrv S. KandoU 

Jno. W.Armstrong, D.D, 
M.Mc Vicar, Ph.D.,LL.D 



T. Hunter, A.M 

S.D. Burchard, D.D.... 

S.Pool 

Pcv.J.B. Smith, D.D. . 
W. Mitchell & J. Ogden, 



n. S. Lchr. 



STATISTICAL TABLES, 



)Y9 



SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES. 





a 

§1 


NUMBEK OF STU- 
DENTS. 


11 


r3 
_g 

"S 



s 
£ 





'za 
Is 


r2 
;2'-^ 
S.Sts 


^1 




.a 
G 




6 
H 

a 


"3 

H 


Time of anniversary. 


1 




















2 


3 
9 
3 
5 
6 


83 

"32 
10 

59 


102 

250 
132 
114 

27 


185 
2j0 
104 
124 
86 












September 25. 

July. 

May. 


3 


253 
24 
10 


3 years . . 
2 years . . 


400 
1,500 






4 


$8, 000 00 




5 




6 










Last week in May. 


'7 










8 






















9 


6 


108 


59 


107 














10 


3 years. - 


3,000 


12, 500 00 


ijioo to 200 


Third Thursday in Juna 


n 


o 


U 


70 


83 




12 














13 


3 


""93 


13 


40 
93 














14 














15 














16 






















17 






















18 






















19 


6 

8 


203 
61 


118 
74 


321 
135 




3 years . . 
2to4jTS 


250 






First Monday of Sept 


20 








21 










22 


1 
3 




















23 


CO 




C6 














24 














25 






















26 






















27 


4 


81 


lOG 


187 














28 












29 


2 




















30 


















June 26. 


31 


IG 
3 
7 
7 
6 


















Third Saturday in June. 


32 




















33 
34 


44 
93 
24 


96 

49 

139 


140 
142 
103 




2 years.. 


1,200 


2, 000 00 
4,400 00 
8, COO 00 


ISO 00 


Third Thursday in March. 


35 


2 years.. 


500 




Last Thursday in May. 


36 






37 
38 


7 
9 

9 

7 


17 

"38' 


118 

98 
152 
96 


135 

S8 
152 
134 




2 to 4 yra 


1,300 

900 

8,000 

5,000 


8, 500 00 
8, 500 10 
8, 500 CO 
8, 500 00 


IGO 00 
1G3 00 
175 00 
200 00 


Third Thursday in July. 
LastTuesday oi each term. 


39 






Last of Jan., & 1st July. 


40 






Second week in July. 


41 








42 






















43 


33 
10 

8 
8 
4 

1 


"no 
57 
43 

15 
32 


630 

10 

159 

111 

07 

18 


630 
129 
216 
154 

62 
50 




3 to 4 yrs 








September. 


44 




It, 000 00 
5, 000 CO 






45 
46 


2 years.. 


3,000 


160 00 


Fourth week in June. 


47 












48 












49 












50 


13 

2 
5 
5 


133 


128 


321 
52 
87 
30 


"ii" 












51 












52 


42 

20 


45 
10 












53 




3,000 




140 to 200 


Last Thursday in July. 


54 








55 


6 
4 

7 
6 
8 
14 

8 












91 

50 
3,000 

i,oi;o 


3,531 95 


75 14 

150 00 
150 00 
IGO 00 
24 00 
180 00 
IGO 00 




56 


41 
36 
24 


51 
256 
101 


92 
292 
125 




3 years . . 




57 


10, ooa 00 

2, 4J0 00 


Last Thursday Jan. &Jiina 


53 






59 








60 


"'ss' 


275 
344 


275 
432 

77 


1,879 
314 




1,200 
241 


16, 000 00 
16, 000 00 




61 




July 8 and February 4. 
July 8. 


62 




63 












750 


12, 000 CO 




64 


13 
13 


CO 


75 


135 










65 














66 




















67 




















68 






















69 


27 




804 


804 














70 














71 






















72 


2 


39 


34 


73 












September «7. 


73 












74 






















75 


3 


80 


51 


131 




4 years.. 











580 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION 

STATISTICS or NORMAL 



Name. 



Location. 



•a 

^ n 
c 3 



PrincipaL 



7C 

77 

78 

79 

80 

81 

82 

83 

84 

85 

86 

87 

88 

89 

90 

91 

93 

93 

94 

95 

96 

97 

98 

99 

100 

101 

102 

103 

104 

105 

106 

107 

108 

109 

110 

111 

112 

113 

114 



Orwell Konnal Institute 

National Normal School 

McNeely Normal Sctiool 

Teachers' Lust i tut oof Oberlin College, 
Normal dep't Wilberforce University, 
Normal dep't Mount Union College, . . 
Normal dep't Willamette University 

Normal course PaciQc University 

State Normal School 

State Normal School 

State Normal School 

State Normal School 

Stato Normal School 

Girls' Normal School 

Normal departm't Lincoln University. 
Normal course Palatinate College . . . . 

State Normal School 

Normal class Avery Institute 

Normal class Fish University 

Normal dep't Central Teun. College. . 

Normal Department 

Normal dep't East Tenn.'WesleyanUn. 

Stato Normal School 

State Normal School 

Stato Normal School 

Hampton Normal Institute 

Kichmond Normal School 

Stato Normal School 

Normal department Storer Coll'^cfo . . . 
Normal dep't "West Virginia College 

Stato Normal School 

Stato Normal School 

Stato Normal School 



Normal department Ripon College , 
State Normal School 



Stato Normal School. 

Stnto Normal School 

Normal dep't lloward University - - . 
Normal dep't University of Deseret. , 



Orwell, Ohio 

Lebanon, Ohio 

Hopedalo, Ohio 

Oberlin, ()hio 

Near Xcnia, Ohio 

Mount Union, Ohio 

Salem, Greg 

Forest Grove, Oreg 

MiUersville, Pa 

Edinborough, Pa 

Bloom sburgh. Pa 

Mansfield, Pa 

Kutztown, Pa 

Philadelphia, Pa 

Oxford, Pa 

Mvcrstown, Pa 

Bristol, R. I 

Charleston, S. C 

Nashville, Tenn 

Nashville, Tenn 

Lookout Mountain, Tenn.. 

Athens, Tenn 

Johnson, Vt 

Randolph, Vt 

Castleton, Vt 

Hampton, Va 

Richmond, Va 

West Liberty, W. Va 

Harper's Ferry, W. Va 

Flemin^ton, W. Va 

Marshall ColL P, O., W. Va. 

Fairmont, W. Va 

Whitcw.ater, Wis 

Ripon, Wis 

PlatteviOe, Wis 

Madison, Wis 

Oshkosh. Wis 

Washington, D. C 

Salt Lake City, Vtah 



18G5 
1852 



1850 
1861 
1809 
1862 
18C6 
1843 
1654 



1852 



H. U. Johnson 

A. Holbrook 

W. Eriukerhoof 

Jas. H. Fairchild, D. D . 

D. A. Payne, D.D 

O. N. Hai tshorno, LL.D. 

L.J. Powell, A. M 

S. H. Marsh, D. D 

E.Brooks, A.M 

J.A.Cooper 

H. Carver, A.M 

C, n. Verrill, A. M 

J. S. Ermoutraut 

G. W. Fetter 

L N. Rendall, D. D 

H. R. Nicks, A.M 



ISCG 
1866 



18G7 
1SG7 
18G8 
18G8 
1867 
1870 



18G8 
1869 
1866 



1S66 
1862 
1867 



Prof. Spence 

J. Bradeu, A.M 

C.F. P. Bancroft, A.M.. 
N. E.Cobleigh.D.D.... 

S.H.Pe.arl 

E. Con:mt 

R.G.Williams 

S. C. Armstrong 

A n drew Washburn 

F.H.Crago 

N. C. Br.ackett, A. M.... 
Rev.A.D. William.s,A,M 

S. R. Thompson 

J.Blair 

Oliver Arev, A. M 

W. E. Merriman, A. M.. 
E. A. Charleton 



Gcn.O.O.nownrd, LL.D, 
John R. Park, M. D 



STATISTICAL TABLES. 



581 



SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES-Continued. 





a 

1-1 £ 
c o 
Wa 

4 
4 
6 


K UMBER OF STU- 
UExNTS. 


11 

$-0 


3 


s> 

1 




n 

k 


°* a h 

^ 


S3 

< 




a 


3 


a 


1 


Time of anniversary. 


76 


IQO 
239 
110 


120 

145 
165 


240 
384 
175 


8 








$150 00 


Jane 22. 


77 










78 


43 








150 00 


June 23. 


70 










80 


"'4' 


16 


15 


31 

242 

31 














fl 














82 




31 














83 


2 

8 
8 
10 
11 
















84 


4S0 
173 
210 
112 


207 
110 
131 
110 


747 
2S5 
3G1 
222 






3,900 

1,6G2 

630 

2,000 


$5, o;;o 00 
5, 000 00 
5, 000 00 
5, 000 00 


200 00 
170 CO 
l!?4 00 
178 00 


Third Thursday in July. 


85 






8(i 






Third Thursday in June. 


87 








83 








89 


11 








1,019 




500 


11, 925 24 


2 75 


February and July. 


90 


9 




9 






91 














92 






















93 






















04 






















95 


2 

1 


32 
21 


20 
12 


52 
33 














96 















97 














f>S 








98 
346 
19 
86 
40 
82 
167 
39 














99 


4 

"5 
3 
3 
7 
1 
2 
2 
9 










500 
500 




150 00 
ICO 00 




100 


3 

54 

"40' 
90 
30 


IG 
32 
40 
36 
77 
9 








Third Wednesday in Feb. 


101 








102 


3 years.. 
2 to 4 yrs. 


400 








103 








104 










105 














106 




2 to 4 yrs. 
2 to 4 yrs. 










107 


20 
80 


iio 


20 
190 












108 










109 














110 












3 years. . 


GOO 


8,000-10,000 


50 00 




111 














112 




















113 


2 
2 


1 


13 


14 














114 


































582 



STATISTICAL TABLES. 



3 I 

o I 



•o^ijM. ^on ppio^ 



•pTJOj 'jou pinoQ 



o>o I CD • ono> 



SaiJnp poSjnqjsjp •ojj 



•noijdoo3j 



•aSiajoj 



•QAIJC^ 



•joqnm^ 



•Itj;ox 



OTD'-H O 

t:: o o *■- 



•oxBtna^ 



9icn 



'■ o q 



e 



rs CO CO 



m — Orl 



ROtoO 



5-0 o » 



. 00 00 GO 00 






•ponocio nog a\ 



• otttcoLor-coocoo r-oo-^or-cjoiiciooocsoo ■^olooo 



on ;j; 00 ■ 



? 10 LO O ».T O (tl O -^ O LO o c» 



o o o ts o 



.JO CUOOaUGOajQOOOajOOCtJGOCDGUCO CC^^^OOOGOOO 






CM cj 



Sg 



!^ii 



y^ 






M > 

■~J cj 






SM 



;d 



; is 



« o 



-SM.t?^: 



^ ' s -M 



'5 1 3 



P o 

1; 






y--3a>o«s-=5-'Hi 






5^ 

tCU- 



I3jj 






'^ -+J fc^ t- * 



.2 o 

OS 



.SPh 
6.2 



PhK 



.^1 



1 1-1 Hi 02 3 1-3 Piy .Wc 



C-3 ^^ I 



3 c^ 



« >^.;4 



F^P^ 



ci a 



•joqranx 



c-a 

. o ^ 



2 p g « o 
c ."?, r^ M .^ 



c c/3 c: r « o 



„ o C3 



o c o o o a 

£c2 etS "tS 
o o g c £ o 

o OjS'c ATs 
o c '"' a; .2 

X <K' o 3 

o « o _2 5 









=J S— 2 3 o 3 



c o © ^ C' c ;:; 



KSc 



X o "t? ^ ® - ^ 

3 > -■; 3 +:* «;i 3 

c i ►^ O « o o 



Kg 
a " 






P3M a 

o c fe! 



f-lrH .-liHi-(i-(iHi-n-(i-lc<CliHCJ(HO» dooism 



REPORT OP THE COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION. 583 



Estimated true 
■value of real 
and personal 
property iu 
the State. 






>o 

! o 

• o 

is 

• o 
io" 






o 
o 

o 
o" 

8 
8 

o 


o 
o 

o 
o" 


o 

o 

T 

'a* 


o 
o 

o 

b 
o 

o" 




• o 

• o 
'. ° 

• o" 

:S 
:i 










;0 

CO 

to 
si 




o 
o 

o 

o 

'M 

o" 
. t^- 

■00 




•o 

; o 

• o 

■ o 

■ o 

is" 








i- 


f- 


Assessed ■valua- 
tion of real 
and personal 
pro erty in 
the State. 






1 o 
. o 

1 CO 

. o 

i 

' n 






o 
o 

§ 

• o 
o" 
o 


o 
o 
oo 

f-i 

00- 


o 

• o 

' cT 

! '*'' 
• ;» 


o 
o 

o 

.00 

. ■^ 


. O lO 
. 1 J o 

■ to t- 

! c-rcQ- 

. o o 

;i§ 










• oo 

• oo 

• oo 

■ rr <X) 

• O -H 

• o'r-T 

• oo 

. -q. o 

iss 


'• o 
■ o 

i o 

o 

is" 
is 




• o 
■ o 

•o 

• o 

;o 




1 '■ o 
. . o 

; I-* 

'• 'in 

i is 

. . o 
! IcT 

.' 1 CO 


1 

a 

O 

i 


1 






o 
in 








CI 
CJ 

o" 






oo 

o 


CI o 
clco 










00 -H 


o 

s 

■^ 
o 




ip, 

;0 
■ o" 




1 ItJ. 

I ' ^ 






■" d 
















00 

o 

T-T 




o 

CO 
CI 

to 


?4g 

03 










CIO 

to'cr 

O CO 


o- 

o 
to 

c»- 




i '^ 

jci 




i i^l 






•jcojf oqf joj 
l)unj poqas 
p ^ s a A U T 
uioaj ostjajaaj 
























o 
o 

to 

lO 
OQ- 


oat 

O CO 

o o 












'■ n 
. o 

lo 

■ to 

i o" 

• CO 


o 

o 

o 
to 




• o 
. o 
i ^ 

' ^2 

ci 












•^1 
o aj 

.5 « a 

(SI .^.3 






in 

o 






o 
(» 

o 

00 

o 
n 
o 


o 






o 

1 

to- 












o->i< 

OT 
O CO 

83 

o o 


o 
o 

t- 

o 
1* 

c>- 

o 
co- 




CO 

o 

S5 












O 

it 

§1 








00 

n 

no- 
es 
























o 
en 
to 

cf 










00 00 

M" O 
CO t- 

t--oo 

C! O 

ofcf 






















Is' 

51 






s 

o 
o 

o 






o 
















00 

8 










oo' 

OO 














' • o 
■ . o 






•e 

o 
& 
p. . 


1 














a 
o 










§ 

o 

to- 
ff) 

to 


8 

irT 












do 00 
« -^ 

CO t- 
t---00- 

c> o 
CI -^r 

sfat 


l- 
es 

o 

CI 

CO 

cf 

co 
o" 


oo 

too 

CO o 

ss 

■*a^o 

C-. o 

1-- 




' ' oo 

i ;S 

i ■ cf 






(Si 














6 

a 

1 


CO 






o 
o 
















o 
CI 










at 




• -o 




a 

a 
o 




1 
1 




3 



■i 
a 

s 

2 

1 

1 


£ 
1 


IT 1? 

ll 


o 

t 

c 
ta 

o 


"3 
Q 


c 

5 


"fc 




^2 
'c 

p 


c 

M 


c= 

c 

H 


ci 


p 


c3 

c 

1 
1-1 


o 
c 
'3 


c: 

Em 




c 
t 


J 

c 
c 


■ft 
ft 


c 

1 


ea 

cj' 


:S 

'■■'i 
is 


> 

o 




1 

O 

o 


o 


a 
o 
il 
9 

o 


c; 

a 


a 

o 


c3 
C 

o 
02 


o 
fr 

3 

o 

He 


ia.S 

r c n 

ill 


'3 



584 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



to •* 



Mi 

B p » 



r J= P P P P P P i* .-^ .-^ ,-' ^ i^ }^ p p i^ :-> c^ 5-' >-' *- i'i i^ ,-- S S OT jr. fe t o la M o S CJ 






— £- O 5° 



^pcrj ^-5,^ E 



Is" 



.= K- =;£-=■;? 



3 ^ 






j'=? 



^^rs 



ii f^ g «l or. ^7- O i. ii 






^ d. f' 3 '~' ^ \. tr-'^ 5 "^ Si 3 -S t» 3 
'-" ^ 3 *- r« 3 cB "^ "^ r; ■«. rr_ 



•s: 



2 3 2. 



CCQtJ 

S fo ^. 

3 O - 
*^ '^ ^ 
3"^? S. 



r.o-S- 



«> CO 

V ■" 
15 






3"uj '«^"^^. S-i_i S3. SI. ^-'^h*-<3^-« 

t^ )-H HI S-. ^_ J-l ^_ ^_- WH t^ hH S'. s S^ H-l *-'.'^ — S- S' — 

^^cn VJ 3 -^ [K Vi ^|_|V- (^5^3 a ^. ^5 ^ ' — ^3 c^*?"3 

-^ ?;■ ?. -. ^. ,_| -.'^ S a - • ?^' - . c. » 2 ?t-' "■ - . ~ t^ 3 ^ P 
3n"?o'3;^^5"^?3?"o?. ~p3-'"5 — . ?■ 

o ?> ?. g . "2 ?. 3 ."^ "■ ?• o 3- • £ . S ;r. ?• . 5 3 .^ = 



w 



o 



■ o' 

3 



?.3 
o 



2 3 — 



3 3 



S^3 g-2. 

ft 3 3 

3 "" 3 HM 

3 o ^. "1 
3 sr •-^ JT. 

^§1.3 
O ST. 
3 C 



5:3 § 



^. rr ^ "^ Vj 






ro" — 5t 2 *^ -? 5" 
•^ 2 o 3 ii. .^ E? 
£. 5 ^ 3 - • o c!- 
fT- J5 S ^ 3 c 

go . ;c 3 S ►fl 
3"^ 3 . 




^.^P^oB> 



O ^ fr 
^^ 3 ?J ^ 



ro 3 o S- 3. - 2. 

p 3-3 r^- 3 o 
2. 2. £, K:. 1^ 2. 3- 






g? 






o: 



" ■ r^ "t P i:: . 

- _ tj H 2 1— 1 • 3; • 

r/i M^ t^ • S -' ■ c' • 

/•^ p . . 3 3-. • • 



aq 



O. 



Q a g ;^ ^ So p i 

^ 3 m !&• 5 ^ i-ri • 
►, g en ..i*- p rt W • 

"" S H Li 3" " ii. 
^!^ ^ S!"^ 3 3_ 



^2 w;=-?^- 






2 ^' 

O i-pi o 3 — 
E.3'3^ 



M . M 3 f-zS S. 
-V S^ _y o - p 3 

CO 



»"?? 3- 
'-'" S"x 

I ^ S o 
^03 
. 2. 3 - 

3 ' ►> 

, 2. ^ ^ 



t><^ g .-^ cr 2 
1^ p "^ o J3 

3 ||g tj^ 

^ p ft' 3' 3 fD 



>" 



i-=-rr)J-2. 



e o • -• 

cc-5'3- 

~ . h3 



2 >^^ 
- - p 

COOjf" 

■5 "5 ; 



:^co^Koc!^i^Er5^ 

■13^ 5'^3"3-' mP^ 
■ El'h:'^*!Pcr>-3-P^ 
C-5- • 'TJ • IX f: ■ £ ^ P 

:^^ H " t2 2 ^ ^ ^' tr a 

^ (T' ^ u_, 3 • L^ ^ w'- S- ■ 

s 3:-3"^g gp^i^ ^ ^^ 

2 3^2 O „^ H- o 3 

hw 5^ - - ■ jT o t?" 3- - r^ f» 
2. tr' W tO£,- • G 3 fejt^ 

3 I— ( • ■ 3 S:^|~^'0 H*^ t-H 



^.* 



.^>> 



ti P- -■ iS 3' . ... 

^t =• 3- r^ p "^^ • : 2.n. 

g-2.2.>-"" 

13 -^ ■— CO 

p ; ■ 








To 
^1 


*. to 




CO ►- 00 to 
«0 00 ^ to 


^ i-i to 
■^0»00tO^4 hS0S^4O5«i*>.lO4». 

lOO050l<3i^l*»-0505U't0^4~40C 


1- 05 — 

en ■f' 00 


? 


- 


to 


•<i m 


toi—ojooostaaJOoiOTCii— 01 


to 05 — — 

Oi to ^ to 


*>■ ^ 05 to 00 05 Co C *^ 10 *» a: 05 

~JO05 — ^OOoo«;oo^o<H-tn 


1-. to H- 

10 CO — 
— «3 — 


g ^ 


C5 


10 


•- 05 


CO H- — I I 
00 — <X^MtD«D-4^lO' OO- 


to 

o» ^ ^ to 


^tO >-• to — — 05 05. 
CJO»00505»-~4iIi*-COOIOO' 


05 CO 10 

c o> 


* ' 


^ 


to 

CV 




►- 10 


*'>-*>.h5toaocowcnwc5*»»- 


4^ 05 — 05 


1-1 — >— hS 


0; ^ 




^ 





: ^ 


hS^, ^UlWtO- — »Oh-C0> 


■f^ 05 to 


W<;O^>054»-'-O5«D^4'<I00a>«Di*»- 


— 00 


1 



-- 


10 • 


4^ ►- '. 


05i-iW4kOSW"-N-. . — HI 


lOtOtO-^i^'tO — ^lO^-Oi' totoioto^ 


5" • 


^ 


\ 


': 


', * 


050StO'-'05H-i-iCOi^.0505it>-00505~JO» 


II 











— ►- . 05 • H- I 



IIJ 



00 

to 



LIBRAKIES. 685 



LIBRAUIES OF COLLEGES, THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES, &c. ' 

COLLEGES.* 

When Na. of 

founded. Name. Location. volumes. 

1638, Harvard College Cambridge, Mass 184,000 

1692, William and Mary Williamsburg, Va , 4,500 

1700, Yale College New Haven, Conn 97.000 

1746, College of New Jersey Princeton, N. J 33,000 

1749, University of Pennsylvania Phila(>elphia, Penn 8,500 

1767, Columbia College New York CHy, N. Y 20,000 

1768, Brown University ProviJenc^ R.I 3S,000 

1769, Dartmouth College Hanover, N. H 39,0u0 

1770, Rutgers College New Brunswick, N.J 12,000 

1781, Washiagton and Lee College .... Lexingtorj., Ya 6,500 

1783, Dickiason College Carlisfe, Penn 26,t)00 

1784, St. John's College Annapolis, Md 8,000 

1 785, Charleston College tlharlestoji, S. C 8,000 

1785, University of Georgia Athens, Ga 18,500 

1789, Himpdeu Sidaev College Prince Edward's Co., Va 7,200 

1739, University of North CaroUna t.'hapel Hill. N. C 23,000 

1791, University of Vermont Burlington, Yt 1-3,000 

1792, Georgetown College Georgetown, D. C 36,000 

1793, AVilliams College 1Villiamsto\vn, Mass 20,000 

1794, Bowdoiu College Brunswick, Me 32,800 

1795, Union College Schenectady, N. Y 18,003 

1798, Kentucky University Lexington, Ky 5.000 

1809, Miilllebury College Middlebury , Vt 14,000 

1801, University of South Carolina Columbia, S. C 25,000 

1S02, AV'ashiugtou and Jefferson College Cannonsburg, Penn 18,000 

1804, Ohio University Athens, Ohio 5,800 

1803, University of East Tennessee Knoxville, Tenn 8,500 

1806, University of Nashville Nashville, Tenn 11,000 

1308, MountSt Marv'sCoUege Near Emmettsburg, Md 5,500 

1809, Miami Duiversity Oxford, Ohio 9,5oO 

1812, Hamilton College Clinton, N. Y 13,000 

1817, Alleghany College Meadville, Penn 10,OUO 

l,8l9, University of Virginia Charlottesville, Va 36,0U0 

1819, St. Joseph's College Bardstown, Ky 10,000 

182!), Colby University Waterville, Me 10,000 

18 Jl, Columbian College Washington, D. C 8,000 

1821, Amherst College Amherst, Mass 36,000 

182.3, Centre College Danville, Ky 6,000 

1325, Trinity College Hartford, Conn 14,000 

182.5, Hob.art Free College Geneva, N. Y 14,000 

1826, Konyoa College Gambler, Ohio 18,000 

1826, AVestern Reserve College Hudson, Ohio 11,000 

1328, Indiana University Bloomington, Ind 5,.500 

1S30, Spring Hill College Spring Hill (near Mobile), Ala 8,500 

1831, University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, Ala 12,000 

1831, University of New York New York Citv, N. Y 6,000 

1331, Wesleyan University Middletown, Conn 25,000 

1332, Pennsylvania College Gettysburg. Penn 18.000 

1332, Deuison University Granville, Ohio 11,000 

1832, Raudolph-.Macon College Boydton, Ya 10,500 

1832, Hanover College South Hanover, Ind 5,60tt 

1832, St. Louis University St. Louis, Mo 22,500 

1332, Lafayette College Easton, Pa 8,.50O 

1833, Wabash College Crawfordsville, Ind 11,000 

1333, Delaware College Newark, Del lii,000 

1833, Haverford College West Haverford, Pa 7,40Q 

1834, Oberlin College Oberlin, Ohio 12.000 

1835, Marietta College Marietta, Ohio 23,50Cj 

1835, McKendree College Lebanon, 111 6,50(7 

1836, Franklin and Marshall College Lancaster, Penn 19.000 

1336, Alfred Universitv Alfred, N. Y 5',.503 

1837, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Mich 23,000 

1337, Indiana Asbury University Greencastle, Ind 10,IIOO 

1838, Wake Forest College Forestville, N. C 8,000 

1837, Emory College Oxford, Ga 7,500 

1838, Emorv and Henry College Washington Co., Va 9,000 

1840, Davidson College Mecklenburg Co.,N. C 6,000 

1840, St. John's College Fordham, N. Y 16,000 

1340, Mercer Univer.<;ity Penfield, Ga 9.000 

1840, Georgetown College Geoi-getown. Kv , . 10,000 

1340, St. Xavier's College Cincinnati, Ohio 17,000 

1342, St James's College AVashington, Co., Md 10,000 

1842, Ohio Wesleyan University Delaware Co., Ohio 14,000 

1842, Cumberland Univer.sity Lebanon, Tenn 5,.500 

1842, Universitv of Notre Dame du Lac Notre Dame, Ind 7,500 

1843, Holy Cross AVorcester, Mass 12,000 

1845, AVit'teuberg University Springfield, Ohio 6..500 

1846, Madison University Hamilton, N. Y 8,-500 

1847, St Mary's College Wilmington, Del fi,.000 

1847, College of St. Francis Xavier New York City IH.OOO 

1848, College of the City of New York New York, City 16,.500 

1848, Uuiver.sity of Mississippi Oxford, Miss 5,500 

1849, Lawrence University Appleton, AVis 7,000 

1850, Rochester University Rochester, N. 'Y 8,500 

1850, Trinity College Randolph Co., N. C 7,800 

* Those containing less than 5,000 volumes are not noticed. 



586 EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



When No. of 

founded. Name. Location. v.Dlumes. 
1851, Mount St. Mary's of the West Near Cincinnati, Ohio 10,500 

1851, Colk'Ke of Christian Brothers t't. Louis, Mo 5,500 

1852, Lombard University Galesburg, 111 6,500 

1853, Koanoke College Salem, Koanoke Co., Ya 7,500 

1853, Westminster College Fulton, Mo 5,400 

1854, Tufts College Medford, Mass 10,500 

1854, Knox College Galesburgh, 111 6,500 

1855, Northwestern Universitv Evanston, 111 25,500 

1856, St. Lawrence University Canton, N. Y 6,5(i0 

1856, Seaton Hall College South Orange, N. J 8 300 

1857, Loyola College Baltimore, Md 25,000 

1857, Washington University St. I,ouis, Mo 6,500 

Santa Clara College Santa Clara, Cal 11.000 

Iowa College Grinnell, Iowa 6,4( 

College of the Immaculate Conception New Orleans. La 6,500 

Louisiana State University Baton Rouge, La 8,4(0 

Wofford College Spartensburgh.'S. C 5,500 

1859, Griswold College Davenport,. Iowa 5,400 

1859, St. Benedicts College Atchi.son, Kansas 12,000 

1860, Augustana College Genesee, 111 7,500 

1861, \"as«ir College Poughkcepsie, N. V 7,500 

1882, St. Joseph's College Philadelphia, Pa 6,250 

1863, Boston College Boston , Mass 6,500 

1863, Mauliattan College New York City 6,200 

1864, Bates College Lewiston, Me 7,300 

1865, Cornell University Ithaca, N. Y 50,000 

1867, Howard University Washington, D. C. 6,500 

THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES. 

1784, Theological Seminary Reformed Dutch Church. . . . New Brunswick, N.J 10,000 

1791, St. Mary's Theological Seminary Baltimore, Md 10,000 

18(l8, Andover Theological Seminary Andover, Mass 81,000 

1812, Princeton Theological Seminiry Princeton, N. J 21,000 

1816, Divinity School Cambridge, Mass 16,000 

1816, Bangor Theological Seminary Bangor, Me 12,000 

1817, Episcopal General Theological Seminary New York 14,500 

18'iO, lliunilton Theological Seminary Hamilton, N. Y 10 000 

1821, Auburn Theological Seminary Auburn, N. Y 6,000 

1821, South- Western Theological Seminary Marysville, Tenn 6,000 

1822, Episcopal Theological School Fairfax Co. , Va 9,500 

1824, Union Theological Seminary Hampden, Sidney, Va 6,000 

Gettysburg Theological Seminary Gettysburg, Penn 12,500 

1825 Newton Theological Institution Newton, Mass 5,500 

1825 Wittemburg Theological Seminary Gettysburg, Penn 12,.500 

1825' German Reformed Theological Seminary Mercersburg, Penn 8,500 

1827* Theological Department Keuyon College Gambier, Ohio 7,500 

1828 Western Theological Seminary Alleghany , Penn 10,000 

1828,' Theological Seminary a . .. Columbia, S. C 18,500 

1829', Lane Seminary Cincinnati, Ohio 15,500 

1832, Shvirtleff College Theological Department Upper Alton, HI ... 5,200 

183i| Th('(il<>;:ic:il Institute Hartford, Conn 7,500 

1836^ Union Tbculc.irical Seminary New York 31,<i00 

1838, St. <;h;u-li'S Urunning Theological Seminary. . . . Philadelphia, Penn 10,000 

1840| Concordia Seminary ^t- Louis, Mo 5,200 

1844, AVestern Theological School MeadviUe, Penn 9,.j00 

1844, St. Vincent's College Theological Department Cape Girardeau, Mo 7,000 

1844' Ohio Weslevan Seminary Delaware, Ohio 8,100 

1844, Seminary of St. Mary of the Lake Chicago, 111 6,000 

1846, St Vincent's College Theological Department St. \ nicent. Pa }'i'r!in. 

1850, Rochester Theological Seminary Rochester, N. Y }v^9,X 

1851. Mount St. Marv's of the West Near Cmcinnati, Ohio o'rr^ 

18;>8, Danville Theological Seminary Danville, Ky 8.500 

1859, Southern l!iii>tist TheoloL'ical Seminary Greenville, S. C 5,500 

1859, TheoloLni-Ml Scmin.ary of the N. W. College Ohicagor 111 o>C00 

1859 Griswolil < "olleire Theological Department Davenport, Iowa 5,500 

1862' Eiiiscojial Divinity School PJiil^idelphia, Penn 6,o00 

1865, OberUn CoUese TheologicTil Department Olicrlm, (I'.iio ii'n v! 

1867, Drew Theological Seminary Mudisou, N.J 11,000 

MEDICAL SCHOOLS AND HOSPITAL. 

1755, Pennsvlvania Hospital Library Philadelphia, Penn ^'9P^ 

1705, Medical Dcpirtment Pennsvlvania. University Philadelphia, Penn 5,000 

1791, New York ILxpital Library New York 8,000 

1807, New York College of Physicians and Surgeons New York j'^^^ 

1831, University Medical School New York o-nnn 

University of Virginia Medical Department 3j,000 

LAW SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES. 

1817, Dane Law School Cambridge, Ma,ss H'n^ 

1845, New York State and National Law School Poughkcepsie, N. Y •. . . rf.OUU 

New York Law Library New York 6,o00 

Social Law Library Boston 6,00U 

1*^02. \ Law Associations Philadelphia, Penn 5,0C0 

1859^ Michigan University Law Department Ann Arber, Mich 3,000 



LIBRAUIES. 587 



PRINCIPAL LIBRARIES OF THE UNITED STATES, EXCLUSIVE OF TUOSE CONNECTED WITH COLLEGES, &C. 

AVhen No. of 

founded. Name. Location. volumes. 

1853, San Francisco Mercantile Library San Francisco, Cal 25,0f0 

1838, Hartford Young Men's Institute Hartford, Conn 22,836 

1839, Connecticut Historical Society do 12,000 

1854, Connecticut State Library do 3,000 

1826, New Haven Young Men's Institute New Haven, Conn ll,0CO 

1788, Wilmington Y'ouug Men's Association Wilmington, Del 6,189 

1839, Savannah Historical Society Savannah, (Ja 7,900 

1831, Indiana State Library Indianapolis, Ind 26,000 

1835, Catholic Diocesan Library Vincenues, Ind 12,000 

1836, Keokuk I ibrary Association Keokuk, Iowa 6,600 

Dubuque Library Dubuque, Iowa 8.0000 

Lexington City Library Lexington, Ky 14,600 

1839, Lousiana State Library. Baton Rouge, La 14,'i00 

1844, Lyceum Xibniry New Orleans, La 12,000 

Mechanics' Library do 15,000 

VSd, Maine State Library Augusta, Me 31,500 

1867, Skowhegan Library Skowhegan, Me 2,315 

1827, Maryland State Library Annapolis, Md 25,000 

1862, Baltimore Peabody Institute Baltimore, Md 42,.588 

1839, raltimnro Mercantile Library do 24,976 

1843, Maryland Historical Society do 17,0(0 

1847, Maryland Institute Library do 18,000 

1840, Odd Kellows' Library do 13,000 

18.58, Arlington Public Library Arlington, Mass 2,105 

1867, Barnstable Sturgis Library Barnstable, Mass 1,845 

18-55, Beverly l^ublic Library Beverly, Mass 4,810 

1859, Bolton Public Library Bolton, Mass 1,300 

1853, American Congregational Library Boston, Mass 10,000 

1807, Boston Athenscnm do 105,000 

li94, Boston Library do 19,800 

1791, Massachusetts" Historical Society do 18,500 

1848, Mattapan Literary Association do 3,000 

1848, Boston Public City Library do 160,000 

1820, Mercantile Library do 21,000 

1831, Natural History Society do 13,000 

1864, New Church Library do 1,.300 

1826, Massachusetts State Library do 31,.50O 

1857, Young Men's Christian Association do 5,010 

1SG7, North Bridgewater North Bridgewater, Mass 2,667 

1804, Brigliton Holton Library, Brighton, Mass 5,108 

1887, Brookfield Merrick Public Library Brookfield, Mass , 2,247 

1857, Brookline Public Library Brookline, Mass 12,000 

1857, Dana Library Cambridge, Mass 4,800 

1860, Charlestown Public Library Charlestown, Mass 10,955 

1869, Chelsea Public Library Chelsea, Mass 2,345 

Chicopee Public Library Chicopee, Mass 2,800 

Eigelow Library Clinton, Mass 

1851, Concord Public Library Concord, Mass , 5,984 

1866, Peabody Institute Danvers, Mass 

1610, Deerfield Library Association Deerfield, Mass 2,100 

1861, Pall lUver Public Library Fall River, Mass .' 6,633 

1859, Fitchburg Public Library Fitchburg, Mass 8,500 

1855, Framingham Public Library Fr jmiugham. Mass 

1854, Lyceum Library Gloucester, Blass. 3,000 

1855, Public Library .... Groton, Mass 1,665 

Public Library , Harvard, Mass 1,400 

1868, Public Library Hinsdale, Mass 2,000 

1862, Public Library Lancaster, Mass 4,500 

1861, Public Library Leicester, Mass 2,953 

Franklin Library Lawrence, Mass 5,400 

1854, Pa-ific Mills Library do 5,600 

1864, Public Library , Leominster, Mass 4,256 

1867, Y'oung Men's Christian Association Lowell, Mass 

Lowell City Library do 15,121 

1850, Public Library Lunenburg, Mass 1,350 

1862, Public Library Lynn, Mass 12,872 

1866, Public Library Millbury , Mass . 1,265 

1857, Public Library Natick, Mass 2,540 

1852, Public Library New Bedford, Mass 23,000 

1854, Free Librarv Newbury port. Mass 13,600 

1819, Public Library Newton, Mass 1,800 

1860, Public Librarv Northampton, Mass 5 400 

1854, Peabody Institute Peabody, Mass 14,300 

1862, Phillips' Free Public Library Phillipston, Mass 2,269 

1850, Pittsfield Mercantile Library Pittsfield, Mass 3 500 

1869, Public Library South Reading, Mass 3,300 

1857, Roxbury Athenasum Library Roxbury, Mass 8,500 

1810, Salem Athenaeum Library Salem, Mass 13,755 

1854, Arms Library Shelburne Falls 3,437 

I860, Public Library Shelborn, Mass 1,500 

18.57, Public Libr,ary Springfield, Mass 30,488 

1862, Jackson Library Stnckbridge, Mass 4,000 

18.58, Public Library Stoneham, Mass 3,400 

18,52, Public Library Saultborough, Mass 2,511 

1£63, Goodenow Library South Sudbury, Mass 4,284 



588 EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTH UTIO-NS. 

'When No. of 

founded. Name. Location. Tolumes. 

1*^66, Public Library Taunton, Mass 4,395 

1865, Public Library Walthaui, Mass 5,900 

1868, Public Library \\ atertown. Mass 

1850, Public Library Way land, Mass 4,056 

1857, Public Library Westboro, Mass 1,642 

18'58, Westfield Athenaeum Library Westfield, Mass 2,200 

ia59. Public Library • . . Westford, Mass 1,644 

1857, Public Library ^\ eston. Mass 3,180 

1867, Public Library Winchendon, Mass 1,295 

18.59, Public Library Winchester, Mass 2,2'tO 

1S56, Public Library Woburn, Mass 8,944 

18 0, Public Library Worcester, Mass 24,0U0 

1 U2, American Antiquarian Society do 52,IX)0 

l>!r,5, Public Library Detroit, Mich 21,500 

1832, Young Men's Society do 11,500 

1vj8, Michigan State Library Lansing, Midi 32,000 

l-!59, Minneapolis Athenifium Minneapolis, Minn 2,368 

1S49, Minnesota Historical Society St. Paul, Minn 5,100 

1865, St. Louis i'ublic Library St. Louis, Mo 13,800 

1846, St. Louis Mercantile Library Association do 34.238 

1355, Public City Library Concord, N. 11 3,384 

1854, City Library Manchester, N. H 14,200 

1517, Portsmouth Athepenum Library Portsmouth, N. II 10,400 

1^47, Newark Library Association Newark, N.J 17,500 

18 ')8, Public Library Newton, N. J 

1518, New York State Library Albany, N. Y 90.500 

K33, Y'oung Men's Association do 12,121 

1857, Brooklyn Mercantile Library Brooklyn, N. Y 40,000 

1835, Buffalo" Young Men's Association Buffalo, N. Y 18,(K)0 

Grovenor Library do 1 ,0(jO 

1820, Apprentices' Library New York City, N. Y 46,740 

1818, Astor Library do l98,0i 

1859, Cooper Union do.... ; 10,000 

IS'iO, Mercantile Library do 154,513 

1N39, Society Library do , 32,0C0 

18)4, New York Historical Society Library do ; 28,000 

1^30, Roeaester Athenaeum Library Rochester, N.Y 21,000 

18-34, Troy Young Men's Association Troy, N.Y 18,678 

18.58, Public Library Syracu.'^e, N. Y .- 9,370 

l-ii>7, Cincinnati Public Library Cincinnati, Ohio 33,588 

1835, Mercantile Library do 35,206 

1^6.3, Theological and Religious Library do 4,500 

18 iO, Ohio School Library do 25,4''.0 

1'543, Cleveland Library Association Cleveland, Ohio : 11,600 

1S6?, Public Library do 2,500 

1817, Ohio State library Columbus. Ohio 34,000 

Dayton Public School Library Dayton, Ohio 12,000 

1864, Portland Library Association Portland, Oreg 3,.50O 

1777, Pennsylvania State Library Harrisburg, Pa 41,0U0 

1812, Academy of Natural Sciences Philadelphia, Pa 22,580 

1814, Philadelphia Athenreum do 14,510 

18'i'>, Mechmics' Library do 25,00<) 

1821, Mercantile Library do 59,000 

1731, Philadelphia Library Company do 85,005 

1750, Logaaian Library do 

1854. Young Men's Christian Association do 3,800 

1821, Apprentice's Library do 22,029 

1742, American Philosophical Society do 18,000 

1847, Pittsburg Mercantile Library Pittsburg, Pa 10,200 

180", Newport Public Library Newport, R. 1 5,225 

1730, Redwood Library and Athenaeum do 18,460 

17.53, Providence Athenaeum Providence, R. 1 32,444 

1814, South Carolina State Library Columbia, S. C 13,000 

1718 Charleston Library Society Charleston, S. C 21,000 

1854^ Tennessee State Library Nashville, Tenn 13,000 

1830, 'Vermont State Library Montpelier, Vt 12,265 

1823, Virginia State Library Richmond, Va .. 21,000 

1847, Milwaukee Young Men's Association Milwaukee, Wis : 12,566 

1815, Library of Congress Washington, D. C 266,000 

Library of House of Representatives do 28,000 

18-37, P.atent OfTice Library do 23,598 

1789, Library of State Department do 20,000 

Library of Treasury Department do 3,410 

1814, Washington Library do 12,000 

1862, Library of Agricultural Department do : 9^0 



APPEi^DIX. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF EELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES, 

UNDER THE VOLUNTARY SYSTEM OF EQUAL RELIGIOUS RIGHTS 

TO ALL, WITHOUT STATE PREFERENCES OR STATE 

SUPPORT TO ANY FORM OF FAITH. 



A condensed summary of the origin, rise, progress, growth, doctrines, and 
present condition of each religious sect and denomination in the United 
States, explaining, from the writings of each, the points in which they 
differ from the others, and giving the localities in which they are most 
numerous. To which is added the progress and present condition of each 
denomination in the education of the ministry, in denominational or 
sectarian schools, in Sunday schools, in the number and elegance of their 
houses of worship, and in the support of Home and Foreign Missions, 
Bible, Tract, and Publication Societies, and other benevolent and charitable 
institutions, entirely devoid of sectarianism. 
36* 



The Growth and Progress of Religions Denominations 
in the United States for the iDast Hundred Years. 



The religious character of the Colonies in 
1770, was substantially that which had been 
hnpo-erl on them at the time of their first 
settlement, and was of necessity very diverse 
ha different sections. Massaclmsetts and 
Connecticut, (or rather the different colonies 
which iiad united under these names) had been 
founded by the Puritans or Independents, 
seceders fiom the Church of England, who 
had organized sometimes as independent 
churches during the reigns of James I. and 
Charks I. Tliese were, in 1770, the pre- 
dominant churches — '• the standing order," 
as they were termed, and the established re- 
ligious body of the colonies, though Episco- 
palians, Baptists, a few Methodists, and a 
considerable number of " Separates " were 
tolerated, and by '' signing off" or avowing 
them-e!ves adherents to one or the other of 
these denominations, and pledging them- 
pelves to sustidn it, their ecclesiastical taxes 
could be, in part, remitted. The " Sepa- 
rates" were mainly converts under the 
preaching of Whitfield and his followers in 
174(!-50, who were opposed to an estab- 
lished church, and believed in tlie voluntary 
system. Maine was largely set' led from 
Massachusetts, and followed its lead in re- 
ligious matters. New Hampshire had two 
distinct religious elements in its early set- 
tlement — tlie Puritsxn or Congregational — 
and the Presbyterian, represented by the 
Protestant Irish settlers of several of its 
towns. At the period we speak of there was 
a larger measure of toleration of other de- 
nominatiuns there than in Massachusetts. 
Khode Island had been settled by Baptists 
driven from Massachusetts a hundred and 
forty y ars before, on account of their avow- 
al of their religious belief. It was the only 
one of the New England colonies in wh cli, 
even at ihat time (1770,) there was complete 
liberty (^f onscience, and is population were 
of all denominations, Bapti -ts, Quakers, Sep- 
arates, Independents, Presbyterians, Episco- 
palians, Roman Catholics, Fifth INIonarchy 
Men, etc., etc. Vermont, or " New Hamp- 



shire Grants," was not an independent State 
till after the Revolution, and its fiew^ inhab- 
itants were of all shades of religious belief, 
or of none, at this time. New York, origi- 
nally settled by the Dutch, had had the Re- 
formed Dutch or Holland Church for its es- 
tablished church till 1G84, but after its con^ 
quest by the English the church of England 
had in turn become the established religion, 
and under some of the colonial governors, 
Presbyterians, Baptists, and Quakers were 
persecuted and imprisoned. Ihis persecu- 
tion had, however, cea-ed some years before 
this period, and though the Episcopal church 
was still the state church, its prestige waned 
subsequently during the years of the revolu- 
tion, from the fact that, in that colony, the 
greater part of its members were tories, and 
sympathizers with the Briti.-h. The Pres- 
byterians were considerably numerous in 
New York, the Baptists Mud Methodists le^s 
so, and there were a few Roman Catholics. 

Pennsylvania had been settled by the 
Quaker Penn, for a refuge for the sorely 
persecuted Quakers of P^ngland and Amer- 
ica, but it was open to all denominations, and 
to those Avho had no religious beliefs. The 
Quakers or Friends were predominant in 
numbers, but Episcopalians, Presbyterians, 
Baptists, Metliodists, Lutherans, and Roman 
Catholics, were all received cordially. 

New Jersey and Delaware had a moder- 
ate Swedish and Danish (Lutheran) ele- 
ment, but the former had a much larger con- 
stituency of Iri.-h Presbyterian-:, and was, 
before the Revolution, piobably the most 
thoroughly Presbyterian colony of the whole 
thirteen. There was not, however, at this 
time, so far as we can learn, anything like 
an esiablished church in the colony. 

Marylnnd was founded and settled by 
Lord Baltimore and his kinsmen, tlie Cal- 
verts and Carrolls, all of them Roman Cath- 
olics ; but to their honor, be it said, there 
was complete religious toleration from the 
first, and in 1770 the Catholics had but a 
slight majority among the inhabitants ; still 



RELIGIOUS DEN03IINATI0NS. 



591 



it was the predominant faith of the people of 
the colony. 

Virginia, settled by the younger sons of 
the English nobility and their friends at first, 
and its population subsequently largely in- 
creased by the great number of'' redemption- 
ers," (paupers, convicts, etc., sent over and 
sold for a term of years to pay for their pass- 
age,) had up to the commencement of the 
Revolution, recognized the church of Eng- 
land as the established church of the colony, 
and at times had persecuted sharply other 
denominations, Tiu'ough the influence of 
such men as Patrick Henry, Thomas Jeffex'- 
son, and others, who, though not religious 
men themselves, yet saw the necessity for re- 
ligious liberty, that principle was incorpo- 
rated in its first constitution as a State. 

North Carolina and South Carolina were 
settled largely by Protestant Irish (Presby- 
terians,) Huguenots (Protestant Reformed 
Church,) Moravians, and other Germans, 
mostly Protestant ; their constitutions and 
charters were favorable to religious liberty. 

Georgia, the youngest of the colonies, was 
largely settled by the followers of Whitfield 
and Wesley, and was, moreover, a refuge for 
persecuted Pi'otestants from the states of 
continental Europe. The largest religious 
liberty exi-ted here from the first. 

Such was the religious, or rather denomi- 
national history of the thirteen colonies when 
they came together by their representatives 
in the Continental Congress. Every form 
of christian belief then known, had its ad- 
herents in one colony or another. Most of 
them assimilated to a considerable extent 
by their years of intercourse during the war, 
abolished all restrictions on complete relig- 
ious liberty (where any existed) before the 
adoption of the constitution, but Massachu- 
setts and Connecticut retained theirs till the 
adoption of new and revised constitutions in 
the early part of tlie present century. It is 
to be said in their favor, however, that these 
restiictions were not, after the revolution, so 
severe or onerous as those under which the 
dissenters in England groan to-day. 

Meanwhile there had grown up a second 
tier of States beyond the Alleglianies, which 
were now knocking for admission to the Union. 
What were the religious denominations to 
be found in these ? In general, we may an- 
swer, that they were the same with those of 
the States from which most of their inhabit- 
ants had come. Thus Ohio, settled largely 



from New England, especially in its north- 
ern half, had a predominance of Congrega- 
tionalists, with some Methodists and Bap- 
tists in that section, and in the southern por- 
tion which was peopled from Pennsylvania 
and Virginia, a large proportion of Presby- 
terians, Lutherans, Quakers, and many Ger- 
man Methodists, with some Episcopalians 
and Baptists. Kentucky and Tennessee had 
at this time more of the Presbyterian ele- 
ment, modified by the great awakening of 
1801-2 to the Cumberland Presbyterian 
creed, while Baptists and Methodists alike 
were gaining the affections of large numbers 
of the people. A few years later other forms 
of faith made great inroads into the ranks 
of the older denominations. Alabama, set- 
tled mostly from Georgia and Tennessee, 
though with some admixture of northern 
men, drawn thither by its commercial facili- 
ties, had many representatives of most of the 
older denominations, but did not in its early 
history give much heed to the apostles of new 
faiths. The purchase of Louisiana in 1803, 
added a considerable Catholic element to the 
religious population of the country, not only 
in Louisiana proper, but in JMississippi, and in 
the states and territories subsequently organ- 
ized west of the Mississippi. In fact there 
were scattered Catholic churches in all the 
French and Spanish forts and trading sta- 
tions throughout the northwest, and these, 
though very feeble and w'dely scattered, 
served as nuclei for mo.e extcii.-ivc establish- 
ments as the country was settled. Detroit, 
Michigan ; Vincennes, Indiana ; Vandalia, 
Kaska>kia, and Joliet, Illinois ; two or three 
points in Wisconsin, and as many in Illinois, 
St. Louis, and some other points in Missouri, 
Bardstown, Kentucky, and missions in Ar- 
kansas and Kansas, indicate how zealously 
the French Catholic priests had planted their 
outposts throughout the Mississippi valley. As 
yet, however, the Catholics were not strong 
anywhere in the United States, and it was not 
until immigration commenced on a lai'ge scale 
fi om Ireland and Germany that they attain- 
ed to a prominent position among the religious 
denominations of the country. The German 
immigration, as we'll as that at a later date from 
Sweden and Norway, also largely increased 
the number of Lutheran and German Reform- 
ed churches, and that from England, Scotland, 
and the north of Ireland, enured mainly to 
the benefit of the Presbyterians, and Meth' 
odists, though a minority were Baptists. 



592 



RELIGIOUS DliNOMINATIOXS. 



Several denominations, some ot them now 
among the larger religious bodies of the 
country, have either originated here or 
had their principal development in the 
United States. The first of these in the 
order of time was the Shakers, or followers 
of Mother Ann Lee. This noted religious 
leader was born and lived for many years in 
England, and claimed to have received her 
first and principal revelations there ; but she 
had not a score of adherents when she came 
to the United States in 1774, and it was not 
till about 1780 that she had any considerable 
number of disciples, and it was not till 1805 
that the societies of the Shakers were estab- 
lished at any great distance from their first 
center, "Watervliet. The disciples, or fol- 
lowers of Alexander Campbell, were first 
organized as a distinct body of christians 
alx)ut 1810, but did not increase very rapid- 
ly till about 1831. They are now about in 
the fifth or sixth rank among the religious 
denominations of the country. 

The United Brethren in Christ, (not Mo- 
ravians, but German Methodists,) date back 
to 1700, when Otterbein and Bochm com- 
menced their missionary labors ; but their 
principal development has taken place during 
the present century. 

The Mormons organized their first com- 
munity or church in 1831, though the pro- 
fessed revelations of Joseph Smith date some 
years earlier. Various methods of classifi- 
cation of religious and irreligious societies 
have been attempted, but all of them are 
liable to some objection. The most com- 
mon classification is that of Roman Catholics, 
Protestants, Infidels or Unbelievers in Chris- 
tianity, and Pagans. This answers well 
enough for a generic di\nsion, but when we 
come to a minute classification we find a 
difficuUy. The Roman Catholics, though 
divided into several orders or societies wiiich 
are more or less hostile to each other, such 
as Jesuits, Dominicans, Franciscans, Bene- 
dictines, Paulists, Lazarists, etc., have yet 
this common bond of union that they all ac- 
knowledge allegiance to the Pope, while 
Protestants, however we may classify them, 
will hardly come under any strict rule of 
division. One classification is into Trinita- 
rians and Anti-Trinitarians ; but to this it 
may be objected that neitlier party are whol- 
ly Protestant, the Roman Catholics being 
Trinitarians as well as most of the Protest- 
ants, and a part of the Baptists, and a por- 



tion of the Anglican churches, denying that 
they are Protestants, as do likewise some of 
the Anti-Trinitarians. This division is liable 
to the further objection that it arrays a very 
large body of religionists on one side against 
a comparative handful on the other. 

The division into Orthodox and Heterodox, 
is liable to the objection that there is no uni- 
versally recognized standard of Orthodoxy, 
and to call a man Heterodox because his 
belief on all points was not the same with 
that of some other man would be invidious. 
The division into Evangelical and Unevan- 
gelical is equally objectionable on the ground 
of its indefiniteness, with the added ditiiculty 
that it would divide two denominations, the 
Anglican churches and the Unitarians, a 
part of each claiming and receiving the title 
of Evangelical, and the other part rejecting 
it. The division of the denominations into 
Calvinists and Arminians is perhaps as fair 
as any, though several denominations have 
both classes in their membership. That into 
Baptists and Paedobaptists is faulty because, 
though no Baptist, i. e. Immersionist, is a 
Paedobaptist, that is, an advocate for the bap- 
tism of infants, yet many Paedobaptists 
occasionally practice immersion, as for exam- 
ple, the Methodists, the Congregationalists, 
and the Episcopalians. It is liable to another 
difficulty, viz., that some of the organizations 
not reputed Christian, such as the Mormons, 
practice immersion. 

In the attempted subdivision of the Infidel 
or unbelieving class, we are met with still 
greater difficulties. The Deist, es})ecinlly, if 
an Israelite, and a believer in the Old Tes- 
tament scriptures, wUl object strenuously to 
be ranked with the sceptic whose only God 
is nature, and whose highest hope for the 
future is in annihilation, or with the Comtist 
who recognizes no divinity of greater knowl- 
edge or power than himself, or the Atheist, 
who believes that all things are the result of 
chance. Between these extremes there are 
an infinitude of opinions, no two of which 
can be reconciled with each other, even to 
the extent of a common classification. Of 
Paganism there are but comparatively few 
re|)resentatives — the Indian tribes in the 
West, the Chinese, who seem to be in about 
equal proportions, Buddhists, Sintuists, and 
followers of Confucius, the Alaskan Indians, 
and Esquimaux, whose religion seems akin 
to Shamanism, the small colonies of Japanese, 
(Buddhists) and the traces of Fetictism found 



RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. 



593 



in the more ignorant and supertitious of the 
Sonthern negroes. 

Tlie following table exhibits as accurately 
as they can be obtained from official and 
other sources, the statistics of the various 
religious and irreligious sects in the United 
States, as reported at or near the close of 



1870. The denominations have been taken 
generally in the order of their membership ; 
but the smaller churches which affiliate with 
the larger ones in their doctrines and ordi- 
nances, have been considered in the samcr 
connection, in preference to a rigid classifica- 
tion on the basis of number of members. 



■noi^BnnnoueQ eq; 

JO SIBOipO 

-uaj pUT! saadedsAiatj 



00 CD vo "^ n eo CD 

OIC^tHi-i-* d 



MtOH CTN eoeot- NNIM >0 MUJC0>Or-l CI COt- lOiOO 



•oopTinnaonag aq^ 

JO saiaButraag 1123; 

So[00iix puB gaSan'oo 



■>Jt (M NCOr-l 



iHlOCOCO W 



■ nopBuitnonap jo 
loj^uoo japnti sauuu 
-luag paB sainiap'Eav 



dOO OCDt 



lO l^l-OOiOO 10 lOt— 



juajC aqj Snunp djqs 
•jaqraai\[ oj suopippy 



^SS 



O CO (^ C'l lO 



•SJBioqag 
jooqag iBpung 



t- ui" i-T 


JOOCD 

cfo-rcf 

(M03r-( 


5 





eon 11 



■siooqag XBpnng 



sasodjnj qojnqg 
puB 

s^aafqo inaiOAaiiafi 
0} suoijnqujaoQ 



•Baogtpa: tjajnqo 
JO aniBA 



1-1 lO 
OC1 



oc<i e<iooo 



— 000 

00— < 



(MOO CO 
CQl-'O 

I- CI'* 

otoo 
loaTcf 



IMOQ 

rlr-icS 



000 



a eoo5Ci ci 



gss 



5 S 0-.2 



0000000 
c>o 00000 
o_o,o_o_ooo, 
o'"o"o~>o-*"oo" 

O 000 000 CD CO 

oq^cD^ci^oocvi^ci ^ 

co'iocfd lO >-"" 



500 00 oo< 
>00 OC) o>o< 



ot, 000 



8 88 



O O CJ t~ 00 



§3^; 



000 uj 
CO CO CO 

oco>o 



00 
100 



CO N®CI i-H 



•saqgiiB^ JO 

'snopB^ajSnog 

saqojnqo JO sjaqtaan 



O 00 r-* 1^ 05 05 CO 

C C0*r-1-#OC<I 



10 a^ I- lO d CD CO 



01^ 0^03 Ot^O lO U50000 



OCDrH 00 C^-^i-H . 

OiCO 000 O'TtiiO OOC5 



kO inioc 



00O3 Or-(CD 0»0l 
l-iCO 00 COO IMCJ 



Jl rl 



rHCOOSOOO 



000 000 
000 000 



iOd O 050 CO CO 
■«»lrHCO iOOOd •* 



888 

ooco, 

1-Hl-CO 



■gaagtpa qo^nqo 



1—00 CD 
I-Hd t- 



Oi -<J^ to I— CI CI CO 



•gaqei,rerl -"J 

'sao\;B3 

-a.iScio,') 'eaqajnqo 



CI CD O iC CO CO CO 

r— uscirci ^00 1- 

■^Jl ^jT^iO rH"cr 



O CD 05 I- 33 
CD CI CD CO d 
00 lO ^ r^ L-- 



>CD«* 

>-*co 



0-* l^ 
CO>Oi-t, 

cfcoi-i 



•07g 'huoiibijossv 
saua}(qsaj(j 'epoaig 
sajuojojiio, )' sasaaojd 



lOdO CO lO 

W3 1-- CO ct »o 



OCD rH-* CDCOd OOClu 
i-< CD r-tCO CICOd ^lOC 



»0 O CD lOl^iiOI- 
Ot^COOCC rt^Oi 
l0^rH^'0_d^l-r-H_l- 



O' 00 CO O CO O » O CD CD CO 
OCOOi OiiO I— ICil— COOOd 



CDCDrHO 



•edoqspa 



"3 -s •?? -3 : n. 






Q __« J « - — 



L- -^^ 









-^.^ OP-;. 












Km 

OS ■«• 






= '53 






1^ 

ft Sec 



CHAPTEE II. 

HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



I. ROMAN CATHOLICS. The adher- 
ents of the Roman Church in the United States 
were, as we have already seen, just before 
the American Revolution, except in Mary- 
land, but a very small proportion of the pop- 
ulation. They had small congregations in 
New York, Philadelphia, and perhaps, two 
or three other large towns. In Baltimore, 
they were the leading denomination, and in 
several towns of Maryland they had congre- 
gations. In sections which soon after came 
into the Union as states or organized terri- 
tories, their congregations were scattered 
somewhat widely. In North Eastern Maine, 
the Arcadian settlers, mostly French or of 
French extraction, were generally devout 
Catholics ; and a few priests with their flocks 
were found along the northern line of New 
England and New York. Detroit had a 
very considerable Catholic element in its 
population from the fir-st ; and farther west, 
at several points in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, 
and especially in Missouri and below in the 
Mississippi Valley, among the French and 
Creole population of Louisiana Territory, 
churches and cathedrals were comparatively 
numerous. Farther west, in Texas and 
California, as well as in Mexico, New Mex- 
ico, and Arizona, all at this time under the 
control of Spain, and subsequently of the 
Mexican Republic, Catholicism had been for 
two centuries the established religion of the 
state, and Indians, Mexicans, and Spaniards 
of the pure blood were alike, nominally at 
least, enrolled among its numbers. The 
missions, churches and cathedrals, many of 
them in ruins, which dot the prairies and 
oases of the vast territory acquired by the 
war of 1846, show that in former times, a 
very considerable, though mainly a native 
population was subservient to this faith. It 
was not, however, till after 1820, when the 
vast tide of immigration from Ireland and 
from Catholic Germany, with its occasional 
additions from France, Italy, and Spain, 



began to flow in upon us, that the Roman 
Catholic church assumed anything like its 
present proportional magnitude. Its out- 
posts were indeed already planted, and it 
had its centers of influence, its nuclei around. 
which it could gather its incoming hosts. 
But prior to 1820, it probably ranked in the 
number of its communicants not higher than 
fourth or fifih among the religious denomi- 
nations of the country. It is stated on good 
authority (that of a Roman Catholic arch- 
bishop), that more than five millions of Cath- 
olic emigrants have landed upon our shores 
since 1820. Of course many of them have 
apostatized ; many more have died, and their 
children have been reared in other faiths, or 
in no faith at all. In these ways only can 
we account for the fact attested by the high- 
est Roman Catholic authority, that their 
communicants do not to-day number over 
3,500,000. Their clergy have not been want- 
ing in zeal or fidelity to their faith ; and no 
deuoiuination in the country has provided so 
well or so promptly for the maintenance of 
religious worship as they. They have not 
been persecuted for their faith, or their num- 
bers would be larger; but there has been 
on the part of immigrants a strong disposi- 
tion, on coming to this country, to throw off 
all religious restraints under the impression 
that this was one of the requisites of national 
freedom. 

With this brief sketch of its history, we 
proceed to give the leading doctrines of the 
Roman Catholic Church, stating them in 
this case, as we shall in that of all the other 
denominations, in the exact language of their 
own ablest and most representative writers, 
as the only course which will render strict jus- 
tice to each denomination. The late Arch- 
bishop Kenrick of Baltimore,one of the ablest 
writers and most accomplished scholars of 
the Roman Church, thus states its doctrines : 
" The chief doctrines of the Church regard 
the unity of the divine nature in three dis- 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF TUE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



595 



tinct divine persons, and the incarnation of 
the second divine person, through the mys- 
terious operations of the Holy Spirit in the 
Virgin IVIary, and his death on the cross for 
the expiation of the sins of mankind. The 
belief of the uicarnation is the ground and 
motive of tlu high veneration which is enter- 
tained for the Virgin, who is styled Mother of 
God, because Christ her son is God incarn- 
ata." (Since the death of Ab'p Kenrick, the 
dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the 
Virgin iVlary, regarding her as born as free 
frosu sin as Chri-t himself, has been pro- 
claimed by the Pope as a fundamental doc- 
trine of the church.) "To her is ascribed 
all sanctity and perfection which can Ije 
bestowed on a mere creature, and she is held 
to have been free from all stain of sin by a 
special privilege granted her, that she might 
be worthy of the dignity for which she was 
divinely chosen. Tiie mystery of the re- 
demption is prominent in the teaching and 
worship of the chui'ch. Christ suffered and 
died, as man, to atone for the sins of our first 
parents, and the sins of all m <nkind. His 
death fully expiated the guilt of sin, and 
presented an atonement in e\ery re-pect per- 
fect. Yet all men are not justified anJ 
saved, Init those o;ily to whom the redemp- 
tion is applied by means divinely prescribed. 
Baptism is believed to be a remedy for orig- 
inal sin, applicable even to infants. Aduhs 
having the use of reason must believe in 
Ciu'ist and repent of sin, in order to receive 
the benefit of the atonement. From those 
who have forfeited baptismal grace, frui s of 
penance are required as evidences of tlieir 
sincere conversion to God, and as conditions 
to entitle them lo the application of t!ie mer- 
its of Christ. Notliing that man can do, can 
take away tlie guilt of sin, or prove an ade- 
quate satisfac'tiun for it; but God requires 
the humiliation of the sinner, and accepts his 
penitential works, which derive value from 
the ran om offered by Christ. They add 
nothing to it, but they become acceptable 
through it. Christ is the spiritual Mediator 
through wliose blood we must sue for par- 
don and salvation. The worship of the 
church is given to God only — the one Eter- 
nal Being in the three divine persons — and 
the incarnate Word, God consubstantial to 
the Father. Inferior religious honor, which 
may be called worship in a qualified sense, 
is given to the Virgin j\Iary, on account of 
the gifts and giaces with which God has 
endowed her, and her exalted dignity as 



Mother of God incarnate. The angels, 
namely, incorporeal spirits reigning with 
God, are honored as his creatures, in whom 
his perfections are reflected, and his messen- 
gers through whom he has manifested his 
will. Saints, those who have pioved fiiith- 
ful in the divine service to the end, and are 
already crowned with glory in the kingdom 
of God, are venerated likewise for their tri- 
umphant virtue ; the martyrs especially, who 
died amid torments rather than deny Christ, 
and the virgins, who throughout life pre- 
served the purity of their aflections, are 
deemed worthy of high honor. But there is 
an essential difference between .the honor 
given to the creatures of God, and that 
which belongs to God alone. He receives 
the submission of the understanding and the 
will, the homage of the affections. He is 
acknowledged to be the essential Being, the 
supreme Lord, the beginning and the end of 
all things. Sacrifice is given to him only. 
Prayer, in its strict acceptiHtion, can be offer- 
ed to him only, the Giver of every good gift. 
Grace and salvation depend upon his bounty 
and mercy. Litanies and prayers to the 
saints are only appeals to them to intercede 
with God for us through Jesus Christ. They 
are not supposed to be omniscient or omni- 
present ; but tliey know, in God, the pious 
desires as well as the penitential sighs of the 
fftithful. Respect is paid to the crucifix, 
which recalls to our mind the sufferings of 
Christ for our redemption, but it does not ter- 
minate in the symbol or material object. The 
kissing of the image, the bending of the knee, 
the prostration of the body in the ceremonial of 
Good Friday, are all directed to Christ, our 
Redeemer. So the images of the saints 
awake the remembrance of their virtues. 
The bowing of the head to a statue, or the 
burning of incense before a shrine, is refer- 
red to the saint whose memory is honored 
lor his love of God and his zeal for the 
divine glory. Relics, that is objects used by 
the saints, or particles of their remains, are 
venerated for the relation they bear to them. 
The fall of the first parents of the human 
race is the fundamental doctrine on wiiich he 
belief of the mystery of redemption depends. 
. . . . Original sin is that transgression 
which is common to the whole human fam- 
ily, each one being estranged from God, and 
liable to his wrath, in consequence of the act 
of the heads of the race. The natural pow- 
ers have been weakened by the fill. The 
freedom of the human will remains, but it is 



596 



HISTORY AND PROr.RESS OF THE DIFFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



less vigorous than in our first parents. Our 
nature is not vitiated and dependent, but it 
is pi'one to evil and exposed to violent temp- 
cation A Redeemer was given 

US, in the person of Christ, who, being God- 
man, atoned by his sufferings for the sin of 
our first parents, and merited for us all grace 
by which temptation may be overcome. 
Actual sin is the willful transgression of the 
divine law by individuals having the use of 
reason. Mortal sin is any act, speech, desire, 
or thought grievously opposed to the natural 
or divine law. Sins which imply no direct 
or grievous opposition to tlie law of God, are 
styled venial, because their pardon is easily 
obtained, since they do not separate the soul 
from God. Slight impatience, rash words, 
vain self-complacency, may be venial. De- 
liberate hatred, gross calumny, acts of vio- 
lence, not to speak of drunkenness, lust, and 
murder, are mortal sins. The distinction of 
sins is not deinved from the individual who 
commits^them, although they may be aggra- 
vated by his personal obligations. Forgive- 
ness of sins, even the most heinous, is prom- 
ised to the penitent. Sorrow for having com- 
mitted them is a necessary disposition in order 
to obtain it. Perfect sorrow, which is called 
contrition, springs from divine love, and 
leads us to detest sin as opposed to the good- 
ness of God and to his eternal perfection. 
Attrition, is sorrow of a less perfect kind, 
arising from an experience of the evil conse- 
quences of sin, and the dread of the punish- 
ments which await it hereafter. If it wean 
the heart from sin, and inspire an effectual 
detestation of it, so as to be accompanied 
with a firm resolution of amendment, it is 
held to be useful and salutary, and such as 
may dispose for pardon in the sacrament of 

penance The forgiveness of 

sin properly belongs to God, who is offended. 
Christ, as God-man, forgave sin, and author- 
ized the apostles to impart forgiveness or 
withhold it. The power is judicial, since 
they may bind or loose, retain or forgive ; 
on which account a confession of sin is re- 
quired from every applicant for its exercise. 
AVhen this is made with sincerity, humility, 
sorrow, a willingness to repair the wrong 
committed, and a determination to shun the 
occasions of sin, the priest absolves the pen- 
itent. This absolution is a judicial sentence, 
deriving its force from the divhie institution. 
The sacraments (seven in number) are rites 
instituted by Christ our Lord, as instru- 
ments and means of grace to apply to our 



souls the merits of his sufferings and death. 
They are said to contain and confer grace, 
technically ex opere operato, because they are 
effectual means divinely chosen to impart it, 
where no obstacle is presented by the re- 
ceiver. Certain dispositions, however, are 
required on the part of adults who desire to 
partake of them. Faith and compunction 
are necessary on the part of the applicant 
for baptism. Sorrow, with a firm purpose oi 
amendment, is required from the [)rofessed 
penitent, in the sacrament o^ penance. The 
strengthening grace of the Holy Spirit is 
granted, by the laying on of hands with 
prayer, to the baptized believer, whose heart 
is free from willful sin. Sin is forgiven to 
the dying man who with penitence and hope 
receives the mystic unction, and for whom 
the prayer of faith is offered up. llie impo' 
sition of hands is available for the communi- 
cation of sacerdotal power, even to the 
unworthy candidate, but grace is given to 
him who is called by God, and who with 
humility corresponds to the divine vocation. 
Marriage is a great mystery, the image of 
the union of Christ and the Church, to be 
celebrated with purity ot affection. TTie 
Eucharist, the chief sacrament, is to be ap- 
proached with hearts cleansed from sin, 
under penalty of becoming guilty of the body 
and blood of the Lord, and incurring con- 
demnation 

It is not easy to reconcile the exercise of 
free will with the divine foresight. We can- 
not understand how it is possible for us to 
act independently, and of our own determin- 
ation, when God has foreseen our action. 
It is sufficient to know and feel our freedom, 
without sounding the depths of divine knowl- 
edge. It suffices then to admit that without 
the grace of Christ we can do nothing, and 
to hold that we can do all things in Him 
who strengthens us. Everlasting beatitude, 
consisting in the contemplation and enjoy- 
ment of God, is the reward promised by 
Him on condition of the fulfilment of His 
commandments, and bestowed gratuitously on 
baptized infants or others incapable of per- 
sonal acts. The punishment of grievous sin 
is eternal. Impenitent sinners are forever 
separated from God, and suffer torments. 
Those who die guilty of slight faults or debt- 
ors to divine justice, are withheld for a time 
from the enjoyment of Heaven (and suffer 
the pains of purgatory). The glory of 
heaven is immediately attained by baptized 
infants dying before the use of reason, by 



HISTOUr AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



597 



adults dying immediately after baptism, by 
martyrs, and by all who die with perfect 
love of God, and free from sin or debt of 
punisliment. The soul only is admitted to 
happiness. The body is subject to dissolu- 
tion, but is to be raised at the end of time, 
in order to be reunited to the soul, and made 
partaker of her glory. 

The teaching of Christ our Lord, becomes 
known to us especially by the preaching of 
the ministry, tracing back their commission 
to the apostles. Solemn definitions of faith 
are the most authoritative forms of this 
preaching. They are declarations not mere- 
ly of doctrines contained m the written 
word, but of revealed truths, whether writ- 
ten or unwritten. Christ himself left noth- 
ing in writing ; several of his apostles wrote 
much, and two other sacred writers com- 
posed narratives of his life and teaching ; 
but many things belong to the deposit of doc- 
trine which were not explicitly placed on 
record. The body of bishops feel themselves 
authorized to propose as revealed truth 
whatever has come down from the beginning 
in the church, and been generally acknowl- 
edged to appertain to doctrine. In cases of 
difficulty, when doubts have been raised with 
regard to some tenet, they feel themselves 
competent to examine the evidence, and 
decide whether the doctrine has been re- 
vealed. After a definition, it is no longer 
allowed to question a truth sealed with their 
approval. Infallibility in judgment is claim- 
ed for the body of bishops with their head, 
the bishop (pope) of Rome. (The infallibil- 
ity of tlie pope was declared one of the car- 
dinal, doctrines of the Roman CathoHc 
Church by the Council of Rome in 1870 — 
71.) By the infallibility in judgment of the 
bishops, is meant the providential guidance 
of the Holy Spirit, by which they are direc- 
ted and enlightened in doctrinal decisions, 
that they may not mistake error for truth or 
propose as divinely revealed what wants the 
seal of divine authority. The tribunal of 
the pope is universally acknowledged (in the 
Roman Catholic church) as competent to 
pronounce judgment in controversies which 
regard faith, and its decrees, directed to the 
body of bishops or to the church at large, 
proposing doctrines under penalty of excom- 
munication, when acquiesced in by the bish- 
ops, are final and irreversible. 

The Church accepts the Divine Scriptures 
is the word of inspiration, written under the 
impulse of the Spirit of God, and to be re- 1 



ceived with all faith and veneration. To 
the books of the Old Testament, according 
to the Jewish Canon, she adds certain other 
books (usually known as the A^jocrypha) on 
ancient testimony, usage, and tradition de- 
rived from the apostles. The books of the 
New Testament included in the Canon, are 
those adopted as inspired by the Council of 
Trent. The Church claims the supreme 
authority of determining the meaning of the 
Scriptures, in conformity with the general 
teaching of the fathers, that is, the ancient 
Christian writers. Faith, according to the 
Roman Catholic view, is the assent of the 
human mind to divine truth as it is proposed 
and attested by the church of God. The 
truth must be revealed, and it must be pro- 
pounded by the church. Faith is necessaiy 
to salvation, so that without it, it is impossi- 
ble to please God. The wanton and proud 
rejection of a single point of revealed doc- 
trine involves shipwreck of faith. Hence, 
the plea of invincible ignornnce is the only 
one which Roman Catholic divines admit as 
of any avail in behalf of those who reject 
any of the doctrines which the Church has 
propounded as revealed, and only God can 
determine with certainty the individual for 
whom such plea may be available. All bap- 
tized children are claimed by the church as 
her own, since baj^tism is the sacraii ent of 
regeneration, and they continue sucli until 
by their willful prol'ession of condemned 
error they forfeit their birthright. The prin- 
ciples of the Catholic Church with regard to 
civil duties, are highly conservative. She 
feels bound to respect established authority, 
and enforce, by moral suasion, obedience to 
those in high station, and she uses every fit 
occasion to insinuate the axiom, that religion 
is the only sure basis and strong bond of secur- 
ity. The duties of her members are depen- 
dent on the providential position in which 
they find themselves. They are to support 
law and order, and fulfil faithfully every 
obligation to society. 

By discipline, Catholics understand all 
that appertains to the government of the 
Church, the administration of the sacraments 
and the observance and practice of religion. 
The essential worship consists in the sacri- 
fice of the mass, which, although mystical 
and commemorative, is real and propitiatory, 
being a continuation of the sacrifice of the 
cross. Vespers, or evening prayers, are sol- 
emnly smig, the psalms of David, the song 
of the Virgin Mary, and pious hymns and 



598 



niSTOKY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



prayers being used. In the cathedral 
churches, other portions of the divine office 
are sung at various hours of each day, by 
clergymen, called canons, devoted to this 
duty. Numerous festivals are also cele- 
brated to honor the divine mysteries and 
present them to the devout contemplation of 
the faithful. JMany are solemnized in honor 
of the Virgin ^Nlary, the apostles, martyrs, 
confessors, virgins, and saints of every class, 
whose virtues are thus set before the faith- 
ful for their imitation. Fasting is also a 
I^art of church disc'pline. Forty days befoi-e 
Easter (the Lenten Fast) are devoted to 
this exercise. Ember days, viz., Wednes- 
day, Friday, and Saturday, in each of the 
four seasons, are observed as fasts to obtain 
the divine blessing, and worthy ministers for 
the church, ordinations being held at those 
times. The eve of great solemnities is 
observed by fasting, in order to prepare by 
penance for their celebration. Abstinence 
(from meat) is observed on each Friday of the 
year, and in some dioi-eses, on Saturday also. 
All these penitential observances are mat- 
ters of church law, which admits of dispen- 
sation. Tiie rites of the mass, and the cere- 
monies used in the administration of the sac- 
raments, apperiain to di-cipline, wh'ch ad- 
mits of variety and chang-, although great 
deference is shown for ancient usage. For 
this reason, the Latin liturgy, used from 
early times in the Roman church, is still 
employed by the celebrant, although instruc- 
tions are given in the vernacular language, 
and facilities are offered to the faithful for 
pi-aying in a manner suited to their capacity. 
The changes which have been made are in 
the manner of administering baptism, and 
the Eucharist, and penitential discipline. 
Tiie solenui mode of baptism was originally 
by immersion. The candidate used to 
descend into fonts, or streams, or rivers, and 
sink beneath the waters under the pressure 
of the hands of the sacred minister. In cases 
of necessity and danger, less solemn modes 
were used, which, from being frequent at 
length, after the lapse of ages, became uni 
versal. In like manner, the Eucharist, hav- 
ing been instituted l)y our Lord under the 
forms of bread and wine, was generally ad 
ministered under both kinds for many ages. 
Exceptional cases were always admitted, 
wijich at lenglh proved so numerous as to 
supersede altogether the ancient usage. The 
church claims the right to regulate, at her 
just discretion, whatever regards the manner 



of administering the sacraments, while she 
holds their substance to be inviolable. The 
change in regard to penance, has reference 
mainly to the issue of indulgences, i. e. par- 
dons for offences justly liable to penitential 
discipline. These, which were generally 
plenary, were not directed to the forgiveness 
of sin which needed the sacramental remedy, 
but to the remission of the temporal punish- 
ment, which was often exacted by divuie jus- 
tice from those whose sins had been par- 
doned. They served as incentives to works 
of piety, such as almsgiving, fasting, and 
prayers. 

The organization of the church consists in 
its government by bishops, each in charge of 
a special flock, with subordination one to 
another, and the dependence of all on the 
bishop of Rome (the pope), as shepherd of 
the whole fold of Christ. The Episcopal 
character is the same in all bishops, but gov- 
erning authority, which is called jurisdiction, 
is possessed in various degrees — in its ful- 
ness, by the pope, who is the fountain, the 
streams of which flow to all others. He 
alone has apostolic authority, which may be 
everywhere exercised, with due regard to 
the local prelate, and which is suited to every 
emergency. Next to him, in governing 
authority, are the cardinals, in whom, during 
the vacancy of the Roman see, this plenitude 
of jurisdiction is believed to reside. Each 
bishop governs his own diocese, not as papal 
vicar, but as ordinary or proper ruler, al- 
tlKJugh in some things his authority is en- 
larged as delegate apostolic. Several dio- 
ceses form a province which is governed by 
an archbishop. Many ecclesiastical provin- 
ces are sometimes united as a nation, under 
a primate who ranks above other prelates. 
The vicar apostolic is, in some sense, a mis- 
sionary bishop. The general government of 
the church is carried on at Rome, where the 
pope is assisted by the body of cardinals, 
several of whom compose standing commit- 
tees to examine and prepare the matters for 
final action. Nearly thirty belong to the 
College of Propaganda, which is charged 
with a general superintendence of missionary 
countries. The appointment of bishops is 
made on the recommendation of the local 
prelates, with the advice of the cardinals. 

The religious oi'ders in the church are 
like corporations in a civil government, hav- 
ing special exemptions and privileges to 
enable them successfully to pursue the objects 
of their respective institutes. They derive 



HISTORY AND PROGKESS OF THE DFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



599 



these from the pope, who, in virtue of his 
apostolical authority, exempts the members 
from the jurisdiction of the bishops in what 
regards their domestic discipline, but leaves 
them dependent on them for faculties to be 
exercised in behalf of the faithful. The 
older religious orders of Europe all have 
their houses here; the Benedictines, Domin- 
icans, Franciscans, Carmelites, Augustini- 
ans, Lazari~ts, and the followers of Loyola, 
or, as they are often called, Jesuits. A new 
religious order, that of St. Paul the apostle, 
or as they are usually called, Pauli.-ts, was 
founded a few years since in New York, and 
has been very efficient in missionary labors. 
There are also teaching orders, like the 
Brothers of the Christian Schools, and char- 
itable orders of both sexes, like the Sisters 
of Charity, Brothers and Sisters of the Sa- 
cred Heart of Jesus, Sisters of Mercy, Little 
Sisters of the Poor, &c., &c. These charit- 
able orders h ive effected much good in the 
founding and management of schools, in vis- 
iting the sick and prisoners, in managing 
hospitals, reformatories, &c. Of late years, 
the Roman Catholics have not only largely 
increased their colleges, but have multiplied 
their schools, claiming that their children 
should be instructed in religious as well as in 
secular knowledge. They have also estab- 
lished many orphan asylums, reformatories, 
and. Magdalen asylums. 



II. BAPTISTS. 

I. Regular Baptists. The Baptist 
churches of the United States rank among 
the most numerous and influential of tin; 
evangelical re igious denominations in the 
country, and while generally either moderate 
or strict, (but not high.) Calvinists in their 
theology, and strictly congregational in their 
church government, are di-tinguished from 
other denominations holding to Calvinistic 
doctrines and a congregational polity, by their 
views on the mode and subjects of baptism. 
They hold that immersion is the only true 
mode of baptism, and a personal profession 
of faith in Christ the necessary prerequisite 
for every subject of that ordinance. 

It is usually stated that Roger Williams, 
the founder of the colony of Rhode Island, 
was also the founder of the Baptist denomi- 
nation in the United Stati-s. The statement 
is but partially true. P''our years before 
Williams's baptism, in 1635, Hansard Kuol- 



lys, an English or rather Welsh, Baptist 
preacher, had emigrated to New England 
with a portion of his flock and settled as a 
pastor at Dover, New Hampshire, and though 
he afterward returned to England, his church 
remained. Baptist sentiments were propa- 
gated in the Rliode Island colony, but much 
more by John Clarke, a friend and associate 
of Williams, than by Williams him -elf; in- 
deed, the latter, whose memory is doerving 
of all honor for his noble defence and main- 
tenance of complete liberty of conscience, 
held certain views in the latter part of his 
life, which caused him to stand aloof, so far 
as communion went, from the Baptist as well 
as from otht^r churches. There were, how- 
ever, a considerable number of Baptists who 
emigrated from England, Holland, and Ger- 
many with n the next hundred and thirty 
years, and Baptist churches existed in most 
of the thirteen colonies at the commencement 
of the Revolution ; yet their membership 
was small. In 1762 there were but 56 
churches with less than 6,000 members in 
the di-nomination. In 1776 they reckoned 
nearly 150 churches with a membership of 
about 13,000. From the time of the revo- 
lution, their growth was very rapid, exceeded 
only by that of the Methodist churches. 

Every church among the Baptists is com- 
pletely independent of every other and fully 
competent to establish its own doctrinal 
views, its own course of polity and discipline, 
and to elect, license, and ordain its own offi- 
cers whether they are deacons, licensed 
preachers, ordained ministers or pa^toi's. The 
Baptists acknowledge no church courts, no 
hierarchy, presbytery, synod, directory, 
classis, general assembly, annual or general 
conference, dean or bishop as having any 
power over the individual church, which they 
regard as the final arbiter in all matters of 
dipcipline, polity, and doctrine. In these 
matters they ai-e the most absolutely pure 
and simple congregationalists, the completest 
democracy in the world. They have, it is 
true, their associations and conventions, and 
their church councils, but these are only for 
devotional, charitable, and advisory puri)Oses ; 
they possess no disciplinary powers. It fol- 
lows as a nece-sary corollary from this, that 
though all the Bapti-t churches acknowledge 
and receive "the Scriptures of the Old and 
New Testaments as their only and all suffi- 
cient rule of f lith and practice" they have 
no articles of faith or creed which are univer- 
sally received. Many of the oldest and 



600 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOV XATIONS. 



most influential churches have never had 
articles of faith. Where they are used, each 
church prepares its own or adopts one al- 
ready prepared as it pleases, yet most of 
them agree in the principal points of doctrine. 
Tlie Regular Baptists are in general Mode- 
rate C'alvinists, accepting " for substance of 
doctrine" the view of the general sufficiency 
but particular application ot the Atonement 
enunciated by Rev. Andrew Fuller, in his 
theological works. A confession of faith, 
embodying these doctrines and known as the 
New llampshire Confession of Faith, was 
prepared more than forty years ago and has 
perhaps been adopted by more churches 
than any other ; yet while it represents f drly 
the views of the great body of regular Bap- 
tists, it cannot be considered an authoritative 
document. We give below the articles of 
this confession. 

I. Of th". Scriptures. We believe that 
the Holy Bible was written by men divinely 
inspired, and is a perfect treasure of heav- 
enly in-truction, that it has God for its au- 
thor, salvation for its end, and truth without 
ar.y mixture of error for its matter ; that it 
reveals the principles by which God will 
judge us ; and theiefore is, and shall remain 
to the end of the world, the true centre of 
Christian union, and the supreme standard 
by which all human conduct, creeds, and opin 
ions should be tried. 

II. Of the True God. We believe that 
there is one, and only one, living and true 
God, an infinite, intelligent Spirit, whose 
name is Jehovah, the Maker and Supreme 
Ruler of Heaven and Earth ; inexpressibly 
glorious in holiness, and worthy of all possi- 
ble honor, conlidence, and love ; that in the 
unity of the Godhead there are three per- 
sons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
Ghost; equal in every divine perfet-tion, and 
exei'uting di-tinct but harmonious offices in 
the great work of re(lem[»tion. 

III. Of the Fall of Man. We believe 
that ]\Ian was created in holiness, under the 
law cf his Maker ; but by voluntary trans- 
gression fell from that holy and happy state ; 
in consequence of which all mankind are 
now sinners, not by constraint but choice, 
being by nature utterly void of that holiness 
required by the law of God, positively in- 
clined to evil ; and therefore under just con- 
demnation to eternal ruin, without defence 
or excuse. 

IV. Of the Way of Salvation. We be- 
lieve that the salvation of sinners is wholly 



of grace ; through the Mediatorial otlices of 
the Son of God ; who by the appointment of 
the Father, freely took upon Ilim our na- 
ture, yet without sin ; honored the Divine 
law by his personal obedience, and by his 
death made a full atonement for our sins ; 
that having risen from the dead. He is now 
enthroned in Heaven, and uniting in His 
wonderful person the tenderest sympathies 
with divine perfections. He is every way 
qualified to be a suitable, a compassionate, 
and an all-sufficient Saviour. 

V. Of Jusiification. We believe that 
the great Gospel blessing which Christ se- 
cures to such as believe in Him is Justifica- 
tion , that Justification includes the pardon 
of sin, and the promise of eternal life on 
principles of righteousness ; that it is be- 
stowed, not in consideration of any works 
of righteousness which we have done, but 
solely through faith in the Redeemer's blood, 
by virtue of which faith His perfect right- 
eousness is freely imputed to us of God, that 
it brings us into a state of most blessed 
peace and favor with God, and secures every 
other blessing needful for time and eternity. 

VI. Of the Freeness of Salvation. We 
believe that the blessings of salvation are 
made free to all by the Gospel ; that it is the 
immediate duty of all to accept them by a 
cordial, penitent, and obedient faith ; and that 
nothing prevents the salvation of the great- 
est sinner on earth, but his own inherent 
depravity and voluntary rejection of the 
Gospel, which rejection involves him in an 
aggravated condemnation. 

VII. Of Grace in Regeneration. We 
believe that in order to be saved, sinners 
must be regenerated, or born again, that re- 
generation consists in giving a holy disposi- 
tion to the mind ; that it is effected in a man- 
ner above our comprehension by the power 
of the Holy Spirit, in connection with Divine 
truth, so as to secure our voluntary obedience 
to the Gospel ; and that its proper evidence 
appears in the holy fruits of repentance, and 
faith, and newness of life. 

VHI. Of Repentance atid Faith. We 
believe that Repentance and Faith are sa- 
cred duties, and also inseparable graces, 
wrought in our souls by the regenerating 
Spirit of God, whereby being deeply con- 
vinced of our guilt, diuiger, and helplessness, 
and of the way of salvation by Christ, we 
turn to God with unfeigned contrition, con- 
fession, and supplication for mercy ; at the 
same time heartily receiving the Lord Jesus 



niSTORT AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



601 



Chri-^t as our Prophet, Priest, and King, and 
relying on Him alone as the only and all- 
sufficient Saviour. 

IX. Of God's Purpose of Grace. We 
believe that Election is the eternal purpose 
of God, according to which He graciously 
regenerates, sanctifies, and saves sinners ; 
t!iat being perfectly consistent with the free 
agency of man, it comprehends all the means 
in connection with the end ; that it is a most 
glorious display of God's sovereign goodness, 
being infinitely free, wise, holy, and unchange- 
able ; that it utterly excludes boasting, and 
promotes humility, love, prayer, praise, trust 
in God, and active imitation of his free mer- 
cy, that it encourages the use of means in 
the highest degree ; that it may be a-cer 
tained by its effects in all who truly believe 
the Gospel ; that it is the foundation of 
Christian assurance, and that to ascertain it 
with regard to ourselves demands and de- 
serves the utmost diligence. 

X. Of Sanctification. "We believe that 
Sanctification is the process by which, accord- 
ing to the will of God, we are made partak- 
ers of his holiness ; that it is a progressive 
work ; that it is begun in regeneration ; and 
that it is carried on in the hearts of believers 
by the presence and power of the Holy 
Spirit, the Seale" and Comforter, in the con- 
tinual use of the appointed means — espe- 
cially, the word of God, self-examination, 
self-denial, watchfulness, and prayer. 

XL Of the Perseverance of Sainfs. "We 
believe that such only are real believers as 
endure unto the end ; that their persevering 
attachment to Christ is the grand mark which 
distinguishes them from superficial professors ; 
that a special Providence watches over their 
welfare ; and they are kept by the power of 
God through faith unto salvation. 

XII. Of the Harmovy of the Law and 
Gospel. '\Ve believe thai the Law of God 
is the eternal and unchangeable rule of His 
moral government ; that it is holy, just, and 
good ; and that the inability which the Scrip- 
tures ascribe to fallen men to fulfil its pre- 
cepts, arises entirely from their love of sin ; 
to deliver them from which, and to restore 
them through a Mediator to unfeigned obedi- 
ence to the holy Law, is one great end of the 
Gospel, and of the Means of Grace connected 
with the establishment of the visible church. 

XHL Of a Gospel Ohurch. We believe 
that a visible church of Christ is a congrega- 
tion of baptized believers, associated by cov- 
enant in the faith and fellowship of the Gos- 



pel ; observing the ordinances of Christ ; 
governed by his laws ; and exercising the 
gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them 
by His word ; that its only scriptural officers 
are Bishops or Pa-tors, and Deacons, whose 
qualifications, claims, and duties are defined 
in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus. 

XIV. Of Baptism and the Lord's Sup- 
per. We believe that Christian Baptism is 
the immersion in water of a believer, into 
the name of the Father, and Son, and Holy 
Ghost ; to show forth in a solemn and beau- 
tiful emblem, our faith in the crucified, 
buried, and risen Saviour, with its effect, in 
our death to sin and resurrection to a new 
life ; that it is pre-requisite to the privileges 
of a church relation ; and to the Lord's Sup- 
per, in which the members of the church by 
the sacred use of bread and wine, are to 
commemorate together the dying love of 
Christ ; preceded always by solemn self-ex- 
amination. 

XV. Of the Christian Sabbath. We be- 
lieve that the first day of the week is the 
Lord's Day, or Christian Sabbath ; and is to 
be kept sacred to religious purposes, by ab- 
staining from all secular labor and sinful 
recreations, by the devout observance of all 
the means of grace, both private and public, 
and by preparation for that rest that remain- 
eth for the people of God. 

XVI. Of Civil Government. We be- 
lieve that Civil Government is of Divine 
appointment, for the interests and good order 
of human society ; and that magistrates are 
to be jorayed for, conscientiously honored, 
and obeyed ; except only in things opposed 
to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is 
the only Lord of the conscience, and the 
Prince of the kings of the earth. 

XVII. Of the Righteous and the Wicked. 
We believe that there is a radical and essen- 
tial difference between the righteous and the 
wicked ; that such only as through faith are 
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and 
sanctified by the Spirit ol our God, are truly 
righteous in His esteem ; while all such as 
continue in impenitence and unbelief are in 
His sight wicked, and under the curse ; and 
this distinction holds among men both in and 
after death. 

It is usual also in Baptist churches to 
have a Church Covenant, to which the mem- 
bers, when received, give their assent, as it 
is read by the pastor. This covenant pledges 
them to the duties of the Christian life, to 
the observance of the worship, ordinances, 



602 



HISTORY AND PROGRKSS OF THE DIFFKREXT DENOMINATIONS. 



discipline, and doctrines of the church, and 
to a strict avoidance of all temptations to 
evil, and of all habits which may bring dis- 
honor or reproach upon their profession, and 
to live in harmony and peace and in chris- 
tian fidelity with the members of the church. 
In ca:se of discipline, the usual cha' ge against 
the otfender is the violation of his covenant 
vows. With rare exceptions the Baptist 
churches are associated ; that is, the churches 
of each convenient district unite in an asso- 
ciation of churches, varying in numbers from 
four or five to fifty or sixty. Each church 
is represented at the annual meetings of 
these associations by the pastor and a num- 
ber of lay delegates. The functions of these 
associations are wholly advisory, except that 
sometimes there is formed from them a So- 
ciety or Board for missionary work, which 
may or may not be incorporated, but which, 
while responsible to the association which 
created it, takes upon itself, with their sanc- 
tion, the raising of the necessary monies for 
its work, and the manngemeut of that work 
in all its details. The Baptist churches have 
also in most of the states and territories, 
state conventions, composed in the smaller 
states of the pastor and two or three lay 
delegates from each church ; in the larger 
states, of clerical and lay delegates appointed 
by the associations. Tliese conventions are 
generally occupied with the domestic mis- 
sionary work of the states, aiding feeble 
churches, establishing new ones, as>isting in 
the cause of ministerial and denominational 
education, &c. In these bodies, as in the 
associatidn^, the strictly democratic principle 
of having all power inhere in and proceed 
from the membership of the church is fully 
observed. 

The Baptist denomination in the United 
States maintains general organizations for 
Foreign Missionary purposes, for Home 
Missions, Church P^xtension, and the educa- 
tion of Freedmen for the ministry; for the 
translation, publication, and circulation of 
the scriptures in our own country and in 
foreign lands ; for the publication of tracts, 
Sunday school, and denominational works ; 
for the promotion of theological, collegiate, 
and academical educjttion, and a consolidated 
American Baptist JNIissionary Convention 
for missionary and educational work, mainly 
among the fieedmen. 

The ten societies of the denomination re- 
ceived in 1870 the following sums : for For- 
eign Missions, $229,708.41; for Home Mis- 



sions, Church Extension, &c., $237,645.50 ; 
Bible, Sunday school, and denominational 
publications and circulation, $384,324.17 
making a total of $851,738.11 for missionary 
and educational purposes. The contribu- 
tions for church purposes, and church exten- 
sion, education, &c., not passing through 
these channels, the same year was about 
$8,100,000 more. 

The statistics of the denomination for 
1870 were as follows: 799 associations, 17,- 
745 churches, 10,818 ordained ministers; 
whole number of members 1,419,492, a net 
gain of 198,144 during the year. There 
were connected with these churches 5,251 
Sunday Schools reported with 56,515 teach- 
ers, and 473,664 scholars. The number of 
volumes in the Sunday School libraries re- 
ported was 647,102, and the benevolent con- 
tributions of the schools $122,143. There 
were the same year 38 colleges and theo- 
logical seminaries belonging to the denomi- 
nations, besides 18 or 20 others, mostly for 
female education, founded by Baptists and 
mainly under their control. These institu- 
tions had about 350 instructors and professors 
and over 6,000 students. The college prop- 
erty of these institutions is somewhat more 
than $6,500,000. 

They supported in 1870, 24 weekly, 3 
semi-monthly, 12 monthly, and 3 quarterly 
periodicals devoted to the interests of the 
denomination, its Sunday Schools, and Mis- 
sion enterprises. 

II. Freewill Baptists. This denomi- 
nation oi-iginated in 1780, in which year 
Benjamin Randall, a native of Newcastle, N. 
H., born in 1749, and in 1771 converted 
under the preaching of George Whitfield, 
organized the first Freewill Baptist church, 
at New Durham, N. II. Randall was a man 
of but moderate education, but he possessed 
a strong and brilliant intellect, and having 
become convinced, in 1776, that the views of 
the Baptists were correct in regard to the 
mode and subjects of baptism, he joined 
them, and very soon after commenced preach- 
ing. He wa-s a diligent student, and the 
Calvinistic doctrines of the Baptist churches 
being distasteful to him, he adopted after 
careful examination the views of Arminius, 
substantially as held by the New Connec- 
tion of General Baptists in England, and the 
Methodists in this country. Mr. Randall 
preached these doctrines with great success, 
and in 1780 established his first church hold- 
iuf^ these doctrines. He also adopted the 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



603 



priiK'iple of free or open communion. The 
growth of the denomination has been consid- 
erably rapid, though it has been, from their 
strong anti-shivery principles, confined en- 
tirely to the northern states, and its churches 
have been multiplied rather in the country 
than in the large cities. Almost two thirds 
of its m.Mnbership reside in New England 
and New York. Their views of doctrine 
correspond with the Regular Baptists on all 
points except the following, which we give 
from their Confession of Faith : 

'■'•T'ue Atonement. As sin cannot be pardon- 
ed without a sacrifice, and the blood of beasts 
could never actually wash away sin, Christ 
gave himself a sacrifice for the sins of the 
world, and thus made salvation possible for 
all men. Tluviugh the redem])tioii of Christ, 
man is placed on a second state of trial ; 
this second state so far dilfering from the 
first that now men are naturally inclined to 
transgress the commands of God, and will 
not regain the image of God in holiness but 
through the atonement, by the operation of 
the Holy Spirit. All who die short of the 
age of accountability are rendered sure of 
e'^ernal life. Through the provisions of the 
atonement, all are abilitated to repent of 
their sins, and yield to God ; the Gospel call 
is to all, the vSpirit enlightens all, and men 
are aaents capable of choosing or refusing." 

" Regeneration is an instantaneous renova- 
tion of the soul, by the Spirit of God, where- 
by the penitent sinner, believing in, and giv- 
ing up all for Christ, receives new life, and 
becomes a child of God. This change is 
preceded l)y true conviction, repentance of, 
and penitent sorrow for sin ; it is called in 
Scripture, "being born again," "born of the 
Spirit," " passing irom death unto life." The 
soul is then justified with God." 

" Santijication is a setting apart the soul 
and body for holy service, an entire con- 
secration of all our redeemed powers to 
God ; believers are to strive for this with all 
diligence." 

'■^Perseverance. As the regenerate are plac- 
ed in a state of trial during life, their future 
obedience and final salvation are neither 
determined, nor certain ; it is, however, their 
duty and privilege to be steadfast in the 
truth, to grow in grace, persevere in holi- 
ness, and make their election sure." 

" Gommwnion. Communion is a solemn par- 
taking of bread and wine, in commemoration 
of the death and sufferings of Christ." 

The custom or ordinance of " washing the 



saints' feet," once practised to a considerable 
extent by this denomination, is still optional 
with them, but has generally been aban- 
doned. In their church polity the Freewill 
Baptists are not so independent or demo- 
cratic as the Regular liaptists, having adop- 
ted, with their doctrines, some of the views 
of the Methodists on church government. 
They have but two classes of officers in the 
church, — elders and deacons. Each church 
elects its own pastor, and exercises discipline 
over its own members ; but as a church is 
accountable to the yearly meeting, which 
has, also, the power of receiving appeals and 
trying them. The ecclesia-tical organiza- 
tions of the denomination are the church, the 
quarterly meeting or conference, the annual 
meeting, and the general conference, which 
meets triennially. The quarterly conference 
consist of the ministers of its territory, and 
such lay members as the churches may 
select. A council from the quarterly confer- 
ence organizes churches, and ordains minis- 
ters, and the ministers are accountable to it 
and not to their churches. The annual con- 
ferences are composed of delegates appointed 
by the quarterly conferences, and the gen- 
eral conference delegates are chosen from the 
annual conferences. The statistics of the 
denomination for 1870, are as follows; One 
general conference ; thirty yearly meetings ; 
155 quarterly meetings; 1386churches; 1145 
ordained ministers, and 66,909 communi- 
cants. We have no report of their Sunday 
Schools, and no recent one of their benevo- 
lent contributions. Their donations to the 
foreign missionary cause in 1866, were 
$1 2,1 66, but have since been considerably in- 
creased. They have al-o a Home Mission 
Society, and an Education Society. They 
have four colleges : Bates College, Lewiston, 
Me., which is liberally .endowed, and has 12 
instructors and 103 students; Hillsdale Col- 
lege, at Hillsdale, Mich. ; West Virginia 
College, at Flemington, W. Va., and Ridge- 
ville College, Ridgeville, Ind. They have 
also a Theological Seminary at New Hamp- 
ton, N. H , and a Theological Department 
of Bates College, Me. There are also thir- 
teen academies, seminaries, &c., and a soci- 
ety for the promotion of Education in the 
South. They have a printing establishment, 
the property of the denomination, at Dover, 
N. H., and issue a weekly paper, the "Mor- 
ning Star," a monthly juvenile paper, and 
an annual, the " Freewill Baptist Register." 
The Free Communion Baptists or Free 



604 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



Baptists, a separate denomination until 1841, 
united with them in that year ; but the 
Freewill Baptist General Conference with- 
drew subsequently from 4000 of their own 
members in North Carolina, on the question 
of slavery, and refused to receive about 12,- 
000 more from Kentucky, who applied, on 
the same grounds. 

III. The Seventh Day Baptists, dif- 
fer from Regular Baptists only in the obser- 
vance of the seventl), instead of the first day 
of the week for religious worship. Their 
first church in tlie United States was organ- 
ized in 1671. They practice restricted com- 
munion, are Calvinistic in doctrine, and 
independent in church polity. They had in 
1S70, seventy-five churches, eighty-two min- 
isters, and 7.336 members. Tiiey sustam 
missions in China and Palestine, and have a 
Home Missionary organization, an Educa- 
tion Society, and a tract and publishing 
house. They issue a weekly, a monthly, 
and a quarterly religious periodical. Tliey 
have a flourishing co lege, Alfi'ed University, 
at Alfred, Alleghany Co., N. Y., with 16 
teachers and 364 students, and a good acad- 
emy, the '' De Ruyter Institute," at De Ruy- 
ter, Madison Co., N. Y. There are also a 
few churches of German Seventh Day 
Baptists, seceders fcom the Tunkers or 
German Baptists, in Franklin, Bedford, and 
York counties. Pa. They are inclined to 
monasticism, or the community life, and num- 
ber but a few hundreds. 

IV. The Six Principle Baptists are 
a small body, mostly confined to Rhode Isl- 
and, but having a few congregations in Mas- 
sachusetts. New York, and Pennsylvania. 
They are Arminian in doctrine. Their six 
principles are those stated in Hebrews, vi : 1 , 
2. Their rite of " laying on of hands " is 
analogous to Episcopal confirmation, and is 
th(!ir principal distinguislung point. Their 
ministers are not generally well educated, 
and receive no stated support. They are 
generally opposed to missions and to most of 
the reforms of the day. The denomination 
originated in 1639, but has not grown rap- 
idly. It now numbers about 20 churches, 
18 ordained ministers, and 3,300 members. 
They have no periodical, and no schools or 
colleges. 

Tiiii Old School or Anti- Mission 
Baptists, are diminishing every year in 
nimibers, but have their churches scattered 
through most of the states of the Union, 
except New England. They are generally 



hvper-calvinistic or anti-nomians, in doc- 
trine, and oppose strongly missions, sunday 
schools, temperance societies, and all agen- 
cies not mentioned in the Scriptures. Their 
ministers are not generally educated, and 
seldom or never receive any salarj^. Fifty 
years ago the number of these churches was 
very large, but they have dwindled to a few 
hundreds, and their membership to pei'haps, 
45,000. They have no schools or colleges, 
but have several periodicals, one of tl em, 
" The Signs of the Times," being published 
semi-monthly, at Middletown, Orange Ca, 
N. Y. 

VI. The Disciples of Christ, or 
Church of Christ, or, as they are often 
called, though they do not acknowledge the 
name, Campbkllites, are a body of Baptists, 
who owe their origin, as a distinct denomina- 
tion, mainly to the labors of Thomas and Al- 
exander Campbell, two Presbyterian c'ergy- 
men, father and son, who settled in Westeni 
Pennsylvania, in 1808. They originally 
belonged to the " Seceders," one of the 
denominations which had come off from the 
Scottish Kirk. The first efibrt of Mr. 
Thomas Campbell, in which his son joined 
him very heartily, was to etfect a union of 
the different Protestant denominations of 
that region, by an agreement to reject all 
creeds and confessions of faith, and take the 
Scriptures only as the rule of faith and prac- 
tice, seeking to come at their meaning by 
earnest prayer, and careful study. A con- 
siderable numl)er joining in this work, a 
small congregation was formed in Washing- 
ton Co., Penn., known as the " Brush Run 
Church," Sept. 10, 1810. Of this church 
Thomas Campbell was the elder or pastor, 
and by it, his son, Alexander, was ordained 
to the ministry. Careful and prayerful study 
of the Bible for nearly two years, brought 
the Campbells and several of their followers 
to the conclusion that the Scriptures taught 
" the immersion of believers," aiul they with 
five others, were accordingly baptized in 
June, 1812, by a Baptist minister. Witliin 
the next three years, their adherents had 
increased to five or six considerable congre- 
gations, and they united with the Redstone 
Baptist Association, stipulating, however, in , 
writing " that no terms of unioh or commun- 
ion, other than the Holy Scriptures, should 
be required." Some difficulty arising in the 
Association in consequence of their meas- 
ures, they withdrew and joined the Mahon- 
ing (Ohio) Association, which soon became 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIOJfS. 



605 



fully identified with the movement. In 1823 
Alexander Campbell, a man of extensive 
scholarship, and remarkable logical and dia- 
lectic powers, commenced the publication of 
" The Christian Baptist." This periodical 
was edited with great ability, and through its 
very large circulation, aided by his extensive 
tours, and his public discussions with the 
leading men of different denominations, his 
peculiar views spread widely among the 
Baptists and other denominations, through- 
out the Middle and Norihwcslern States. 
Though acknowledging no creed or confes- 
sion of fixith, and making his motto " Faith 
in the Testimony of God, and obedience to 
the commandments of Christ, the only bond 
of union," Mr. Campbell did use a phraseol- 
ogy in the enunciation of his doctrines which 
was liable to perversion, and was, in fact, 
often perverted. lie insisted that the Scrip- 
tures comm?.Tided " baptism for the remis- 
sion of sins," and as Peter replied in Acts, 
ii : 38, to those who asked wLat they should 
do : " Eepent and be baptized, every one of 
you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the 
remission of sins, and ye shall receive the 
gifts of the Holy Ghost," so he would have 
t:ie Christian minister now baptize all who 
professed to be penitent, for the remission of 
their sins, and the assurance of pardon, and 
the gifts of the Holy Spirit. His own views 
were decided that penitence and faith were 
necessary to s.'dvation, but that the assur- 
ance of this pardon and salvation was to be 
attained through submission to this initiatory 
rite. To many of the Baptist churches, it 
seemed that tliis was opening the door to a 
ly^lief in baptismal regeneration, a doctrine 
abhorrent to them as to most Protestants, 
and in 1827 the excision of Mr. Campbell's 
followers commenced, and was carried on 
unsparingly for many years after. Their 
exclu-ion from the regular Baptist churches 
led to their forming churches and associa- 
tions of their own, and their numbers were 
largely augmented by the accession of a 
body known as Reformers, who, by an in- 
dependent process, had reached substantial- 
ly the same conclusions with them. The 
'' Disciples," owing to their somewhat pecu- 
liar and vague phraseology in avowing their 
faith, have been charged with Unitarianism, 
as well as some other heresies ; but it is now 
very generally conceded that they are Trini- 
tarians, and that they do not differ in the 
cardinal doctrines of the Bible from other 
Evangelical Christians. That their formula 
37* 



on the subject of baptism has led some astray 
and prejudiced the minds of others, is prob- 
ably true ; but judged by the tests of Christ- 
ian activity and evangelical labor, they are 
perhaps little, if at all, behind other denomina- 
tions. Their only distinctive practice, aside 
from the baptismal formula, is the observance 
of the ordinance of the Lord's Supper weekly. 
They recognize three orders of church offi- 
cers, viz: 1. Elders, presbyters, or bishops, 
terms which they regard as synonymous; 2. 
Deacons ; 3. Evangelists, The last are their 
itinerant ministry or missionaries, and are 
supported by voluntary contributions. They 
are very earnest in their support of education- 
al institutions, and of organizations for the 
distribution of the Scriptures. Their disting- 
uished leader died in 18G6, at the age of 77. af- 
ter performing an amount of intellectual labor 
greater than falls to the lot of one educated 
man in a thousand. He had written largely 
on theological subjects, edited for more than 
forty years a very able religious periodical, 
conducted successfully five or six protracted 
public discussions, founded, and taught large 
classes in a college of good repute, and 
preached many thousand sermons. 

The '• Disciples " at the time of his death 
had 1,642 preachers (elders or bishops) a 
large number of evangelists, and 424,250 
members. Their present number of preach- 
ers of both classes is estimated at about 
3,000, their congregations at nearly 5,000, 
and their membership at about 612,000. 
Th.e educational institutions, organized and 
supported by the " Disciples," are Ken- 
tucky University at Lexington, Ky.; Bethany 
College, Bethany, West Virginia ; a College 
at Indianopolis, Ind. ; Eureka College and 
Abingdon College, at Eureka and Abingdon, 
111. ; Oskaloosa College. Iowa ; Wilmington^ 
College, AVilmington, Ohio; Franklin Col- 
lege, near Nashville, Tenn. ; Woodland Col- 
lege, California ; Jeffersontown and Emin- 
ence, Kentucky ; female colleges at Colum- 
bia, Missouri, Versailles, and Harrodsburg, 
Ky., and Bloomington, 111. ; an<l 12 Acade- 
mies and Seminaries. They have twenty- 
three periodicals, of which 9 are weekly, 13 
monthly, and one quarterly. The " Millen- 
nial Harbinger" a monthly, succeeded the 
" Christian Baptist" Dr. Campbell's first 
periodical, and was edited by him till his 
death. 

VII. The Christian Connection, often 
but unproperly called Christ-ians, are a 
body of religionists who claim a threefold 



606 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



origin. In North Carolina, in 1793, a con- 
siderable nnmber of churches seceded from 
the Methodist Episcopal Church under the 
leadei-ship of Rev. J. O. Kelley, and others, 
and first took the name of Republican Meth- 
odists, but afterward making the Bible their 
sole standard of faith, and having become 
convinced of the necessity of immersion on 
the profession of faith, they adopted the 
name of " Christians" In 1 800, Dr. Abner 
Jones, Elias Smith, and other members of a 
Baptist church in liartland, Vermont, know- 
ing nothing of the action of these North 
Carolina churches, separated from the church 
with which they were connected and organ- 
ized a church at Lyndon, Vermont, on the 
principle of " making the Bible alone their 
confession of faith." This soon grew in 
numbers and other churches were consti- 
tuted on the same principle. In 1801, after 
the great revival in Kentucky and Tennes- 
see, wliich led to the organization of the 
Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Rev. B. 
W. Stone, and four other Presbyterian min- 
isters of Kentucky, withdrew, and adopting 
soon after the name of " Christians," organ- 
ized churches and formally proclaimed their 
principles in 1804. These three bodies 
originating in as many denominations, came 
together in a general convention two or three 
years later and became one body. They 
have two Quadrennial Conferences, the 
United States and the Southern. Their 
first weekly periodical, " The Herald of Gos- 
pel Liberty" was one of the first if not the 
first of the religious newspapers published in 
the United States, and is still maintained. 

Admitting no creed or confession of faith, 
and allowing all its adherents to interpret 
the Scriptures for themselves, the Christian 
Connection necessarily allows a wide range 
of doctrinal belief, and it is somewhat difii- 
cult to determine what are their doctrinal 
views. A considerable portion, especially 
in the "Western and Central States, are not 
Trinitarians. They hold that there is one 
God, the God of the Bible ; that Christ is a 
divine being, pre-existent, and the mediator 
between God and man ; tliat Christ's suffer- 
ings and death atone for the sins of all men, 
who, by repentance and faith, may be saved. 
They believe immersion the only proper 
mode, and believers the only proper subjects 
of baptism. Communion at the Lord's table 
is open to believers of all denominations. In 
regard to church government and polity, 
each church is theoretically and practically 



independent. They have annual State Con- 
ferences, composed of ministerial and lay 
delegates from the churches which receive 
and ordain j^astors, but can pass no laws 
binding the several churches. Their Gen- 
eral Convention or Conference has Mission- 
ary, Pklucational, Publishing, and Sabbath 
School departments, each of which are in a 
prosperous condition. They have a publish- 
ing establishment at Dayton, Ohio, from 
which are issued, the Gospel Herald, a week- 
ly, the Sunday School Herald, a monthly 
periodical, a Quarterly Review, and a Chris- 
tian Register, annually, and the books and 
tracts of the denomination. The " Herald 
of Gospel Liberty" now (1871) in its sixty- 
third year, is still published at Newburyport. 
Mass. There was also, previous to the war. 
a publishing establishment of the denomina- 
tion at Suffolk, Va., and " The Christian 
Sim" the organ of the Southern churches, 
was published there. The printing estab- 
lishment was destroyed and its funds lost 
during the war, but the paper, though dis- 
continued for the time, was revived in 1867. 
There is great difficulty in ascertaining ac- 
cui-ately the statistics of the " Christian Con- 
nection." At the West they are often con- 
founded with '' The Disciples," with whom 
many of them fraternize. Tliey have about 
70 Conferences, and it is estimated 3,000 
ministers, 5.000 churches, and about 300,000 
members. Their educational institutions are 
Antioch College, Oliio, which has been aided 
largely by the Unitarians, I'nion Christian 
College, Indiana, Le Grand Institute, Iowa, 
W^olfsborough Seminaiy, New Hampshire, 
and Starkey Seminary, New York. "We 
can obtain no statistics of their Sabbath 
Schools. 

VIII. The Mennonites, a denomination 
of Baptists, first known in Holland as the 
followers of Simonis Menno in the sixteenth 
century. They settled in and about Ger- 
mantown, Penn., in 1 683, and in Lancaster 
County, Penn., in 1709. They have since 
spread over a great portion of Pennsylvania, 
and have churches also in INIaryland, Vir- 
ginia, Ohio, Indiana, New, York, and Cana- 
da. Their doctrines are, in gem-ral, similar 
to those of the regular Baptist churches, ex- 
cept that some of them admit the validity of 
sprinkling as baptism. They observe the 
ordinance of " "Washing the Saints' feet," and 
forbid their members to marry any except 
those who are members of the church. They 
resemble the Friends in their aversion to 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OP THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



607 



legal oaths, to war, and to capital punish- 
ment. They are divided into three parties, 
or sub-sects : the Old Meniionites, the Re- 
formed Mennonites, who came off in 1811 ; 
and the Amish Church or Hooker Men- 
nonites. All profess to agree to the stand- 
ard or confession of faith adoj)ted at Dort, 
Holland in 1632. The statistics of the de- 
nomination, as Wf 11 as its history, are very 
imperfectly known. According to their 
journals they had, in 1859, 128,000 mem- 
bers in America ; but later statistics (in 
1869) which do not, however, include Can- 
ada, where they are considerably numerous, 
put their number in the United States at 
60,000, with about 400 churches, and per- 
haps 450 ministers. In 1860. the eighth 
census reported their church edifices as hav- 
ing only sittings for 37,(t00. I>ut these returns 
were so fallacious that little dependence 
could be ])laced upon them. The denomina- 
tion are not apparently increasing with any 
great rapidity. They have one English, and 
two German newspapers, and a German and 
an English Almanac, all published at Elk- 
hart, Ind., except one of the German papers, 
which is issued from Milford Srpiare, Penn., 
There are no colleges, we believe, under 
their special care or patronage. 

IX. Brktiiren, German Baptists, 
TuNKERS OR DuNKERS. A small body of 
Bapti-ts, who originated at Schwartzenau, 
Germany, in 1708, but were driven to Amer- 
ica by persecution in 1719. They are found 
mostly in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia, 
Maryland, and Indiana. In doctrine they 
incline to Arminianism, believing in a gene- 
ral redemption, though in other doctrines, 
they refer to the confession of Dort, which 
is Calvini-tic. They have been charged 
with believing in the final restoration of the 
wicked to heaven and happiness, but the doc- 
trine is not a part of" their public teaching, 
and is not {)erhaps generally held by them. 
They practice trine immer-ion, and in bap- 
tism incline the body forward instead of 
backward as other Baptists do. They also 
practice laying on of hands and prayer, while 
the person baptized is still in the water. 
The Lord's Supper is celebrated with its ac- 
companying usages of love fea-ts. the wash- 
ing of feet, the kiss of charity, and the right 
hand of fellowship. They also anoint the 
sick with o.l for their recovery. In other 
matters they resemble the Friends, using 
great plainness of dress and speech, refusing 
to take legal oaths, and to engage in war. 



They will not go to. law, and generally will 
not take interest on money lent. They have 
bishops or ministers, elders or teachers, dea- 
cons, and deaconesses, the latter being aged 
women set apart for this special work. The 
ministers or bishops alone receive ordination. 
Until recently, questions wei'e decided by lot 
instead of by voting. Their statistics in 
1866 were 200 chui-ehes, 150 ministers or 
bishops, about 500 elders, and 20,000 mem- 
bers. They have recently established Sab- 
bath Schools, though a branch of them, (the 
Seventh Day Dunkers,) maintained a Sunday 
School at Ephratah, Penn., from 1740 to 
1770. 

X. Church of God or Winebrenne- 
rians, a denomination of Baptists, organiz- 
ed in 1830, by Rev. John Winebrenner, for- 
merly a minister of the German Reformed 
Church at Harrisburg, Pa., where he was 
settled in 1821. He was very successful in 
his pastorate, and great revivals took place 
in his congregations, but he was charged 
with deviating from the doctrines and prac- 
tice of the German Reformed Church. In 
1830 he withdrew from the church, and held 
a meeting with some other preachers, in 
which it was resolved that tlie only sci'iptural 
name for the one true Church was " The 
Church of God," and that they would hence- 
forth belong to that church only. At the 
same time Mr. Winebrenner avowed the 
change of views to which he had been led, 
which was accepted by the ntliei-s. 

The doctrines then advanced are substan- 
tially those of " The Church of God" to-day. 
The general tone of her doctrines is thor- 
oughly evangelical though inclined rather to 
the Arminian than the Calvinistic view. So 
far as baptism, in mode and subjects, is con- 
cerned they are in unison with the regular 
Baptists. Their peculiar views of docti'ine 
and polity are thus expressed by themselves: 
— She ("The Church of God") believes in 
three positive ordinances of perpetual stand- 
ing in the church, viz., Bapti-m, Feet- Wash- 
ing, and the Lord's Supper. — She believes 
that the ordinance of feet-washing, that is, 
the literal washing of the saints' feet, accord- 
ing to the words and example of Christ, is 
obligatory on all Christians, and ought to be 
observed by all the churches of God. 

She believes that the Lord's Supper should 
be often administered, and to be consistent, 
to Christians only, in a sitting posture and 
always in the evening. 

She believes in the propriety and utility 



608 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



of holding fast days, experience meetings, 
anxious meetings, camp meetings, and other 
special meetings of united and protracted 
efforts for the edification of the church, and 
the conversion of sinners. 

She believes in the personal coming and 
reign of Jesus Christ. There are also arti- 
cles in her confession of faith against the 
manufiicture, traffic, and use of ardent spir- 
its as a beverage, against slavery as impolitic, 
and unchristian, and against civil wars as 
unholy and sinful and that the saints of the 
Most High ought never to participate in 
them. 

Her church government is somewhat pe- 
culiar. She claims to be independent and 
Congregational, yet each church has its coun- 
cil, composed of the preachers in charge, 
and the elders and deacons, which has all 
the powers of the session of a Presbyterian, 
or the consistory of a Reformed church. 

She has also her annual Elderships, con- 
sisting of all the pastors, and an equal num- 
ber of ruling elders within a given district, 
and her Triennial General Eldership, con- 
sisting of delegates from the Annual Elder- 
ships, who, if preachers, must have been at 
least five years in the ministry. This Gen- 
eral Eldership owns and controls all the 
common property of the church. Her offi- 
cers are ministers, who m3,y be either sta- 
tioned pastors, itinerants on circuits, or mis- 
sionaries at large ; ruling elders, and deacons. 
The church has a domestic and a foreign 
missionary society, and a printing establish- 
ment. They issue a weekly paper " The 
Church Advocate^' a Sunday School paper, 
and a German weekly paper. They have 
two colleges, one at Centralia, Kansas, and 
anotht'r as yet only partly organized. Their 
numbers were estimated in 1870, at 400 
ctiurches, 3o0 ordained ministers, and 30,000 
members. They are found mostly in Penn- 
sylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Mich- 
igan, and Kansas. 



IV. PRESBYTERIANS. 

I. The Presbyterian Churoh in the 
U. S. America. (North.) This large and 
respectable body of Christians, trace their 
origin as a denomination in this country to 
tlie Scottish Kirk, or Establisheo Church of 
Scotland, to which most of the early Pres- 
byterians in this country had belonged pre- 
vious to their emigration hither. The first 



Presbyterian church in the Colonies is be- 
lieved to have been the Rehoboth church in 
Maryland, organized in 1690; that on Eliz- 
abeth River, Virginia, was formed about the 
same time, and those of Freeliold, and 
Woodbridge, N. J., not later than 1 692. The 
first presbytery, (that of Philadelphia,) was 
formed in 1706, and a synod of four presby- 
teries in 1716. A division took place be- 
tween the "Old Side" and the " New Side" 
or " New Lights," in the synod (the synod 
of Philadelphia) in 1741 ; the "Old ?ide in- 
sisting upon a thoroughly educated ministry, 
and the strict observance of Presbyterial 
order in accordance with the rules of the 
Scottish Kirk, while the " New Side" or "Ncat 
Lights," who had been to some extent under 
the influence of AVhitfield and his followers, 
required conclusive evidence of experimental 
x-eligion in the candidates for the ministry, 
and a good, but not necessarily a collegiate ed- 
ucation, and were less strenuous on the minu- 
tiae of Presbyterial order. This division 
continued for 1 7 ytiars, when the two parties 
came together and the two synods were 
united under the name of the '' Synod of 
New York, and Philadelphia." At the close 
of the Revolutionary war, there were about 
170 Presbyterian ministers, and rather more 
than that number of churches, with an en- 
tire membership of less than 20,000. In 
1788 a committee of the Sjmod had com- 
pleted the revision of the standards of doc- 
trine and polity of the church, and recom- 
mended its reorganization into tour synods, 
and a General Assembly over the whole. 
This recommendation was adopted, and tak- 
ing a new departure from the great revivals 
of 1800, 1801, and 1802, the church began 
to grow with considerable rapidity. In 1801 
a " plan of Union" was arranged between 
the Presbyterians and Congregationalists in 
the new settlements to prevent disagreement 
between the two denominations, and to facil- 
itate their cooperation in missionary enter- 
prises. This continued 36 years. There 
had been evidently two parties in the Pres- 
byterian church prior to 1830, but there had 
been no decided collision between them until 
about 1835, when some test cases led to a 
division, and the excision of four synods 
from the General Assembly in 1837. At 
this time the New School General Assembly 
was formed, and for thirty-three years there 
were two General Assemblies, both calling 
themselves the General Assembly of the 
Presbyterian Church in the United States of 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



609 



America ; both holding professedly to the 
same standards and alike in church polity as 
well as in doctrine. They were distinguished 
as the Old School and the New School Gen- 
eral Assemblies. Each had their missionary, 
and publication organizations, though the 
New School body cooperated for many years 
with the American Board of Commissioners 
for Foreign Missions, and the American 
Home Mis Nonary Society. In 1870, after 
a discussion and balloting for neai'ly two 
yeai's on the details, the two General Assem- 
blies, with their entire constituency reunited, 
and now form one body. The Southern 
synods, the larger portion of them belonging 
to the Old School branch, seceded from the 
General Assembly, those heretofore belong- 
ing to the New School in 1857, and those of 
the Old School in 1861, and eventually coa- 
lesced in the General Assembly of the Pres- 
byterian Church, south. Overtures have 
since been made to them for reunion with 
the now United church in the Northern 
states, but they have been thus far repelled. 

Tiie Pi'esbyterian church recognizes and 
avows the necessity of doctrinal standards of 
faith, and adopts as its standard, The West- 
minster Assembly's Confession of Faith, and 
Exposition of doctrine, as contained in the 
shorter and larger catechisms of that body. 
We have not space to give the whole of 
these, but insert below, those which are dis- 
tinctive in their character, giving only the 
answers to the questions of the shorter cate- 
chism, as these contain the declarative por- 
tion of the confession. It is hardly necessary 
to say that this confession is always in ac- 
cordance with the principles, and often uses 
the very phraseology (translated) of Calvin 
in his celebrated Institutes, and is sustained 
by abundant references to scripture on each 
point. 

" 1. Man's chief end is to glorify God, and 
to enjoy Him forever. 

?. The Word of God, which is contained 
in the Scriptures of the Old and New Tes- 
taments, is the only rule to direct us how we 
may glorify and enjoy him forever. 

3. The Scriptures principally teach what 
man is to believe concerning God, and what 
jfluty God requires of man. 

4. God is a spirit, infinite, eternal and un- 
changeable, in his being, wisdom, power, ho- 
liness, justice, goodness, and truth. 

5. There is but one only, the living and 
true God. 

6. There are three persons in the God- 



head, the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
Ghost, and these three are one God, the 
same in substance, equal in power and glory. 

7. The decrees of God are his eternal 
purpose, according to the counsel of his will, 
whereby for his own glory, he hath fore-or- 
dained whatsoever comes to pass. . 

8. God executes his decrees in the works 
of creation and providence. 

9. The work of creation is, God's making 
all things of nothing, by the word of his 
power, in the space of six days, and all very 
good. 

10. God created man, male and female, 
after his own image, in knowledge, right- 
eousness, and holiness, with dominion over 
his creatures. 

11. God's works of providence are, his 
most holy, wise, and powerful preserving 
and governing all his creatures, and all their 
actions. 

12. When God had created man, he en- 
tered into a covenant of life with him, upon 
condition of perfect obedience ; forbidding 
him to eat of the tree of knowledge of good 
and evil, upon the pain of death. 

13. Our first parents being left to the 
freedom of their own will, fell from the 
estate in which they were created, by sin- 
ning against God. 

14. Sin is any want of conformity unto, 
or transgression of, the law of God. 

15. The sin whereby our first parents fell 
from the estate wherein they were created 
was their eating the forbidden fruit. 

16. The covenant being made with Adam, 
not only for himself, but for his posterity; 
all mankind descending from him by ordin- 
ary generation, sinned in him, and fell with 
him, in his first transgression. 

17. The fall brought mankind into an es- 
tate of sin and misery. 

18. The sinfulness of that estate where- 
into man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam's 
first sin, the want of original righteousness, 
and the corruption of his whole nature, 
which is commonly called original sin, to- 
gether with all actual transgressions which 
proceed from it. 

19. All mankind by their fall lost com- 
munion with God, are under his wrath and 
curse, and so made liable to all the miseries 
of this life, to death itself, and to the pains 
of hell forever. 

20. God having out of his mere good 
pleasure, from all eternity, elected some co 
everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of 



610 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



grace to deliver them out of the estate of sin 
and misery, and to bring them into an estate 
of salvation by a Redeemer. 

21. The only Redeemer of God's elect is 
the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the Eter- 
nal Son of God, became man, and so vs^as and 
continues to be God and man, in two dis- 
tinct natures and one person, forever. 

22. Christ, the Son of God, became man, 
by taking to himself a true body and a rea- 
sonable soul, being conceived by the power 
of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the Vir- 
gin Mary, and born of her, yet witliout sin. 

23. Christ, as our Redeemer, executes the 
offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a 
king, both in his estate of humiliation and 
exaltation. 

24. He executes the office of a Prophet in 
revealing to us, by his Word and Spirit, the 
will of God for our salvation. 

25. He executes the office of a Priest, in 
his once offering up himself a sacrifice, to sat- 
isfy divine justice, and reconcile us to God ; 
and in making continual intercession for us. 

26. He executes the office of a King, in 
subduing us to himself, in ruling and defend- 
ing us, and in restraining and conquering all 
his and our enemies. 

27. Christ's humiliation consisted in his 
behig born, and that in a low condition, made 
under the law, undergoing the miseries of 
this life, the wrath of God, and the accursed 
death of the cross ; in being buried, and con- 
tinuing under the power of death for a time. 

28. His exaltation consists in his x'ising 
again from the dead on the third day, in his 
ascending up into Heaven, in his sitting on 
the right hand of God the Father, and in his 
coming to judge the world at the last day. 

29. We are made partakers of the re- 
demption purchased by Christ, by the effect 
ual apjilication of it to us by his Holy Spirit. 

.30. The Spii'it ajiplies to us the redemp- 
tion purchased by Christ, by working taith 
in us, and thereby imiting us to Christ, in 
our eff"ectual calling. 

31. Effec^tual calling is the work of God's 
Spirit, whereby convincing us of our sin and 
misery, enlightening our minds in the knowl- 
edge of Christ, and renewing our wills, he 
doth persuade and enable us to embrace 
Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gos- 
pel. 

32. They that are effectually called, do, 
in this life, partake of justification, adoption, 
.sauctification, and the several benefitSj which. 



in this life, do either accompany or flow from 
them. 

33. Justification is an act of God's free 
grace, wherein he pardons all our sins, and 
accepts us as righteous in his sight, only for 
the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us, 
and received by faith alone. 

34. Adoption is an act of God's free grace, 
whereby we are received into the number, 
and have a right to all the privileges of, the 
sons of God. 

35. Sanctification is the work of God's free 
grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole 
man, after the image of God, and are ena- 
bled more and more to die unto sm, and live 
unto righteousness. 

36. The benefits which, in this life, do 
accompany or flow from justification, adop- 
tion and sanctification, are, assurance of God's 
love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy 
Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance 
therem to the end. 

37. The souls of believers are, at their 
death, made perfect in holiness, and do im- 
mediately pass into glory ; and their bodies 
being still united to Christ, do rest in their 
graves till the resurrection. 

38. Ai the resurrection, believers being 
raised up in glory, shall be openly acknowl- 
edged and acquitted in the day of judgment, 
and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoy- 
ment of God to all eternity. 

39. The duty which God requires of man 
is obedience to his revealed will. 

40. Tlie rule which God at first revealed 
to man for his obedience, was the moral law. 

41. The moral law is summarily compre- 
hended in the ten commandments. 

42. The sum of the ten commandments is, 
to love the Lord our God, with all our heart, 
with all our soul, with all our strength, and 
with all our mind ; and our neighbor as our- 
selves." 

(Then follow in the Catechism, forty 
questions and answers, comprising the words 
of the ten commandments and expositiosis of 
their teaching, not necessary to be inserted 
here, and the Catechism then jiroceeds with 
answer.) 

" 82. No mere man, since the foil, is able, 
in this life, perfectly to keep the command- 
ments of God, but doth daily break them, in 
thought, word, and deed. 

83. All transgressions of the law are not 
equally heinous, some sins in themselves, 
and by reason of several aggiavatious, 



IlISTOUY AND ritOGRKSS OF THE DIFFKUKXT DENOMINATIONS. 



611 



being more heiiioiis in the sight of God tlian 
others. 

84. Every sin deserves God's -wrath and 
curse, botli in this life, and that which is to 
come. 

85. To escape the wrath and cui'se of 
God, due to us for sin, God requireth of us 
fiith in Jesus Christ, repentance unto life, 
Avith the diligent use of all the outward 
means whereby Christ communicateth to us 
the benefits of redemption. 

86. Faith in Jesus Ciunst is a saving 
grace, whereby we receive and rest upon 
him alone for salvation, as he is offered to 
us in the gospel. 

87. Repentance unto life is a saving grace 
whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his 
sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God 
in Christ, doth with grief and hatred of his 
sin turn from it unto God, with full purpose 
of, and endeavor after, new obedience. 

88. The outward and ordinary means 
whereby Christ communicateth to us the 
benefits of redemption, are his ordinances, 
especially the word, sacraments, and prayer ; 
all which are made effectual to the elect for 
salvation. 

83. The Spirit of God maketli the read- 
ing, but e-pecially the preaching of the word, 
an effectual means of convincing and con- 
verting sinners, and of building tliem up in 
holiness and comfort, through faith, unto sal- 
vation. 

90. Tliat the word may become effectual 
to salvation, we must attend thereunto with 
diligence, preparation, and prayer ; receive it 
with faith and love ; lay it up in our hearts, 
and pr ictise it in our lives. 

81. Tlie sacraments become effectual 
means of salvation, not from any virtue in 
them, or in him that doth administer them ; 
but only by the blessing of Christ, and the 
working of His Spirit, in them that by faith 
receive tliem. 

92. A sacrament is a holy ordinance insti- 
tuted by Ciiri.st wherein by sensible signs, 
Christ and the benefits of the new coven; lut 
are represented, sealed, and applied to be- 
lievers. 

93. The sacraments of the New Testa- 
ment are Baptism and the Lord's Supper. 

94. Baptism is a sacrament wherein the 
washing with water, in the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost, doth signify and seal our engrafting 
into Christ, and partaking of the covenant of 
grace, and our engagement to be the Lord's. 



9o. Baptism is not to be administered to 
any that are out of the visibie churcli till they 
])rofess their faith in Christ and obedience to 
him ; but the infants of such as are members 
of the visible churjh are to be bapiized. 

86. The Lord's Supper is a sacrament 
wherein by giving and receiving bread and 
wine, according to Christ's appointment, his 
death is showed forth ; and the worthy re- 
ceivers are, not after a corporeal and carnal 
manner, but by faith, made partakers of his 
body and blood, with all his benefits, to their 
spiritual nourishment and growth in g^ace. 

97. It is required of them that would 
worthily partake of the Lord's Supper, that 
they examine themselves of their knowledge 
to discern the Lord's body, of their faith to 
fVed upon him, of their re2:)entance. love and 
new obedience, lest, coming unworthily, they 
eat and drink judgment to themselves. 

98. Prayer is an offering up of.our desires 
to God for things agreeable to his will, in the 
name of Christ, with confession of our sins, 
and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies. 

99. The whole word of God is of use to 
direct us in prayer, but the special rule of 
direction is that form of prayer which Christ 
taught his disciples, commonly called the 
Lord's Prayer. 

100. The preface of the Lord's Prayer 
( Oar Father tvldch art in Heaven) teacheth 
us to draw nenr to God with all holy rever- 
ence and confidence, as children to a Father, 
uble and ready to iielp us ; and that we 
should pray with and for others. 

101. In the first petition {Halloived he thy 
name), we pray that God would enable us, 
and others, to glorify him in all that whereby 
he maketh himself known, and that he would 
dispose all things to his own glory. 

102. In the second petition {Thyhingdom 
come), we pray that Satan's kingdom may 
be destroyed, and that the kingdom of grace 
may be advanced, oursehes and others 
brought into it, and kept in it, and that the 
kingdom of glory may be hastened. 

103. In the third petition {Thy will be 
done on earth as it is in Heaven), we pray, 
that God, by his grace, would make us both 
able and willing to know, obey, and submit 
to his will in all things, as the angels do in 
Heaven. 

104. In the fourth petition ( Give us this 
day our daily bread), we pray that of God's 
free gift, we may receive a competent por- 
tion of the good things of this life, and enjov 
his blessinj; with them. 



612 



HISTORY AND PKOGRESS OF THE DH-^FERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



105. In the fifth petition {Forgive us our 
debts, as loe forgive our debtors), we pray, 
that God, for Christ's sake, would freely 
pardon our sins ; which we are tlie raiher 
encouraged to ask, because by his grace, we 
are enabled fi-om the heart to forgive others. 

106. In the sixth petition {And lead us not 
into temptation, but deliver us from evil), we 
pray that God would either keep us from be- 
ing tempted to sin, or support and deUver us 
when we are tempted. 

107. The conclusion of the Lord's Prayer 
{For thine is the kingdom, and the power and 
the glory, forever. Amen.) teacheth us to take 
our encouragement to prayer from God only, 
and in our prayers to praise Him, ascribing 
kingdom, power, and gloiy to Him. And in 
testimony of our desire and assurance to be 
heard, we say, amen. 

It will be seen from the 95th article, that 
the Presbyterian Church, as well as some of 
the denouiinations which follow in this vol 
ume, is Ptedo baptist or holds to the doctrine 
of infiint baptism, in distinction from the 
churches of the Baptist group which admin- 
ister bajUism only to believers. It also dif- 
fers from all the churches which we have 
previou>ly de-cribed, in its church govern- 
ment and polity. The Presbyterial form 
of church government characterizes (under 
somewhat difi(3rent names, but with the same 
meaning) all the churches which are affiliat 
ed with the Presbyterian, and it may there- 
fore be described here once for all. Their 
government is representative rather than 
democratic. They recognize two classes of 
elders (presbyters); the teaching elder or 
minister of the word, and the ruling elder, 
a representative of the people, and their 
agent and ruler in matters pertaining to the 
church. While they have but one teaching 
elder or preacher, generally a pastor, to the 
church, they liave two, four, or more, ruling 
elders, who, with the teaching elder and dea 
cons, constitute the church session, which 
governs the church in all matters of doctrine 
and discipline, and being elected for that 
purpose also, has charge of the temporalities 
of the church. The church court next above 
the church, and, in ordinary cases, the lead- 
ing judicatory, is the presbytery, composed 
of the teaching elders or preachers, and one 
ruling elder in each church within its bounds. 
The ordaining, recognition, and dismissal of 
pastors are conducted by the presbytery, on 
the appUcation of the minister and the church 



with which he is, or is to be, officially con- 
nected. (It is noteworth that very often 
the minister is not a member of the church 
to which he ministers.) Difficult cases ot' 
discipline, or those in which there are two 
parties in a church, come before the presby- 
tery for adjudication ; and all charges of her 
esy, or misconduct against any of its minis-> 
ters, is brought before it for trial and inves^ 
tigation. Above the presbytery in the gra- 
dation of church courts, is the synod, compos- 
ed of a certain number of presltyteries, and 
when in session consisting of delegates from' 
each presbytery, lay and clerical. It is a 
court of appeal from the presbytery, and itsj 
wider range of territory and larger number 
of able ministers and elders gives it some 
advantages. The final court of resort in all 
church matters is, however, the General 
Assembly or General Synod, composed of 
commissioners, clerical and lay, from the 
Synods. This General Assembly possesses 
entire control over the church action, the 
doctrinal soundness, and the educational and 
benevolent institutions of the denomination, 
and is, in its assembled capacity, the embod- 
iment of the Presbyterian Church in Amer- 
ica, or of the other organizations which it 
represents. Its sessions are annual, and usu- 
ally continue for two or three weeks, and 
sometimes even longer. The Presbyterian 
Churches seem to have for their specialty 
the discussion of the doctrines of th.eir con- 
fession of faith, and the detection of any and 
every form of heresy. Months and years of 
their history have been devoted to these dis- 
cussions, and, while these are certainly im- 
portant, there is danger that in these clialec- 
tic struggles their strength will be so far 
expended that they will hardly keep pace 
with the other denominations in growth and 
progress. Still they are one of the strongest 
and most efficient of the evangelical denomi- 
nations in the United States, and are likely 
to do more efficient work in the future 
than they have in the past. They have 
shown a most commendable liberality recent- 
ly. During the year en ling in May, 1871, 
the new leunited Presbyterian Church had 
contributed to a memorial innd for building 
and paying the debts on church edifices, en- 
dowing colleges and theological seminaries, 
planting new missions, etc., etc., the magnifi- 
cent sum of $8,600,000, aside from their 
regular contributions to missionary, publica- 
tion, educational, and other objects, and the 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFEREXT DENOMINATIONS. 



613 



expenditure for current church expenses, sal- 
aries, etc., which amounted to about $8,000,- 
000 more. 

The statistics of the "Presbyterian Church 
in the U. S. A.," for 1870, were as follows: 

There were 51 synods; 259 presbyteries; 
4.238 ordained ministers ; 338 licentiates and 
541 candidates for licensure; 4,52G churches; 
44G,5G1 communicants ; 32,003 were added 
on examination, and 21.447 on certificate; 
10,122 adults and 16,476 infants baptized; 
448,857 members of the Sabbath Schools. 
The benevolent contributions (not including 
any j^art of the memorial fund mentioned 
above) $8,440,121. The net gain in the 
number of communicants in the year 1870-1 
was 8,817, and the whole number of mem- 
bers reported May, 1871, 455,378. 

ir. Presbyterian Church, in the 
United States (South) — This body is com- 
posed of the seceders, who came off from ihe 
New School Presbyterian Church in 1857, 
and who joined the Southern General Assem 
bly in 1863, and the seceders from the O !d 
School Presbyterian Church, who left it in 
1861, and immediately formed the Southern 
General Assembly. The secession, in both 
instances, was based mainly on the position 
of the two Northern General Assemblies on 
the question of Slavery, and in the latter 
case also b cause that in the war then just 
commenced, the Old School General Assem 
bly avowed its loyalty and adherence to the 
Union. During the war there were hasty, 
and, perhaps, injudicious resolutions passed 
on both si<les,and to the overtures which have 
since been made by the re-united Presbyte- 
rian Church for their return, the Southern 
General Assembly has replied " that they 
do not approve of a union with the Northern 
Church because it is a total surrender of all 
fundamental doctrines, and embraces all 
shades of belief." " The Southern Church," 
they say, " is the only surviving heir of true, 
unfailing testimonies, and there are impassa- 
ble barriers to official intercourse between 
the two churches." 

Their doctrinal standards, and their church 
government and polity, are identical with 
that of the Northern church. 

Their statistics in 1870 were as follows : 
There were 11 synods, 55 presbyteries, 840 
ordained ministers, 52 licentiates, and 161 
candidates, for licensure; 1,469 churches, 
82,014 members reported (206 churches did 
not report the number of members) ; 5,048 
members added on examination, and 2,851 



on certificate ; 1,529 adults, and 3,555 chil- 
dren baptized ; 47,317 Sunday School schol- 
ars, $"72,335 contributed to benevolent ob- 
jects and church expenses. 

II r. United Presbyterian Church 
OF North Aiikkica. The body bearing 
this name in the United States is entirely 
different in its origin from the United Pres- 
byterian Church of Scodand and Canada, 
though holding nearly the same views of 
doctrine and polity. The Scottish United 
Presbyterian Church is composed of the 
United Secession Church (itself a coidition 
of the Burgher and An ti- Burgher Synods) 
and the Relief church, both secessions from 
the established Kirk of Scotland on the 
ground of its corruption in doctrine and prac- 
tice, and its enforeement of the setilement 
of ministers named by the heritors or aris- 
tocracy, against the will of the people. These 
two organizations came together and formed 
the Scottish United Presbytei-ian Church 
(which has a large and efficient branch ia 
Canada) in 1847. The United Presbyte- 
rian Church, in the United States, was con- 
stituted in 1858 by the union of the Asso- 
ciate Reformed, and the Associate Presby- 
terian churches. Of these two bodies, the 
former was an agglomeration of small bodies 
of Covenanters, Associates, Reformed, and 
Burgher Presbyterians, which came together 
in 1 782 and formed a s3'nod composed of three 
presbyteries at Philadelphia. In 1803 they 
had increased so as to form four jjrovincial 
synods. New York, Pennsylvania, Scioto, and 
the Carolinas, under one representative gen- 
eral synod. Two of these provincial synods 
(Scioto and the Carolinas) afterward became 
independent. The "Associate Presbyterian 
Church " had a somewhat similar history 
though it retained its allegiance to the Scot- 
tish synod of the church of the same name 
until 1818. It had had several small seces- 
sions from its ranks, which have smce formed 
small presbyterian bodies. At the time of 
the union of these two churches in the United 
Presbyterian Church, in 1858, a few churches 
and ministers protested against the union, 
and have since connected themselves with 
some of the smaller organizations. The 
United Presbyterian Church has two col- 
leges, two academies and theological semin- 
aries at Alleghany, Penn., Xenia, Ohio, Mon- 
mouth, Illinois, and Newburgh, New York. 
Its statistics in 1870 were: 8 synods, 56 
presbyteries, 553 ordained ministers, 43 li- 
centiates, 55 students for the ministry, 729 



C14 



HISTORY AND TROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



congregatioiiF, 60,807 members, of whom 
4,182 were received on profession, and 3,935 
on certificate; 6<iy Sabbath Schools were 
reported with 6,761 officers and teachers, 
and 42,907 scholars. The total contribu- 
tions to benevolent and church purposes 
were 5S827,!26. The denomination have 
5 forei";u missions, 19 foreign mission sta- 
tions, 12 mission churches, 26 missionaries 
and helpers, and contributed, in 1870, $63,- 
5')0 for foreign missionaiy i)urposes. They 
have also succcssfid Home Mission and 
Freedmen's Mission Boards, and expended 
on them $49,48 1 , in 1870. The net increase 
of members in 1870, over the previous year, 
was 4, 1 83, but the number of ministers had 
decreased by 12. The contributions were 
about $43,3()0 more than the previous year. 
IV. GENERAL Synod of the Reform- 
ed Prescytkrian Church. This body 
in its present organization, originated in 
1782 from the m.nislers of the Reformed 
Presbyterian ( hurch who refused to consent 
to the union with the Associate Church and 
mainta'ned thiir original organization. These 
were subsecjuently sti'engihened by the ar- 
rival of several ministers of tlie Reformed 
Presbyterian Church of Scolland in 1793, 
and subsequently. Tliey were organized 
into a synod of three presbyteries in 1808, 
and in 182a con^Iitutpd a general synod. 
Their dcctrines are those of the Westminster 
Assembly's Confession of Faith and Cate- 
chisms, with the addition of the Declaration 
and Testimony, in wliich they express their 
hostility to the interference of civil govern- 
ment with the affairs of the church, and their 
unwillingness to be bound by it in matters 
of conscience. On this point there has been 
a division among them, and a secession has 
resulted. Tiie Reformed Presbyterian Church 
are tlie lineal and spiritual successors of the 
Covenanters or Cameronians, and like them 
have protested earnestly and steadily against 
a State church and the interference of the 
State with their ministry and their religious 
privileges. Even in the last century they 
were persecuted for these views in Scotland, 
and it was natural that they should adhere 
to them with the greater tenacity, but in this 
country where the State did not interfere 
with rel gious worship, and there was no 
estal)lislu'd church, many of the ministers of 
the Reformed Presbyterian Church felt that 
there was no necessity for maintaining that 
hostility or non-intercourse with the civil 
government which, under the circumstances, 



in Scotland, was right and proper ; and they 
accordingly participated, as citizens, in voting 
and in such civil duties as tliey deemed right, 
while protesting against all interference of 
the civil powerin matters of conscience. They, 
like all the Reformed Presbyterians, were 
strongly opposed to slavery, and would have 
no communion with slaveholders or those who 
defended slavery. A part of their mini.-ters, 
whose feelings on the subjects of the civil 
power were intense, and v ho legarded our 
national constitution and govennuent as in- 
fidel and Godless, withdrew from the Gen- 
eral Synod on these grounds in 1833 and 
formed a separate organization which is now 
somewhat more numerous than the General 
Synod. All the Reformed Presbyterians 
refuse to use any other than inspired hymns 
and psalms in their worship, and for the 
want of any more literal metrical translation 
of the Psalms of David sing from Rouse's 
version of the Psalms, which, though rough 
and often micouth in its translation, has the 
mei'it of following very closely the inspired 
original. Tlje luimber of ministers of the 
General Synod in 1870 was 31, of churches 
43, and of members about 4,0G0. 

V. The Synod of the Reformed Pres- 
byterian Church, referred to above, which 
seceded in 1833, is now much larger than 
the General Synod, having, in 1870, 87 
churches, 86 ministers, 8,577 members, re- 
ceived 435 by profession and 28S by certifi- 
cate, and expended for benevolent jiurposes 
and church expenses about $141,000. 

VI. The Associate Reformed Synod 
of the South, is the original Associate Re- 
formed Synod of the Carolinas, which, in 
1821, became an independent synod and re- 
fusing to follow the other associate reformed 
churches in their union with the Associate 
Presbyterians to form the United Presby- 
terian church, has existed as a distinct body. 
It is small in numbers. It does not iliffer in 
doctrine from the Associate Reformed Church 
or the Reformed Presbyterians, except on 
the subject of slavery, which it tolerated in 
its membership. Its growth was very slight 
f)r some years, but from 1842 to 1852 it 
increased quite rapidly; since 1863 there has 
been a decided falling off; twenty-six of its 
ministers, and some of the churches, having 
joined other Presbyterian bodies. In 1870, 
its statistics were : ordained ministers, 57 ; 
]irobationers, 7 ; theological students, 6 ; 
churches, 66 ; members, about 6,' 00. They 
have a small theological school at Due West, 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



615 



S. C, an?l the organ of the church, The As- 
sociate Reformed Presbyterian, is published 
at the same place. 

VII. TuE Cumberland Presbyterian 
Church. This body is Presbyterian in its 
church government and poUty bui diiieis 
from tlie other Presbyterian churches in its 
doctrines. It had its origin in the great re- 
vival in Kentucky and Tennessee in 1799 
to 1803. That revival was mostly among a 
jjeople nominally attached to the Presby- 
terian Church, and in the camp meetings 
which the scattered population rendeied 
necessai'y, there was a pressing demand lor 
a greater number of ordained ministers to 
preach and to administer the ordinanc s. 
Under this demand some of the members of 
the newly organized Cumberland Presbytery, 
felt that it would be desirable to t elect nu'u 
of piety, promise, and a fair education, from 
the laity, and license and ordain them for 
the work of the mini-try. This Avas accord- 
ingly done in a few instances with good re- 
sults. Tlie Synod of Kentucky, however, 
regarded this proceeding as irregular and 
passed a resolution requiring the presl^j'tery 
to present them for ex.imination to a com- 
mission of the synod, and dii'ecting the young 
men to ajipear. Both the presbytery and 
tlie young men refused to submit to this ex- 
amination, and the Synod, in 18U5, in con- 
sequence prohibited them from exercising 
the functions of the ministry. Tire proscrib- 
ed ministers, however, continued in the ex- 
ercise of their ministerial duties, and after in 
vain appealing to the Synod for a repeal of 
their action, there was organized, in 1810, 
in Dicks(jn County, Tennessee, a Cumber- 
land Presbytery entirely independent of the 
Synod, and of the Presbyterian Church. 
The special difference between them and the 
Kentucky Synod is thus set forth in tlie 
record of then- constitution : "All candidates 
for the ministry who may hereal'ter be licens- 
ed by this presbytery, and all the licentiates 
or probationers who m'ly hereafter be or- 
dained by this presbytery, shall be required 
before such licensure and ordination, to re 
ceiveand accept the Confe-sion of Faith and 
Discipline of the Presbyterian Church, ex- 
cept the idea of fatality that seems to be 
taught under the mysterious doctrine of pre- 
destination. It is to be understood, however, 
that such as can clearly receive the Confes- 
sion of Faith without an exce^Jtion, will not 
be i-equired to make any. Moreover, all 
liceniiatcs, before they axo, set apart to the 



whole work of the ministry, or ordained, 
shall be required to undergo an examination 
in English, grammar, geography, astronomy, 
natural and moral jjhilosophy, and church 
history. It will not be understood that ex- 
aminations in experimental religion and 
tlieology will be omitted. The presbytery 
may also require an examination on any 
part or all of the above branches of knowl- 
edge before licensure, if they deem it expe- 
dient." 

The growth of this new organization was 
rapid; in 1813 they liad three large presby- 
teries, and a synod was formed in October 
of that year. A committee was appointed 
immediately by this Synod to prejiare a Con- 
fession of Faith, Catechism, and form of 
Church Government. These, when reported, 
were adopted at a subsequent session, and 
remain unchanged to the present time. As 
would be inferred from the constitution of 
the Pi esbyteiy just quoted, their doctrines 
are less strongly Calvinistic than those of 
the Presbyterians generally. Rev. Dr. 
Beard, formerly President of Cumberland 
College, Pi'inceton, Ky., thus summarizes 
their doctiines: "That the Scriptures are 
the only infallible rule of faith and practice ; 
that God is an infinite, eternal, and un- 
changeable Spirit, existing mysteriously in 
three persons, the three being equal in power 
and glory ; that God is the creator and pre- 
server of all things ; that the decrees of God 
extend only to what is for His glory ; that 
He has not decreed the existence of sin, be- 
cause it is neither for His glory nor for the 
good of His creatures ; that man was created 
upright in the image of God ; but that, by 
the transgression of the federal head, he has 
become totally depraved, so much so that he 
can do no good thing without the aid of di- 
vine grace. That Jesus Christ is the medi- 
ator between God and man ; and that he is 
both God and man in one person ; that he 
obeyed the law perfectly, and died on the 
cross to make satisfaction for sin ; and that 
in the expressive language of the apostle, He 
tasted death for every man. That the Holy 
Spirit is the efficient agent in our conviction, 
regeneration, and sanctilication ; that repent- 
ance and faith are necessary in order to ac- 
ceptance, and that both are inseparable from 
a change of heart; that justification is by 
faith alone ; that sanctification is a progress- 
ive work and not completed till death ; that 
those who believe in Christ, and are regen- 
erated by His spirit will never fall away and 



616 



HISTORY AND PliOGUESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



be lost ; that there will be a general resur- 
rection and judgment ; and that the righte- 
ous will be received to everlasting happiness, 
and the wicked consigned to everlasting 
misery." 

The church polity of the Cumberland 
Presbyterian church does not differ from 
that of the Presbyterian church; it has its 
teaching and ruling elders, its sessions, 
presbyteries, synods, and since 1829 a Gen- 
eral Assembly ; but as a matter of conven- 
ience, they have adopted the itinerant system 
of the Methodists, and have many of their 
churches arranged in circuits. They practice 
infant baptism, and in the baptism of adults, 
immerse, sprinkle, or pour as the candidate 
prefers. Tliey have a university, and two 
colleges, two theological seminaries, and a 
number of academies of high grade. Their 
Board of Publicitiou has a small capital, 
about $7,000, but. is very efficient. They 
publish three or four periodicals. Their 
statistics in 1870 were estimated by their own 
organs as follows: 2o synods, 100 presbyte- 
ries, 1674: ordained ministers, 280 licentiate-, 
320 candidates for the ministry, about 2,0U0 
churches, and over 80,000 members. Nearly 
10,000 c'jmmuuicants were added to the 
church in 1870. 

Vllf. The R::formf.d (late Dutch) 
Church. This is the olde.-t, though by no 
m:'ans the largest of the Protestant churches 
in the United Stales, being an offshoot of 
the Reformed Church of Holland, and first 
planted in New Amsterdam, now New York 
City, in 1G14, though no church was fully 
oiganized before 1628. Its growth was slow 
for 150 years, being confined almost exclu- 
sively to the Dutidi speaking portion of the 
citizens, and its pulpit exercises being entirely 
in Dutch until near the commencement of 
the present century. It was dependent upon 
the church in Holland for the education and 
ordination of its ministry until 1771, Avlien 
through the eflbrts of Rev. Dr. Livingston, 
the Classisof Amsterdam, with which all 
the churches here were connected, recom- 
mended them to organize as an independent 
church and make provision for the education 
of their ministry. Queen's (afterward Rut- 
ger's) College, at New Brunswick, was 
founded about 1770, and a professorship of 
theology (at first separate from the college) 
establi>hed in New York, with Dr. Livings- 
ton as professor, in 1784. After the general 
substitution of English for Dutch in the 
preaching of its ministers, the church be^'an 



to grow and has maintained a prominent 
position in New York, New Jersey, and 
Eastern Pennsylvania, where alone they 
have any considerable membership. They 
have outside of these t-tates o2 churches, 
mostly in Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin, 
and fifteen on mi-sionary ground in India. 

The doctrines of the Reformed church, as 
laid down in the Belgic confession, the Hei- 
delberg catechism, and the Canons of the 
synod of Dort, do not vary in any important 
point from those of the Westminsttr confes- 
sion of faith and catechisms, and are jiroperly 
reckoned among the Calvinistic confessions 
of faith. The polity of the church is also 
Presbyterian, though with different names 
for the same things. The Consistory, which 
answers to tlie church session in the Presby- 
terian church, is composed of the dominie or 
pastor, the elders, and the deacons. The 
elders are chosen for two years, and after an 
interval of a year may be again elected. 
The classis answers to the pri'-bytery, and 
the particular synods to the synods of the 
Presbyterian church, v»diile they ha\e a 
General Synod instead of a General Assem- 
bly. They are active in iheir mi.-sionary 
enterprises, having missions in Amoy, China, 
and its vicinity, and in Arcot, India. Until 
1857 they were connected in these mission- 
ary enterprises with the American Board of 
Commissioners for Foreign Missions, but in 
that year they withdrew amicably and have 
since conducted them successfully alone, and 
have added a mission in Japan. They have 
an old and fiourishing college (Rutger's) at 
New Brunswick, and a Theological seminary 
at the same place. They have a publish'ng 
establishment which issues four periodicals, 
and the denominational Psalmody and other 
books. 

Thi ir statistics for 1870 were, one Gene- 
ral S\ nod, eight particular synods, 33 cla-^ses, 
401 churches, 41)3 ministers, and 5 candidates, 
38,552 families, G 1,444 mendnrs, 3421 in- 
fants and 974 adults baptized, o,G-'8 received 
on confession, and 2,294 by certificate, 48,- 
411 Sunday School scholars. Benevolent 
contributions, SI, 187,681.63, including those 
for congregational purposes. In 18G8 the 
different classes voted to drop the word 
Dutch fiom their title, and be henceforth 
known as The Reformed Church. 

IX- The True Reformed Dutch 
Church. In 1822 Rev. Solomon Froeligh, 
D. D., of Hackensack, and a 'icw other min- 
isters seceded, with their congregations, from 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



617 



the Reformed (Dutch) Church ou the alieged 
ground of the prevailing hixuess in doctrine 
and discipline, and organized a church with 
the above title. It has made very little prog- 
ress, but had in 1862 less than 20 congrega- 
tions, and about 1 500 members. 

X. The Reformed Church in the 
United States, (late Gi<:rman). This, the 
last tliough by no means the least of the Amer- 
ican churches which conform to the Presby- 
terian polity though they do not bear the 
Presbj'terian name, is a descendant, though 
with some modifications of doctrine, of the 
Reformed churches of Holland, Germany, 
France, and Switzerland. Rev. Dr. E. V. 
Gerhart, the President of its General Synod, 
and its principal historiographer, states that 
the first members of the Reformed Church 
of Germany, who came to the United States 
in any considerable numbers, were a body 
of Palatines, who tempted by William Penn's 
offer of lands, migrated to Pennsylvania and 
the adjacent colonies, in the early part of 
tlie eighteenth century, and many of whom 
settled east of the Susquehanna. It was 
among a colony of about 400 of these Pala- 
tines who settled in Montgomeiy county, 
Penn., about 1727, that Rev. Michael Weiss, 
one of their number, organized the first Ger- 
man Reformed Church. In the twenty yea;s 
which followed, they were without ministers, 
teachers, or church organizations except this 
parent church, and though they had nearly 
thirty thousand of their people, mostly speak- 
ing German only, within a moderate circuit, 
they were like sheep without a shepherd. 
Rev. Michael Schlatter, a German Reformed 
minister from St. Gall, Switzerland, came 
over in 174G as a missionary from the syn- 
ods of North and South Holland, to look 
after their welfare. A man of great energy, 
skill, and judgment, hesueceeded, aftera time, 
in evoking order from this chaos. He or- 
ganized churches, administered the sacra- 
ments, located pastors, established schools, 
and at the end of a year and a half, in Sep- 
tember, 1747, was able to form the first 
synod or coetus of the German Reformed 
Church, consisting of five ministers, and 
twenty- six elders, who represented forty-six 
churches, and a population of thirty thou- 
sand. He then returned to Europe and 
succeeded in creating a large fund, the inter- 
est of which was devoted to sustaining min- 
isters and school teachers among these peo- 
ple, and brought back with him to America 
five young ministers, and the promise of a 



number more. This first coetus or synod 
was, like the Reformed Dutch church, subor- 
dinate to the classis of Amsterdam, until 
1793, when it resolved to become independ- 
ent, the number of churches having increased 
to one hundred and fifty, though there were 
yet but twenty-two ordained ministers. Ou 
becoming independent, tlie coetus became 
the synod, and the church took the name of 
The High German Reformed Church in dis- 
tinction from the Low German or Dutch 
Reformed Church. There was yet a great 
scarcity of ministers, and as they had no 
college or theological seminary, it was found 
impossible to educate their ministry thor- 
oughly, and many errors and irregularities 
crept into the church. The standard of 
faith iu the Reformed German church was 
like that of its Holland sister, the Heidel- 
berg catechism, but unlike the Dutch church, 
it did not adopt the Belgic confession or the 
canons of the synod of Dort, as defining the 
sense in which the postulates of the cate- 
chism should be held. The rationalism 
which during the years 17P0-1830 was per- 
vading so many of the German churches, 
was not without its effect here ; and this 
effect was produced more readily because 
the services of the church were conducted 
wholly in German until 1825. After a long 
struggle, a theological seminary was estab- 
lished in 1824, and after two or three re- 
movals, finally located at Mercersburg, Pa., 
in 1835. A religious periodical in English 
was established in 1828, and one in German 
in 1836. In 1830 a high school was estab- 
lished at York, which was removed to 
Mercersburg in 1835, and in 1836 became 
Marshall College. Seventeen years later 
(1853) it was consolidated with Franklin 
College at Lancaster, and removed to that 
city. The influence of the theological school, 
under the hands of its able professors Nevin, 
Ranch, Schaff, and Gerhart, was felt in crys- 
talizing the church into a unity of doctrine 
and faith which was greatly in contrast with 
its previous history. Not that there were 
no dissidents ; in their own ranks there were 
two parties who opposed the Mercersburg phi- 
losophy and theology, as it began to be called ; 
those whose sympathies were with the Meth- 
odist church, and for whom it was too Cal- 
vinistic, and those who adhered to the Belgic 
confession and the canons of the synod of 
Dort, or rather went beyond them in their 
higher Calvinistic leanings. There was also 
strong oppositioH manifested to the avowal 



618 



niSTOKY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERKNT DENOMINATIONS. 



boldly made by tlie Meicersburg theologians 
that the Church of Rome, despite its many 
errors, was a part of the Church of Christ, 
and that Protestantism was a histoiical con- 
tinuation of the Church Catholic ; opposition 
also came from without to the~e views ; but 
on the whole they may be safely asserted to 
be the views to-day of the great majority of 
that church. It is a cardinal point in this 
theology that the Apostle's Creed gives form 
and vitality to the doctrines of the fleidel- 
berg catechism ; and that any explanation of 
the catechism which leaves this out of the 
account is defective, and unsound. Rev. Dr. 
Gerhart thus summarizes the view5 held by 
the Mercersburg theologians as thus deduced 
from the catechism : 

'•1. Adam, created iij the image of God, 
was endowed with capacity to resist tempta- 
tion and abide in his original state of lite — 
communion with God ; but he transgressed 
the command of God by a fi-ee act of his 
own will through the instigation of the devil, 
the head of the kingdom of darkness. 

2. The fall of Adam was not that of an 
individual only, but the fall of the human 
race. 

3. All men are born with the fallen 
nature of Adam, and are thus under the 
power of the kingdom of darkness, inclined 
to all evil, and unapt to any good ; and are 
subject to the wrath of God, who is terribly 
displeased with their inborn as well as actual 
sins, and will punish them in just judgment 
in time and in eternity. 

4. The Eternal Law of God, incarnate 
by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin INIary, true 
God and true man in one person, is the prin- 
ciple and substance of the new creation. 

5. In the mystery of the Word made 
flesh, the humajiity which the Son of God 
assumed into ovgan-ic and eternal union with 
Himself, is the most perfect of sui)ei natural 
rerelation, and the only medium of Divine 
grace. 

6. All the acts of Christ are not those of 
God or of man separately taken, but the 
acts of the God-man. 

7. His baptism, fasting, and temptation ; 
His miracles and His word ; His agony, 
passion, and death ; His descent into Hades ; 
His resurrection from the dead, ascension to 
heaven, and session at the right hand of 
God; the coming of the Holy Ghost, and 
His second advent — all derive their signifi- 
cance and saving virtue from the mysterious 
constitution of his person. 



8. The atonement for the sin of man is 
the reconciliation of God and follen humanity 
in the person and work of Jesus Christ. It 
is not simply the offering of himself on the 
cross, but the whole process of resuming hu- 
man nature into life communion with God, 
and includes both perfect satisfaction to the 
law by suffering the penalty and all the con- 
sequences of sin, and complete victory ov. r 
the devil. The full benefit of the atonement 
inures to the believer, because by fiiith he is 
a member of Christ, and a partaker of his 
anointing, and thus stands before God in the 
life and righteousness of Christ. 

9. The Church constituted by the coming 
of the Holy Ghost, is the mystical body of 
Chri,-t, a new, real, and objective order of 
existence, and is both supernatural and nat- 
ural, divine and human, heavenly and earthly 
the fulness of him that filleth all in all ; in 
whose communion alone there is redemption 
fi om sin, and all its consequences, fellowship 
with God in Christ, and the hope of com- 
plete victory over death and hell, and of 
eternal glory. The relation which the new 
regenerated humanity. His mystical body, 
bears to Christ the head, the second Adam, 
is analogous to the organic relation M'hich 
the old, fallen, accursed humanity bears to 
the first Adam. 

10. The sacraments are visible, holy 
signs and seals, wherein God by an objective 
transaction, confirms to sinners the promise 
of the Gospel. They are the means, whereby 
men through the power of the Holy Ghost 
are made partakers of the substance of di- 
vine grace, that is of Christ and all his ben- 
efits. 

11. Holy baptism is a divine transaction, 
wherein the subject is washed with the 
blood and s[)irit of Christ from all the pollu- 
tion of his sins as certainly as he is washed 
outwardly with water; that is, he is renewed 
by the Holy Ghost, and sanctified to be a 
member of Christ, that so he may more and 
more die unto sin, and lead a holy and un- 
blamable life. 

12. Baptized persons do not attain unto 
the resurrection of the dead and eternal life 
in virtue simply of holy baptism, but only 
on the condition that, improving the grace 
of baptism, they believe from tlie heart on 
Christ, die unto sin daily, and lead a holy 
life, and thus realize the full virtue of the 
incarnation and atonement. 

13. The sacrament of the holy supper is 
the abiding memorial of the sacrifice of our 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



blessed Saviour, Jesus Christ, for our sins, 
upon tlie cioss ; the seal of his perpetual 
presence in the church by the Holy Gho-t; 
the mystical exhibition of his one offeiing of 
himself made once, but of force always to 
put away sin ; tlie pledge of his undying 
love to his people, and the bond of his living 
union and fellowship witli them to the end 
of time. In the use of this sacrament, be- 
lieving communicants do not only commem- 
orate his precious death as the one ;dl-sutfi- 
cient, vicarious sacrifice for their sins, but 
Christ himself also, with his crucified body 
and !<hed blood, feeds and nourishes their 
souls to everlasting life ; that is, by this visi- 
ble sign and pledge he assures them that 
they are really partakers of his tiue bod}' 
and blood, th ough the woiking of the Holv 
Ghost, a-i ihay receive, by the mouth of the 
body, these holy tokens in remembrance of 
him. 

14. The bread and wine of the holy 
supper are not tran'smuted into the very body 
and very blood of Christ, but continue to be 
natuial bi'ead and wine ; nor is the body and 
blood of Ciii ist consubstantial. that is, in, with, 
and under the natural bi'ead and wine, Init 
the sacr.imental transact-on is a holy mystery, 
in which the fall life giving and saving virtue 
of Christ, mediated through his humanity, is 
really present by the supernatural power ot 
the Holy Gliost, and communicated to them 
who, by true faith, eat and drink worthily, 
discerning the Lord's body. 

15. At death the righteous pass into a 
state of joy and felicity and abide in rest and 
peace until they reach their consummation 
of redemption and bliss, in the glorious res- 
urrection of the last day. 

16. The second advent of Christ to judge 
the world in righteousness, will complete the 
objective order of redemption, and also the 
subjec:ive process of life and salvation in 
his body, the church ; when the last enemy, 
which is death, shall be destroyed ; when 
the saints shall come forth from the dead in 
the full image of their risen Lord, and with 
Him pass into heaven, the state of perfect 
blessedness, and the wicked shall rise to the 
resurrection of eternal damnation." 

On points of doctrine not directly connected 
with the foregoing statements. Dr. Gerhart 
gives the following summary of the belief 
of the Reformed Church. 

"The eh m-ch affirms that the person of 
Christ is the true principle of sound theol- 
ogy; that ChriL-tianity is a new life, that the 



humanity of Christ is an essential constituent 
of Christianity ; that the Christian church is 
an organic continuation in time and space of 
the life powers of the new cieation in Christ 
Jesus ; that the covenant is an order or in- 
stitution of grace, spiritual and real ; that 
the Bible was written by members of the 
church under plenary inspiration of the Holy 
Ghost; that private judgment is suliordinate 
to the general judgment of the church as 
expressed particularly in the Ecumenical 
creeds ; that the Word of God is the only 
form of faith and practice, and is superior 
to all creeds and confessions ; that the indi- 
vidual comes to a right apprehension of the 
contents of the Bible through the teaching 
of the church ; that the election of grace 
unto life is effectual in and by the established 
economy of grace ; that justification is by 
an act of faith in the person and work of 
Christ ; and consists both in the imputation 
and impartation of Christ and his righteous- 
ness ; that holy baptism is the sacrament of 
regeneration, regeneration being the transi- 
tion from the state of nature to the state of 
grace, as natural birth is the transition to the 
natural Avorld ; that regeneration succeeded 
by conversion and sanctification completes 
itself in the resurrection from the dead, in- 
asmuch as regeneration and salvation pertain 
to the entire man, the body no less than the 
soul ; that believers only hold communion 
with Chi'ist in the Lord's Supper; that the 
ordinary, divinely ordained means of grace 
are adequate to all the ne( ds of the church 
and the world, and it faithfully used do not 
fail to promote a steady and vigorous growth 
of the church ; that although the church of 
Rome holds many articles of faith, and ap- 
proves and perpetuates many customs which 
are not warranted by the Scriptures and are 
wrong, she is nevertheless a part of the 
church of Christ ; and that Protestantism is 
a historical continuation of the Church Cath- 
olic, in a new and higher form of faith, or- 
ganization, and practice." 

As to its luorship the Reformed Church 
was originally Tturgical and though extem- 
poraneous prayer has prevailed during the 
most of the present century in the regular 
sei'vices of the Lord's Daj, there is now a 
strong tendency to revert to its former litur- 
gical service. After repeated trials and the 
most careful revision and modifications, the 
suc'es-ive liturgical committees of the Gen- 
eral and the Eastern Synods have perftctcd 
an " Order of worship (including a liturgy) 



020 



HISTORY AXD TROGUESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



for the Reformed Church" which was pub- 
lished ill 18G6, and has been adopted in most 
of the cliurches of the Ea-tern synod, and 
in some of those of the Western synods. It 
is gaining ground and will probabl}' be event- 
ually the established book of worship for the 
entire church. 

The government of the church is strictly 
Presbyterian. The consistory, answering to 
the church session, is composed of tlie pas- 
tor, elders and deacons. Both elders and 
deacons are chosen by the communicant 
members, for a term of two, three, or four 
years, generally two j'ears, and ordained by 
laying on of hands and installed. When 
the term expires, the administraiive power 
ceases, but not the office. If reelected, in- 
stallation is repeated, but ii^t ordination. 
The classis is the first churcli court above 
the church, and consists of the ministers 
and an elder from each parish within a given 
district. The c'a^ses are subject to the 
synod, which is composed of a given number 
of ministers and elders, cho-^en by four or 
more adjacent clas-es. 'J'he synods are sub- 
ject to the G-nei'al Synod, which consists of 
ministers and elders cho.-eu b}' all the classes 
of the church. Appeals to the General 
Synod may be taken from any of the lower 
church courts. Infant baptism is faithfully 
and universally observed. All the children 
and youth are carefully catechised by the 
pastor once in two weeks or oftener, for a 
period of from three to nine months in the 
year. Catechumens possessing the requisite 
qualifications are, afier examination in pres- 
ence of the elders, received inio the full com- 
munion of the church by the rite of confirm- 
ation. The holy comniu:;ion is commonly 
administered twice a year, and in many of 
the churches lour times. Th.; communicants 
receive the s-acred emblems by companies, 
standing around the alta-. They observe 
the !e -tivals, Christmas, Good Friday, Ei.s.er, 
and Whit-Sunday with innch solemnity. 

The statistic-; of the Refo'ined (German) 
Church lor 1870, are as follows: one Gen 
oral Synod ; four particular synods, viz : the 
Eastern, or as it is officiary called, '' The 
Synod of the Reformed Church in the United 
States" ; " Idie Synod of Ohio, ami adjacent 
States" ; " The Synod of the Reformed 
Church in the Northwest," and the '' Pitts- 
burg Synod of the Reformed Church" ; 
thirty one classes, .o2G ministers, H79 con- 
gregations, 217.910 members, of whom, how- 
ever, o.ily 96,728 are communicants, the 



j remainder being baptized chddren and uncon- 
! fii-med members; 12,776 were bai)tized, 
7,068 confirmed, and 3,592 received on cer- 
tificate. The number of Sunday Schools 
reported is 1,019, and of Sunday School 
scholars 49,9 GO. The amount of benevolent 
contribution-:, exclusive of those for congre- 
gational purposes, was $76,453. There are 
2 theological seminaries, one at Mercersburg, 
Pa., with 4 profes-ors, and 28 students ; the 
other at Tiffin, Ohio, with two professors, 
and 20 students ; a mission house at She- 
boygan, Wisconsin, with 3 prol'essors, and '2'2 
students. There are two fully organized 
colleges, Franklin and Marshall, at Lancas- 
ter, Pa., and Heidelberg College at Tiffin, 
Ohio. There are also seven classical insti- 
tut ons, most of them called colleges, five of 
them ill Pa., one in North Carolina, and one 
in Ohio ; and two female seminaries, one at 
Allentown, Pa., the other at Tyrconnell, 
Maryland. They have eleven j)eriod;cals, 
two quarterly (reviews), four weekly, and 
one semi-monthly news[)apers ; a mo.ithly 
magazine, and three monthly Sunday School 
pai)ers. Tliere are two printing establish- 
ments, one at Philadelphia, the other at 
Cleveland, Ohio. 



V. METHODISTS. 

I. The Methodist Episcopal Church. 

No denomination, in modern times, has 
had so rapid a growth as the INIethodists. 
Numbering in its various divisions over two 
million of communicants, and having an ad- 
herent population of nearly eight millions, it 
seems almost incredible that the first Meth- 
odist society was organized in New York 
City in 1766, and that they had no existence 
as a distinct church until 1784, when their 
connection with the Church of England, and 
with the Protestant Episcopal Church in 
this countiy, was formally dissolved, and 
Thomas Coke, who had received ordination 
as a Superintendent over the Methodist so-. 
cieties in the United States at the hand of 
dolin Wesley ; and Francis Asbury, whom 
he had in turn ordained for the same office, 
met a conference of the Methodist Societies 
at Baltimore, and there assumed the title and 
position of " Bishops of the Me'hodist Epis- 
copal Church m America." Tiiis act was 
displeasing to Mr. Wesley, who protested 
aialnst it in strong terms, and Dr. Coke, 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OK THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



621 



who subsequently returned to England, never 
attempted to exercise Episcopal functions 
there. Still the act was a judicious one, and 
led to the more rapid development of the 
great denomination which sprung from such 
small beginnings. 

The history of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church has been one of almost constant suc- 
cess. There have been, indeed, secessions 
in considerable numbers from its ranks, as 
there have from the AVesleyan Methodists of 
Great Britain, and some of these seceding 
bodies have themselves attained subsequently 
a large membership, but the seceders have 
not left the church on doctrinal grounds but 
on different views of church polity and dis- 
cipline. Thus the "African Methodist Epis- 
copal Church " withdrew, in 1787, on account 
of the prevailing prejudice against persons 
of color, and the '' Zion African IMethodist 
Episcopal Church," in 1820, for the same 
reason. The " JNIethodist Protestant Church" 
withdrew in 1830, on account of differences 
in regard to the episcopate and lay repre- 
sentation. " The Wesleyan Methodist Con- 
nection of America" seceded in 1843, in 
consequence of a difference of views on slav- 
ery, temperance, and church government. 
"The Methodist Episcopal Church, South," 
by far the largest of the separating bodies, 
came off in 1844, from dissatisfaction with 
the action of the general Conference of that 
year, requiring Rev. J. O. Andrew, D. D., 
one of the bishops, to desist from the exer- 
cise of his episcopal functions on account of 
hi'^ being a slaveholder. Since 1844 there 
have been several secessions of small num- 
bers of churches which have generally be- 
come extinct or have returned to the church 
in a few years. The Free Methodists still 
remain separate, basing their withdrawal on 
their desire to retui'n to the simplicity, plain- 
ness, and avoidance of di'^play, either in dres> 
or in the adornment of their churches, into 
which, as they allege, the great body of 
Methodists have fallen. The marvelous 
growth of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
is not due to any very great extent, like that 
of the Roman Catholic Church, to immigra- 
tion ; consideral)le numbers of Methodists 
have, indeed, come here from Great Britain, 
Ireland, and latterly from Germany and 
Sweden ; but many of these have gone into 
other though kindred denomi ations. Its 
great increase has been due to the earnest 
and constant labors of its ministers, local 
preachers, and class leaders, to its strong 
38* 



spirit of propagandism, and to its remarka;ble 
adaptation as a religious system, to pioneer 
life, and to the necessities of a new and only 
partially settled country. Its triumphs in 
the western states have been very great ; m 
sevei-al of the states, and especially in Indiana 
and Iowa, its adherent population are said to 
constitute nearly or quite one-half of the peo- 
ple of the state. Its organization for the pro- 
motion of its objects is very eificient. It main- 
tains in most of the large cities, and within 
convenient distance of each other, its denom- 
inational journals, owned by the General 
Conference, and advocating its measures. It 
has a book concern, which, after paying over 
one-third of its capital to the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, South, and dividing its surplus 
profits among the annual conferences for 
the support of enfeebled and superannuated 
preachers, and the widows and children of 
those who have died in the ministry, is still 
the largest publishing house in America, 
having a net capital of $1, 458,-575, and as- 
sets to the amount of $2,649,549 in 1870. 
F^very itinerant minister is, by virtue of his 
position, a colporteur and propagandist for 
the sale and distribution of its publications. 
It has largely engaged in the Sunday School 
work, and through this means has greatly 
increased its membership. Its camp meet- 
ings, love feasts, classes, and other means of 
ajjpealing to the emotional element in the 
nature of men, attract many to its worship 
and to its communion. The gradations in 
its ministerial service are admirably adapted 
to promote efficiency in its ministry. The 
class-leader in charge of a small section of a 
church, for who^e spiritual growth and wel- 
fare he is in some sense responsible, may, if 
he develops superior gifts become an ex- 
horter ; the exhorter in turn may develop 
into a local preacher, oi" into an itinerant or 
circuit preacher, passing through his proba- 
tion of the diaconate ; the itinerant can look 
forward to becoming a presiding elder over 
the churches of a District ; and from the 
ranks of these come the editors of the de- 
nominational journals, the managers or 
agents of the book concern and its branches, 
and the Bishops. These last have varied 
and arduous labors to perform, and are liable 
to break down from over-work. They have 
no dioceses like the bishops of the Roman 
Catholic, Episcopal, and Moravian churches, 
but are, in the true sense of the word, bish- 
ops, — episcopoi, — overseers, of the whole 
church. They visit and preside over the 



622 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE MFFERENT DENO:HINATIONS. 



annual conferences, assign, in council with 
the presiding elders, to the itinerants their 
charges, visit the missionary fields, superin- 
tend and manage, in connection with the 
other offi'ers, the Mi-sionary, Sunday School, 
and publishing institutions of the churcli, and 
constitute, either singly or together, a high 
court of appeal — in the interim of the ses- 
sions of the Quadrennial Conference — in 
matters of church polity and discipline, and 
in those appertaining to the i^roperty or 
finances of the churcli. 

The college of bishops, when full, has now 
ten members ; but since the Quadrennial 
Conference of 18(58, three. Bishops Thorn 
son, Kingsley, and Clark, have died, and two 
others are in such feeble health as to be ca 
pable of very little labor. 

The following statement of the doctrines 
of the Methodist P^piscopal Church is slightly 
abridged from a declaration of their doc- 
trines, made by Rev. Abel Stevens, D. D., 
LL. D., the historian of Methodism, and one 
of their ablest writers. 

The doctrines of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church are contained in twenty -five articles, 
and are as follows : 1. There is but one 
living and true God, everlasting, Avithout 
Ijody or parts, of infinite power, wisdom and 
goodness, the maker of all things visible and 
invisible. And in unity of this Godhead, 
there are three persons, of one substance, 
power and eternity — the Father, the Son, 
and the Holy Ghost. 2. The Son, who is 
the Word of the Father, the very and eter- 
nal God, of one substance witli the Father, 
took man's nature in the womb of the blessed 
Virgin ; so that two whole and perfect na- 
tures, that is to say, the Godhead and man- 
hood, were joined together in one per.-on, 
never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, 
very God and very man, who truly suffered, 
was crucified, dead and buried, to reconcile 
his Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not 
only for original guilt but also for the actual 
shis of men. 3. Christ did truly rise again 
from the dead, and took again his body, with 
all things appertahiing to the perfection of 
man's nature, wherewith he ascended to 
heaven, and there sitteth until he return to 
judge all men at the last day. 4. The Holy 
Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the 
Son, is of one substance, majesty, and glory, 
with the Father and tlic Son, very and eter- 
nal God. 5. The holy Scriptui-es contain 
all things necessary to salvation ; so that 
whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be 



proved thereby, is not required of any naan, 
that it should be believed as an article of 
faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to 
salvation. By the Holy Scriptures we do 
understand those canonical books of the Old 
and New Testaments of whose authority was 
never any doubt in the church. 9. The Old 
Testament is not contrary to the New, for 
both in the Old and New Testament ever- 
lasting life is offered to mankind by Christ, 
who is the only mediator between God and 
man, being both God and man. Wherefore 
they are not to be heard who feign that the 
old fathers did look only for transitory prom- 
ises. Although the law given from God by 
Moses, as touching ceremonies and rites, doth 
not bind Christians, nor ought the civil pre- 
cepts thereof of necessity to be received in 
any commonwealth, yet notwithstanding, no 
Christian whatever is free from the obedience 
of the commandments which are called moral. 
7. Original sin standeth not in the following 
of Adam, as the Pelagians do vainly talk, but 
it is the corruption of the nature of every 
man that is naturally engendered of the off- 
spring of Adam, whereby man is very far 
gone from original righteousness, and of his 
own nature inclined to evil, and that contin- 
ually. 8. The condi-tion of man after the 
fall of Adam is such, that he cannot turn and 
prepare himself, by his own natural strength 
and works, to faith and calling upon God ; 
wherefore we have no power to do good 
works, pleasant and acceptable to God, with- 
out the gi-ace of God by Christ preventing 
us, that we mny'liave a gtod will, and work- 
ing with us when we have tb.at good will. 
9. We are accounted righteous before God, 
only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ by faith, and not for our own 
works or deservings ; wherefore, that we are 
justified by faith only, is a most wholesome 
doctrine and very full of comfort. 10. Al- 
though good works which are the fruits of 
taith, and follow after justification, cannot 
put away our sins, and endure the severity 
of God's judgments, yet are they pleasing 
and acceptable to God in Christ, and spring 
out of a true and lively faith, insomuch that 
by them a lively fixilh may be as evidently 
known as a tree is discerned by its fruit. 
11. Voluntary works, Leside, over and above 
God's counnandments, cannot bf taught with- 
out arrogance and impiety. For by them 
men do declare that they do not only render 
to God as much as they are bound to do, but 
they do nio.e lor his sake than of boundeu 



BISTORT AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



62.3 



duty is required ; whereas Christ saith plain- 
ly : Wiien ye have done all that is com- 
manded you, say, We are unprofitable serv- 
ants. 12. Not every sin willingly committed 
after justification is the sin against the Holy 
Ghost and unpardonable. Wherefore the 
grant of repentance is not to be denied to 
such as fall into sin after justification ; after 
we have received the Holy Ghost we may 
fall into sin, and by the grace of God rise 
again and amend ourselves. And therefore 
they are to be condemned who say they can 
no more sin as long as they live here, or deny 
the place of forgiveness to such as truly re- 
pent. 

13. The visible Church of Christ is a con- 
gregation of faithful men, in which the pure 
Word of God is preached, and the sacra- 
ments duly administered according to Christ's 
ordinance in all tho.~e things that of necessity 
are requisite to the same. 

14. The Romish doctrine concerning pur- 
gatory, pardon, worshipping and adoration as 
well of images as of relics, and also invoca- 
tion of saints, is a fond thing vainly invented 
and groundt d upon no warrant of Sci'ipture, 
but repugnant to the Word of God. 

15. It is a thing plainly repugnant to the 
Word of God, and the custom of the primitive 
church, to have public prayers in the church, 
or to administer the sacraments, in a tongue 
not understood by the people. 

16. Sacraments ordained of Christ are 
not only badges or tokens of Christian men's 
profession, but, I'ather, they are certain signs 
of grace, and God's good will toward us, by 
the which he doth work invisibly in us, and 
doth not only quicken, but also strengthen 
and confirm our faith in him. There are 
two sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord 
in the gospel ; that is to say, baptism and 
the supper of the Lord. Those five com- 
monly called sacraments : that is to say, con- 
firmation, penance, orders, matrimony, and 
extreme unction, cannot be counted for sac- 
raments of the gospel, being such as have 
partly grown out of the corrupt following of 
the apostles, and partly are states of life al- 
lowed in the Scriptures, but yet have not 
the like nature of baptism and the Lord's 
supper, because they have not any visible 
sign or ceremony ordained of God. The 
sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be 
gazed upon, or to be carried about ; but that 
we should duly use them. And in such only 
as worthily receive the same, they have a 
wholesome effect or operation ; but they that 



receive them unworthily, purchase to them- 
selves condemnation, as St. Paul saith, 1 
Cor. xi : 29. 

17. Baptism is not only a sign of profes- 
sion, and mark of difi^erence, whereby Chris- 
tians are distinguished from others that are 
not baptized, but it is also a sign of regen- 
eration, or the new birth. The baptism of 
young children is to be retained in the Church. 

18. The supper of the Lord is not only 
a sign of the love that Christians ought to 
have among themselves one to the other, but 
rather is a sacrament of our redemption by 
Christ's death ; insomuch that to such as 
rightly, worthily, and with faith receive the 
same, the bread which we break is the par- 
taking of the body of Christ, and the wine 
which we drink is a partaking of the blood 
of Christ. Transubstantiation, or the change 
of the substance of the bread and wine in the 
supper of the Lord cannot be proved by Holy 
Writ, but is repugnant to the plain words 
of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of a 
sacrament, and hath given occasion to many 
superstitions. The body of Christ is given 
and taken in the supper, < n'y after a heavenly 
and spiritual manner ; and the means where- 
by the body of Christ is received and taken 
in the supper, is faith. The sacrament of 
the Lord's supper was not by Christ's ordin- 
ance reserved, carried about, lifted up, or 
worshipped. 

19. The cup of the Lord is not to be de- 
nied to the lay j^eople, for l)o*h the parts of 
the Lord's supper, by Clui.>L's ordinance and 
commandment, ought to be administered to 
all Christians alike. 

20. The offering of Christ, once made, is 
that perfect redemption, propitiation and sat- 
isfaction for all the sins of the whole world, 
both original and actual, and there is none 
other satisfaction for sin but that alone. 
Wherefore the saci'ifice of masses, in the 
which it is commonly said that the priest doth 
offer Christ for the quick and the dead, to 
have remission of pain or guilt, is a blasphe- 
mous fable and dangerous deceit. 

21. The ministers of Christ are not com- 
manded by God's law either to vow the state 
of single life, or to abstain from marriage ; 
therefore it is lawful for them, as for all other 
Christians, to marry at their own discretion, 
as they shall judge the same to serve best 
to godliness. 

22. It is not necessary that rites and cere- 
monies should in all places be the same, or 
exactly alike, for they have been always dif- 



624 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OP THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



ferent, and may be changed according to the 
diversity of countries, times, and men's man- 
ners, so that nothing be ordained against 
God's Word. Whosoever, through his pri- 
vate judgment, willingly and purposely doth 
openly break the rites and ceremonies of the 
church to which he belongs which are not 
repugnant to the Word of God, and are or- 
dained and approved by common authority, 
ought to be rebuked openly, that others may 
fear to do the like, as one that oifendeth 
against the common order of the church, and 
woundeth the consciences of weak brethren. 
Every particular church may ordain, change 
or abolish rites and ceremonies, so that all 
things may be done to edification. 

23. The president, the Congress, the Gen- 
eral Assemblies, the Governor, the Councils 
of State, as the delegates of the people, are 
the rulers of the United States of America, 
according to the division of power made to 
them by the Constitution of the United States, 
and by the constitutions of their respective 
states. And the said states are a sovereign 
and independent nation and ought not to be 
subject to any foreign jurisdiction. 

24. The riches and goods of Christians 
are not common, as touching the right, title, 
and possession of the same, as some do falsely 
boast. Notwithstanding, every man ought, 
of such things as he possesseth, liberally to 
give alms to the poor, according to his ability. 

25. As we confess that vain and rash 
swearing is forbidden Christian men, by 
our Lord Jesus Christ, and James his apos- 
tle, so we judge that the Christian religion 
doth not prohibit, but that a man may swear 
when the magistrate requireth, in a cause of 
faith and charity, so it be done according to 
the prophet's teaching, ' in justice, judgment, 
and truth.' " 

It is proper to notice that as the Metho- 
dist church, founded by Wesley, was really 
an offshoot from the Church of England, 
much of the phraseology of these articles is 
taken from the doctrinal standards of that 
Church. 

The legislative power of the church resides 
in its General Conference, which meets every 
four years, and to which the 72 annual con- 
ferences are subject. This General Confer- 
ence has hitherto been composed of clerical 
delegates appointed l)y the several Annual 
Conferences. The General Conference of 
1872 will, however, have a proportion of lay 
delegates, as do now the Annual Conferences ; 
lay representation having been approved by 



a two-thirds vote of the membership in 1809^ 
after having agitated the church more or less 
for forty years, and having been the basis of 
one or two secessions. The General Con- 
ference governs and controls the entire 
Church, but is restricted by its constitution 
on certain points relative to its doctrines, 
polity, and distribution of its funds. 

The Annual Conferences consist of all the 
traveling preachers, deacons, and presiding 
elders of a certain poi'tion of country, usually 
comprising several districts, each under the 
charge of a presiding elder. There are now 
also admitted to these conferences delega- 
tions of the laity equal in number to the 
clerical representation. Each conference is 
presided over by a bishop. The main busi- 
ness transacted at these conferences is the 
admission and ordination of preachers ; an 
examination of the character and official ad- 
ministration of the ministers belonging to 
the Conference ; a revicAV of the missionary, 
educational, and publishing interests ; the 
apportionment of the Conference funds to 
infirm and superannuated preachers, and to 
the widows and orphans of such within the 
Conference ; and the assignment of the min- 
isters to their several stations and circuits 
for the year ensuing. In each district there, 
is held a quarterly conference, composed of 
the traveling and local ministers, the exhort- 
ers, stewards, class-leaders, and superintend- 
ants of Sunday Schools. These conferences 
are presided over by the presiding elder of 
the district, and manage the details of local 
interests connected with the stations or cir- 
cuits ; serve as courts of appeal in the trial 
of church members ; grant licenses to preach, 
and recommend suitable candidates for ad- 
mission into the Annual Conference. The 
theory of the itinerancy in the Methodist 
church as defined by Wesley, was, that it 
incited the preachers to a greater measure 
of zeal and enthusiasm as they addressed 
new congregations so often ; that it made 
the couOTecations or churches more attentive 
to the gospel and less attached to the per- 
sons of those who proclaimed it; that by 
this method of distributing the various classes 
of gifts the smaller and poorer locations were 
sure of receiving a share of the best gifts of 
which they would otherwise be deprived; 
and that, not being influenced by local at- 
tachments, the preachers would be better 
fitted to act as pioneers on the frontiers, 
where, otherwise, they might be less willing 
to go. In its practical working other ad van- 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



625 



tages and disadvantages have been developed; 
and while in a new t^ection of country, it 
proves successful and has accomplished great 
good, it is every year becoming more dis- 
tasteful to the clergymen and churches in 
the more densely populated portions of the 
country. In the cities and larger towns the 
circuit feature has almost entirely disap 
peared ; the ministers are pastors of single 
churches, the only difference being that their 
stay is limited with a single church. This 
limit was formerly two years, but the Con- 
ference of 1868 made it three years. The 
more eloquent and popular preachers, how- 
ever, often manage to evado this limit by 
securing an appointment in the same city in 
some different capacity, which will allow 
them to remain as practical pastors of the 
churches to which they are attached. With 
indolent and half educated ministers it is 
alleged that the itinerancy encourages idle 
ness, as it renders any considerable study, be- 
yond the preparation of plans of sermons for 
the first year or two years, unnecessary ; but 
the Methodist ministry has but a small propor- 
tion of drones. To be eligible to full con- 
nection in an annual Conference and the 
office of deacon, a preacher must have trav- 
eled two years as a probationer and stood 
suitable examinations. He is eligible to 
elders' or ministers' orders after two years 
further service and another examination. 
Preachers — i. e., licensed exhorters and dea- 
cons — are not authorized to baptize or ad- 
minister the Lord's Supper. Elders or min- 
isters are ordained by the bishops, and may 
administer all the ordinances. Stewards are 
persons chosen by the Quarterly Conferences 
to take charge of and disburse all funds col- 
lected for the poor, the support of the minis- 
try, and sacramental purposes. Class-leaders 
are a})pointed by the ministers ; their duty 
is to see all the members of their respective 
classes once a week, to learn their spiritual 
condition, and to receive their contributions 
for church purposes. Clashes usually con- 
sist of twelve or more persons. 

The statistics of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, in 1870, were as follows: Bishops 
8; travelling preachers, 9,19-J; local preach- 
ers, 11,404; total preachers, 21,234; mem- 
bers in full connection, 1,173,099; members 
on probation, 194,035; total lay members, 
1,367,134; adult baptisms, 66,481; infant 
baptisms, 50,453; total baptisms, 116,934; 
number of churches, 13.373; number of par- 
sonage , 4,179 ; value of church edifices, $52,- 



614,591; value of parsonages, $7,293,513; 
number of Sunday schools, 16,912; number 
of Sunday school teachers, 189,412; number 
of Sunday school scholars, 1,221,393 ; amount 
of benevolent collections, (aside from church 
expenses,) $967,862. 

II. The Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South. This body seceded from the "Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church" in 1844, on the 
following grounds : It was well known that 
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, 
was opposed to slavery, declaring it to be 
" the sum of all villanies ;" but the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church having a large mem- 
bership in the Southern states, had grown 
lax on the subject, and as for many years 
there was very little agitation on the ques- 
tion, many slaveholders became members 
and a considerable number ministers of the 
church. In 1828, one of these latter, known 
to be a slaveholder, was sent as the repre- 
sentative of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
to the British Wesleyan Conference. In 

1840, the General Conference declared by 
formal resolution, that " the mere ownership 
of slave property, in states or territories 
where the laws do not admit of emancipa- 
tion, and permit the liberated slave to enjoy 
freedom, constitutes no legal barrier to the 
election or ordination of ministers to the 
various grades of office known in the ministry 
of the " Methodist Episcopal Church." In 

1841, however, the feeling of opposition to 
slavery began to be renewed in the General 
Conference, which was held in New York 
City, and proceedings not assuming judicial 
form, and unaccompanied with any regular 
impeachment, were instituted against Rev. 
James O. Andrew, D. D., who had been one 
of the bishops since 1832, a citizen of Geor- 
gia, who had married a lady possessing many 
slaves. These proceedings, after a protracted 
debate, were terminated by an act passed by 
a majority of the Conference requiring the 
bishop to desist from his functions, on ac- 
count of this connection with slavery. There- 
upon the representatives of thirteen of the 
thirty-three annual conferences of which the 
church was then composed, (being those em- 
braced in the slaveholding states,) presented 
a declaration which set forth their solemn 
conviction that a continuance of the juris- 
diction of the General Conference over the 
annual conferences thus represented, would 
be inconsistent with the success of the 
Methodist ministry in the slaveholding states, 
The declaration was accompanied by a for. 



626 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



mal protest against the action of the major- 
ity in Bishop Andrew's case, and thus led to 
the adoption by the General Conference of 
a plan of separation, according to which 
there was contemplated an amicable adjust- 
ment of boundary lines, and a fair division 
of property, should the annual conferences 
in the slaveholding states find it necessary 
to unite in an ecclesiastical connection dis- 
tinct from that of the North. The church 
in the South and »South-west, in primary as- 
semblies, and in quarterly and annual con- 
ferences, sustained the declaration of the 
delegates, and measures wore immediately 
adopted for the assembling of a convention. 
This was held in May, 1845, at Louisville, 
Ky. Acting under the provisions of the 
plan of separation, and in pursuance of the 
formal instructions of the annual conferences, 
the convention dissolved the jurisdiction of 
the General Conference over the conferences 
there represented, and created a separate 
ecclesiastical connection under the title of 
" The Methodist Episcopal Church, South." 
The first General Conference of this organ- 
ization was held at Petersburg, Va., in 1846. 
There was some difficulty in arranging all 
the details for the separation, and owing to 
the repudiation of the plan of separation 
by the General Conference of the '' Metho- 
dist Episcopal Cliurch" in 1848, the division 
of the property of the Book concern, pro 
rata, was only accomplished after a lawsuit 
in 1853. In 1845 the statistics of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, were : 5 
bishops, 13 annual conferences, 1,384 trav- 
eling preachers, 90 superannuated preachers, 
2,550 local preachers, 330,710 white mem- 
bers, 124,811 colored members, 2,978 In- 
dians ; total 462,428. This was almost one- 
half of the whole membership of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church before the division. 
In 1859, there were six bishops, 24 annual 
preachers, 1,661 traveling pi-eachers, 5,177 
local preachers, 511,601 white members, 
197,348 colored members, 4,236 Indians; 
total, 721,023. They continued to increase 
until the war, Avhen they lost a large number 
of their colored members, who preferred 
the African organizations, and after the 
emancipation proclamation, and the ratifica- 
tion of the XlVth and XVth amendments 
to the constitution of the United States, the 
basis on which they had made their separa- 
tion was removed. The twenty-seven years 
of separate organization have however, made 
them indisposed for a reunion, and they 



repel all overtures looking to such a measure, 
with considerable bitterness. Their doctrinal 
views are identical with those of the '' Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church," and there is no 
difference in their poUty or discipline. They 
have now when the board of bishops is full, 
nine, but Bishop Andrew having recently 
deceased, there are but eight now acting; 
there are 30 conferences, 2,646 traveling 
and 187 superannuated preachers, 4,753 
local preachers, 540,820 white members, 
19,616 colored members, (only one tenth of 
what they had in 1829,) 3,149 Indians ; a 
total of 571,241. 

Ill, and IV. The two African Meth- 
odist Episcopal Chtjrches. The A. M. 
E. Church proper, and the Zion A. M. E. 
Church may perhaps with propriety be con- 
sidered together, inasmuch as overtures are 
now pending for their consolidation. Both 
profess to be identical in their doctrinal 
views with the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
and their polity and government differ but 
slightly. The first has bishops, but permits 
lay representation to a limited extent in its 
General Conference from the ranks of the 
local preachers, and gives in its annual con- 
ferences equal privileges to the traveling and 
local preachers. Tlie Zion Church has no 
bishops, but general superintendents in their 
place, elected every four years. Its General 
Conference is composed of all the traveling 
ministers in the connection, but no lay dele- 
gation is allowed. An African church se- 
ceded in 1787, under the name of the Bethel 
African M. E. Church, but this was subse- 
quently absorbed into the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church. In 1816, however, some of the 
more eminent of the colored Methodist 
ministers belie^^ing that they could be fieer 
and more useful in a sejiarate communion, 
called a convention in Philadelphia, and 
organized the "African Methodist Episcopal 
Church. Its growth has been moderate 
but steady until the emancipation proclama- 
tion in 1863, which has led to a great in- 
crease in its membership. It has now ten 
conference^, seven bishops, over 600 travel- 
ing and 1200 local preachers, 586 churches, 
200,000 communicants, over 500 Sunday 
Schools, and more than 1200 day schools. 
Its adherent population is not less than 600,- 
000. The property of the Church, in schools, 
colleges, and church edifices, exceeds four 
million dollars. It owns Wilberforce Uni- 
versity, near Xenia, Green Co., Ohio, and 
four seminaries of a high class at Baltimore, 



HISTORY AND PROGUESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



627 



Md. ; Columbus, Ohio ; Alleghany, and Pitts- 
burgh, Pa. Tliey have a Book concern at 
Philadelphia, and issue a weekly aiid a month- 
ly religious periodical. 

The '■'•African Methodist Episcopal Zion 
Church" seceded from the Methodist Episco- 
pal Chiu'ch in 182i', and held its lirst annual 
conference in N'w York, in 1821. Its se- 
cession was in consequence of some differ- 
ences of opinion in regard to church govern- 
ment. Its growth was slow until the war, 
when it shared with the African M. E. 
Church, in ttie large influx of colored Meth- 
odists previously connected with the church 
south, and in a very large accession of new 
converts. Being very much straitened for 
means for the support of their schools and 
churches just after the war, they appealed to 
Congregationalists, to Unitarians, and to 
Friends for assistance, and received a consid- 
erable amount from each. They had ex- 
pected to con-ummate a union Avith the 
African M. E. Church in 18G8, but from 
some cause tlie union has been delayed, but 
will probably be completed in 1872. They 
have six general superintendents (answering 
to bishops, but elected for four years), 694 
traveling and about 1300 local preachers, 
nearly 700 churches, and about 164,000 
members. 

V. The Evangelical, Association, 
called also Albright Methodists, from the 
n line of th^^ir founder, is an ecclesiastical 
body of great energy and activity, which 
took its rise in Eastern Pennsylvania, about 
1790, from the labois of Rev. Jacob Albright, 
a German Methodist minister, who sought 
to promote a religious reform among the 
Germans of that region. It was not organ- 
ized as a church till about 1800, when Mr. 
Albright was unanimously elected and or- 
dained as their pastor and bishop. 

Sixteen years later they had become so 
numerous as to organize a general confer- 
ence. For the first thii-ty years of their 
existence, the Evangelical Association met 
with violent opposition, but since 1830 it has 
made rapid progress. In doctrines and 
theology the association is substantially one 
with the Methodist Episcopal Church ; and 
its mode of worship and usages are essen- 
tially methodistic ; in its church government 
it has a General Conference meeting every 
four years, and constituting its highest legis- 
lative and judicial authority. The General 
Conference elects its bishops for four years ; 
they may be re-elected, but if not, hold no 



higher rank or privilege than an elder after 
tlioir term of service is expired. The annual 
conferences elect their presiding elders for 
the same term, and these return to the itin- 
erancy at the expiration of their term of 
service. There are also quarterly confer- 
ences, in which a lay delegation is allowed, 
but not in the Annual or General Confer- 
ences. The statistics of the " Evangelical 
Association" in 1869 were as follows: Two 
bishops, fourteen annual conferences, 798 
churches, 500 itinerant, and 377 local preach- 
ers, 65,691 members, 863 Sunday Schools, 
with 45,175 scholars, 153 mission stations 
in America, and Europe ; a full complement 
of Missionary, Sunday School, Tract, and 
Charitable societies, a publishing house at 
Cleveland; four periodicals, a college, an 
orphan institution, several seminaries, 207 
parsonages, and church pi-operty to the value 
of about $2,000,000. 

VI. The " Methodist Protestant 
Church," an organization which was form- 
ed of seceders from the " Methodist Episco- 
])al Church" in 1830, the secession being 
based on the grounds of dissatisfxction with 
the Episcopate, and the refusal of lay repre- 
sentation. In doctrinal views, they accept 
the standards of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, but have no bishops. Their gene- 
ral conference, which meets once in seven 
years, and is composed of one ministerial and 
one lay delegate for every thousand commu- 
nicants, is the governing body ; and in the 
interim of its sessions, its president and the 
officers of the different committees and soci- 
eties created by it, exercise administrative 
authority to a limited extent. The annual 
conferences, composed of ministers only, 
elect their own presidents, and possess au- 
thority within their own bounds. Its quar- 
terly conferences, exhorters, class-leaders, 
stewards, etc., are copied after the Methodist 
Episcopal pattern. The church had in 1870 
423 itinerant, and about 860 local preachers, 
nearly 900 churches, and about 72,000 com- 
municants. It does not seem to be growing, 
for its statistics in 1858 were considerably 
larger than these figures. It has seven col- 
legiate institutions, three of them for females; 
two other literary institutions; small book 
concerns at Baltimore, Md., and Springfield, 
Ohio, and four periodicals. 

VII. "The Methodist Church," is an- 
other branch of the Methodist famUy, of 
which we only know that it reported in 1870 
624 preachers, and 49,030 members. Its 



628 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



doctrines are probably not different from 
those of the other Methodist bodies ; it has, 
we beUeve, no bishops. 

VIII. "The Wesleyan Methodist 
Connection of America," was organized 
in 1843, and composed mainly of seceders 
from the "Methodist Episcopal Church." 
The seceders were strongly opposed to slav- 
ery, and desirous of having the church purg- 
ed fi-om it ; they were also ardent temper- 
ance men, and hostile to all traffic in intoxi- 
cating liquors as a beverage. The " Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church," which subsequently 
took advanced grounds on both these sub- 
jects, was not at tliis time willing to do so, 
and disciplined its members who urged it. 
The consequence was the organization of the 
Wesleyan Methodist Connection of Amer- 
ica, at Utica, May 31, 1843. Their doc- 
trines are the same with those of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church, except two rules of 
morality, one excluding from church mem- 
bership and Christian fellowship all who 
buy or sell men, women, or children, with 
intent to enslave, or hold them as slaves, or 
claim that it is right to do so ; and the other, 
excluding from membership or fellowship 
all who manufacture, buy, sell, or use intox- 
icating liquors, or in any way, intentionally 
and knowingly, aid others so to do, except 
for mechanical, chemical, or medicinal pur- 
poses. In its church government, the Wes- 
leyan Connection is democratic, holding to 
complete ministerial equality and the power 
of each church to act for itself They have 
an equal representation of ministers and lay- 
men in their general conference, and these 
are elected by the annual conferences which 
are composed of all the ministers and an 
equal number of laymen in their several 
geographical bounds. They do not seem to 
have increased siuce the war, numbering 
only 250 ministers, and about 20,000 com- 
municants in 1870, against 300 ministers, 
and 20,000 members in 1858. They have 
two collegiate institutions, one at St. Louis, 
Jackson Co., Mich., the other — the Illinois 
Institute — at Wheaton, Du Page Co., Illin- 
ois. They have also one newspaper, '■'The 
True Wesleyan." 

IX. The Free Methodists are the lat- 
est seceders from the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. They profess to have left it on the 
ground of its increasing formalism and con- 
formity to worldly customs and fashions in 
di'ess, and in the construction, adornment, 
and music of the churches. They advocate 



a return to the early plainness of costume, 
the avoidance of all ornaments and jewelry, 
and the simplicity and bareness of architect- 
ure which characterized the early Metho- 
dists and their houses of worship. With 
this they also desire to restore the ancient 
zeal, fervor, and earnestness of the immedi- 
ate followers of Wesley and his successors. 
They number about one hundred ministers, 
and perhaps 7,0()0 communicants, and have a 
newspaper — 21ie Free Methodist — edited 
with a good deal of zeal and spirit. 

X. The Primitive Methodist Church 
is a branch of the church of the same name 
in Great Britain, but has not attained to any 
very considerable numbers here ; its mem- 
bers being mostly immigrants who had been 
connected with it before migrating to this 
country. In England it oiiginated in 1807, 
in a secession from the Wesleyans, on 
grounds of polity ; the seceders desiring to 
maintain camp meetings, liouse to house vis- 
itation and religious outdool* services, and 
the employment of female preachers to some 
extent, with a view to reach the lower and 
more depraved classes, and the Wesleyans 
declining to sanction any such movements. 
The Primitive Methodists, like the Free 
Methodists, are very zealous and earnest. 
Their doctrines do not differ from those of 
Wesley ; but in church government they are 
democratic, having no bishops, and in their 
conferences, have two lay delegates for every 
minister. They number in the United States 
about 20 itinerant, and 35 or 40 local 
preachers, nearly 40 churches, and a mem- 
bership of about 2,200. 

XI. The Welsh Calvinistic Method- 
ists are not a numerous body in the United 
States, and are only Methodists in their 
church polity and government, their doc- 
trinal views being more Calvinistic than 
Arminian, and assimilating in tliis respect to 
the Congregationalists, or to the Calvinistic 
portion of tlie clergy of the Church of Eng- 
land. They were in England an outgrowth 
of the labors of Whitfield and his successors. 
Indirectly, they were also a result of the 
organization of Lady Huntingdon's Connex- 
ion, with which their doctrinal views fully 
corresponded. In the United States they 
are found principally among the AVelsh, and 
some efforts to organize other churches, as 
Congregational Methodists, i. e., "vyith Cal- 
vinistic doctrines, and Methodist polity and 
government, have proved failures, the 
churches either becoming wholly Congrega- 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OP THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



629 



tional, or joining some of the Methodist 
sects. The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists 
number probably not more than 3,000 com- 
municants. 

XII. United Brethren in Christ, or 
German Methodists. This denomination, 
though not properly Methodists in name, are 
yet so far in unison with them in doctrines 
and polity, that they come more appropri- 
ately under the classification of Methodists 
than any other. The " United Brethren in 
Christ" owe their origin to the labors of 
Philip James Otterbein, a native of Dillen- 
burg, Germany, born June 4, 1726, and or- 
dained to the ministry of the German Re- 
formed Church, at Herborn, Germany, in 
1749. He was sent to America as a mis- 
sionary by the Synod of Holland in 1752, 
and settled at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Not 
long after his arrival he became convinced 
that he was a stranger to vital godliness, and 
ere long experienced, as he believed, a 
change of heart. He very soon began to 
manifest his zeal by instituting meetings dur- 
ing the week for prayer and religious con- 
ference, and finding that the region round 
about was in a condition of great spiritual 
destitution he made long preaching tours, 
and held what were called " great meetings " 
in barns and groves throughout that region, 
his labors being attended with great success. 
Persons who had experienced a change of 
heart, whatever their ecclesiastical relations, 
were invited to take a part in these meet- 
ings, and among those who accepted the in- 
vitation was Martin Boehm, a Menuonite 
preacher of great zeal and earnestness. At 
the close of one of Boehm's most effective 
sermons Otterbein rose, and embracing him 
exclaimed : " We are brethren !" The name 
of United Brethren in Christ was adopted 
by their followers Irom this time. Otterbein 
and Boehm labored together for more than 
fifty years ; and what at first seemed a revival 
in the different churches gradually became 
agglomerated into a distinct denomination, 
with its hundreds of preachers, called for the 
most part from the working classes, and ex 
ercising their gifts at first as lay preachers 
and subsequently licensed and ordained by 
the leaders or by some of those whom they 
had set apart for the ministry. At Otter- 
bein's death, in 1813, the "Brethren" were 
already a large and influential body ; they 
have since increased with considerable rapid- 
ity, and adopting the Methodist polity of 
quarterly, annual, and general Conferences, 



itinerants, bishops, and presiding elders, they 
have come to be a well organized and effi- 
cient body. Their first organization as dis- 
tinct churches date*, we believe, from 1774. 
In their theological views they are Armi- 
nians, agreeing very nearly with the Wes- 
leyan Methodists, in England, and the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church in the United States. 
On a few points only are they peculiar. In 
common with most of the evangelical churches 
they require evidence of a change of heart 
as indispensable to membership, but they 
prohibit membership to slaveholders, to ad- 
hering members of any secret society or or- 
ganization, and to those who manufacture, 
sell, or drink intoxicating liqu jrs. Baptism 
is administered either by pouring, sprinkling, 
or immersion, as the candidate may prefer ; 
infants are baptized when desired. Open 
communion is practised and the ordinance 
of foot-washing, as observed by several of 
the minor German sects, is optional, some of 
the churches observing it, while others do 
not. For the first fifty years of their history 
their ministers confined their labors almost 
exclusively to the German-speaking popula- 
tion, but now they have as many English as 
German churches. Their statistics in 1870 
were as follows : thirty-eight annual confer- 
ences, one general conference, four bishops 
who are elected for four years, and may be 
re-elected, about 900 itinerant and over 800 
local preachers; 3,924 organized societies; 
1,47S church edifices, with 483,099 settings; 
118,055 members; 2,420 Sunday schools, 
with 16,417 teachers and 112,425 scholars; 
collections for church purposes, 580,288 ; 
value of church property, $2,506,600. They 
have at Dayton, Ohio, an extensive pubhsh- 
ing establishment which issues numerous 
books, and beside an annual almanac or year 
book, five periodicals; a German and an 
English weekly religious newspaper, a month- 
ly German, and a semi-monthly English, 
child's paper, and a missionary periodical in 
English, semi-monthly. They have six col- 
leges; Otterbein University at Westville, 
Ohio; Hartsville University, at Hartsville, 
Ind. ; Westfield College, at Westfield, 111. ; 
Lebanon Valley College, Annville, Pa. ; 
Lane University, Lecompton, Kan. ; and 
Western College, Western Iowa. Sublimity 
College, Oregon, has passed out of their 
hands for want of adequate funds for build- 
ings and endowment. They have also three 
or four female seminaries and collegiate 
schooLs. 



630 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



V. CONGKEGATIONALISTS. 

In its broadest' sense the name CoN- 
GREGATiONAi.isT is applicable to all the de- 
nominations which hold to the independence 
of each church and to the democratic form 
of church government and polity. In this 
sense the Regular Baptists, and, indeed, al- 
most all the denominations which we have 
ranged under tlie general head of " Baptists" 
as well as the Friends, the Unitarians, and 
tlie Universalists, are as truly Congi-egation- 
alists as the churches distinctively known by 
that name. In common usage, however, the 
name is applied almost exclusively to those 
churches which are Augustinian and Cal- 
vinistic in doctrine, Trinitarian in belief, and 
Pa^do-baptist in practice ; and who holdhig 
these views unite with them a democratic 
church polity, the independence of each 
church, and a fellowship and inter-communion 
with all churches holding like views. 

"Wiiile there were undoubtedly isolated 
congi'egations in England in the sixteenth 
century, which maintained substantially con- 
gregational views and organization, Rev. 
John Robinson, first of Scrooby, Nottingham- 
shire, England, and afterwards of Leyden, 
Holland, is generally regarded as the father 
of Congregationalism. His church was or- 
ganized in 1606, and removed almost bodily 
to Holland in 1G08 in consequence of perse- 
cution. After a pastorate of about twelve 
years in Amsterdam and Leyden, a majority 
of the church, under Elder William Brews- 
ter, determined to emigrate to America, and 
after many perils and troubles, landed at 
Plymouth, Massachusetts, Dec. 21, 1620, 
having previously organized as an independ- 
ent cb . hand as a civil community. Others 
followed soon after, and Robinson himself 
intended to come, but died just as he was 
about to sail. The colonists of Massachu- 
setts Bay were at first JMon-conformists, but 
they presently adopted the Congregational 
Order. In Massachusetts and Connecticut, 
as well as in the then province of Maine, and 
the colonies of New Hampshire and Ver- 
mont, at a later period, the Congregational- 
ists were the dominant sect or denomination, 
and in the two former colonies and subse- 
quent states, retained a somewhat peculiar 
connection with the state, which, though mod- 
ified, was not wholly abrogated in Connecti- 
cut till 1818, and in Massachusetts in 1833. 
Every householder, or person liable to pay 
.taxes, was regarded as primarily subject to 
a tax for the support of religious worship in 



the Congregational church, or, as it was 
usually called " the standing order ;" and 
this liability, if he possessed property, could 
only be avoided by his " signing off," or 
avowing himself a tax-payer for the support 
of some other of the tolerated denominations. 
At first even tliis was not permitted, except 
in the case of members of the Church of 
England, but gradually more liberal views 
prevailed. This compulsory taxation was 
abrogated in Connecticut by the constitution 
of 1818, and in Massachusetts by a constitu- 
tional amendment, in 1833. In 1770, the 
number of communicants in the Congrega- 
tional churches of the thirteen colonies was 
about 112,000, almost all of w^liom were in 
New England, though two or three churches 
were planted about that time in Georgia and 
South Carolina. In 1801, a Plan of Union 
was agreed upon between the Presbyterian 
Church and the General Association (of 
Congregationalists) of Connecticut, which, at 
that time was an active missionary body. 
This plan of Union provided that in any new 
place where there were members of Congre- 
gational and Presbyterian cliurches, to avoid 
the establishment of weak and feeble church- 
es, the members of the two denominations 
should unite to form a church which should 
be either Presbyterian or Congregational as 
the majority of its members might decide, 
and if Congregational, that it should still 
have a qualified right of representation in 
the Presbytery. Under this arrangement, 
which continued in full force till 1837, and 
was not completely abrogated till 1852, the 
greater part of the advantages enured to the 
Presbyterians, very fe\V Congregational 
churches being organized in the middle and 
western states, and a considerable portion 
even of these, under the arrangement for 
representation in the Presbyteries, gradually 
becoming Presbyterian. It resulted from 
this liberality, that while there were nearly 
a hundred thousand former members of Con- 
srejjational churches who had contributed to 
swell the numbers of the Presbyterian and 
Reformed churches, the actual number of 
communicants in Congregational churches in 
the entire country, in 1850, at the expiration 
of eighty years from 1770, did not ranch ex- 
ceed 200,000. There had been in this inter- 
val, it is true, a very considerable loss in 
Massachusetts (mostly from 1810 to 1830) 
by the falling away of the Unitarians. This 
had probably caused a diminution of fifteen 
to eighteen thousand members. But soon 



^ 




HISTORY AND PROOnESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



631 



after 1840 there was a spirit of greater ac- 
tivity and aggressive action roused in the 
Congregational churches. Tliis found ex- 
pression, in 1852, in the National Congrega- 
tional Convention, a sort of General Synod 
or Council, which met at Albany. This 
Convention initiated measures for greater 
denominational missionary activity, advised 
the raising of a fund of $100,000 to aid in the 
erection of Congregational churches in the 
new states and territories, and largely in- 
creased efforts for the extension of Congre- 
gationalism as a denominational organization. 
As a result of this Convention and the spirit 
which prompted it, the growth of the denom- 
ination has been rapid and healthy in the 
western states and territories, and during 
the recent war and since, it has proved itself 
possessed of great energy and ability in pro- 
pagating Christianity in its simpler forms 
throughout the country. The Presbyterians 
and the Reformed (Dutch) Church had for- 
merly been associated with the Congrega- 
tionalists in both Home and Foreign Mis- 
sionary enterprises, but the Old School 
branch of the Presbyterians withdrew from 
both about 1837; the Reformed, in 1857; 
and the New School branch of the Presby- 
terians partially from the Home Missionary 
Society in 1853 or 1854, and wholly in 1865, 
and from the American Missionary Associa- 
tion about the same time ; and at the re- 
union of the two branches of the Presbyte- 
rian church in 1870, the New School mem- 
bers withdrew also from the American Board 
of Commissioners of Foreign Missions, tak- 
ing with them three or four of the Missions. 
The Congregationalists have, however, man- 
fully taken the entire burden on their own 
shoulders, and are maintaining these organ- 
izations in their full vigor. In 1865, an- 
other General Synod, or National Council, 
was held in Boston, which has resulted in a 
further development of denominational as 
well as of Christian activity. This Council 
adopted a Declaration of Faith, the first au- 
thoritative exposition of their views of doc- 
trine and polity, which had had the full sanc- 
tion of the denomination ; though earlier 
General Synods — those of Cambridge in 
1637 and 1646 — and the partial one of Say- 
brook in 1708, had adopted in general terms, 
and for substance of doctrine, the Westmins- 
ter and Savoy Confessions of Faith, and the 
" Cambridge Platform," and the " Saybrook 
Platform " of polity and discipline. 

This "■• Declaration of Faith" adopted in 



1865, on Burial Hill, Plymouth, Mass., is as 
follows : 

" Standing by the rock where the Pilgrims 
set foot upon these shores, upon the spot 
where they worshipped God, and among the 
graves of the early generations, we, elders 
and messengers of the Congregational church- 
es of the United States in National Council 
assembled, like them acknowledging no rule 
of faith but the Word of God, do now declare 
our adherence to the faith and order of the 
apostolic and primitive churches held by our 
fathers, and substantially as embodied in the 
confessions and platforms which our synods 
of 1648 and 1680 set forth or re-affirmed. 
We declare that the experience of the nearly 
two and a half centuries which have elapsed 
since the memorable day when our sires 
founded here a Christian commonwealth, with 
all the development of new forms of error 
since their times, has only deepened our con- 
fidence in the faith and polity of those fathers. 
We bless God for the inheritance of these 
doctrines. We invoke the help of the Divine 
Redeemer, that through the presence of the 
promised Comforter he will enable us to 
transmit them in purity to our children. 

" In the times that are before us as a na- 
tion, times at once of duty and danger, we 
rest all our hope in the Gospel of the Son 
of God. It was the grand peculiarity of our 
Puritan fathers, that they held this Gospel, 
not merely as the ground of their personal 
salvation, but as declaring the worth of man 
by the incarnation and sacrifice of the Son 
of God ; and therefore applied its principles 
to elevate society, to regidate education, to 
civilize humanity, to purify law, to reform 
the church and the state, and to assert and de- 
fend liberty ; in short, to mould and redeem, 
by its all-transforming energy, everything 
which belongs to man in his individual and 
social relations. 

" It was the faith of our fathers that gave 
us this free land in which we dwell. It is 
by this faith only that we can transmit to our 
children a free and happy, because a Chris- 
tian, commonwealth. 

" We hold it to be a distinctive excellence 
of our Congregational system, that it exalts 
that which is more, above that which is less 
important, and by the simplicity of its organ- 
ization facilities, in communities where the 
population is limited, the union of all true 
believers in one Christian church ; and that 
the division of such communities into several 
weak and jealous societies, holding the same 



632 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOxMINATIONS. 



common faith, is a sin against the unity of 
the body <>f Christ, and at once the shame 
and scandal of Christendom. 

" We rejoice tliat through the influence of 
our free system of apostolic order, we can 
hold fellowship with all who acknowledge 
Christ and act efficiently in the work of re- 
storing unity to the divided church, and 
bringing back harmony and peace among all 
who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. 

'' Thus recognizing the unity of the Church 
of Chri-t in the world, and knowing that we 
are but one branch of Christ's people, while 
adhering to our peculiar faith and order, we 
extend to all believers the hand of Christian 
fellovv^sh'p upon the basis of those great fun- 
damental truths in which all Christians should 
agree. With them we confess our faith in 
God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
Ghost, the only living and true God ; in 
Jesus Christ, the incarnate AVord, who is ex- 
alted to be our Kedcemer and King ; and in 
the Holy Comforter, who is present in the 
Church to regenerate and sanctify the soul. 

•' With tlie whole Church, we confess the 
common sinfulness and ruin of our race, and 
acknowledge that it is only through the work 
arcomplished by the life and expiatory death 
c. Christ, that believers in him are justified 
before God, receive the remission of sms, 
and through the pre-ence and grace of the 
Holy Comforter, are delivered from the pow- 
er of sin. and perfected in holiness. 

" We believe, also, in tiie organized and 
visible Church, in the ministry of the Word, 
in the sacraments of Bajitism and the Lord's 
Sui)per, in the resurrection of the body, and 
in the final judirment, the issues of which are 
eternal life, and everlasting punishment. 

'• We receive these trutiis on the testi- 
mony of God, given through ])rophets and 
apostles, and in the life, the miracles, the 
death, the resurrection of His Son, our Di- 
vine Redeemer, — a testimony preserved for 
the Church in the Scriptures of the Old and 
New Testaments, which were composed by 
holy men as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost. 

"Affirming now our belief that those who 
thus hold 'one faith, one Lord, one baptism,' 
together constitute the one Catholic Church, 
Ine several households of which, though call 
ed by different names, are the one body of 
Christ, and that these members of His body 
are sacredly bound to keep ' the unity of the 
Spirit in the bonds of peace,' we declare that 
we will cooperate with all who hold these 



truths. With them we will carry the Gos- 
pel into eveiy part of this laud, and with 
them we will go into all the world and 
'preach the Gosfiel to every creature.' May 
He to whom ' all power is given in Heaven 
and earth,' fulfil the ])romise which is all our 
hope : ' Lo, I am with you alway, even to 
the end of the world.' Amen." 

As we have already said, the Congrega- 
tionalists are Paxlo-baptists, though infant 
baptism is far from being as universal with 
them as it was formerly. Baptized children 
are not admitted to full membership in the 
church, except on evidence of conversion, 
and a profession of their faith in Christ. 
The u^ual mode of baptism is by affusion or 
S})riiikling, but most of their clergymen ad- 
minister the ordinance by pouring, or by im- 
mersion, if the candidate has a di.>tinct pref- 
erence for either of those mode~. They rec- 
ognize the minister, elder, presbyter, or bish- 
op ( holding these titles as synonymous) as 
the only clerical officer of the church. The 
deacons, though set apart by ordination in 
some of the churches, have no more author- 
ity than any other layman. An* executife, 
or prudential, or standing committee (they 
are calh d by these difiierent names in differ- 
ent churches) assist the pastor in examining 
candidates for membership, and those recom- 
naended by them are propounded for mem-, 
bership, and if no exception is taken they arc 
received after a delay of one or two weeks. 
Pastors are called by the churches which de- 
sire their services, and usually also by the 
ecclesiastical society, the cor])oration known 
in law as holding and controlling the church 
property, and which is usually composed of 
members of the church ; but the jiastor is 
not considered as in the fellowship of tlie 
Congregational churches adjacent, luitil he 
has been examined, and ordained or installed 
by a council composed of the pastors and 
lay delegates from other churches. A church 
may be organized by a band of believers 
coming together voluntarily and agreeing to 
form themselves into a church, but in order 
to its recognition as in fellowship with other 
churches of the same faith, a council nuist be 
called to examine into the need of it, its ma- 
terial, and its doctrines. 

Candidates for the ministry are examined 
cai-efully in regard to their rehgious experi- 
ence, doctrinal views, knowledge of Sci'ip- 
tural learning, and general fitness. Usually 
a collegiate education, or its equivalent, is 
required. The church is practically the 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



633 



highest authority in regard to matters of dis- 
cipline, but in important cases at the request 
of the party under discipline, a mutual, or if 
the church refuse, an ex-parte council of pas- 
tors and delegates of neighboring churches, 
is called, which investigates the ca*e, and 
communicates the " results " at which it 
arrives, to the parties. These councils pos- 
sess, however, only advisory powers, but 
their advice is usually accepted. 

The Congregationalists have now churches 
in 37 of the states and territories, and while 
their largest membership is still in New 
England, in most of the states of that section 
it being the largest denomination, yet they 
have very considerable strength in Illinois, 
Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio, and New 
York. 

Their statistics at the close of 1870, were : 
Churches 3,121 ; Ministers 3,194 ; Members 
306,518 ; t'.'achers and pupils in Sabbath 
Schools 361,465 ; gain over the previous 
year, churches 78; members 6,156; mem- 
bers of Sabbath Schools 4,963 ; ministers 
exclusive of foreign missionaries 30. Of the 
ministers, 928 are reported as not engaged in 
pastoral work. Of their contributions to ben- 
evolent purposes, it is impossible to speak def- 
initely, as they are in the Bible Society, the 
American Tract Societies, and have been, un- 
til the present year, in the American Board, 
and the American and Foreign Christian 
Union, associated with other denominations. 
Their contributions to the several benevolent 
objects, aside from contributions for home 
church purposes, and from endowments 
made to collegiate or Theological institutions 
or asylums, &c., must have exceeded $2,- 
000,000. For home purposes they were not 
less than $ 1,500,000 more. 

The denomination have six theological 
seminaries, which had, in 1870, twenty-eight 
professors, and 305 students. These were 
located at Bangor, Maine; Andover, Mass. ; 
Hartford, and New Haven, Conn.; Oberlin, 
Ohio ; and Chicago, 111. There were also 
eighteen colleges, having an aggregate of 
more than 5,000 students, in which, though 
not exclusively denominational, the Congre- 
gationalists have a controlling influence. 
Aside from these, there are eighteen incorp- 
orated and endowed academies, and female 
seminaries, besides numerous private semin- 
aries and academies, directly under the con- 
trol of the denomination. 

There are seventeen periodicals, weekly, 
semi-monthly, monthly, and quarterly, which 



are recognized as distinctively Congregation- 
alist. 

The only other denominations not already 
noticed, which are Congregational in their 
polity, but not in their doctrine, are the Uni- 
tarians, and Universa lists, both of which 
will be treated under their i-espective titles. 



VI. THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL 
CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES, 
sometimes called by a section of its mem- 
bers, the Anglican or Anglo-Catholic 
Church. 

This denomination was, in its origin in the 
United States, a part of the Church of Eng- 
land, and its clergymen received ordination 
at the hands of the Bishop of London until 
1784, and indeed mo-t of them until 1788 or 
1789. Virginia had established the Church 
of England as the religion of the colony, as 
early as 1650, and Maryland, though settled 
at iirst by Roman Catholics, had done the 
same thing in 1692. Attempts were made 
by some of tiie colonial governors of New 
York to make it the established religion of 
that colony, but without great success. The 
adherents to the Church of England were, 
however, considerably numerous in New 
York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Vir- 
ginia, before the Revolutionary War, and 
they had ten or twelve churches in Connec- 
ticut. In the other colonies they were very 
few. Efforts had been made to obtain one 
or two bishops for these colonies almost from 
the beginning of the eighteenth century, but 
they had failed, both fi-om the unfriendly 
feeling of the English government, and from 
the jealousy against Episcopacy in the colon- 
ies, growing out of the political complications 
in which the bishops in Great Britain were 
involved. In November, 1784, Rev. Sam- 
uel Seabury, D. D., a Connecticut clergy- 
man, having sought ordination as a bishop 
of the diocese of Connecticut, from the Eng- 
lish bishops, and being refused on account of 
some political obstacles, went to Scotland 
and was consecrated at Aberdeen, by three 
of the bishops of the Scottish Episcopal 
Church. In 1787, William White, D. D., 
was consecrated Bishop of the Diocese of 
Pennsylvania, and Samuel Provost, D. D., 
Bishop of the diocese of New York, by the 
Archbishop of Canterbury, at Lambeth Pal- 
ace chapel, and three and a half years later, 
James Madison, D. D., of Virginia, was con- 
secrated at the same place as Bishop of the 



634 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



Diocese of Virginia. These ibur bisliops 
were all who received consecraiion in Great 
Britain, and through them, according to the 
views of the High Church party, the Apos- 
tolical succes.^ion in the bishops and clergy 
was transmitted to the American church. 
The growth of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church has not been rapid, but luis been to 
a great extent in the large cities and princi- 
pal towns of the country, and only to a Ihn- 
ited extent in the rural parishes. The beau- 
tiful liturgy and imposing ritual of the Epis- 
copal Church, as well as the wealth and 
fashion of some of its adlxerents, and the gor- 
geous architecture of many of its church edi- 
fices, have drawn to its worship, in the great 
cities, large numbers of the flishionable and 
worldly, attracted by externals ; but within 
its conununion are also very many earnest 
and devout souls, to whom its order and cer- 
emonies are exceedingly precious. Within 
its conununion, as in that of the Church of 
England, there are three distinct parties, 
often more diverse in their views than either 
is from other denominations; yet all profess- 
ing to hold by the same standards, to which, 
however, they give very ditferent interpreta- 
tions. The doctrinal standards of the Pro- 
testant Episcopal Church, are the Apostles' 
and Nicene creeds (for though many of them 
agree to the Atlianasian Creed, it is not an 
acknowledged standard as it is with the 
Church of England) ; the XXXIX articles 
of the Church of England, except the XXIst 
and XXXVIIth, ancl a slight moditication of 
the Vlllth, XXXVth, and XXXVIth ; the 
Book of Common Prayer, as revised by the 
American Bishops, and the Homilies in gen- 
eral. Tiie Jligk Chnrch pariy (with which 
are generally included the Ritualists, and the 
Puseyites or Tractarians, thougli both go far- 
ther than most of the High Clmrchmen) ti^ke 
their stand upon the f^piscopal Constitution, 
the theory of Apostolical succession, and 
more than all on the Book of Common 
Prayer, and give to these standards a signifi- 
cation which seems strained and my^ticid, 
and insist that they are to be interpreted 
with due reference to the practices and cus 
tonis of the early Catholic Church. They 
have brought into the worship of tiie Protest- 
ant Episi'opal Church many customs, cere- 
monies, and practices which are certainly 
borrowed from the Roman Catholic church, 
and a considcrahle number of them have 
demonstrated this, by taking still another 
step and going entirely over to the Church 



of Rome. This branch of the Protestant 
Episco|)al Church, or rather this party in it, 
have been extremely intolerant of other 
religious denominations, denouncing them as 
dissenters, and as having no part in the cov- 
enant, assuming to themselves even a higher 
position than that claimed by the Roman 
Catholic Church. At the same time, it is 
due to them to say, that in active Christian 
work within the bounds of their own denom- 
ination, exclusively, they are not surpassed 
by any other denomination in the country, 
according to their numbers. Their intoler- 
ance and bigotry has possibly led another 
division of the church, the Low Church party, 
to an extreme in the other direction. The 
Low Church take their position on the 
" Thirty- nine articles " which are Calvinistic 
on the doctrine of election, and Zuinglian in 
the doctrine of the Sacraments. They are 
Evangelical in their doctrinal views, and in- 
terpret their standards as permitting, and 
indeed enjoining, on them free and hearty 
Christian intercourse with other Evangelical 
denominations. They interchange pulpits 
with them, and engage very cordially in as- 
sociations for the promotion of objects of 
general Christian benevolence. Tliat in 
these measures they occasionally overstep 
the strict letter of their standards, may be, 
and probably is, due to a too great narrow- 
ness in the standards themselves. 

The third, or '•'Broad Church party,''' have 
not so much inclination either to a narrow 
and straight-laced interpretation of their 
standards, and a bigotry toward other denom- 
inations, or to a thorougiily evangelical coop- 
eration with them, as to loose and broad views 
in rejiard to the in-piration and authenticity 
of the Scriptures, and a strongly rationalistic 
tendency. This party, which we believe 
includes in this country none of the bishops, 
sub-cribe to the XXXIX articles, with many 
mental reservations, and some of them boldly 
avow that Protestantism is a failure. 

The condition of affairs in the Protestant 
Episcopal Church, resulting from these great 
differences of sentiment and opinion, have 
more than once threatened that chm'> h with 
division, if not dissolution, and at the present 
time seem more likely to rend it than ever. 
A few churches ha\e already withdrawn 
from its communion, and others of the Low 
Church party are only awaiting the result of 
a last appeal to the Triennial General Con- 
vention to decide upon their future course. 

Under the article on the Methodist Epis- 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



635 



COPAL CiiUdcn, we have given twenty-five 
of the thirty-seven articles retahied by the 
Protestant Epi-copal Church, in every case 
but one using tlieir exact language. (This 
one is in regard to the " Rulers of the United 
vStatcs of America," and, of course, differs 
from the English article on the subject of 
rulers.) It is hardly necessary for us to 
repeat these, and the others which are omit- 
ted by the Methodist Church, but retained 
by the Protestant Episcopal; they relate, as 
will appear from their titles, rather to ab- 
stract topics and beliefs, and to matters of 
polity, than to the fundamental doctrines of 
the Church. The titles of the omitted arti- 
cles are : " Art. 3. Of the going down of 
Christ into Hell." "Art. 13. Of works before 
justification." "Art. 15. Of Christ alone 
without sin." "Art. 17. Of Predestination 
and Election "(the most decidedly Calvinistic 
article in the whole XXXIX, and singularly 
at variance vv'ith some other portions of the 
standard). "Art. 18. Of obtaining salvation 
only by the name of Christ." "Art. 20. Of 
the authoiity of the Church." "Art. 23. Of 
minii-tering in the congregation." "Art. 26. 
Of the 'niworthiness of the ministers, which 
hinders not the effect of the sacrament." 
"Art. 29 Of the wicked which eat not the 
body of Christ in the use of the Lord's Sup- 
per." " Ai't. 33. Of excommunicated per- 
sons ; how they are to be avoided." "Art. 
34. Of the traditions of the Church." "Art. 
oG. Of the consecration of Bishops and min- 
isters." This last is modified to adapt it to 
the peculiarities of the American church. 
To the doctrinal discrepancies growing out 
of the interpretations of the XXXIX arti- 
cles, and the Book of Common Prayer, 
which it is very difficult to make accord fully 
with each other, is due much of the division 
in the Protestant Episcopal Church. 

In matters of polity, the Episcopal Church 
recognizes three orders of clergy : Bishops, 
priests, and deacons. The Bishops, like 
those of the Roman Catholic, Greek, Armen- 
ian, and some other churches, arc diocesan, 
i. e., have charge of the churches of a partic- 
ular territory or diocese, in distinction from 
those of tlie Methodist Church, which are 
general and itinerant, and those of a part of 
the Lutheran churches, which are more 
nearly Presbyterian, the Bishop being of no 
higher authority nor dignity than the other 
clergy, but simply performing duties of a dif- 
ferent cla-s. Such is substantially also the 
theory of Episcopacy in the Moravian church. 



The High Church theory is, that the Bish- 
ops are the successors of the Apostles, that 
the consecration has come to them in regular 
order through the hands of a succession of 
holy men, the bishops of the Roman Church 
before the Reformation, and that they are 
thus Bishops by direct transmission from 
Jesus Christ and his Apostles, and so by 
divine right. They regard them as superior 
to priests and deacons. The Low Church 
party deny all this, and reject the theory of 
the " exclusive validity of Episcopal orders." 
The priests, called also in the United States, 
generally rectors, and, where not in full 
charge of a parish, assistant ministers, have 
received at the hands of the bishop the sec- 
ond ordination which confers upon them the 
power of administering the sacraments. The 
third, or lowest grade of the ministry, is the 
deacon, which in this church is usually but 
temporary, the candidate when invested with 
this office, is allowed to baptize, to read in 
the church, and to assist in the Eucharist, 
but only in the administration of the wine. 
His office is wholly distinct from that of the 
deacon in Presbyterian, Congregational, or 
Baptist churches, being more analogous to 
that of the licentiate in those churches. It is 
usually a mere preliminary or stepping stone 
to the reception of priests' orders, and both 
ordinations are, in some instances, effected in 
the same day. The temporalities of the 
Episcopal churches are administered by the 
concurrence of the rector and the vestry, 
composed of wardens and vestrymen elected 
by the members of the parish. The Episco- 
pal Church usually administers baptism by 
making the sign of the cross on the forehead 
of the person baptized, requiring a profession 
of faith (in the case of infants, this is made 
for them by their sponsoi-s, or god-father and 
god-mother). Immersion either in the case 
of children or adtdts, though formerly prac- 
tised by the Church of England, is not now 
considered necessary. The formula for the 
baptism of infants, in the prayer book, con- 
tains the words, " since this child is now re- 
generate" and a very exciting discussion has 
sprung up in regard to these words, some 
clergymen contending that they inculcated ' 
the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, and 
refusing to use them on this account. At 
the Triennial General Convention, held in 
Baltimore, in Oct. 1871, though no general 
canon defining this passage was passed, yet 
nearly all the bishops signed a paper giving 
it as their private opinion that the tenn as 



636 



nrSTORY AND PROGRESS OF TIIIi: DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



thus used was not intended to imply that doc- 
trine. 

The statistics of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church in 187U were as follows : Dioceses 39; 
Missionary do. 1 1 ; Bishops 39 ; Assistant do. 
5 ; Misjionary do. 8 ; Priests and Deacons 2,- 
710 ; Parishes 2,5 1 2 ; communicants, not fully 
reported, but believed to be not quite 220,- 
000; Baptisms of inftmts, 20,749; of adults, 
5,030; not specified, 3,7 GO; Confirmations 
20,793; Sunday School Teachers 18,664; 
Scholars 185,979; Contributions (incom- 
plete), $4,205,029. 

The Episcopal Church has been very ac- 
tive in the promotion of educational institu- 
tions. It has 14 theological seminaries, with 
57 professors and 366 students; 15 colleges, 
with 1,380 students, and 20 academies and 
diocesan schools, under the control of its 
Bishops, It has 22 periodicals, weekly, semi- 
weekly, monthly, and quarterly, devoted to 
its interests, and within a few years past has 
manifested a zeal and energy in propagating 
its views, and establishing churches, especi- 
ally in the new states and territories, which 
contrasts very favorably with the apathy of 
its early history. 



VII. THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN 
CHURCH. 

The Lutheran Church in the United 
States, is one, in the sense of holding with 
greater or less tenacity to the same stand- 
ards or Confessions of Faith ; but it has 
some elements of discord in it, mainly in 
matters of minor importance, which have 
led to violent controversies, and to so great 
bitterness between some of its synods that 
they not only refuse fellowship and commun- 
ion wi:h each other, but have exeommuni 
cated each other. These discordant elements 
are, however, confined for the most part to 
tlie smaller independent synods, and do not 
so much affect the larger bodies. The de- 
nomination is growing in the United States 
with great rapidity, especially in the West, 
and mainly, though not exclusively, by immi- 
gi-ation, the very large numbers of Germans, 
Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes, arriving 
here every year being, a majority of them — 
nominally at least — attached to the Lutheran 
faith. The first Lutherans came to Penn- 
sylvania between 1680 and 1700, attracted 
by the offers of William Penn. In 1710, 
about 3,000 German Lutherans who had 
taken refuge in England from the persecu- 



tions of the Romanists, were sent over to 
Pennsylvania by the British government. 
In 1727, another large colonj' came over 
from the Palatinate, Wurtemburg, Darm- 
stadt, and other parts of Germany. For 
nearly twenty years, these poor people had 
no ministers of their own; but in 1748, Dr. 
Henry Melchior Muhlenbui-g, a missionary 
of the Ilalle Orphan IIousp, brought up under 
the training of Francke and S})encer, came 
to Pennsylvania and labored most zealously 
for half a century among them, organizing 
churches, consistories, and synods, and behig 
entitled to be considered the father of the 
German Lutheran Church in America. At 
the time he arrived here, there were only 
eleven Lutheran ministers in the Colonies. 
Three years later there were forty, and a 
Lutheran population of about 60,OuO. No 
one of the Protestant churches suffered more 
severely by the Revolutionary War than did 
the Lutheran, and they were long in recov- 
ering from the depression thus caused. Many 
of their churches were abandoned, and it 
seemed for years as if their religions vitality 
had departed. Their churches were scatter- 
ed, and belonged to distant and separate 
synods, having little communication with 
each other and no common band of imion, 
and being in many instances composed of 
Lutherans from diflerent countries of Europe, 
they were inclined to look upon each other 
with jealousy. This was, to some extent, 
remedied, and a better state of affairs inaug- 
urated by the formation of the General Syn- 
od of the Lutheran Church, in 1820. From 
that time, a steady and constantly increasing 
tide of emigration began to fiow in to the 
country, and much of the German and Scan- 
dinavian part of it was composed of Luther- 
ans, or tiiose who had been brought up under 
Lutheran influences. Many of these, coming 
from countries where Lutheranism was the 
religion of the state, and the sovereign the 
head of the church, had been accustomed to 
great laxity in religious matters. At the 
suitable age they were confirmed and became 
members of the church, liowever irregular 
their mode of life, and no evidence of conver- 
sion was required for membership. These 
lax views, and a general tendency to ration- 
alism, they desired to graft upon the Ameri- 
can Lutheran Church, and in some of the 
newer synods their views prevailed. These 
synods refused, on these and other accounts, 
to join the General Synod. There were 
other grounds of difference, also, relating to 



HISTORY AND PROGKESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



637 



the standards of the church, the clerical office, 
the adoption or rejection of pymbolical rites 
and ceremonies, and a liturgical service, and 
the making use of what have been known as 
revival measures. These differences were 
increased by the emigration of a considerable 
number of the " Old Lutheran " party to the 
United States in 1837 and 1838. The 
Lutherans all agree in receiving the "Augs- 
burg Confession," (drawn up by Melanch- 
thon, and sanctioned by Lutlier, in 1530) as 
their principal standard of doctrine ; though 
the New Lutherans regard even this as only 
an expression, " in a manner substantially 
correct," of the cardinal doctrines of the 
Bible, which they regard as the only infalli- 
ble rule of faith and practice. The Old 
Lutherans on the contrai-y, while avowing 
the Bible as the ultimate rule of faith and 
practice, adhere very strenuously to tlie 
entire " Book of Concord," so called, as the 
standard of their doctrinal beliefs. This 
Book of Concord contains the three creeds, 
viz., the Apostles', Athanasian, and Nicene 
Creeds, the Augsburg Confession of 1830, 
and the Apology of the Confession (written 
by Melanchthon, 1540), the Schmalkald 
Articles (drawn up by Luther in 1537), anl 
the two Catechisms of Luther (prepared be- 
fore 1530). The Old Lutherans are in- 
clined, to some extent, to retain also, those 
rites, ceremonies, and observances, whch 
Melanchthon regarded as things indifferent, 
such as the wearing of clerical vestments, 
exorcism, private confessions, lax views of 
the Sabbath, and the oM Lutheran doctrine 
of baptism, in its relation to regeneration 
and the Lord's Supper. 

" The book of Concord," and, indeed, the 
"Augsburg Confession," and its "Apology," 
are too long to be inserted in this brief his- 
tory of denominations, but we give below a 
summary of their principal doctrines, as 
stated by an eminent Lutheran clergyman. * 
" The fundamental doctrine of the Lutheran 
Church is that we are justiBed before God, 
not through any merit of our own, but by his 
tender mercy, through faith in his Son. The 
depravity of man is total in its extent, and 
his will has no positive ability in the work of 
salvation, but has the negative ability of 
ceasing its resistance. Jesus Christ offered 
a proper and vicarious sacrifice. Faith in 
Christ presupposes a true penitence. The 
renewed man co-works with the Spirit of 

* New American Cyclopaedia, Vol. X, pp. 739, 740. 
39* 



God. Sanctification is progressive and nev- 
er reaches absolute perfection in this life. 
The Holy Spirit woiks through the "Word 
and the Sacraments, which alone, in the 
proper sense, are means of grace. Both the 
Word and the Sacraments bring a positive 
grace which is offered to all who receive 
them outwardly, and which is actually im- 
parted to all who have fiiith to embrace it. . 
.... The Evangelical Lutheran Church 
regards the Word of God, the Canonical 
Scriptures, as the absolute and only law of 
faith, and of life. Whatever is undefined by 
its letter or its spirit, is the subject of Chris- 
tian liberty, and pertains not to the sphere of 
conscience, but to that of order ; no power 
may enjoin upon the church, as necessary, 
what God has forbidden, or has passed by in 
silence, as none may forbid her to hold what 
God has enjoined upon her, or to practise 
what, by His silence, he has left to her free- 
dom. Just as firmly as she holds upon tlie 
one hand that the Bible is the rule of faith 
and not a confession of it, she holds on the 
other that the creed is a confession of faith 
and not the rule of it. The creeds are sim- 
ply the testimony of the Church to the truths 
she holds ; but as it is the truth they confess, 
she of necessity regards those who reject 
the truth confessed in the creed, as rejecting 
the truth set forth in the Word. While, 
therefore, it is as true of the Lutheran 
Church as of any other, that when she lays 
her hand upon the Bible, she gives the com- 
mand, ' Believe ! ' and when she lays it on 
the Confession, she puts the question, 'Do 
you believe ?' it is also true that when a man 
replies, ' No,' to the question, she considers 
him as thereby giving evidence that he has 

not obeyed the command Baptism. 

The Lutheran Church holds that it is neces- 
sary to salvation to be born again of water, 
and the Spirit ; but she holds that this neces- 
sity is ordinary, not absolute, or without ex- 
ception ; that the contempt of the sacrament, 
not the want of it, condemns, and that though 
God binds us to the means. He does not bind 
His own mercy by them. From the time of 
Luther to the present hour the Lutheran the- 
ologians have maintained the salvability and 
actual salvation of infants dying unbaptized. 
The rest of the doctrine of the Lutheran 
Church as a whole, is involved in her confes- 
sion, with the Nicene Creed, " one baptism 
for the remission of sin," and that through 
it the grace of God is offered ; that chil- 
dren are to he baptized, and that being 



638 



H STORY AND PROGR' S3 OF THE DIFFERENT DEXOMIXATIONS. 



thus committed to God they are graciously 
received by him. At the same time she 
rejects the theory of the Anabaptists, that 
infants unbapiized have salvation because of 
their personal innocence, and maintains that 
the nature with which we are born requires a 
change, which must be wroiiglit before we 
can enter heaven, and that infants are saved 
by the application of Christ's redemptory 
work." It has been charged for more than 
three centuries that the Lutherans held to 
the doctrine of Consubstantiation, that is, the 
local or coi'poreal presence in, with, or under 
the brt-ad in the Lord's Supper ; th 'y deny 
this most strenuously, but admit that they 
hold to a sacramental, spiritual, or supernat- 
ural presence of the Divine Redeemer in the 
sacrament, and that those who partake, do in 
reality feed upon him spiritually, though if 
unworthy, to their own condemnation. On 
the subject of the Lord's Day, while it is 
acknowledged that the general practice 
among Protestants on the continent of 
Eurojje, in regard to its observance, is much 
more lax: than that which prevails in Eng- 
land and tlie United States, yet the Ameri- 
can Lutheran Church profess to hold that 
the Sabbath was instituted at the creation of 
m in ; that tlie generic idea of devoting one 
day of the week to rest from labor, and to 
religious duties, pertains to the entire race 
through all time ; and that the law of the 
Sabbath, so far as it is not detf^-minative and 
typical, is binding on Christians. 

'■'■ D/iHiie Worship. The Lutlieran Church 
regards preaching as an indispensable part 
of divine service. All worship is to be in 
the vernacular ; the wants of the heart as 
well as of the reason are to be met. \Miat- 
ever of the past is spiritual, beautiful, and 
appropriate, is to be retained. The Cluu'ch 
year, with its great festivals, is kept. With 
various national diversities, there is a sub- 
stantial agreement in the liturgical services 
of the Luiheran Church, througiiout almost 
all the world. The hymns are sung by all 
tlie people, Avith the organ accompaniment." 
The hymnology of the Lutheran Cluirch sur- 
passes that of all other churches in the world 
in sweetness, richness, power, and unction. 
F.ven in their English dress there are few 
liymiis more beautiful or soul-inspiring than 
Luther's "A strong fortress is our God," or 
" O ! Head, so bruised and wounded," or 
" Jerusalem, the Golden." 

" The clergymen in their official functions, 
wear a distinctive dress, usually a black robe, 



with the bands. A preparatory service pre- 
cedes communion. The doctrine and prac^ 
tice of auricular ccnfession were rejected in 
the beginning. The " private confession," 
Avhich was established in some parts of the 
Church, involves no enumeration or confes- 
sion of particular sins whatever, unless the 
communicant desires to speak of them ; and 
the ''private ab.-olution " is simply the an- 
nunciation of the gospel promise, with the 
gospel conditions to the individual penitent. 
But even in this form, private confession has 
ceased in most parts of the church. The 
practice of exorcism in baptism, simply as a 
rite long established, and Avhich miglit be 
tolerated if regarded merely as a symbolical 
representation of the doctrine that our nature 
is under the dominion of sin, was practised 
in parts of the church, but has fallen almost 
everywhere into oblivion. 

Constitution or Polity of the Church. 
" Mauy embarrassing circumstances prevent- 
ed the Lutheran Chiu-ch from developing her 
life as perfectly in her church constitution, 
as in her doctrines and worship. The idea 
of the universal priesthood of all believers, 
at once overthrew the doctrine of a distinc- 
tion of essence between clergy and laity. 
(This doctrine is, nevertheless, maintained 
in one or two of the American synods. — 
Editor.) The ministry is not an order, but 
it is a divinely ajjpointed office, to wliich 
men must be rightly called. No iiuparity 
exists by divine right ; a hit- rarchical organi- 
zation is unchristian, but a gradation (bish- 
ops, superintendents, provost-*.) may be ob- 
served, as a thing of hiunan right only. (In 
the United States, the Lutheran Church has 
no bishops, superintendents, or provosts. — 
Editor.) The government by consistories 
has been very general. In Denmark, Evan- 
gelical bishops took the pla' e of Roman 
Catholic prelates who were deposed. In 
Sweden, the bishops embraced the Reforma- 
tion, ar.d thus secured in that country an 
" apostolic succession," in the High C hurch 
sense ; though, on the principles of the Luth- 
eran Church, .alike where she has, as where 
she has not such a succe.-sion, it is not re- 
garded as essential even to the order of the 
church. The uliimate source of power is in 
the congregation, that is, in the pastor and 
other olHcers of the church, and the people 
of the single communions. The right to 
choose a pastor belongs to the people, who 
may exercise it by direct vote, or delegite it 
to tlieir representatives. Synods possess 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE IUFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



639 



such power as tTie congregations delegate to 
them. "• Ministers are related to congrega- 
tions, not as their servants, but as tlie serv- 
ants of the church, and in the United States 
where the Congregational principle has been 
more radically developed than anywhere 
else in the Lutheran Church, " the Synod to 
which pastors belong has the entire jurisdic- 
tion over them." (See F'ormula of the 
Lutheran Church, Chap. iii,. 3.) Absolute 
ministerial parity is maintained, and lay rep- 
resentation is universal ; but many vital 
points of church organizations are entirely 
unsettled, and the doctrine that synods are 
merely advisory bodies," is often pressed in 
a way that tends to anarchy. 

The Lutheran Church in the United States 
is divided into tlie following organizations : 
1st, The General Synod, founded in 1820, 
and comprising in 1870, twenty Synods, viz* 
the Synods of Maryland, West Pennsylvania. 
Hartwick, East Ohio, Frankean, Alleghany, 
East Pemisylvania, Miami, Wittenberg, 
Olive, Northern Illinois, Southern Illinois. 
Central Pennsylvania, English Synod of 
Iowa, Northern Indiana, New Jersey, Cen- 
tral Illinois, New York, Susquehanna, Pitts- 
burgh, and Kansas. The General Synod 
recognizes the Augsburg Confession, but al- 
lows considerable liberty of doctrinal views 
in its interpretation. It formerly had more 
synods connected with it, but six soutliern 
synods, subsequently increased to seven, se- 
ceded during the war and formed the South 
ERN General Synod. Their action was 
based on the resolutions of loyalty to the 
Government expressed by the General Syn 
0(1, but they are said to have adhered more 
closely to the standards, and to have been 
more strict in regard to the qi;alifications of 
membership than the Old Synod. The 
Northern General Synod had, in 1870, 627 
ministers, 1,067 churches, and 103,042 com- 
municants. The Southern General Synod, 
organized in 1862, had at the same time: 
126 ministers, 225 churches, and 20,796 com 
municants. 

A much younger body, and yet having a 
larger membership, is the General Coun- 
cil, organized in 1867. The General Coun- 
cil adheres to the entire body of standards 
contained in the " Book of Concord," which 
they declare to be accepted by them as be- 
ing in full accord with the Scriptures. It 
comprises twelve Synods, viz : The New 
York Ministerium, the Synod of Pennsylva- 
nia, a Pittsburgh Synod, the English District 



Synod of Oliio, the English Synod of Ohio, 
the Synod of Illinois, the Synod of Michigan, 
the German Synod of Iowa, the Synod of 
Minnesota, the Scandinavian Augustana 
Synod, the Synod of Texas, and the Synod 
of Canada. These Synods had in 1870,535 
ministers, 986 churches, and 131,632 mem- 
bers. 

Six other Synods, viz : Missouri, Ohio, 
Wi-consin, the Norwegian, Grabau's-BufFalo 
Synod, and the German Synod of New 
York, agree very fully in doctrines with each 
other, except that the last two named have 
some peculiar views in regard to the status of 
the Christian ministry. They differ from 
the General Council in these four points : 
they desire to prohibit an interchange of pul- 
pits with all other denominations, and admis- 
sion to the Lord's Supper ; they condemn 
Millenarianism, and excommunicate from 
their fellowship all members of secret socie- 
ties. Their numbers, in 1870, were as fol- 
lows : ministers, 650 ; churches, 965 ; com- 
municants, 150.925. These synods will prob- 
ably soon be united in one organization. 

The following synods, all small, are still 
independent, but will probably soon be con- 
nected with some one of the larger bodies : 
The Tennessee, Von Rohr's Buffalo Synod, 
the Concordia, Eielson's Scandinavian Synod, 
and the Norwegian Danish Conference. 
These synods had in 1870, 70 ministers, 218 
churches, 18,327 members. There were, 
besides, 30 ministers v/hose synodal connec- 
tion was unascertained. There were, there- 
fore, in 1870, connected with the different 
councils, synods, and conferences of the 
Lutheran Church in the United States, 53 
synods, 2,086 ministers, 3,544 churches, and 
425,577 communicants. The other statistics 
of the Church are partial, and not later than 
1869. The General Synod had in that year, 
81,445 teachers and scholars in its Sabbath 
Schools, and contributed to benevolent ob- 
jects $340,133. The contributions of the 
other branches of the church are not report- 
ed. 

Thirty-two Lutheran newspapers were 
published in 1870, viz: Eight English, six- 
teen German, two Swedish, and six Norwe- 
gian and Danish. There are two Lutheran 
Church Almanacs published annually, one at 
Baltimore, the other at Allentown, Pa. 
There are 15 Theological seminaries for 
Lutheran students, with about 60 professors, 
and 450 students, and 17 colleges with more 
than 2,000 students. There are also 18 sem- 



G40 



IIISTOKV AND 1»KOc;KKSS ok THK DIFKKUKNT DENOMINATIONS. 



inaries or academies of" high grade under 
their control. 



VIII. THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS OR 

QUAKERS. 
I. The Original or Orthodox 

Friends. The Society of Friends originated 
in the early part of the seventeenth century, in 
Great Britain, as one of those protests against 
formalism and Christi;\nity from which the 
heart and life had died out, which have in all 
ages demonstrated the power of religious 
principle to react from the deadness of state 
churches, George Fox, its founder, com- 
menced proclaiming the doctrines of the 
power of Christ to save men from sin, and 
the influence of the Holy Spirit in changing 
and transforming the evil nature, when he 
was but twenty three years of age, and con- 
tinued it for forty years, until his death. His 
followers were not very numerous, but they 
were exceedingly earnest, stern in their 
adherence to what they believed to be the 
monitions of the Holy Spirit, and when per- 
secuted, took joyfully the spoiling of their 
goods, and went to prison, to the stake, or to 
the gallows with a calm fearlessness which 
convinced many of the truth of their doc- 
trines. It was not in England alone that 
they were thus persecuted. In July, 1656. 
two female members of the Society of 
Friends reached the port of Boston, but 
were compelled by the colonial government 
to return in the same ship. Others, however, 
followed soon after, and while their conscien- 
tious protest against the prevalent customs 
and manners may have savored of fonaticism, 
the colonial authorities were certainly in the 
wrong in persecuting them so bitterly. They 
were whipped, imprisoned, and banished from 
the Massachusetts Colony, and four out of 
five who ventured to return from banish- 
ment, one of 'hem a woman of remarkable 
gifts and devotion, were hanged for their 
contempt of the colonial laws. The last 
martyr of the Society of Friends in America 
was executed in 1661, but subsequent to that 
date some were whipped, banished, and im- 
prisoned, in the colonies of Massachusetts 
and Connecticut. In 1682, a considerable 
number of Friends came over to Pennsyl- 
vania with William Penn, himself a mem- 
ber of the Society. Fox had himself visited 
America in 1669, and remained till 1673, 
and had established meetings of Friends in 
North Carolina and elsewhere, some of which 



are still in existence. The Society of 
Friends in America adheres, to this day, to 
the organization devised for it by Fox. 
Their meetings, as they call their congrega- 
tions, are presided over by Elders, and these 
the most prudent and judicious men of these 
congregations, exercise a quiet, but effective, 
supervision over those who believe them- 
selves called of God to proclaim his truth. 
The utterances of this truth made as the re- 
sult of a special impulse or call of the Spirit 
then and there to sjieak, are made by both 
sexes, the doctrine of the Friends on this sub- 
ject being, that God calls both men and women 
to utter his truths. The meetings are sub- 
ject to monthly meetings of the different 
congregations of a neighborhood or district, 
and these to the " Yearly Meetings," which 
are diocesan in their character, and have a 
controlling and disciplinary power. These 
Yearly Meetings, of which there are ten or 
more, are equal in their authority, and there 
is no appeal from their decisions. 

At the time of the commencement of the 
Revolutionary War, there were about 45,000 
Friends in the thirteen colonies, and as they 
were opposed to bearing arms, and utterly 
refused to take part in the War, there was at 
first some aj^prehension that they were hos- 
tile to the patriot side. This impression was 
soon dissipated ; for though, with some few 
exceptions, the members of the society did 
not bear arms, they rendered great and con- 
spicuous ser\dce to the national cause, and 
this service was rendered with such sacrifices 
and with so much liberality as to show that 
their hearts were in the cause, though they 
were conscientiously opposed to fighting. For 
two or three decades after the war, they con- 
tinued to increase, though not very rapidly. 
Then came a season of stagnation. They, 
who, in the beginning of their history, had 
been the most radical of radicals, were now 
intensely conservative ; and while as holy 
men and women as ever walked the earth 
shaded their brows beneath broad brimmed 
hats and Quaker bonnets, and adhered strictly 
to the Quaker dress, there had come over the 
society a spirit of formalism, which occupied 
itself too much in the petty details of dress 
and language, and neglected, to some extent, 
the weightier matters of law, judgment, and 
faith. Their services had become chstasteful 
to many of their young people, and these 
were abandoning the faith of their fathers 
and going to the opposite extreme of Ritual- 
istic observance in the Episcopal Church, or, 



HISTORY AND PROGRE&S OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



641 



in still stronger protest against its stringent 
rules of life, became the most worldly of 
Avorldlings, till it became a byeword in re- 
gard to the fastest of fast young men, " They 
were brought up as Quakers ! Meanwhile, 
there was in the meetings themselves a grad- 
ual drawing away from the soundness of 
their pristine faith. There were not, as of 
old, those fervent, earnest testimonies ; the 
Spirit's power of impressing men and women 
to utter the word of exhortation came to be 
less frequently and less decidedly manifested 
than of old, and ever and anon there were 
those mute, but protracted, assemblies which 
bore witness more powerfully than any pro- 
phetic utterance could have done, that it was 
not with them as in days past, when the can- 
dle of the Lord shined around about them. 
In 1827 came the great secession, when al- 
most one-third of their number repudiated 
the claims of Christ, as 'the God-man, the 
Divine Redeemer, and, while still claiming 
to be " Friends," withdrew with their leader 
and formed a new organization. For more 
than twenty years that followed, the 'Friends' 
of the Orthodox faith still walked in the wil- 
derness, amid clouds and darkness ; still their 
sons and daughters fell away to the world, 
and their numbers decreased or remained 
stationary. 

But at length the time of refreshing came, 
and as the testimonies to God's goodness and 
grace multiplied, and their meetings were no 
longer silent and dreaiy as of old, they be- 
g m to extend their influence, and to find in 
active work for Christ, in the First Day 
Schools, in the distribution of the Word of 
God, in labors for the poor, oppressed, and 
down trodden, the true secret of success. 
Since 18.50, their numbers have neai'ly 
doubled, and in the work of religious instruc- 
tion, and vigorous efforts for the conversion 
of men, they have found such blessings that 
they lui ve become an aggressive, earnest, and 
efficient body of Christian men and women. 

" The Society of Friends," says Mr. Wil- 
liam J. Allinson, editor of The Friends^ Re- 
view, " is not at issue with other Orthodox 
churches on the general points of Christian 
dioctrine. Avoiding the use of the word 
Trinity, they reverently believe in the Holy 
Three : the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, 
the only begotten of the Father, by whom 
are all things, who is the Mediator between 
God and man, and m the Holy Spirit, who 
pioceedeth from the Father and Son — Qne 
God, blessed forever. They accept, in its 



fullness, the testimony of Holy Sciipture 
with regard to the nature and offices of Christ, 
as the promised Messiah, the Word made 
flesh, the atonement for sin, the Saviour and 
Redeemer of the world. They have no re- 
liance upon any other name, no hope of sal- 
vation that is not based upon his meritorious 
death on the cross. As fully do they admit 
his humanity, and that he was truly man, 
" sin only excepted." They so fully believe 
in the Holy Spirit of Christ, that without the 
inward revelation thereof they feel that they 
can do nothing to God's glory, or to further 
the salvation of their own souls. Without 
the influence thereof they know not how to 
approach the Father, through the Son, nor 
what to pi-ay for as they ought. Their 
whole code of belief calls for the entire sur- 
render of the natural will to the guidance of 
the pure, unerring Spirit, through whose 
renewed assistance they are enabled to bring 
forth fi-uits unto holiness, and to stand per- 
fect in their present work. As it was the 
design of Christ in going to the Father, to 
send, as a Comforter, his Spirit to his disci- 
ples, so it is with his Spirit that he baptized 
and doth baptize them, it being impossiUe, 
in the estimation of the Friends, that an out- 
ward ablution should wash from the spirit of 
man the stains of sin. Hence they attach 
importance to " the baptism which now 
saveth," and which John the Baptist pre- 
dicted should be administered by Christ. 
And it is by his Spirit, also, that his follow- 
ers are enabled to partake of the true Sup- 
per of the Lord : " Behold I stand at the 
door and knock : if any man hear my voice, 
and open unto me, I will come in and sup 
with him, and he shall sup with me." Thus 
they hold that the coming of the Lord Jesus 
Christ in the flesh was the grand epoch and 
central fact of time, and that types and shad- 
ows, and all ceremonial observances, which 
had their place before, as shadows of good 
things to come, now that they have been ful- 
filled in Him, are only shadows of tho?e 
shadows. The type properly precedes the 
reality, and truly this was worthy of being 
foreshadowed ; " but," says Paul, " when that 
which is perfect is come, that which is in 
part shall be done away." 

In regard to their views of the resurrec- 
tion, Thomas Evans, another of their lead- 
ing writers, says : " The Society of Friends, 
beUeves that there will be a resurrection 
both of the righteous and the wicked ; the 
one to ^eternal life and blessedness, and 



642 



HiSXOltY AND PKOGKESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



the ether to everlasting misery and torment, 
agreeably to Matt. XXV, 31-45; John V, 
2.>30; 1 Cor. XV, 12-58. That God will 
judge the world by that man whom he hath 
ordained, even Christ Jesus the Lord, who 
wilJ render unto every man according to his 
works ; to them who by patient continuing 
in well doing during this life, seek for glory 
and honor, immortality and eternal life ; but 
unto the contentious and disobedient, who 
obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, 
indignation and wrath, tribulation and an- 
guish, upon every soul of man that sinneth, 
lor God is no respecter of persons." 

Tlie Friends have ever regarded war as 
inconsistent with Christianity. For this they 
J efer to the teachings of Christ and his apos- 
tles, the example of the early Christians, and 
to the witness tor truth m their own con- 
sciences, tested and confirmed by the sacred 
writuigs. They find that all the emotions 
wliieh are exercised in wars and fightings are 
traced to evil lusts, and are inconsistent with 
love which is tho substance ot the first, the 
second, and the new commanrtment, which 
" worketh no ill to his neighbor," and on 
wliich "hang all the law and the prophets." 
They consider oaths to be inacimissilole, as 
being positively forbidden by our Lord in 
language not to be mistaken, and this testi- 
mony was made the occasion of infiicling se- 
vere penalties upon the first Friends. When 
their persecutors failed to convict them upon 
false charges, it was customary to administer 
the test oaths to them, on refusing to take 
which, they were cast mto prison. 

They decline to use the complimentary 
and false language of the world, and to apply 
to tlie months and days, the names given in 
liDuor of pagan gods, preferring the muBeri- 
cal nomenclature adopted in the Scriptures. 
In dress, they aim at plainness and simplicity, 
avoiding the tyranny of an ever changing 
fashion. As a natural result, a degree of 
uniformity ot dress prevails among them, 
bearing much resemblance to the style in 
\ogue at the rise of the Society. This ap- 
proach to uniformity, which at first was unin- 
ten'ional, came to be cherished as a hedge of 
defense against worldly and ensnaring asso- 
ciations, and a means by which they recog- 
nized each other. The principle at stake is 
not m the fashion of a garb, but in simplicity 
and the avoidance of changes of fashion. 
Whilst PVicnds, as good citizens, have cheer- 
paid ail legal assessments for the sup- 
blic schools, and of the poor, and 



have contributed abundantly to the \urious 
charities, and general claims of benevoience, 
they have always been characterized hj their 
scrupulous care in relieving their owl poor, 
SD that none of their members come upon 
the public for maiutenauce or gratuitous 
education. 

The Friends had, in 1870, including one 
in Canada, ten Yearly Meetings in North 
America, namely, those of Canada, New 
England, New York, Philadelphia, Balti- 
more, North Carolina, Ohio, Indiana, West- 
ern Indiana, and Iowa. The increase of 
membership in the Western States has been 
very rapid of late years. The membership 
of the Society is estimated at 80,000. In all 
the Yearly INIeetings, First Day Schools are 
conducted with zeal and efficiency. The 
number of teachers and scholars in these 
First Day Schools is <ibout 65,000. The 
North Carolina Yearly Meeting has estab- 
lished a Normal Firs^ Day School, for the 
training of teachers of^ these Schools. They 
have three colleges, all of them of high char- 
acter for their thorough scholarship, viz. : 
Haverford College, in Philadelphia county, 
Penn. ; Earlhani College, Richmond, Lidiana, 
and Whitticr College, Salem, Iowa. They 
have, also, large and admirably conducted 
boarding schools, under the care of their 
Yearly Meetings, at West Town, Pa., Prov- 
idence, R. I., Union Springs, N. Y,, and New 
Garden, N. C They have two or three 
peiiodicals of marked ability, T7te Friends' 
Bevieiv, conducted by Mr. AUinson, being in 
literary merit not inferior to any religious 
review in this country. 

II. The Society op Friends (Seced- 
ERS OR Hicks iTEs). We have already re- 
ferred to the schism or secession which took 
place from the Society of Friends, beginning 
with the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, in 
1 827. This secession was led by a preacher 
among the Friends, named Elias Hicks, and 
hence those who have followed his leading 
are commonly called Hicksites, though they 
repudiate the name and insist that they 
should be known solely as the Society of 
Friends. The points of difference between 
them and the Orthodox Friends seem to have 
been these : Hicks and his followers, while 
maintaining a belief in the authenticity and 
divine authority of the Scriptures, yet do not 
regard them with the same degree of rever- 
ence and faith as the Orthodox. In their 
authorized summaries of Christian doctrine 
and the " advices of their Yearly Meetings," 



HISTORY AND PIIOGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



643 



they say : "We acknowledge thein to be the 
only fit outward test of Christian doctrines. 
We do not call them the Word of God, be- 
cause this appellation is applied by the writ- 
ers of the Scriptures to that Eternal Power 

by which the worlds were made 

We assign to the Scriptures all the authority 

they claim for themselves In 

these invaluable writings we find the only 
authentic record of the early history of our 
race, the purest strains of devotional poetry, 
and the suljlime discourses of the Son ot' God. 
Their frequent perusal was therefore especi- 
ally urged upon our younger members, who 
were encouraged to seek loi' the guidance of 
divine grace, by which alone we realize in 
our experience the saving truths they con- 
tain We believe it not the 

part of true wisdom to dwell upon defects, 
whether real or imaginary, in the sacred rec- 
ords, but ratlier to use them as they were 
intended, * for reproof, fjr correction, for in- 
struction in righteousness,' remembering that 
it is only through the operations of the Spir- 
it, of Faith upon our liearts, that they can be 
made availing to us in the promotion of our 
salvation." 

In regard to the original and present state 
of man, they differ somewhat from the Ortho- 
dox, as the following extracts show : " It is 
a scriptural doctrine that neither righteous- 
ness nor unrighteousjiess can be transmitted 
by inheritance, but every man shall be judged 
according to his deeds Ani- 
mal propensities may be transmitted from 
parents to children, but the Scriptures do not 
teach that we inherit any guilt from Adam, 
or from any of our ancestoi's ; nor do we feel 
any compunction for their sins. The lan- 
guage of our Saviour clearly implies that lit- 
tle children are innocent : " for of such," he 
says, " is the kingdom of heaven." 

The followers of Hicks are generally con- 
sidered Unitarians or Socinians, and yet, 
while they apparently do not regard Christ 
as the Second Person in the Divine Trinity, 
nor attribute a saving efficacy to his death 
and sufferings, we are inclined to the belief 
that there is a considerable variety in the 
views of the individual members of the Soci- 
ety, and, perhaps, even among their leading 
or representative men on this point. Their 
'* summaries," and "advices" are exceeding- 
ly vague, and sometimes conflicting, on these 
points. The Rules of Discipline of the Phil- 
adelphia Yearly Meeting, say : " If any in 
membership with us shall blaspheme, or 



speak profanely of Almighty God, Christ 
Jesus or the Holy Spirit, he or she ought 
early to be tenderly treated with, for their in- 
struction, and the announcement of their un- 
derstanding, that they may experience repent- 
ance and forgiveness ; but should any, not- 
withstanding this brotherly labor, persist in 
their error, or deny the divinity of our Lord 
and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the immediate 
revelation of the Holy Spirit, or the authen- 
ticity of the Scriptures, as it is manifest they 
are not one in the faith with us, the monthly 
meeting where the party belongs, having ex- 
tended due care for the help and benefit of 
the individual without effect, ought to deciare 
the same, and issue their testimony accord- 
ingly." Samuel M Janney, autlior of the 
" History of Friends," and one of the leadng 
writers of the Seceding party, thus defines 
their view\s in regard to Christ : " The most 
full and glorious manifestation of the divine 
Word, or Logos, was in Jesus Christ, the 
immaculate Son of God, who was miracu- 
lously conceived and born of a Virgin. In 
him, the manhood, or Son of Man was en- 
tirely subject to the divinity. The Word 
took flesh, or was manifested in the flesh. . 

The holy manhood of Christ, 

that is, the soul of him in whom the Holy 
Spirit dwelt without measure, is now, and 
a'ways will be, the head or chief member of 
that spiritual body which is made up of the 
faithful seravnts of God, of all ages and 
nations. 'There is one God, and one Medi- 
ator between God and man, the man Christ 
Jesus.' As Moses was a mediator to ordain 
the legal dis.pensation, so Jesus Christ w^as, 
and is, the IMediator of the New Covenant ; 
first, to proclaim and exemplify it in the day 
of his outward advent, and secondly, thi ough 
all time, in the ministrations of his Spirit. 
. . . . Tiie great object of the Me-siah's 
advent, is thus declared by himself: "To this 
end was I born, and for this cause came I 
into the world, that I should bear witness 
unto the truth. Every one that is of the 
truih, heareth my voice.' He could not bear 
witness to the truth, among that corrupt and 
perverse people, without suffering for it. He 
foresaw that they would put him to death, 
and he went forward calmly doing his Fath- 
er's will, hading a life of self sacrifice, 
wounded for the transgressions of the peo- 
ple, baptized spiritually in suffering for them, 
and then finally enduiing, on the cross, the 
agonies of a lingering death, thus sealing his 
testimony with his blood. His obedience in 



644 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE D1FFER12NT DENOMINATIONS. 



drinking the cup of suHeiiiig was acceptable 
to God, lor ' he hath loved us, aud hath given 
himself for us, an ottering and a sacritice to 
God, for a sweet smelling savor." It was to 
reconcile man to God, by removing the en- 
mity from man's heart, that Jesus Christ 
lived, and taught, and suffered, and for this 
purpose the Spirit of Christ is still manifest- 
ed as a Redeemer from the bondage of cor- 
ruption It is the life of God, 

or spirit of Truth revealed in the soul, which 
purities and saves from sin. This life is 
sometimes spoken of as the blood : for accord- 
ing to the Mosaic law, 'the hhod is the life.^ 
And when Jesus told the jieople, ' except ye 
eat the Hesh of the Son of Man, and drink 
his blood ye have no life in you,' he alluded 
to the life and power of God that dwelt in 
him, and spake through him." How far the 
views thus stated agree with those generally 
held by the followers of Elias Hicks, we can- 
not say. They would seem to stamp Mr. Jan- 
ney and his fellow believers as sympathizing 
with what is sometimes called the Evangelical 
wing of the Unitarians. In their other views, 
the Seceders do not differ materially from 
the Orthodox Friends. They have been, for 
some years past, quite active in humanitarian 
enterprises, being strongly anti-slavery, and 
having been active in the promotion of asy- 
lums and hospitals for the insane, the inebri- 
ate, the idiot, and for orphans, blind persons, 
and the aged and infirm. They had in 1870, 
six Yearly Meetings, and an estimated mem- 
bership of between 35,000 and 40,000. Tiiey 
have not done much in the way of establish- 
ing First Day Schools, but their boarding 
and high schools in New York, Philadelphia. 
Baltimore, and Richmond, Indiana, as well 
as their smaller schools, are of very high 
character. Swarthmore College, 8 miles S. 
W. of Philadelphia, is a well endowed and 
admirably managed institution, designed for 
300 pupil-, of both sexes. They have two 
or three well conducted periodicals. 

III. Prooressive Friends. This is a 
religious society, organized in 1853, at Ches- 
ter, Penn., in part as a result of a division in 
the Kennett Monthly Meeting, of (Hicksite) 
Friends. The division was caused by a dif- 
ference of opitiion among the members of 
that meeting, in regard to the propriety of 
activity in measures of reform. It was or- 
ganized as the Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting 
of Progressive Friends, and not long after 
other organizations in New York and Ohio, 
having similar objects in view, as well as 



individuals from Novv England, New York* 
and the Western States, who sympathized 
with it, gradually drifted into a similar 
organization so far as to attend its Yearly 
Meetings. Mr. Oliver Johnson, formerly of 
the National Anti-Slavery Standard, and the 
Independent, who has been long identified 
with this movement, thus defines its charac- 
ter and princijiles : " The nevv Society open- 
ed its doors to all who recognize the equal 
brotherhood of the human family, without 
regard to sex, color, or condition, and who 
acknowledged the duty of defining and illus- 
trating their faith in God, not by assent to a 
creed, but by lives of personal purity, and 
works of beneficence and charity. It disa- 
vowed any intention or expectation of bind- 
ing its members together by agreement as to 
theological opinions, and declared that it 
would seek its bond of union in ' identity of 
object, oneness of spirit in respect to the 
practical duties of life, the communion of soul 
with sold in a common love of the beautiful 
and true, and a common aspiration after 
moral excellence.' It disclaimed all discip- 
linary authority, whether over individual 
members or local associations ; it set forth no 
forms or ceremonies, and made no provision 
for the ministry, as an order distinguished 
from the laity ; it set its face against every 
form of ecclesia^ticism, and denounced as the 
acme of superstitious imposture, the claim of 
churches to hold an organic relation to 
God, and to speak by his authority, maintain- 
ing that such bodies are purely human, the 
I'epositories of no power save that rightly 
conferi'ed upon them by the individuals of 
whom they are composed." With so radical 
a platform, it is not a matter of surprise that 
the yearly gatherings of this Society have 
drawn together ultraists of all shades, the 
" come outers " of thirty years ago, Spiritual- 
ists, the advocates of female suffrage, and of 
all manner of practicable and impracticable 
reforms, and that while, in the company, were' 
many men of lofty purpose and the true mar- 
tyr spirit, there were others whose whole 
lives had been devoted to wild and fanatical 
theories in religions, politics, and social life. 
Generally these gatherings have been largely 
attended, but except a single local association 
at Longwood, near Hamorton, Penn., which 
have kept up for several years, a meeting on 
every First Day, and a First Day School for 
children, and discuss freely questions of ethics, 
political economy, and religion at their meet- 
ings, but have never employed any religious 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DEN0:MINATI0NS. 



645 



teacher. It is obviously impossible to give 
any estimate of the number of Pi'ogressive 
Friends, as their meetings are open to all 
who choose to come, and there is no enroll- 
ment of membership. 

IV. We are inclined to place under this 
general liead, also, the SHAKERS, or as 
th(^y style themselves, the United Society 
OF Believers in Christ's Second Ap- 
pearing, not because there is much in com- 
mon to them and the Society of Friends now, 
but because in their origin they were mem- 
bers of that Society, and because their views 
of the influence, and inward teachings of the 
Holy Spirit, though carried to excess, have 
the same original basis. Attempts have 
been made to trace their principles back to 
the Camisards or French prophets, and to 
the school of the prophets in Dauphiny 
(1688-1705), but these are so evidently an 
afterthought, as to be unworthy of notice. 
About 1747, some members of the Society 
of Friends in the vicinity of Manchester, 
England, formed themselves into a distinct 
organization, of which James Wardley and 
Jane, his wife, were the leaders, and a Mr. 
and Mrs. Lee were members. Ann Lee, a 
daughter of the last named cou^jle, born in 
1736, and always seriously inclined, had 
married, in 1756, Abraham Stanley, and in 
1758, she, with her husband, joined the asso- 
ciation. The religious exercises of this little 
coterie diflfered but slightly from those of the 
other associations of Friends at that time. 
They were noticeable for greater and more 
decided physical manifestations than most, 
such as dancing, shouting, trembling, speak- 
ing with tongues, but these were common in 
that day, and it was only when the excite- 
ment was so great as to lead the magistrates 
and others to charge them with breaking the 
Sabbath, that the Wardleys, and Ann Lee 
and her family were fined and imprisoned. 
In 1770, Ann Lee, then 34 years of age. and 
to all appearance a woman of no extiaordin- 
ary talents or education, professed to have 
received, by a special manifestation of divine 
light, those revelations which made her the 
founder of a new faith, and have caused her 
followers ever since to regard her as an in- 
spired being, and to give her the name of 
Mother Ann. . 

In 1774, Mother Ann, and nine of the 
more prominent members of the Society, un- 
der authority of a special revelation, emi- 
grated to America, and 8 of the number pro- 
ceeding up the Hudson, settled at Niskayuna 



(now Watervliet), seven miles from Albany, 
N. Y., a region then a wilderness. Here 
they remained for three or four years Avith- 
out any excitement, or considerabln increase 
of their numbers. In 1779, a religious revi- 
val occurred at New Lebanon, Columbia Co., 
some thirty miles from Niskayuna, and was 
accompanied by those extraordinary physical 
manifestations which a little later character- 
ized the great revivals in Kentucky and 
Tennessee. In the spring of 1780, some of 
those who had been most affected by these 
manifestations, visited Mother Ann at Water- 
vliet, and found in her revelations, as they 
believed, the explanation of their experiences. 
Led by their statements, others visited her, 
and the number of adherents to her doctrines 
began to increase rapidly, and continued to 
do so until some time after her death, which 
occurred in 1784. Among the revelations 
which she professed to have received was 
one directing that there should be a commu- 
nity of goods among her adlierents, and an- 
other requiring their organization into one or 
more unitary households. In 17b7, Joseph 
Meacham, who had formerly been a Baptist 
IH'eachei", and who was one of her earliest 
converts at Niskayuna, gathered her adher- 
ents into a settlement at iSew Lebnnon. and 
established there the first unitary hou-ehold 
on a large scale, and with complete commu- 
nity of goods. He was an able administrator, 
and in five years he had oi'ganized 1 1 Shaker 
settlements, in New York, Massachusetts, 
Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Maine. 
No others were established until 1805, when, 
after some years effort, four were established 
in Ohio, and 2 in Kentucky. AH are on the 
same model as that of the New Lebanon 
Community, regarded from the first as the 
mother hou-e. Each settlement consists of 
from two to eight families or households. 
Each family occupies a large dwelling-house, 
divided through the center by wide halls, and 
capable of containing from 30 to 150 in- 
mates, the men occu]:)ying one end and the 
women the other. Beside these, there are 
storehouses, workshops, dairy houses, a 
school house for the children they adopt, and 
a meeting-house or hall. Consideraldci tracts 
of land are attached to each settlement, rang- 
ing from seven to ten acres to each member. 
They believe idleness to be sinful, and 
hence every member who is able to work is 
emjiloyed in some useful labor. They culti- 
vate flowers, medicinal herbs and roots, 
fruits, vegetables, and collect garden and 



G46 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFE1:EXT DENOMINATIONS. 



flower seeds, dry and preserve fruits, put up 
dried herbs and roots, and make medicinal 
extracts. Tliey have also extensive manu- 
factories connected with their settlements. 
Brooms, wooden and willow ware, some de- 
scriptions of cloths, flannels, etc., etc., are pro- 
duced by them. Their schools are of high 
grade and abundantly sujjplied with the best 
text books, and ajtparatus. Their doctrines 
as stated by their chief elder, F. W. Evans, 
are these : " God is dual, there being an 
Eternal Father and Mother in the Deity, 
the heavenly parents of all angelical and 
human beings. The revelation of God is 
progressi\ e ; in the first or antediluvian pe- 
riod of human history, God was only known 
as a Great Spirit ; in the second or Jewish 
jjeriod, he was revealed as the "• I am that I 
am," or Jehovah ; in the third cycle, Jesus 
made him known as a Father ; and in the 
la-;t cycle, commencing with 1770, God is re- 
vealed in the character of Mother, an Eter- 
nal Mother, the bearing spirit of all the cre- 
ation of God. This last is regarded by them 
as a revelation of God's affectional nature, a 
manifestation of the divine love and tender- 
ness. They believe Christ to be also dual, 
male and female, a supra-mundane being, 
and, at his first appearing, the cummunicator 
of the new revelation to Je-us, who, in their 
system, was a divinely instructed, pure, and 
perfect man, and who, in consequence of his 
divine anointing, became Jesus Christ. In 
the new revelation made to Jesus, these 
truths were first brought to light ; the im- 
mortality of the soul, and the resurrection of 
the soul, whit h they define as the quickening 
of the germ of a new life, after the death of 
the first, Adamic, or generative life. 

All who marry or are given in marriage, 
or who indulge in the earthly procreative 
relation, they call "• the children of this 
World," and followers of the first Adam ; 
they do not condemn them for living in the 
marital relation so long as they confine its 
use simply to the purpose of procreation, the 
production of offspring being, in their view, 
the only justification of sexual intercourse. 
But Shakers, as Christians, hold that they 
are called to lead a spiritual and holy life, 
not only free from all lust and carnal sexual 
indulgence, but even to rise above the order 
o. natural and innocent human reproduction, 
being themselves the "children of the resur- 
rection," and as such daily dying to the gen- 
erative nature, as Jesus and the apostles 
died to it, and thus becoinhig new creatures, 



who are able to comprehend the " mysteries 
of God." Among the other doctrines in 
which, as they believe, " Christ instructs 
Jesus," were, human brotherhood, and its de- 
velopment in a community of goods ; non- 
resistance ; non-participation in any eai-thly 
government, and the necessity of a life of 
celibacy and viigin purity to a perfect C hris- 
tianity. 

The second appealing of the Christ "with- 
out sin unto salvation," they believe took place 
through Mother Ann Lee, in 177U. She, "by 
strictly obeying the light revealed in her, be- 
came righteous, even as Jesus was righteous. 
She acknowledged Jesus Christ as her Head 
and Lord, and ibrmed the same character as a 
spiritual woman, that he did as a spiritual 
man." Tlie necessity for a second appear- 
ing of Christ in the female form, resulted 
fi'om the dual nature of Christ, and of the 
Deity. " Still it was not Jesus, nor Ann, 
but the principles already stated, which w ere 
the foundation of the Second Christian 
Church. Their importance is derived fiom 
the fact of their being the first man and the 
first woman perfectly identified w ith the 
principles and spirit of Christ." This sec- 
ond appearing of Christ they believe to be 
the true resurrection state, and rejudiate a 
])hysical resurrection as repugnant to science, 
reason, and Scripture. We have noticed 
their four cycles of human religious pngrcss; 
they also believe that there are four heavens 
and four hells, the first three of which are 
still places of probation. The first heaven 
and hell were for the good and wicked ( f 
the antediluvians, and the " spirits in pris- 
on," to whom Christ preached in the inter- 
val between his death and resurrection, were 
the wicked of that cycle. Gehenna is the 
name they give to the second hell, to which 
are consigned wicked Jews and heathen who 
died before the coming of Jesus ; and the 
second heaven is paradise, where the thief 
on the cross had the promise of going. The 
third heaven is tiiat of the church of the first 
appearing of Christ, to whiih Paul was 
caught up. Higher and more glorious than 
those which preceded it, it is still not tlie 
home of perfect souls. The hell of the third 
cycle is a place of toiment for tlose who did 
not believe in, nor follow Christ, ac( ording 
to the light of tliose days. The fcurtli hea- 
ven is now forming; in it Jesus and Mother 
Ann reside, and to it will all thise go who 
have resisted temptation until their evil lusts 
and propensities are all destroyed, and the 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THK DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



647 



life of the generative, natural man is dead in 
them, for such are born of God, and cannot 
sin. No one but Jesus had ever attained to 
this previous to the second appearing of 
Christ in Ann Lee. It is the heaven of hea- 
v:^iis, and to it will be gathered not only all 
w^lio accept the doctrines of the Shakers in 
this world, and attain to the new birth, but 
all those in the lower heavens and hells who 
shall yet accept them ; and when their deci- 
sion is finally made, the lower heavens and 
hells, and the earth will be destroyed, juid 
only the fourth heaven for the true believers, 
and the fourth hell for the finally impenitent, 
will remain. Each cycle has had its own 
Holy Spirit, the sjjiritual eftlux from the 
Church in the heaven of that cycle to the in- 
habitants of earth at the time. They hold 
to oral confession of sins to God in the pres- 
ence of one or two witnesses, as essential to 
the reception of the power to for.-ake sin. 
They believe that the second dispensation 
(that of Moses) was intended to teach by 
revelation, God's truth pertaining to the 
earth life chiefly, and they regard the princi- 
ples of the Levitical laws, in regard to food 
and agriculture, etc., as binding to-day as 
when they were given. All physical disease 
they say, is the result of some physiological 
sin against the teachmgs of Moses, either di- 
rectly or indirectly. They believe in the 
power of their members to heal physical dis- 
eases, by means of prayer and the regulation 
of the diet. 

The Bible they regard as a record of 
divine angelic ministrations to man, and as a 
more or less imperfect account of the reli- 
gious experience and history of the Jews. 
They believe that the mental and spiritual 
condition of the seers and prophets whose 
prophecies are i herein recorded, has materi- 
ally modified the revelation, and that it has 
been still farther weakened and impaired by 
the impei'fections of the translators ; the book 
of Revelations having suffered less tlian any 
other from these causes, inasmuch as it is 
utterly incomprehensible to the generative 
man, and could not be comprehended even 
by the spiritual until the second appearing of 
Christ (through Mother Ann Lee), as that 
was the only key to unlock its mysteries. 
The revelations of Ann Lee and of others of 
their elders who have been inspired to speak 
the words of God, they regard as important 
and biiid ng on them. 

Their mode of worship is peculiar. The 
two sexes are usually ranged in ranks facing 



each other, the front ranks being from six to 
ten feet apart. First there is usually an ad- 
dress by one of the elders, " who is moved to 
speak" on some doctrinal subject, or some 
practical virtue, usually closing with a recital 
of the exalted privileges which they enjoy 
over the " world's people ; " after this they sing 
a hymn, and then form in circles around a band 
of male and female singers, and commence 
marching or dancing, and when, as is some- 
times the case, the excitement and fervor 
reaches its height, their motions, though 
retaining the order and rhythm of the dance, 
become inconceivably rapid. At these sea- 
sons they believe themselves to be under the 
influence of spirit agencies, both of angels, 
and the departed members of their own 
brotherhood, who have attaiiied in the other 
life to a greater freedom fiom the generati^e 
nature and order, and a more complete res- 
urrection of the soul, than those who are still 
in the body can reach. Their ministry are 
very few in numbers. Two of their most 
judicious and experienced brethren and the 
same numljer of sisters are chosen to have 
the oversight of from one to three or four 
Societies ; so that there are only twenty or 
twenty-four of these ministers in all. Each 
family in every Society has also four elders, 
viz., two brethren, and two sisters, who have 
charge of it, and the temi^oralities are cared 
for by two deacons, and two deaconesses. 

There are three classes of members: 1. 
The novitiates, who unite with the Society in 
religious faith and principle, but do not enter 
into the temporal connection with it. Believ- 
ers of this class are not controlled by the 
Society as to their property, children, or 
families. ; 

2. The Juniors, who join one of the families 
of the Society, and iniite in its labors and re- 
ligious exercises, but who have not relin- 
quished their property to the Society, or if 
they have given the Society the improve- 
ment of it, may resume it at any time, 
though without interest; and 3d, the Senior 
class, who, after a full and complete experi- 
ence of the Shaker system and faith, have 
deliberately consecrated themselves, their ser- 
vices, and all their property to the Society 
never to be reclaimed by themselves or their 
legal heirs. All who retain their connection 
with the Shaker Communities are amply 
provided for in health, in sickness, and in old 
age. The Shaker Communities are all thrifty 
and have acquired by their industry, consid, 
erablej and some of them very large amountg 



648 



HISTORY AND PR0GRKS3 OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



of property. They luul, at the latest reports, 
18 societies, about G,oUO full members (Sen- 
iors), and, perhaps, 1,1 lOO more juniors and 
novitiates, besides a considerable number 
(nearly three thousand, it is said) of children, 
orphans, and others, whom they have adopt- 
ed, and whom they carefully educate. They 
are thrifty, industrious citizens, and in all 
the relations of life very exemplary. 



IX. UNIT AS FRATRUM, OR MORAVIANS. 
The Moravians, or Unity op the 
Brkthri<:n ( Uiiitas Fratnmi ), as they style 
their religious body, originated with the Bo- 
hemian and Moravian churches of the 9th 
century, but did not assume their present 
organization till 14:-";7, although they identify 
themselves with the followers of John Huss 
more than half a century earlier. They were 
almost crushed o;it by the persecutions of 
Ferdiinnd 11, in 1G21 and the following 
years, but through the fostering influence of 
the writings and teachings of Amos Comen- 
ius, one of their bishops, they were enabled 
to maintain a secret existence. About 1720 
a Moravian exile, Christiiin David, began to 
ad.lress them earnestly, and a revival ensued. 
In 1722, two fuiiilies, subsequently followed 
by others, made their escajie from Moravia, 
and, after a journey of eleven days, reached 
the estate of Count Zinzendorf, a young Sax- 
on noblemui, and were cordially received. 
The Count became thenceforth their leader, 
and in five years had 300 Moravians on his 
estate. They had built a village on the 
Ilutberg, called Herrnhut. In 1735, they 
had obtained the Episcopal succession of the 
Unitas Fratrum, and in 1 7 4'J they were ac- 
knowledged by the British Parliament as an 
Episcopal Church, and encouraged to settle 
in North America. They accordingly foun- 
ded several settlements in the American Col- 
onies, and engaged with great zeal in mis-ion- 
ary labors among the Indians, in which they 
were very succesful. Tiiey also founded 
missions in Greenland and elsewhere, many 
yeirs bcf jre the other Protestant denomina- 
tions had engaged in missionary efibrt. 
Their plan of " settlements " or villages in 
which no person could be a jiermanent 
householder unless he or she was a member 
of the Church, as well as their unitary house- 
hold of single men and youths, of single sis- 
ters and young maidens, and of widows, each 
presided over by elders of their own sex, 
their very rigid rules in regard to marriage, 



and their exclusive and earnest devotion to 
the missionary work, while it kept their num- 
bers small, greatly contributed to their pu- 
rity of faith and doctrine. At the period of 
the Revolution, they probably did not num- 
ber, of full communicants, in the United 
States, more than 3,000 souls, and, perhaps, 
not so many. They had, beside, their sev- 
eral thousand converts among the Indians, 
who remained faithful to their religious prin- 
ciples, and a considerable number of whom 
were martyrs to their fa'th. The distinctive 
settlements, and the brethren's, sisters', aud 
widows' houses are now entirely given up in 
the United States. They have two prov- 
inces, a Northern, and a Southern, the head- 
quarters of the northern being at Bethlehem, 
Penn., and of the southern, at Salem, N. C. 
They have also large boarding schools, and 
are predominant in the population at Beth- 
lehem, Nazai'eth, aud Litiz, Penu., and at 
Salem, N. C. 

The Moravians are thoroughly Evangelical 
in their doctrines, and while they sympathize 
most heartily and fully with the ILvangelical 
churches in all the great cardinal doctrines 
of scriptural Christianity, they regard it as 
their special mission to make the principal 
theme of their preaching and teaching, the 
life, merits, acts, words, sufferings, and death 
of the Saviour; considering the revelation of 
God in Christ as intended to be the most 
beneficent revelation of the Deity to the 
human race. In thus })reaching and teach- 
ing, they carefully avoid entering into any 
theoretical disquisition on the mysterious es- 
sence of the Godhead, simply adhering to the 
words of Scripture. Admitting the Sacred 
Scriptures as the only source of Divine Rev- 
elation, they nevertheless believe that the 
Spirit of God continues to lead those who 
believe in Christ, into all truth ; not by re- 
vealing new doctrines, but by teaching' those 
who sincerely desire to learn, daily better to 
understand and apply the trutlis which the 
Scriptures contain. They believe that to 
live conformably to the gospel, it is essential 
to aim in all things to fulfil the will of God. 
E\'en in their temporal concerns, they en- 
deavor to ascertain the will of the Lord. 
They do not, indeed, expect any miraculous 
manifestation of his will, but only endeavor 
to test the purity of their purposes by the 
light of the Divine Word. Nothing of con- 
sequence is done by them, as a Society, until 
such an examination has taken place ; and 
in cases of difficulty, the question is decided 



niSTOUr AND PROGRESS OF Till!: DIFFERENT DEXOMINATIOX3. 



649 



by lot, 10 avoid the undue preponderance of 
influential men, and in the humble hope that 
God will guide them rightly by its decision, 
where their limited understanding fails them. 
In regard to their general, doctrinal belief, 
the following summary, revised and put forth 
by their General 8ynod in 18G9, is their 
most authoritative statement: 

" We regard every truth revealed to us in 
tlie Word of God as an invaluable treasure, 
and sincerely believe that the loss of life it- 
self would be a trifling evil compared with 
the denial of any one of them. But most 
especially is this the case with that truth 
which the Renewed Church of the Brethren 
has ever regarded as her chief doctrine, an 
inestimable jewel, which, by God's grace, she 
still holds flxst : 

'That whosoe'er beh'eveth in Christ's redemption, 
May find free grace and a complete exemption 
From sei'ving sin.' 

From this great truth, we deduce the fol- 
lowing points of' doctrine most essential to 
salvation : 

a. The doctrine of the total depravity of hir 
mmi nature, — that there is no health in us — 
and that, since ihe fall, Ave have no power to 
help ourselves out of the bondage of sin. 

b. The doctrine of the love of God the 
Father, who 'has chosen us in Christ, before 
the foundation of the world,' and who ' so 
loved the world that he gave his oidy begot- 
ten Son, that whosoever believeih on Him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life." 

c. The doctrine of the real Godhead, and 
the real manhood of Jesus Christ ; that God, 
the Creator of all things, was manifest in the 
flesh, and has reconciled the Avorld unto him- 
self — that ' He is before all things, and by 
Him all things exist.' 

d. The doctrine of the atonement and satis- 
faction of Jesus Christ for us ; that he ' was 
delivered for our offences, and was raised 
again for our justification,' and that in his 
merits alone we find forgiveness of sins and 
peace with God. 

e. The doctrine of the Holy Ghost and his 
graciovs operations ; that it is he wdio works 
in us the knowledge of sin, faith in Jesus, 
and the witness that we are the children of 
God, and that without him we cannot know 
the truth. 

/. The doctrine of the fruits of faith : that 
it /must show itself as an active principle, by 
a willing obedience to God's commandments, 
flowing from love and gratitude, and that 



genuine faith will ever be thus distinguisha- 
ble." 

In their church polity, the Moravians have 
points of similarity to several other denomi- 
nations ; they have bishops, presbyters, and 
deacons like the Protestant Episco2)al Church, 
but their bishops are not diocesan, but are 
appointed for the whole church ; they hold 
to Episcopal succession, which they derive 
through the Bohemian and Moravian 
churches, and which, if apostolical, comes 
through Paul instead of Peter ; but their 
bishops possess no governing power by vir- 
tue of their bishopric; it is the General Sy- 
nod and its boards that govern, and the bish- 
ops derive their powei", if they have any, 
from their connection with some of these 
boards; their presbyters or elders are preach- 
ers and pastors ; their deacons are young 
ministers and missionaries, who can adminis- 
ter the sacraments after receiving their first 
ordination. They have a liturgy consisting 
of a litany, forms for infant and adult bap- 
tism (they are Pa?do-baptists), the sacrament 
of the LoK^l's Supper, the rites of confirma- 
tion and ordination, the burial of the dead, 
and marriage. Love-feasts, the apostolical 
ogapce, are celebrated, and once a year, or 
oftener, there is the rite of " washing the 
saints' feet." Their General Synod, always 
held at Bethelsdorf, in Saxony, meets only 
once in ten or twelve years. It has cogniz • 
ance of the whole affairs of the " Unity of the 
Brethren ; " but in most matters, local 
Boards of Elders of the several provinces, 
have control in the interim of the sessions of 
the Synod. Each province has its synod, 
and its Provincial Elders' Conference, and 
these, and not the Bishops, manage all mat- 
ters connected with the Church in their pro- 
vince. The American province is divided 
into two districts, a nortliern and a southern. 
They are still very active in the missionary 
work, and have, in addition to their mission- 
aries among the heathen, nearly a hundred 
of their ministers who are serving in Luth- 
eran and Reformed churches. In these 
churches, there are many thousands who are 
almost as closely afiiliated to them as their 
own members. Every church is divided 
into three classes : the Catechumens, compris- 
ing the children of the brethren, and adult 
converts ; the Communicants, who are admit- 
ted to the Lord's Supper, and are regarded 
as members of the church ; and TTie perfect, 
consisting of those who have persevered for 



650 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



a long time in a course of true piety. From 
this lust class are chosen in e\ery church by 
a plurality of votes, the ehkrs, who are from 
three to eight in number. These elders are 
of both sexes, and are assistants to the 2>as- 
tors, in the general church woik. 

The latest statistics we have of the Mora- 
vian Church are only to the close of 18 68. 
They had then five bishops, one of whom has 
since deceased ; G6 ministers ; 54 congrega- 
tions ; 6,7G8 communicants; 11,855 mem- 
bers, including baptized children, etc. ; 623 
Sunday School teachers, and 5.059 Sunday 
School scholars. Their boarding schools 
have increased to six by the addition of one 
at Chaska, INIinn., and one in Bartholomew 
Co., Ind. They have a theological school at 
Bethlehem, Penn. Their only jieriodical in 
the United States, Tlie Moravian, is publish- 
ed at Bethlehem. There is no statement of 
the portion of the missionary work, or the 
missionary contributions from the American 
Moravian churches, the mission work being 
conducted from the headquarters in Saxony. 
The entire contributions of the whole church 
for missionary purposes, (which hnd 15,176 
communicants in 1868) was about $125,000. 



X. UNITARIANS AND UNIVERSALISTS. 
. I. UNITARIANS. The rejection of the 
doctrine of the Trinity, and the subordina- 
tion of the Son to the Father, with the ac- 
ceptance of the otiicr doctrines which have 
been affiliated with it, has existed in one 
form or another since the second or third 
century. At first it was Arianism, contend- 
ing that the expression, " only begotten Son 
of the Father," implies a beginning and a 
subordination of the Son ; this view, though 
maintained even to the early part of the pres- 
ent century in some quartei's, gave place gt^n- 
erally, to the slightly modified theories of 
Faustus and Laelius Socinus, in the 16th cen- 
tury, and these, though still prevalent on the 
continent of Europe, and largely held in the 
last century in England, by Priestley and his 
followers, have in their turn been succeeded 
by the Unitarianism of Channing and his 
successors. Priestley's views, foinided on the 
principles of the sensational philoso()hy, and 
accepting religious truths on the evidence of 
miracle, but limiting the number of those 
trulhs to the cardinal doctrines, the unity of 
God, and the general resurrection, found 
some credence in the American Colonies 
aboui the middle of the last century. Priest- 



ley himself visited Philadelphia, in 1779. 
Emlyn's " Inquiry into the Scripture Ac- 
count of Jesus Christ," was published in 
Boston, in 1756, and there was a gradual 
lapsing of very many of the clergy of Mas- 
sachusetts into Arian views in the latter part 
of the eighteenth century, the result in part, 
doubtless, of that looseness of doctrine wliich 
grew out of the adoption of the Halfway 
Covenant. Toward the close of the century, 
the tone of religious society in Boston was 
very generally Unitarian, repudiating the 
Divinity of Christ, and the necessity of an 
atoning sacrifice, but declining to enter into 
pai'ticulars in regard to the exact status of 
Christ in their reh'gious system. In 1805, a 
Unitarian was elected professor of divinity in 
Harvard University. But as yet, there was 
no separation, and no lines were drawn, 
among the Congregationalists of Massachu- 
setts, between Orthodox and Unitarian. The 
separation came in 1815 and the following 
years, when the eloquent Channing avowed 
liis Unitarian views, and led ofFSfrora 15,000 
to 20,000 members of the Congregational 
churches of Massachusetts, or nearly 200 
congregations. Channing was not an ultra- 
ist in his views, and his plan of withdrawing 
interest from points of controversial divinity, 
subordinatins reliijious theories to the reli- 
gious life, and bringing into marked promi- 
nence the spiritual elements of human nature, 
and in this way initiating the practice of 'try- 
ing religious systems by the instincts and 
sentiments of the soul, was exceedingly at- 
tractive to those restless spirits who had so 
long been in search of some faith which could 
satisfy their aesthetic nature, and quiet their 
perturbed spirits. But Channing's success- 
ors went farther than he, and many of them 
in a difierent direction. 

It is hard to define the Unitarian belief, 
because it is not, in any sense, a unity. 
Wh.le its adherents have some positive 
points of belief, in which, however, they 
widely disagree, their tenets are better ex- 
pressed by a series of negatives, than by pos- 
itive declarations, confessions, or creeds. 
They agree in holding to the Unity of God, 
and the subordination of tlie Son of God ; 
but while some of them do not attempt to 
define his real jjosition in their religious sys- 
tem, others hold to every phase of belief 
from those who accept the Trinity in a phil- 
osophical sense, but reject the deity of Christ, ' 
to those who hold him to have been mere 
man, a weak and peaceable man, or a myth. 



HISTORY AND r: )GUr,SS OF TIIK DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



651 



A considerable number, though not a major- 
ity, believe him to be a super-angelic being, 
divinely commissioned to be the mediator be- 
tween God and man ; others hold that he 
was a teaclier, the prophet and founder of a 
new religious system ; the major part regard 
him as sinless and pure in his teacliings and 
life, while a not inconsiderable minority class 
him with Mdses, Zartusht, Gotama, Moham- 
med, and Swt'drnborg, as a reformer, but by 
no means an infallible one. They generally 
regard the Holy Spirit as an influence, while 
some agree in rejecting, in whole or in part, 
the doctrines of man's depravity and moral 
inability, but in regard to the atonement, 
they range all the way from a modified con- 
ception of Christ's office as a Redeemer and 
Saviour, to the opinion that his whole func- 
tion was discharged in his office of teacher, 
exemplar, or reformer. Very few Unitari- 
ans hold to the doctrine of eternal punish- 
ment of the wicked, but here again their 
views vary from those who believe in a pro- 
tracted period of retribution, to those who 
hold to a speedy restoration, or those who 
entertain the dogma that the only retribu- 
tion for sin is in this life. In rega7d to the 
ins[)iration of the Scriptures, there is a simi- 
lar diversity of belief Channing, Andrews, 
Isorton, and the earl}' American Unitarians, 
like their English and Polish brethren, held 
to the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures, 
and some of them wrote ably and eloquently 
in defence of the doctrine ; but the "Ad- 
vanced Unitai-ians " of the present day, " do 
not appeal to the Scrii^tures as inspired and 
infallible oracles, but discuss religious ques- 
tions on grounds of philo-ophy alone. Re- 
garding the Bible as the most interesting and 
valuable part of the world's literatiu-e, they 
seek in it illustrations of spiritual laws, but 
not final statements of moral and religious 
truth. To some, the Vedas and Shastas of 
the Hindoos, the Zendavesta, the Koran, 
and the revelations of Swedenborg, are of 
nearly equal authenticity and inspiration with 
the Bible. 

Unitarianism can hardly be said to have 
any distinctive ordinances or sacraments. 
The churches which first separated from 
Trinitarian Congregationalism, required bap- 
tism both of infants and adults, and especi- 
ally of the latter, but it had lost its signifi- 
cance with their changed views of the atone- 
ment, and now infant baptism is wholly aban- 
doned, and adult baptism only maintained in 
a few churches on sentimental Jirounds. The 



same nuiy be said of the sacrament of the 
Lord's Supper. Where practiced, it is only 
as a means of cultivatirg the religious life, 
and not as a sacrament at all. In their 
church polity, they are Congregationalists, 
with, perhaps, somewhat more independency 
than the Orthodox Congregationalists. Seme 
of their churches have ado[)ted a sort of lit- 
urgy, and maintain a vesper service of a 
musical and devotional character. They 
have, within the past fifteen or twenty years, 
manifested an increased spirit of propagand- 
ism, disseminating Channing's woiks, and 
other Unitarian works published by the 
American Unitarian Association, and con- 
ducting some Home and Foreign missionary 
operations through their denominational or- 
ganizations. They have given increased at- 
tention to the promotion of education, and 
have maintained among their clergymen that 
high reputation for elegant belles-lettres at- 
tainments, and rhetorical ability, which have 
characterized them from the first. They 
have j^lanted Unitarian Societies in most of 
the large cities throughout the country, and 
though their congregations are neither nu- 
merous nor large, they have collected in them 
a considerable number of men of fine culture 
and aesthetic tastes. Still Unitarianism 
proper can hardly be said to flourish 'out of 
New England, hardly, indeed, out of Massa- 
chusetts. Its adherents there and elsewhere 
deserve credit for their active humanitarian 
effiDrts. In rescuing vagrant and vicious 
children from the evil influence to which 
they are exposed, in caring for the aged and 
infirm, the sick and homeless, and especially 
for their effiirts in beha'f of the sick and 
wounded soldiers of our late war, in connec- 
tion with the United States Sanitary Com- 
mission, and their earnest loyalty, the Uni- 
tarians are deserv'ng of all honor. 

Tlie Unitarians have under their control 
three colleges, viz : Harvard University, 
Cambridge, Mass. ; Antioch College, Yellow 
Springs, Ohio, and Humboldt College, Hum- 
boldt, Iowa. They have also three theologi- 
cal or Divinity Schools; viz: the Cambridge 
Divinity School, wiih 5 professors, and 36 
students ; the Boston School for the Minis- 
try, Boston, with 12 instructors, and 23 stu- 
dents ; and the Meadville Theological School, 
with 8 professors and 29 students. They had 
also one nearly organized at Chicago, previ- 
ous to the great fire. 

They had, in 1870, five periodicals : two 
monthlies, " Old and New," and the Monthly 



652 



HISTORY AND TROGRESS OF TIIK DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



Religious Magazine ; one semi-monthly, the 
Sanday School Gazette, and two weeklies, 
The Christian Register, and The Liheral 
Christian. Thei). statistics in 1870, were : 
one National Conference, 347 societies, 396 
ministers, of whom 148 were not in the pas- 
torate. These societies represent it is be- 
lieved, from 30,000 to 40,000 members, and 
an adherent popnlation of 60,000 to 8»,000. 
The American Unitarian Association, which 
])ijblishes denominational books and aids 
Unitarian edm-ational institutions, has an 
annual income of $100,000 or over. They 
have four or five mission stations in India, 
also aided by this Association. There are 
Sunday Schools attached to many of the 
societies, but no general statistics of them 
are published. In most of the cities there 
are Young Men's Christian Unions, with 
libraries and reading rooms attached. 

11. UNI VERS A LISTS. Though entirely 
distinct in their origin, and giving special 
prominence to a dogma which the Unitari- 
ans keep partially in the background, there 
is really very little difference in the doctrinal 
belief of Unitarians and Universalists. At 
first they appealed to different 'classes of so- 
ciety ; the Unitarians having among their 
adherents, especially in Massachusetts, a large 
proportion of the refined and scholarly class, 
and their discourses being models of graceful 
rhetoric, while the Universalists gathered 
into their congregations very considerable 
numbers of working men, sharp and ready 
reasoners, but with no great amount of cul- 
ture or i-efinement, and their preachers culti- 
vated the power of rough and ready declara- 
tion rather than the graces of oratory. There 
had been very few, if any, acknowledged 
Universalists in the American Colonies pri- 
or tj 1770, though undoubtedly some promi- 
nent theologians had rather hojied than be- 
lieved in the final restoration of those who 
had died impenitent. In that year, however. 
John Murray, who had been an English 
Wesleyan preacher, but had become a con- 
vert to Universalist doctrines, as taught by 
one James Relly, came over to America, and 
landed in New Jersey. He soon went to 
Massachusetts and commenced a series of 
it ne rant journeys through the states, preach- 
ing his views. At first, he did not make 
many converts, and it was not luitil 1779 
that the first Universalist Society was organ- 
ized, in Gloucester, Mass. In 1781, Rev. 
Elhanan Winchester, a Baptist clf^rgyman of 
Philadelphia, avowed his belief in the final 



restoration of the wicked to hajipiness and 
heaven, and organized a church of Restora- 
tionists, in that city. From that time the 
Univer-alists began to increase, their growth 
being promoted by the very strong opposition 
manifested towards them. In 1791, Rev. 
Ilosea Ballon, who had also been a Baptist 
minister, espoused the views of IMurray, and 
advocated them with great vigor and earnest- 
ness. The growth of the denomination has 
been steady and considerably rapid during 
the present century. The most full and sat- 
isfactory exposition of the doctrines of the 
Universalists we have ever seen is that given 
by Rev. T. B. Thayer, one of their clergy- 
men, in the New American Cyclopaedia, Vol. 
XV, pp. 834. 835. It is as follows : I. They 
believe that God is infinite in all his perfec- 
tions, creating man with the fixed purpt se 
that the existence he was about to bestow 
should prove a final and everlasting blessing; 
that foreseeing all the temptations, trans- 
gressions, and struggles of man, he shaped 
liis goverimient, laws, and penalties witli ex- 
press reference to these emergencies, and 
adapted the spiritual forces to the ovei'com- 
ing of all evil ; that, being almighty, he can 
convert and save a world of sinners as easily 
as he converted and saved Saul of Tarsus, 
or Matthew the publican, and without any 
more violation of free agency in one case 
than in the other. They also believe in the 
perfection of divine justice, and affirm, on 
this ground, that God would not impose on 
finite beings a law intinite in its demands raid 
penalties ; but that being pprfecly just, he 
will deal with all men according to their works, 
whether jzood or bad. 

II. They uniformly reject the doctrine of 
the Trinity, giving to Christ the second place, 
and making him subordinate to the Father. 
They believe that he is gifted with spirit 
and power above all other inte'ligcnces ; that 
he is " God manifest in the flesh," i. e. that 
God has displayed in him the brightness of 
his glory, and the express image of his per- 
son, as in no other being tabernacled in 
flesh ; that he was sent of God to be the 
Saviour of the world, and that he will actu- 
ally save it, because God would not offer, 
nor would Christ accept, a mission which 
both knew would end in failure ; tlierefore, 
they say, the work of redemption v.ill be 
thorough and universal. 

III. They believe that man was and is cre- 
ated upright, but liable to sin ; that trans- 
gression comes not out of any original cor- 



HISTORY AND PKOGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



653 



ruption of heart, transmitted trom Adam •, 
but out of ii^norance and unbelief: that all 
men are formed, as Adam was, in the moral 
image of God ; and that this image though 
it may be disfigured by sin, can never be 
wholly lust. Faith and regeneration remove 
the stains and defilements of sin, and renew 
or reform the soul in the divine likeness. 

IV. They believe the new birth to be that 
thorough change of heart which takes place 
when a man, wrought upon by divine grace, 
forsakes his sins, or turns from his former 
life of wickedness and indifference, toward 
God and the Saviour, and is drawn into fel- 
lowship with the Holy Spirit, and thus quick- 
ened into new spiritual vitality, consecrates 
himself into a life of active goodness and 
piety. The new birth is not supernatural, 
but the result of appointed means suitably 
improved. The Holy Spirit blesses the use 
of these means, and moves upon the heart of 
the sinner, encouraging, comforting, assisting, 
sanctifying. They do not believe in instan- 
taneous regeneration, though they allow that 
there may be a turning point in the life of 
every man when his attention is specially 
directed to religion. Conversion is only the 
commencement of religious effort. 

V. Tliey teach that salvation is no. shel- 
ter nor safety, nor escape from present or 
future punishment. It is inward and spiiit- 
ual, and not from any outward evil, but de- 
liverance from error, unbelief, sin, the tyr- 
anny of the flesh and its hurtful lusts, into 
the liberty and blessedness of a holy life, and 
supreme love to God and man. This is an 
important doctrinal and practical point with 
Universalists, and is constantly enforced in 
their preaching and writings. They urge 
on all to seek salvation, not from the tor- 
ments of a future hell, but from the present 
captivity of sin. In reply to the objection 
that millions die in sin, in pagan ignorance, 
and unbelief, they answer that no one is 
wholly saved in this life, but that all men are 
saved, in a greater or less degree, after death, 
and assert that the power of Christ over the 
soul does not cease with the death of the 
body, but that he continues the work of en- 
lightenment and redemption, till he surrend- 
ers the kingdom to the Father, which does 
not take place till after the resurrection is 
complete. 

VI. The resurrection is not merely a 
physical, but a moral and spiritual change. 
It is not only clothing the soul with an in- 
corruptible body, bat it is an anastasis, a 

40* 



raising up, an exaltation of the whole bemg 
into tlie power and glory of the heavenly ; 
fbr 'as we have borne the image of t lie earthy 
we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.' 
It is a change, they say, by which we be- 
come as the angels, and are ' children of 
God, being (or because we are) children of 
the resurrection.' It must therefore be 
something more than clothing the soul in a 
spiritual body. It is, beside this, growth in 
spiritual strength and power, in knowledge, 
in holiness, in all the elements and fbrces of 
the divine life, until we reach a point of j^er- 
lectness and blessedness described in the 
term heaven. This resurrection or lifting up 
of the soul into the glorified life of the 
angels, is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
The end of his mediatorial reign, the com- 
pletion of his saving work, and the final sur- 
render of his kingdom back to God, docs not 
take place till after this anastasis, this uplift- 
ing of all the dead and living into the 'image 
of the heavenly,' is completed. 

VII. On the subject of rewards and pim- 
ishments, the UniversaRst belief is substanti- 
ally, that holiness, piety, love of God and 
man, are their own reward, make their own 
heaven here aiwi hereafter ; and that in the 
nature of things no other reward is possible. 
If men love God with all their heart, and 
trust in Inm, they find, and are satisfied with, 
the present heaven which love and faith 
bring with them. They hold the same doc- 
trine respecting punishments ; that it is con- 
sequential, and not arbitrary — the natural 
fruits of sin ; that it is for restraint, correc- 
tion, and discipline ; and that God loves as 
truly when he punishes as when he blesses, 
never inflicting pain in anger, but only be- 
cause he sees that it is needed, as medicine 
is, to prevent a greater evil. They affirm 
that the law is made for the good of man, 
and, of course, that the penalty cannot be 
such as to defeat the object of the law. 
Transgression brings misery, or punishment, 
which is designed to correct and restore to 
obedience, because obedience is happiness. 
They maintain that pain, ordained for its 
own sake, and perpetuated to all eternity, is 
proof of infinite malignity ; but God, they 
say, is infinitely beneficent, and therefbre all 
suffering must have a beneficent element in 
it, all punishments must be temporary, and 
end in,good." 

The Universalists are very generally be- 
lievers in the doctrine of Restoration. They 
do not deny tha punishment of sin beyond 



654 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE VUFlLRZliT I>E:>,'0:*Ii:CAT:G:rS. 



this life, but believe that it will be tempo- 
rary, and end in a restoration of the entire 
race to holines»s, happiness, and heaven. 

The Universal ists are paying much atten- 
tion to their educational institutions. They 
have now five colleges, viz : Tufts College, 
Medt'ord, Mass., with 15 professors, and 
propel ty valued at $805,000 ; Lombard Uni 
versity, Galesburg, 111., with 6 professors, 
and property valued at $265,000 ; St. Law- 
rence University, at Canton, N. Y., with 9 
professors, an i pioperty worth about $40,- 
000 ; Buchtei College, Akron, Oiiio, founded 
in 1870, wi'h $GO,000 endowment ; and 
Smithson College, Logansport, Ind., also 
foumled in 1870. They have two divinity 
schools, both well endowed, one in connec- 
tion with Tufts College, the other with the 
St. Lawrence University. They have, also, 
eight academies, or institutes of high grade, 
most of them liberally endowed. They have 
13 periodicals. Their statistics, in 1870, 
were: 83 associations, 911 societies, 620 
ministers, and a probable membership of 
their societies of from 90,000 to 100,000. 
with an adherent population of over 200,000. 
They have a considerable number of Sunday 
Schools, but do not give the statistics of 
them. Li 1870—71, they raised a centenary 
fund in commemoration of Mr. Murray's 
work in fjuuding Universalist societies, of 
$2He,()00, to be called the Murray Fund, 
and to be devoted to the aid of thv'ological 
students, the distribution of Universalist lit 
erasure, church extension, and the mission- 
ary cause. 

III. The Hicksite or Seceding Soci- 
ety OF Friends in America, are Unitari- 
ans, in their view of the divinity of Christ. 
(See YIII, ii.) 

IV. "The Christian Connection," at 
the Wt;st, have affiliated with the Unitarians 
and a larga poraon of them aie believed to 
hold Unitarian views in regard to the divin- 
ity of Christ. In tlie Eastern and Middle 
States, they are generally Trinitarians. (See 
II, vii.) 



XI. THE NEW JERUSALEM CHURCH, 
NEW CHURCH, OR SWEDENBORGIAN. 

This denomination refuse to be called a 
sect of tlie Christian church, claiming to be 
entirely distinct from any branch of the 
Christian church and to belong to a new 
dispensation as fully and as far removed 
from the Christian dispensation as that was 



from the Jewish. They insist, indeed, that 
the Christian dispensation passed away and 
came to an end in 1757, and that thf^y are 
the new dispensation, the New Jerusalem, 
which has comedown from God out of heav- 
en to take the place. The hist congregation 
of the New Jerusalem Church was formally 
organized in London in 1788, by Robert 
Iliudinarsh, a piinter iii Clerkenwell, who 
was chosen by lot, to baptize and ordain his 
comrades in the ministry. Few if any so- 
cieties were organized in the United States 
before 1820, although there were undoubt- 
edly some believers in the New Church doc- 
trines at an earlier date. Their doctrines 
are those put forth by Emanuel Sweden- 
borg, a Swedish nobleman, statesman and 
philosopher (1688-1772), a man of extensive 
attainments in science and of most pure and 
exemplary life, who, after publishing many 
scientific and philosophical works, believed 
that he was favored with visions and reve- 
lations from the spiritual world, and in 1745 
at the age of 57 rehnquished all otFice and 
gave himself to communion with the invisi- 
ble world and to recording his visions and 
the doctrines he had been therein taught, for 
(he benefit of those who should come af:er 
him. No one believes Swedenborg to have 
been an imposter. Everything in his cir- 
cumstances and character refutes such a sup- 
position ; hut there are many who regard 
him as suffering uuder hallucinations and as 
being of unsound muid. He lived to be 
nearly 85 years of age, and in the last twen- 
ty-seven years of his life wrote many books, 
all on topics connected with his supposed 
revelation. Some of these books (all writ- 
ten originally in Latin.) contain passages of 
great beauty and interest; but the greater 
part have a mystical character, and are not 
specially attractive except to those who pro- 
fess to comprehend them by a spiritual in- 
sight. We have not the space for anything 
like a full analy.-is of the doctrines put forth 
in these numerous volumes. His doctrines 
seem to be based on a theory or science of 
correspondences, whicli he believed himself 
to have rediscovered after it had been lost 
for ages. The law of correspondence is uni- 
versal ; the natiu'al world is a repetition of 
the spiritual world, and the spiritual world 
of the invisible mental world. Unseen evil 
is manifested in things hurtful and ugly, un- 
seen good in things useful and beautifid. 
Man is a microcosm, or little Avorld ; nature 
is man in diffusion ; all things in nature — fire, 



HISTORY AKD PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



655 



air, earth, and water, every beast, bird, iish, 
insect, and reptile, every tree, herb, fruit, and 
flower — represent and express unseen things 
iu the mind of man. The scriptures are 
written according to correspondences, and 
by aid of the science tlieir mysteries are un- 
locked. This mystical interpretation gives 
us to understand that the early chapters of 
Genesis are not to be received in any his- 
toric sense. Adam signifies the most ancient 
church, and the flood its dissolution ; Noah 
an ancient church which, falling into idolatry, 
was superseded by the Jewish. The spirit- 
ual sense pervades the scriptures with the 
exception of Ruth, I. and IF. Chronicles, 
Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Proverbs, Ec- 
clesiastes, the Song of Solomon, the Acts of 
the Apostles, and the Epistles. These are 
all good books but not possessing the inter- 
nal or sjjirltual sense. They are not in- 
spired and consequently not the Word. By 
reason of its symbolism of the inward sense 
the letter of scripture (with the above excep- 
tion) is holy in every jot and tittle, and has 
been preserved in immaculate perfection, 
since the hour of its divine dictation. By 
this doctrine of correspondences also the con- 
stitution of heaven and hell is revealed. 
There are three heavens, consisting of three 
orders of angels, severally distinguished for 
love, wisdom, and obedience. All angels 
have lived on earth ; none were created such. 
They are men and women in every respect, 
the spiritual life corresponding to the natu- 
ral ; they marry and live in societies in cities 
and countries just as in the world but iu 
happine<3 and glory ineffable. To the un- 
married will be given the honor of caring 
for the little ones, and tlieir peiformance of 
this duty will crown them with glory. All 
in whom love to God and man is the ruling 
principle, go to heaven at death. As there 
are three heavens tliere are three hells, and 
every angelic society has an infernal coun- 
terpart. Hell, as a whole, is called the 
Devil . and Satan ; there is no individual 
bearing that name. All in whom self love is 
the ruling motive go to hell. There is no 
resurrection of the earthly body. Every 
one passes to the final lot at death, some 
making a short sojourn in an intermediate 
state, designated the World of Spirits, where 
the good are cured of their superficial infir- 
mities and intellectual mistakes, and where 
the evil reject all their pretences to good. 
The grand and distinctive principle of Swe- 
denborgian theology is, however, the doc-. 



trine of life. God, it is maintained, alone 
lives. Creation is dead. Man is dead and 
then apparent life is the Divine presence. 
God is everywhere the same. It appears 
as if He were different in one man and in 
another ; but this is a fallacy. The differ- 
ence is in the recipients ; by one He is not 
received in the same degree as another. A 
man more adequately manifests God than a 
tree ; that is the only distinction. The life 
of devils is God's presence perverted in dis- 
orderly foi-ms. " All things and each of 
them to the very uttermost, exert and sub- 
sist instantly from God. If the connection 
of anything with Him were broken for a 
moment it would instantly vanish ; for exist- 
ence is perpetual subsistence, and preserva- 
tion perpetual creation." By this law of life 
is explained man's self-consciousness, free- 
dom, and personality. All these sensations 
are communicated from God to man. He 
dwells iu man so cordially, that He gives' 
him to feel that he lives of himself, even as 
Pie lives. 

The Swedenborgian doctrine of the Trinity 
and the Divinity of Christ is thus enunciated 
by his followers, in language deiived from 
his writings : " That Jehovah God, the 
creator, and preserver of heaven and earth is 
love itself, and wisdom itself, or good itself, 
and truth itself ; that He is one both in essence 
and in person, in whom nevertheless is the 
divine trinity of Father, Son, and Holy 
Spirit, which are the e.-~sentifil divnity, the 
divine humanity, and the divine proceeding, 
answering to the soul, the body, and the 
operative energy in man ; and that the Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ is that God. That 
Jehovah, God Himself, descended from 
Heaven as divine truth, which is the word, 
and took upon him human nature, for the 
purpose of removing from man the powers 
of hell, and restoring to order all things in 
the spiritual world, and all things in the 
church, that he removed from men the pow- 
ers of hell, by combats against and victories 
over them, iu which consisted the great work 
of redemption ; that by the same acts which 
were his temptations, the last of which was 
the passion of the cross, he united in his 
humanity, divine truth to divine good, or 
divine wisdom to divine love, and so re- 
turned into his divinity in which he was 
from eternity together with and in his glori- 
fied humanity, whence he forever keeps the 
infernal powers in subjection to himself, and 
that all who believe in him with the under- 



656 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



standing from the heart and live accordingly 
will be 8aved. The New Church observes 
the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's 
supper, but gives them a mystical signifi- 
cance. The Christian church, as established 
by Jesus himself, came to an end, Sweden- 
borg says, in the middle of the last century, 
and m one of his visions he relates having 
witnessed the last judgment effected upon it 
in the world of spirits in 1757. Then com- 
menced the new dispensation, signified by 
the New Jerusalem in the Revelation of 
which he was to be the precursor and re- 
vealer. He made no claim to be a leader 
or divinely inspired person, but only a seer. 
He did not himself attempt to establish a 
church, though it was his early expectation 
that such a church would be raised up among 
some of the gentile or heathen nations. But 
his followers have been active propagandists, 
and though they may have believed, as he 
did, that the Christian church was dead and 
at an end, they have to a large extent re- 
mained in its communions, and have propa- 
irated their views among its members, while 
retaining their connection with it. A por- 
tion have, it is true, come out and organized 
separate societies or churches, but the New 
Church has been far more conspicuous for 
intellectual ability, both among its secret ad- 
herents and it* avowed members, than for 
members. After fifty years of really zeal- 
ous effort, they report only 65 ministers, 78 
societies, and at the utmost not more than 
4,000 avowed members, with an adherent 
population of perhaps 8,000. They have an 
efficient publishing association, with a capi- 
tal of about $15,000; a tract society which 
publishes 30,000 or 40,000 tracts per year ; 
three periodicals, a weekly, a monthly, and 
a child's paper, a theological school at Wal- 
tham, Mass ; three church schools — one of 
them liberally endowed, a missionary society, 
and several Sunday School Unions. It has 
also a " New Church Union " with a free 
library having headquarters in Boston. 



XII. MORMONS, OR CHURCH OF JESUS 
CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS. 

I. The Mormons under the control of 
Brigham Young. We have neither time nor 
space to go into the history of this imposture, 
the most conspicuous one of modern times ; 
nor is it needful ; for the story of the golden 
plates, and of Solomon Spalding's manu- 
script, of the successive efforts at organiza- 



tion in Manchester, N. Y.; Kirtland, Ohio ; 
Jackson and Clay counties, Missouri ; Nau- 
voo, Illinois; the impositions, threats, and 
swindles of the Mormon leaders, their expul- 
sion from Missouri, their death at the hands 
of a mob at Carthage, Illinois, the pilgrim- 
age westward, the wintering in Iowa, the 
final arrival in 1847 and 1848, at Salt Lake, 
the founding of Great Salt Lake City, the 
building of the Tabernacle, the open prac- 
tice and boast of polygamy, their collisions 
with the United States government, their 
Danite band, their murders and outrages, 
and their present condition, have all been 
told so many times as to be familiar to all. 
We will therefore only state their doctrines 
and practices according to their own author- 
ized manuals. They believe that there are 
many gods and that eminent saints may in 
time become gods, and rise one above another 
in power and glory to infinity. Joseph 
Smith is the God of this generation. Above 
him in power and glory is Jesus Christ, who 
was the offspring of the material union on 
the plains of Palestine of a God with the 
Virgin Mary, the latter being duly married 
after betrothal by the angel Gabriel. Ytt 
Christ had had a previous existence and had 
made the universe out of unformed chaotic 
matter as old as God. The God whom they 
describe as the father of Jesus Christ, had 
once been a man and still retains a human 
form, though he is so advanced in intelligence 
and power that he may now be called, com- 
paratively speaking, perfect, infinite, &c. 
The Holy Spirit they believe to be also a 
material being and once human. Above 
these is an older trinity composed of Jehovah 
Elohim, and Michael or Adam, the latter 
being described as the god or superior of 
Christ, and below, beneath, and associated 
with these are gods many and lords many. 
Their whole Theogony seems to be a most 
unintelligible jumble, mingling Brahminism, 
Buddhism, and every other form of belief. 
The second article of their creed affirms that 
men will be punished for their own sins and 
not for Adam's transgressions. The third 
article states that through the atonement of 
Christ aU mankind may be saved by obedi- 
ence to the laws and ordinances of the gos- 
pel. The fourth defines their ordinances to 
be : Faith in the Lord Jesus, which is ex- 
pounded as including obedience to the ten 
commandments, and to the Word of Wisdom 
revealed to Joseph Smith in 1833 ; 2. Re- 
pentance ; 3. Baptism, which is administered 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



65Y 



by immersiou, only to children at eight years 
of age, and also to adults who had not been 
previously baptized. They also baptize for 
the dead, asserting that at the resurrection 
all the persons for whom a man has been 
baptized will be added to his family ; 4. Im- 
jjosition of hands to confer the gift of the 
Iloly Spirit ; 5. The Lord's Supper, admin- 
istered to the recipients kneeling; they use 
water instead of wine, being averse to the 
use of the latter, and receive the sacrament 
every week. The fifth article declares that 
men must be called to the work of God by 
inspiration. The sixth that the same or- 
ganization must now exist that existed in the 
primitive church. ^\\e seventh, that miracu- 
lous gifts — discerning of spirits, prophecy, 
revelations, visions, healing, speaking with 
tongues, &c., — have not ceased. Among 
Smith's and Brigham Young's speculations 
in the way of discerning of sjjirits, one was 
that the soul of man was not created but had 
existed from all eternity, equal in duration 
to God. Another of these revelations was 
that of the transmigration of souls, that re- 
bellious spirits (of men) would descend into 
brute tabernacles, till they yielded to the 
law of the everlasting gospel. The eighth 
article affirms that the Word of God is re- 
corded not only in the Bible and the Book 
of Mormon, but in all other good books. 
The contradictions which exist in the Bible 
and other books can be very easily removed 
by revelations to any of the Mormon leaders 
or anj- other inspired prophets. Josejjh 
Smith, it is said, left an " inspired transla- 
tion " of the whole Bible in manuscript, but 
none of the leaders since have thought it 
worth their while to publish it. The ninth 
article expresses a belief in all that God has 
revealed, is revealing, or will yet reveal. 
The tenth affirms the literal gathering of 
Israel, the restoration of the Ten Tribes 
(whom they believe to be the American 
Ind ans), the establishment, of the New Zion 
on the Western Continent (they generally 
insist that this will be in Jackson county, 
Missouri), the millenial reign of Christ on 
earth, with all his holy prophets and demi- 
gods (of whom Joseph Smith will be most 
con-picuous), and the transformation of 
earth into a paradise. The eleventh article 
maintains " the literal resurrection of the 
body, — to flesh and bone, but not blood — 
blood being the principle of mortality." The 
twelfth article asserts the absolute liberty of 
private judgment in matters of religion. The 



thirteenth declares it to be the duty of the 
saints and all others to be subject to the pow- 
ers that be, whether monarchical or republi- 
can ; and the fourteenth and last is as follows : 
" We believe in being honest, true, chaste, 
temperate, benevolent, virtuous, and upright ; 
and in doing good to all men ; also that an 
idle or lazy person cannot be a Christian, 
neither have salvation." The leaders, how- 
ever, by virtue of the revelations they receive, 
can, at will, exempt themselves from the ob- 
ligation of any of these rules or obligations, 
and most of them are notoriously profane, 
unchaste, and accessories to the grossest 
frauds and murders, if they do not commit 
them in person. 

Their most remarkable social peculiarity 
is the practice of polygamy. Among the 
early revelations published by Smith, one 
was the strict enforcement of both monogamy 
and chastity ; but about 1 838 he became no- 
toriously licentious and as after a time his 
wife began to complain of his amours, he 
had in 1843 a special revelation directing the 
practice of polygamy not only in his own case, 
but in that of the other saints. This was 
denied by the leaders for some years, but in 
1852 they openly avowed polygamy as one 
of their doctrines and referred to this reve- 
lation as their authority. It is now very 
generally practised in Utah ; Young himself 
having, it is said, sixty or more wives. For 
many years the Mormon leaders have defied 
the United States government and have 
ruled the territory of Utah according to their 
own views, driving out and often murdering 
United States officers and citizens who at- 
tempted to enforce national laws ; but the 
opening of the territory by the passage of 
the Union Pacific and other railways through 
it, and the development of the large mining 
interests there, have brought in so large a 
population, who are not Mornjons, that there 
is a prospect that the laws may be enforced 
there without serious difficulty. By the 
laws of the United States, as well as by com- 
mon law, polygamy is a crime, and actions 
have recently been commenced against 
Brigham Young, Daniel C. Wells, and other 
of the Mormon leaders for adultery, and for 
being accessories to the murder of some 
men whom they had caused to be put out of 
the way. Young has left Salt Lake City, 
and it is generally believed, has fled from 
the territory, and some of the others have 
given bail, while one or two have been con- 
victed of the minor offense. 



658 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



The IMormons have habitually greatly 
overrated their numbers. They claimed 
early in 1870 a Mormon population in Utah 
of 150,000, while the United States census 
of 1870 gave the entire population of the 
territory as only 86,786, of whom not less 
than 17,000 are known not to be Mormons, 
aside from a considerable number of seced 
ers from the authority of Young. Else- 
where in the United States there may be 
(including the seceding Mormons) seven or 
eight thousand ; and in foreign countries 
perhaps ,50,000 to 60,000. They claim 100,- 
000 on the eastern continent ; but they 
have no such following. Their hierarchy is 
of two kinds, the Melchizedec and the Aar- 
onic priesthood. To the former belong the 
First Presidency of three, of which Young 
is the chief; the twelve apostles, the seven- 
ties, the patriarchs, the higli priests and the 
elders. To the Aaronic priesthood belong 
the bishops, of whom in all there are 240, 
the priests, teachers, and deacons. Tithes are 
rigidly exacted from the Mormon believers 
to be applied to the support of worship, &c., 
but no inconsiderable portion finds its way 
into the capacious purse of Brigham Young, 
w^ho by adroit management has become very 
we-althy, his property amounting to many 
millions, and lieing largely invested abroad. 

There have been for the past twenty-five 
years a body of Mormons who did not go with 
the others to Utah, who did not recognize 
Brigham Young as their chief, nor practice 
polygamy- They have had a colony and set- 
tlement for some years in northwestern Iowa, 
on the borders of Dakota, and have liad as 
their spiritual chiefs, Emma Smith, the widow 
of Joseph Smitli, and of late years Joseph 
Smith, Jr. They have about 5,000 ad- 
herents, and the JMormons of Utah are very 
hostile to them. Of late Joseph Smith, Jr. 
has visited Utah, and a considerable number 
of Mormons who w^ere disaffected toward 
Young, have recognized him as their leader. 
Others of the disaffected, who repudiate 
Young's authority and teachings though not 
yet willing to abandon polygamy, have fol- 
lowed a man named Godbe, and are known 
as Godbeites. Both these seceding organi- 
zations are bitterly denounced by Young and 
the Mormon hierarchy. 



XIII. ISRAELITES OR JEWS. 

I. The Orthodox Israelites, or Jews. 
This is no place for a history of the ancient 



people of God in all their dispersions, wan- 
derings, and persecutions ; we can only give 
very briefly, their history as a religious de- 
nomination in the United States. The first 
Jews who emigrated to North America, it is 
believed, came to the then Dutch colony of 
New Amsterdam, in 1660. Although, from 
the first, they have always enjoyed complete 
religious liberty here, and have often been 
called to positions of liigh honor in society 
and under our government, yet the number 
of Jewish emigrants to the United States 
was, for a hundred and fifty years from their 
Lrst coming, very small, and in 1820 they 
certainly did not exceed 15,000 in our entire 
territory. Since that time they have come 
in somewhat larger numbers, attracted by 
the opportunities offered them for succesful 
trade and financial operations. After the 
revolutions of 1848, on the continent of Eu- 
rope, many of those, who had participated in 
those uprisings, came here and have since 
been some of our most valued citizens. It 
is difficult to ascertain definitely how many 
are now residents in the United States ; the 
Board of Delegates of American Israelites, 
in 1868 re]")orted 200 congregations in the 
country. If these averaged 100 male mem- 
bers (a large estimate), tlie adherent popu- 
lation could not much have exceeded 40,000 ; 
but there are besides these, the Re- 
formed Jews, a considerable number who 
have embraced Christianity, and many who 
in this country do not connect themselves 
with any religious organization. We are 
inclined to believe that 75,000 is a large es- 
timate of the actual Jewish population of 
the United States, though it has been reck- 
oned as high as 200,000. They have wor- 
ship in their synagogues on the Jewish Sab- 
bath (Saturday), with reading and expound- 
ing of the law, chanting of psalms, etc. The 
reading is usually in Hebrew or Aramaic, 
although many Jews do not understand the 
Hebrew well, but the explanations and dis- 
courses are in English, or in the vernacular 
of the country from which they have come. 
Many of their rabbis are men of extensive 
learning, and specially versed in Oriental and 
linguistic science. It is, or course, under- 
stood that the Jew does not recognize Christ 
in any religious sense, and is a Deist, rather 
than a Socinian or Unitarian. The follow- 
ing abstract of their doctrinal creed, com- 
piled from the Thirteen Articles of Maimon- 
ides exhibits, briefly, their views on religious 
subjects: "1. They believe that God is the 



niSTOUY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



659 



Creator and Governor of all creatures, and 
that he alone has made, does make, and will 
make all things. 2. They believe that He 
is only one, in unity to which there is no 
resemblance, and that he alone has been, is, 
and will be their God. 3. They believe that 
the Creator is not corporeal, not to be com- 
prehended by an understanding capable of 
comprehending only what is corporeal ; and 
that there is nothing like him in the universe 
4. They believe that He is the First and 
the Last. 5. They believe that He is the 
only object of adoration, and that no other 
being whatever, ought to be worshiped. 6. 
They believe that all the words of the proph- 
ets are true. 7. They believe that all the 
prophecies of Moses, their master, are true, 
and that he was the father of all the wbe men, 
as well of those who went before him, as of 
those who succeeded him. 8. They believe 
that the whole law which they have in their 
hand at this day, was delivered by Moses. 
9. They believe that this law will never be 
changed, and that no other law will ever be 
given by the Creator. 10. They believe that 
God knows all the actions of men, and all their 
thoughts ; as it is said : ' He fashioneth all 
the hearts of men, and understandeth all 
their works.' 11. They believe that God 
rewards those who observe his commands, 
and punishes those who transgress them. 
1 2. They believe that the Messiah will come, 
and, though he delays, they will always ex- 
pect him till He comes. 13. They believe 
that the dead will be restored to life when it 
shall be ordained by the decree of the Crea- 
tor. 

The Jews have not been very active in 
educational matters, but have several free 
schools of high grade, and, at Philadelphia, 
Maimonides College, founded in 1867, which 
though having a full course, and able in- 
structors, is not well endowed. In matters 
of public charity, the founding of hospitals, 
asylums for orphans, the aged, and the wid- 
ow, and the establishment of jiublic libraries, 
and museums of art, they deserve very high 
praise. These institutions, and their gifts to 
them have not, in any case, been confined to 
their own people, but have been opened 
freely to all, and some of their liberal givers 
have won for themselves undying fame by 
their large handed charity. It is w^orthy of 
note that they provide always for their own 
poor. They have three or four well con- 
ducted periodicals. 

II. The Reformed or Progressive 



Israelites. This organization, which has a 
Rabbinical Conference, which meets annually, 
and has synagogues in the principal cities, 
while not disposed to relinquish their Jewish 
birthright and privileges, yet deem some 
changes necessitated, by the progress of the 
world, in their ancient faith. They do not 
look for the coming of a temporal Messiah, 
or a return to Palestine ; they believe in 
having their exercises in the synagogues 
in the vernacular. They hold to the immor- 
tality of the soul, but not to the resurrection 
of the body ; to God's grace and justice to 
pardon and bless the being created in his 
image, and not to expiatory rites and sacri- 
fices. We have no means of estimating their 
numbers. 

Efforts have been made, and with consid- 
erable success, by several of the Protestant 
denominations for the conversion of the 
Jews to Christianity. There are several 
congregations of these converted Israelites, 
and a still larger number who have connect- 
ed themselves, as individuals, with other 
Christian churches. A considerable number 
of Jews said to be mainly from Germany, 
Poland, and Portugal, have, on coming to 
the United States, abandoned all religious 
worship and faith, and given themselves up 
wholly to the w^orship of mammon. 



XIV. SPIRITUALISTS. 

"We can hardly call the Spiritualists a 
I'eligious denomination, since its professed 
adherents belong to almost all denomina- 
tions, and many of them to none, and their 
single bond of union is in their belief that 
somehow, and in some way, they hold inter- 
course with the spirits of the departed. That 
this belief is a delusion seems to be demon- 
strated by the most incontestable evidence ; 
yet very many cling to it with the utmost 
tenacity. The Spiritualists, and especially 
the so-called " spiritual mediums," may be 
divided into several classes. Among these 
are : 1 . Charlatans and impostors, who de- 
liberately profess to hold communication with 
the spirit world, knowing that they are guilty 
of a gross and fraudulent deception, but doing 
so for the sake of gain. This class is nu- 
merous ; to it belong most of the fortune- 
tellers and necromancers, the greater part 
(perhaps we should say all) of the heahng 
mediums, clairvoyant doctors, and the like, 
the exhibiting mediums, rappers, table-tip- 
pers, &c., &CC. 2. The self-deluded, who, 



660 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



possessing a certain amount of magnetic, 
odyllic or reflex-nervous power, really sup- 
pose themselves to be in communication with 
the spirits, when they are only reproducing 
their own thoughts and conjectures or th.o:^e 
of persons about them and with whom they 
are en rapport. 3. Genuine clairvoyants, 
very few iu number, but really endowed 
with a greater or less degree of the clairvoy- 
ant or seer faculty, but mistaken in imputing 
tlieir visions to a different source from that 
from which they really come. The supposed 
conver.-ations held by these persons with an- 
gelic intelligence, or the spirits of tlie depart- 
ed who were eminent for intellectual or moral 
power in this life, all give evidence, which 
whoso runs may read, that tliey are "of the 
earth, earthy." Not one of these messages 
professedly from the spiritworld, however 
exalted in intellect in this life were the per- 
sons from whom they purport to have come, 
has ever risen above the dead level of bald 
common place, and could the persons to 
whom they were attributed have come back 
to earth and read them, they would have re- 
pudiated tliem most indignantly. Much the 
same may be said of the professed revela- 
tions of the spiritual world by these professed 
seers. We have read many of them and 
have found them invariably sensuous iu their 
descriptions, and giving ample evidence of 
having been borrowed without being im- 
proved fi'om the Koran, the oriental fables, 
or the word painting of Moore, Byron, 
Southey, Beckford, or Johnson, and some- 
times, perhaps, from the hallucinations of 
Emanuel Swedenborg. Too much of the 
flesh clings to the seer to make these visions 
in any respect representative of that glorious 
spiritual state which the natural eye hath 
not seen, nor can see ; of those experiences, 
which are only discerned by the spiritual 
man when unrobed from the garments of 
flesh, and made pure even as God is pure. 

Still this great delusion has its thousands 
of votaries. Beginning in this countiy about 
1843 with some manifestations of power as 
a healing medium on the part of a lad of 
seventeen, named Andrew Jackson Davis, 
at Poughkeepsie ; they were gradually de- 
veloped into a high degree of clairvoyance 
on his part, which resulted in his dictating 
from 1846 to the present time numerous 
books professing to give revelations of the 
condition of the various spheres which he al- 
leged envelope our earth, and communica- 
tions with the spirits which inhabited them ; 



descriptions of the climate, scenery and peo- 
ple of the various planetary bud es of the 
solar system, and eventually a iiieologicaJ 
system, with its pantheon of heroes and demi- 
gods which he professed to have received 
from the highest spiritual intelligences. That 
some portions of this system were rather the 
results of earthly study, than of heavenly in- 
spiration, was evident to those who knew 
Mr. Davis's habits of study and pre])aration 
for his books. These numerous volumes 
have, however, had a very considerable sale, 
and tliough it would be difficult to say how 
many Spiritualists believed them either 
wholly or in part, yet they have un<juestion- 
ably exerted considerable influence in form- 
ing the Spiritualist theology. Many Spirit- 
ualists repudiate them, wholly ; others go far 
beyond them, to a gross and blasphemous infl- 
delity. While Mr. Davis was beginning to 
dictate his revelations, another development of 
the Spiritualist mania appeared in Koihester, 
where a Mrs. Fox and her two young daugh- 
ter's first made spirit-rapping piofltable. 
This and table-tipping and table dancing 
soon became popular and lucrative exercises, 
and presently it was found that the s))irits 
could spell (not always correctly) by the aid 
of an alphabet card. As time passed, their 
education improved till by the hand of a 
medium (their unconscious instrument, it 
was said) they wrote all manner of plati- 
tudes in prose and rhyme, thougli quite as 
often without sense as with it. Still later, 
they practised a species of phonographic 
writing which expedited matters for them, 
though not always for the unliappy mediums, 
who ibund great dilficulty in putting it into 
readable English. Gymnaslic and leger- 
demain feats followed, and though most of 
these were exposed, yet they made their im- 
pression on the minds of the gaping multi- 
tude. An adventurer named D. D. Home 
or Hume was the most adroit performer of 
these alleged Spiritualistic feats in li)nrope, 
and succeeded in deceiving many eminent 
though unphilosophic minds. The delusion 
reached its culminating point in 1858 or 
1851), and has since that time been gradually 
waning. Both the Shakers and the tbllowers 
of Swedenborg had at one time great expec- 
tations from it, of large increase to tlieir 
numbers ; but both have been greatiy disap- 
pointed. Very many who were once de- 
kided by it have long since abandoned it and 
now wonder that they could have l)een so 
grievously deceived; others not fairly <soii" 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



661 



vinced of the delu.>ioQ still entertain doubts, 
and will eventually shake it off; while of 
tho^e who hold firmly to it still, some have 
becom3 insane, some profess to derive com- 
fort from their communication in hours of 
sorrow with the dear departed, and others 
have plunged into the abyss of inlidelity or 
are on the high road thither. 

The vSpiritiiallsts in 1858 and 1859 made 
the nijst extravagant statements in regard 
to their numbers ; statements which must at 
that time have been conspicuously inexact, 
and are now too absurd for any one to be- 
lieve. In the " Spiritual Register" for 1859 
it is stated that the number of actual Spirit- 
ualists in America is 1,500,000; of those 
who have more or less faith in the doctrine, 
but do not openly espouse it, 4,000,000 ; pub 
lie advocate?, 1,000 ; mediums, public and 
private, 40,000 ; places for public meetings, 
1,000 ; boo'cs and pamphlets, 500 ; periodi- 
cals, 30. If most of these figures had been 
divided by ten the quotients would have been 
nearer the truth at that time. At present, 
the number of periodicals (of which only 
two or three have a large circulation) is ten, 
the number of public advocates of Spiritual- 
ism not over 50, and the meetings mentioned 
about the same or possibly 75. The number 
of mediums of all sorts, we could not under- 
take to estimate ; there must be several 
thousands ; though some have unfortunately 
been sent to State Prison recently, and 
some others, who have been using their art, 
to aid them in their nefarious business as 
procuresses ought to be. It would be diffi- 
cult to find 150,000 persons who would avow 
themselvi's, to-day. Spiritualists ; and equally 
diffii;ult to find 200,000 more who would 
acknowledge any leanings in that direction. 
The number of books and pamphlets pub- 
lished pro and con may reach 500, indeed, 
consiilering the great number issued by Mr. 
A. J. Davis and Mr. S. B. Brittan, we think 
they probably will ; but the sale of Mr. 
Davis's books, the most popular of all this 
class of literature, has not averaged over 
20,000 copies of each. 



XV. fTREE THINKERS, OR ATHEISTS, 
DEISTS, RATIONALISTS, &c. 

The various forms of unbelief cannot 
fairly be called religious since they are rather 
the negative of all religion; nor can they 
be classified or numbered, since they are 
found under so many different names and 



forms and commingled with so many other 
doctrines and notions ; yet it is true that 
they include many thousands mostly from 
three classes: 1. Speculative philosophers, 
whose learning is rather superficial than 
profound, and who from the desire to throw 
off control, wliich is natural to the depraved 
heart, seek to find arguments against the 
authenticity and inspiration of the scriptures, 
against a rulmg and controlling Providence, 
and against any plan of salvation which 
admits the depravity of human nature. They 
draw their arguments from any and every 
source which they deem available ; at one 
time they deride mira^'les as inconsistent 
with reason ; at another they parade geolo- 
gical discoveries as proving tiie falsity of the 
Sacred Record ; then they are very sure 
that they have discovered that man has lived 
upon the earth 800,000 or a million of yea: s, 
and that he was developed from a monad or 
a monkey ; if driven from these positions, 
they find fault with the numbers of the Bible, 
its genealogical records, its narratives of 
events ; the slightest apparent discrepancy 
is magnified, and they either conclude the 
sacred book a tissue of fables, a book of rid- 
dles, metaphors, and conundrums, or a series 
of myths. Rout them from one class of ar- 
guments, and they fly to another, often in 
exact contradiction of what they had previ- 
ously maintained ; and in default of any 
ground of argument they will fall to abusing 
and cursing the life, ministry, and work of 
the Divine Redeemer, using the coarsest ri- 
baldry,though previously given to only dainty 
phrases ; thus demonstrating that it is the 
enmity of the heart against God which is at 
the bottom of all their unbelief. 2. A larger 
class than the preceding is composed of 
working men, mechanics, who in a crude and 
rough way do a good deal of thinking, but 
being soured by the neglect of their intel- 
lectual tastes and abilities, which they believe 
the educated class manifest, and having the 
idea that they are displaying a great deal of 
intellectual indejoendence by avowing them- 
selves free thinkers, plunge boldly into the 
discussion of questions which they are dis- 
qualified, for the want of both early training 
and positive knowledge, from handling. 
Without being conscious of it they are mere- 
ly the echoes and mouth pieces of abler but 
worse men, uttering the falsehood, which 
their leaders know to be such, but which 
these poor men believe merely on their as- 
sertion. With them, too, the desire that 



G62 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



these views may be true, that they may be 
thereby freed from responsibihty and the 
goadings of conscience, has much to do with 
tlieir earnestness in endeavoring to believe 
them. 3. Another and still larger class of 
unbelievers, we can hardly call them free 
thinkers, for they do very little thinking of 
any sort, are the men and women utterly 
brutalized by a vicious life, who are without 
hope and without God in the world, and 
who stolidly conclude that no other life, if 
there is another, can be worse than the 
present ; and that somehow they wall be 
better oif after death, since, as they express 
it, they have had no show or chance here. 
These need almost a new creation to bring 
them up to the plane of morally accounta- 
ble beings. They constitute the dangerous 
classes of our large cities, the material of 
mobs, the gangs of thieves, dead rabbits, 
shoulder hitters, prize fighters, burglars, and 
if women, the shop lifters, prostitutes, and 
degraded women of the slums and back 
alleys of the great cities. We might name 
as recruits in this army of unbelief, those 
who under the influence of the worst phases 
of spiritualism have lost all faith in humanity, 
and those in higher circles of society who 
departing from their early training in sound 
doctrine have wandered and floundered 
through the mazes of German rationalism, 
transcendentalism, and at last merged in 
Pantheism or utter unbelief 

A very considerable portion of the edu- 
cated German emigrants, and the English 
workingmen who migrate to this country 
are Freethinkers or infidels, and in many of 
our large cities as well as in the newer 
towns and settlements at the West they have 
organized Infidel or Liberal clubs, and seek 
to bring others into their way of thinking. 
They have united and brought out their full 
strength on several occasions in the effort to 
have all Sabbath laws abrogated in several 
of the Western cities. In some of the new 
settlements of the West they have been so 
largely in the majority that they have pro- 
hibited all effort for religious worship or 
Sabbath observance. Their periodicals 
vary in character according to the class 
whom they address. Some are decorous in 
tone but aim at subverting Christianity by 
appeals to reason and philosophy ; others 
are ribald and Itlasphemous, and denounce 
incessantly all Christian organizations, and 
Christian men. Those conducted by foreign- 
ers and in German or French, are generally 



revolutionary in their character, and have 
much to say of priestcraft and restrictions 
upon the rights of the people. There are 
in all fifteen or twenty of these papers, but 
they give no indications of the number of 
the Freethinking class, since many of them 
do not read anything. There are no means 
of estimating with any approximation to ac- 
curacy their actual numbers. Men who 
have made rdigious statistics a study, and 
with equal opportunities of observations 
differ as widely as between 250,000 and 
1 ,000,000 ; and the larger number is quite as 
likely to be correct as the smaller. 

There are a number of small and minor 
sects which did not properly come under the 
classification we have adopted. With a 
brief notice of them we close this sketch 
of Religious Denominations in the 
UNiTed States. 

I. Adventists, a recent sect of Millina- 
rians, owing its origin to William Miller of 
Vermont, from whom they are often called 
Millerites. He commenced his public teach- 
ings in 1833 and predicted the second ad- 
vent of Christ in 1843. Among his 
disciples was one Joshua V. Ilimes who had 
been a Campbellite preacher and who sur- 
passed Miller in earnestness and energy. 
After the failure of their first prediction in 
1843, others were made but the adherents 
of the sect fell off. Himes however con- 
tinued to advocate his doctrine in the 
Advent Herald and from the pulpit, and suc- 
ceded in drawing around him a considera- 
ble number of followers, of whom, since 
Miller's death, he has been the leader and 
apostle. He is said to be inclined to 
Unitarian views in regard to the divinity of 
Christ, and with most of his followers to 
hold that the wicked will be annihilated at 
the second coming of Christ. There are no 
definite statistics of the numbers of the Ad- 
ventists, but they are estimated at about 
20,000. Their other views are generally 
those of the Evangelical churches, though 
inclining somewhat to Methodism ; but they 
have no regular creed or form of discipline. 
II. Anniiiilationists. The doctrine of 
the Annihilation of the Wicked is not con- 
fined to Adventists. Nearly forty yeara 
ago it was defended by Rev. Henry Grew, 
and since that time Dr. McCulloh of Balti- 
more, George Storrs (an Adventist) and 
Rev. C. F. Pludson have published works 
advocating the doctrine. They have not a 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



663 



large following aside from the Adventists, 
and most of those who believe iu the 
doctrine remain members of Evangelical 
churches. 

III. Catholjc Apostolic Church or 
Irvingites, a small denomiuatioji which 
originated with the teachings of Rev. Ed- 
waril Irving in London about 1830, but 
afterwards considerably moditied through 
the intiuence of Mr. Henry Drummond, a 
member of Mr. Irviug's congregation. They 
hold to the present existence in the Chris- 
tian Church of the Cliarisnis or gifts men- 
tioned by Paul in Cor. xii. 27-31, Eph. iv. 
11-13, 1 Thess. V. 19, 20, viz. healing, speak- 
ing with tongue?, prophesying, &c. In 
their other doctrines they agree generally 
with the Evangelical churches though they 
make confirmation or sealing by the laying 
on of hands of the apostles a third sacrament 
or ordinance. In organization and polity, 
however, they differ from most of the 
churches in having four orders of the min- 
istry, apostle-, prophets, evangelists, and 
angels or chief pastors, and under the latter, 
a fourfold service of elders and deacons, to- 
gether with under deacons and deaconesses. 
The deacons, under deacons, and deacon- 
esses are ordained by the angel or chief pas- 
tor, all the superior ministers or servants by 
the apostles who are not themselves ordained 
but called of the Holy Spirit to their work. 
In their worship they use incense-lights on 
the altar, the full catalogue of priestly vest- 
ments, and a very imposing and impressive 
ritual. They celebrate the Eucharist, every 
Lord's day, as well as on other occasions, 
and receive tithes dui-ing the service. They 
also have auricular confession of sin with 
absolutions and prayers in fourfold form. 
At their meetings for extemporaneous pray- 
er and confession they encourage the speak- 
ing with tongues and jjrophesying. The 
number of congregations of the Catholic 
Apostolic Church in the United States is 
small, not more than eight or ten in all. 

IV. Brethren or Plymouth Breth- 
ren, a denomination wliich originated about 
1830 under the leader.-hip of Rev. John 
Darby, an English barrister of high social 
position, who became a clergyman of the 
Church of England and devoted himself to 
missionary labors in Ireland for several 
years, but being conscientiously opposed to 
the doctrine of Apostolical Succession he 
left that church and proceeded to found one 
which recognized no distinctive mmistry 



and no formal organization. Mr. Darby 
was a Millenarian and thought it the duty 
of all true Christians to gather in small 
bands and pray, labor, and wait for the 
speedy second coming of Christ. The Ply- 
mouth Brethren recognize no other title 
except that of Brethren or Christians ; they 
are Calvinistic (thoroughly so) in doctrinal 
belief; but believe that all the Lord's chil- 
cben are priests and kings in his service and 
that any one of them who feels that he is 
called to the work has a right to preach or 
to administer ordinances. They permit no 
licensure or ordination, and all preaching 
is voluntary and without salary or compen- 
sation. They baptize adults on a profession 
of faith (usually immersing them) though 
they do not consider this indispensable to 
membership. They do not allow infant 
baptism. They exclude persons from par- 
ticipating in the Lord's Supper, who have 
been guilty of gross sins, 'i he Lord's Sup- 
per is celebrated every Sabbath morning. 
In the afternoon or evening of the Lord's 
day they preach to and pray for such as are 
not converted. They believe in the efficacy 
of prayer for special blessings temporal as 
well as spii'itual, and one of the Brethren, 
George Miiller has maintained an extensive 
Orjjhan Asylum and large missionary enter- 
prises at Bristol for many years, solely by 
praying for the needed funds, which as they 
came in were most judiciously expended. 
The denomination has had a rapid growth 
in England and on the continent, and num- 
bers many eminent men among its adher- 
ents. In this country they have a consider- 
able number of congregations, but are very 
reticent concerning their increase and 
growth. 

V. Sandemanians or Glassites. This 
denomination, which a hundred years ago 
was quite numerous is now nearly extinct. 
It derives its name from Rev. Robert San- 
deman, who was not, however, its real found- 
er, his father-in-law. Rev. John Glass of 
Dundee, having originated the sect. Mr. 
Sandeman, after preaching their doctrines for 
twenty years or more in Scotland, emi- 
grated to the United States in 1764, and 
settled at Danbury, Connecticut, where he 
died in 1771, having established several 
Sandemanian churches in Connecticut and 
Massachusetts. Their distinguishing doc- 
trines are : That faith is a simple intellect." 
ual assent to the teachings and divinity of 
Christ; that all mystical or double inter- 



664 



HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS. 



pretation of tlie scriptures is to be rejected ; 
that none of their members must take part 
in any games of chance ; that they are to 
abstain strictly from all blood and "things 
strangled ;" that all collegiate training for 
the ministry is wrong ; that no prayers 
should be made at funerals ; that weekly 
love feasts in which all the members of the 
Church should dine together should be ob- 
served every Sabbath day ; and the kiss of 
brotherhood should pass between all their 
members, male and female, at their solemn 
meetings ; and that a plurality of elders is 
necessary in the church, two at least being 
required for all acts of discipline and the 
administration of ordinances and ritual. 
The ordhiance of feet-washing originally 
practised by the sect has been discontinued. 
There are not more than two or three con- 
gregations of Saudemanians now existing 
in the United States. 

VI. Church of the Messiah, a sect 
founded in Maine in 1863 by a person named 
Adams, who had previously been a Mormon 
elder. He claimed to have visions and spe- 
cial inspirations. Among the points of the 
new ftiith was, that its members were of the 
tribe of Ephraim and that the time had 
come for them to return to the land of their 
fathers, where the INIessiah was to set up the 
throne of David. In 1806, 15G of the mem- 
bers of the sect sailed from Maine for Pal- 
estine under the leadership of Adams and 
landed at Jaffa, where through the eftbrts of 
the American Vice-Consul, land had been 
procured for them and where they erected 
houses and a hotel. Dissatisfaction soon 
occurred. Adams was accused of misman- 
agement, and through the kind offices of 
the United States government a considera- 
ble number returned in 1867, and the r6- 
mainder in 1868. The sect is probably 
extinct. 

VII. Perfectionists. I. Free Lov- 
ers, Bible Communists or Perfection- 
ists, a small American sect founded about 
1840 by John II Noyes, in Putney, Ver- 
mont, but removed subsequently to Oneidn, 
New Yoi'k, where it is now known as the 
Oneida Community. Branches of it are 
also established under the same regulations 
at Wallingford and Brooklyn, Connecticut. 
This organization is a singular medley of 
Biblical doctrine and unholy practice. They 
profess to believe that a reconciliation to 
God is necessary for salvation, that this is 
accomplished through faith which is simply 



an intellectual belief, and that confessing 
this belief the man's sins are immediately 
washed away, and thenceforth he is above 
and beyond all law, being a law unto himself; 
though in practice he surrenders a portion of 
this liberty to the family or Community in 
which he lives. They hold to a community of 
goods, community of women, or as they term 
it, a complex marriage ; no legal marriage 
being considered binding and the parties to 
it in the community being at liberty to make 
new selections at will, their liberty, however, 
being somewhat abridged by the necessity 
of milking their proposals through a third 
party and their being subject to the approv- 
al of the family and in accordance with 
what they pronounce physiological laws. 
The Community or Communities now num- 
ber in all about 600 members, that at 
Oneida having 300. They have prospered 
financially, having attained large wealth by 
their manufactures and agricultural produc- 
tions. They are said to be harmonious and 
contented. The men dress like the citizens 
of the adjacent towns, but the women have 
adopted a sort of Bloomer costume and 
wear their hair short. The influence of 
these Communities can only be evil on the 
society around them. There are several 
other communities in various parts of the 
United States, practising a community of 
,-oods but not of wives. We have already 
described the Shaker Communities, whicli 
have all prospered ; but there are others 
which do not find a new theology neces- 
sary to their success, such as the German 
Socialist Village of Economy, Pennsylvania, 
the Seventh Day German Baptist Commu- 
nity at Ephrata, Pennsylvania ; the more 
recently organized one, near Brocton in 
Western New York, which from the past 
history of Rev. T. L. Harris, one of its 
founders, we suppose to be Spiritualistic, 
and one in Iowa, which admits only male 
members. 

II. Another and more numerous sect of 
Perfectionists, though, perhaps, we should 
hardly call them a sect since they have very 
generally retained their connection with the 
denominations to which they had previously 
belonged, are those persons, who in con- 
nection with Methodist, Congregationalist, 
Baptist, and Adventist Churches, hold to 
the doctrine that it is not only possible 
to attain, but that they have actually 
attained to a condition of sinless perfection, 
complete freedom not only from sinful acts 



CHURCH ARCHITECTUKE, PAST AND PRESENT. 



665 



and deeds but from all sinful thoughts or 
^vords and from any promjjtings to sin. This 
doctrine, sometimes called the doctrine of 
Perfect Holiness, sometimes Oberlinism, 
since it was strongly advocated at Oberlin, 
Ohio, has a considerable following ; and 
under the names of " 'Jhe Higher Christian 
Life," or " Complete Sanctitication," has 
been largely preached and written about 
within a few years past. We cannot say 
that in our experience, those who professed 
it have generally given evidence of greater 
purity or real holiness than others who 
made no such exalted profession ; but while 
conformity to the Divine model is a thing to 
be sought after and labored for, we do not 
believe it is often attained in this life. 

With our notice of these believers in Per- 
fection we close our sketch of Religious De- 
nominations in America. AYe may have 
omitted some small sects, but if so, it has not 
been for want of careful search for them. 
We have not deemed it necessary to say 
anything of Mohammedans, Buddhists, or 



Sintauists, though we believe there are two 
or three congregations of each in California, 
and perhaps one or two in New York. The 
Russo-Greek Church has a chapel in New 
Y'ork City, one in San Francisco, and one 
or two in Alaska, but its adherents are 
probably less than 500 in all. The religious 
rites and ceremonies of the Indian tribes of 
the West, vary too much to be described 
within our limits. The Pueblo Indians of 
New INIexico, and the small remains of the 
Toltec tribes still found in New Mexico and 
Arizona, yet maintain some forms of that 
Sun and Fire Worship which so clearly 
fixes their origin in the plains of Mesopo- 
tamia. In some sections of the South, the 
Negroes, and especially those who were na- 
tives of Western Africa, still maintain in 
secret the Fetich or 0-be-ah Worship. In 
considering the nearly one hundred and fifty 
denominations here enumerated with their 
widely varying creeds, we find it as true 
now as in olden times, that " God made man 
upright, but he sought out many inventions." 



CHURCH ARCHITECTURE, PAST AXD PRESENT, IN THE UNITED STATES. 



In connection with the preceding history 
of religious denominations in the United 
States, it seems appropriate that we should 
touch briefl}^ on the edifices devoted to I'eli- 
gious worship. During the Colonial period, 
and indeed till about 1820, the church edi- 
fices making any pretension to architectu- 
ral beauty, were very few. One or two in 
Boston, two or three in New Y''ork, per- 
haps two in Philadelphia, one or two 
beside the Roman Catholic cathedral in 
Baltimore, one in Charleston, and one in 
Providence were so far beyond the ordinary 
churches in style and ornamentation that 
they were regarded as marvels. In the 
country, especially in the newer settlements, 
the church edifice, like the rude dwellings, 
was of logs, and the seats of hewed slabs, 
thrust between the logs at one end and sus- 
tained at the other by a block or some rough 
wooden legs. The pulpit was a section of 
the butt of a tree dug out and sometimes 
had a hewn slab pinned on it with wooden 
pins. Tlie floor was oftenest of hard beaten 



earth, but sometimes of split planks ; the 
roof of bark or thatch and in rare cases of 
half-hewn logs with clay cement for the 
chinks. Glass in the windows was a rarity ; 
oftener they were mere wooden shutters, ad- 
mitting the light when thrown open but ad- 
mitting, in their season, the wintry breezes 
also. There were no means of warming the 
house of God even when it was of better 
architecture than this, for two reasons: one 
that at this period stoves and furnaces 
were not in existence on this side of the 
Atlantic ; the other that it was incom- 
patible with the ideas of the fathers, that 
people should be allowed to take comfort 
in the house of God, except in the 
preaching of the Word. Was not the 
promise m ade on this very condition " If 
thou refrain thy foot from the Sabbath, from 
doing thine own jjleasure on my holy day," 
&c., and did not that evidently mean that 
people should not go to a good comfortable 
church, nicely warmed and ventilated lest it 
should be a doing of their own pleasure? 




Ancient Dutch Church in Albany. 




Ancient Swedes'' Church, Philadelphia. 
It is impossible to give anything like a general variety in modern styles of church 
edifices in our illustrations, they are so numerous ; but the specimens of the old and new 
we here introduce, will give a good general idea of the improvements which have been 



made. 




bUUTU CULKCU, NEW BRITAIN, CONX. 



( Cun'ji fjittional.) 



G68 



CHURCH ARCHITECTURE, PAST AND PRESENT. 



They might get asleep if the^^ were so com- 
fortable. Ill the older settlements, the log 
cabin churches and school houses had given 
place to huge barn-like structures, lofty and 
bare and cold, with great scpiare pews as 
large as the bed chambers of a modern 
dwelling, with high partitions, where each 
family sat by itself like the witnesses in a 
court, the jury in the jury-box, or, in many 
cases, like the criminal in his pen, when the 
judge is about to pronounce sentence on him. 
The mother or grandmother, in respect for 
their age and dignity, were allowed to bring 
tlieir fbotstoves, little square boxes of perfo- 
rated tin, having a little iron dish of live 
coals within them, and with these, while in- 
haling the charcoal flimes, they were fain 
to keep their feet from freezing in the win- 
ter ; but the father, and the sons, and the 
little children were allowed no such foolish 
indulgence. After tramping through the 
snow perhaps for miles, they took their 
seats m their pews with the temperature 
anywhere from o2° to zero, and listened as 
well as they could, while the preacher read 
his discourse, going on often to seventeenthly 
or eighteenthly, while the children either 
played with the house dog, who was a regu- 
lar attendant iipon the church and had his 
place in the pew, or amused themselves with 
some of the few objects in which they could 
find occupation for their mental and physical 
activity. The number of panes of glass in 
the great windows were counted over and 
over again ; the calculation was made 
with an elaboration of the doctrine of chan- 
ces, worthy of a Babbage or De Morgan, 
how many weeks, months, or years would 
elapse before the huge sounding board over 
the pulpit would fall, and whether it would 
come down on the minister's head like an 
extinguisher on a candle, and whether the 
little tub perched on a post in which he 
preached would be crushed in the downfall. 
Occasionally a child of uncommonly quick 
perception would find some gratitication, as 
the minister announced his " fifteenthly " 
and " sixteenthly " in computing how much 
time he would be likely to consume in the 
heads yet to come ; but such an idea as a 
cliild's being able to understand what the 
minister was preaching about, never entered 
the heads of parent or minister. How should 
it? The sermons were mostly doctrinal, 
masterly ex}X)«itions and logical arguments 
on the great points of the Calvinistic theolo- 
gy, but it required the matured minds of 



the sturdy tliinkers of those days to com- 
prehend their force and pertinence. 1 he 
sermons of that time were long ; not merely 
an hour, but often two and three hours in 
duration. We read of one of the worthies 
of that time, a shining light in the Massa- 
chusetts ministry, that " be was a most god- 
ly and jt>a?'/{/M/ preacher " (don'i laugh, read- 
er, painful in those days meant painstakii g) ; 
and that on one occasion he pivachtd to his 
people a good three hours, in the morning 
of a very wintry day ; and after tl ey had 
taken food, he belabored them for their sir;s 
and shortcomings, in the afternoon, by the 
space of four hours more." In the cities, 
the churches were mostly frame buildings, 
though a few brick and stone were put up. 
One or two of the Dutch churches in Ktw 
York were built of small red and blatk 
brick imported from Amsterdam, but very 
few had any architectural beauty. The Old 
Brick Church in New York, (Rev. Dr. 
Spring's) on Park Row, was in its day con- 
sidered one of the finest churches in the 
city ; if standing now it would hardly be 
considered a respectable stable (the use to 
which abandoned churches are generally 
put in that city). Indeed as late as 183ti, 
forty-two years ago, there were not in the 
whole country twenty churches which could 
be considered specimens of graceful archi- 
tecture. The great fire of 1^85, which de- 
stroyed the second church edifice which the 
corporation of Trinity church had erected, 
as well as several other churches in that 
part of the city, was incidentally the impulse 
to great improvements in church architec- 
ture. The present Trinity church, "a potm 
in stone," was erected on the ruins of its 
predecessor, and Grace church soon after. 
From that time New York began to be 
noted for the beauty of its church edi- 
fices, many of them erected at enormous 
cost. Other cities followed the examjile ; 
some, indeed, had already commenced the 
erection of l)eautif\il churches. The Oothic 
styles. Early, Norman, Spanish, JMedia'val, 
and English, were the favorites for many 
years, and even now have their advocates. 
Of late years, however, there has been a 
greater independence of the forms of Ancient 
and Mediaeval art on the part of our archi- 
tects, and while the styles of the Renais- 
sance,, and the ancient classical, are found 
more frequently than formerly, there is a de- 
sire which now and then finds expression in 
stone, iron,, or bricks and mortar, to origin- 



CHURCH ARCHITECTURE, PAST AND PRESENT. 



669 



ate designs more appropriate to our own time, 
our climate and the new materials for build- 
ing which we have. Sometimes this leads 
to very singular structures, experiments, it 
would seem upon public taste and endurance. 
Under the name of Italian Renaissance we 
have particolored buildings of red and cream- 
colored stone, or black and white marbles, 
with a profiision of spires, turrets, and finials, 
and crowned with a massive dome ; in one 
of the so-called American styles we have 
broad, squat iron buildings, low, but crowned 
in the center with a high, towering dome, 
remindmg one of a huge foundry. Another 
American style studiously plain, and un- 
doubtedly capacious and comfortable for 
accommodating an audience, seems intended 
for two towers, whereof one is cut short at 
the height of the ridge-pole of the church, 
and the other forgetting its original intent 
presently shoots up into a lofty spire (usual- 
ly of wood, but covered with slate) so slen- 
der and fragile, that it seems most like a 
monster darning-needle, set up on end. But 
these partial failures only serve as waymarks 
to a more perfect architecture which shall in 
the end attract the attention of the world by 
its grace and adaptation to the purposes for 
which it is intended. City churches are not 
as yet all models of beauty, but they are 
improving in these respects very rapidly. In 
their interior arrangement there has been a 
great advance. The old-fashioned pew has 
been banished and the modern slip or cush- 
ioned seat, low, easy, readily accessible and 
attractive has taken its place. The pulpit 

41* 



is not now a perch or eyrie from whicii the 
preacher can get a bu-d's eye view of his 
congregation, but a simple reader's desk on 
a raised platform. Pillars are either entirely 
dispensed with or are so small as not to in- 
terfere with the view of the pulpit. Warm- 
ing and ventilation have been the subject of 
anxious and protracted thought, and though 
we can hardly say as yet that either is per- 
fect, yet we are so rapidly approximating to 
perfection in these particulars, that the pres- 
ent generation will probably be able to 
realize it. The Simday School and Bible 
Classes have come to be such important 
agencies in religious progress, that special 
accommodations are required and provided 
for them, usually in a separate building, but 
attached to the church. And so strong are 
the demands for social life in connection 
with the church, that most of the newer 
church edifices have their parlors, retiring 
rooms, ante-rooms, committee rooms, and 
many of them pastor's studies and church 
libraries in connection with the church edi- 
fices. 

The churches in the country come up 
slowly to these improvements, and those of 
the Southern and Western States more 
slowly than those of the Eastern or Middle 
States ; but the progress in all is encourag- 
ing. Still great as has been the advance of 
the last forty years, we are, as a nation, far 
behind most foreign nations in the number, 
the splendor, or the costliness of our temples 
for religious worship. 



INDEX 



Accident insurance comp.inios, 227. 

"Academician,'" the first educational periodical, 89S. 

Academies and high scliools, 3S8. 

"Academy," an, in Virginia, 377. 

Adams, Hannah, works of, 2S5. 

Adams, Mr., designer and wood engraver, 3.S2. 

Adams, .lohn, extract from, upon education, 352. 

Adaras, John Quincy, worlds and career of, 276; extract 
from, upon education, 353. 

Adams press, the, 297 ; illustration of, 295. 

Adirondac iron mines, 25. 

Adventure copper mine, the, 54. 

Advertising, newspaper, 304. 

jEtna Insurance Company, 222. 

Agricultural machines, use of, at the "West, 176. 

Agriculture, schools of, 402. 

Alabama, iron mines and furnaces of, 28 ; banks and banking 
in, 203. 

Albany, iron foundries of, 36. 

Albion coal mines. Nova Scotia, 12D. 

Alcuin, Bible copied by, in 22 years, 26t, 272. 

Alfred, King, price lor a book paid by, 262. 

Alison, Kev. Francis, 349. 

Alleghany mountain. Iron ores of the, 23. 

AUston, Washington, career of, as a painter and author, 321. 

Almaden quicksilver mines, Spain, 111. 

Alpluibo.ts lor the blind, 440. 

Aluminum, discovery and uses of, 251. 

Amalgamation for extraction of gold, 74 ; Eaton's Improve- 
ment in, 76. 

Amalgams, uses of, 114. 115. 

America, discovery of, 22S; colonization of, 229, 234. 

American Academy of Fine Arts, 320, 335. 

American Academy of Natural Sciences, museum and librarv 
of the, 427. 

"American Annals of Education," 393. 

American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, 435, 436 ; view o^ 
437. 

American Bible Society, formation and issues of the, 2G4. 

American Bible Union, organization and publications of the, 
264. 

American Institute of Instruction, 397. 

" American Journal of Education," 893, 399. 

American Female Guardian Society, 449. 

Am.'rican Philosophical Society, origin of the, 349. 

American Telegraph Company, 813. 

Ames, Messrs., foundry of, 6.3. 

Ancram lead mine. New York, 82. 

Anaesthesia, discovery and use of, 261. 

Anderson, Dr., early engraving by, 332. 

Andover Theological School, 393. 

Aniline, origin and value of, 149. 

Annapolis, Md., Naval Academy at, 396. 

Anthracite coal, use of, in iron-makintr, 23; first successful 
application of, 25-6; first knowledge and use of, 120; 
ecological position of, 122; composition and varieties of, 
123; strata of, illustrated, 131-2; mining of, 142; open 
quarries of. 14:3; concentration of beds of, 144; breaking 
and screening of, 147 ; employment of, in house-warm- 
ing, 248. 

Appalachian coal-basin, 124. 

A[)palachian mountains, gold mines of the. 64. 

Appleton, D.. & Co., saJes of Webster's Spelling-book, «&c., 
by, 264, 268. 



Aqua regia, 107. 

Aquatint engraving, 334. 

Architecture, domestic. 245 ; modern improvements in, 247. 

Argentiferous lead ores, methods of working. 90. 

Arizona, rich gold deposits of, 71 ; silver mines of, 115. 

Arkansas, magnetic Inm in, 32 ; zinc in, 98 ; banks iu, 207. 

Arks, transportation of coal by, 136. 

Arrastre, the, description and illustration of; 75. 

Arsenic associated with zinc. lUO. 

Arts of design in America, 316. 

Assay ofiice^ New York, gold deposits at the, 79 ; cstablLsh- 

ment of the, 215. 
Associated Press, the, 303; use of the telegraph by, 313. 
Astor Librarv, 424. 
Atlantic cities, account of the, 181 ; table of exports of the, 

187; of imports. 192. 
Atlantic Mutual Marine Insurance Company, 22.3. 
Atlantic Telegraph, history of the, 314. 
Atwood, Luther, patent coal-oil kiln of, 1.58. 
Audubon, John James, career and works of, 283. 
Austin, Moses, mining operations of, 86. 
Authors, American, 274 ; younger, list of, 231. 

Bachus, Elijah, m.anufacture of cannon by, 19. 

Backus, Levi S.. deaf-mute editor, 4^39. 

Backus, Senator F. F., report of, upon the instruction of 
idiots, 44.3. 

Bacon, Rev. Samuel, proposal of, for an educational journal, 
398. 

Bain's electro-chemical telegraph, 310 (illustr.ation), 312. 

B.aldface Mountain, N. H., iron ores of, 24. 

Baltimore, iron mines near, 22 ; the charcoal iron of, 23 ; 
copper smelting at. 59; chrome at, 113; receipts of coal 
at, 139; origin, growth, and commerce of, 183; orphan 
asylums in. 445. 

Baltimore Company's open coal mines. Wilkesbarre, Pa., 
picture of, opposite 137; account of, 144. 

Baker, George A., painter. 325. 

Bakoo, the petroleum of, ICl. 

Banf;roft, George, 284. 

Bank note engraving. 33-3. 

Bank of the Uniteil St^ites, the, charter of, 200-201 ; winding 
ui> and recharter of. 201; opcrati(ms of, 201-2 ; removal 
of the deposits from, 202 ; State charter and failure of, 
203. 

Banking, method of, in New York. 193; Suffolk system of, 
203; safety-fund and free, 204; National and private, 
211. 

Banks, disastrous speculations of, 170, 172 ; State, establish- 
ment .and operations of, 199 ; over-issues of, 200 ; oppo- 
sition of, to the United States Bank, 201 ; suspension of, 
in 1814,201; increase and expansion of, 202; failure of; 
in 1S;37, 203; history of, 203-9; table of, 1791-1860, 209; 
method of transacting business by, 210 ; settling of bal- 
anci'S bv, 210-11. (See National banks.) 

Bare Hill copper mine, Maryland. 49; chromium at, 118. 

Barnard, Henry, educational journals edited by, 398-9. 

Barnes, A. S., & Co., sales of school books by, 268. 

Bars, iron, how made. 39. 

Bartlett, J, R., illustration of the New Almaden quicksilver 
mine by. 114. 

Barytes. sulphate of, used in adulterating white lead, 95. 

Beaumont's method of arresting lead fumes, 90. 
1 Bedsteads and bedding formerly used, 250. 



671 



Beecher, Miss Catharine E., 285 ; efforts of, for female educa- 
tion, 405. 

Belgium, zinc manufacture in, 101. 

Belleville, N. J., copper mine at, 49. 

Bell-metal, composition and use of, 63, 120. 

Bells, production of, 63. 

Bennet, William James, painter, 320. 

Bennett, James Gordon, 303. 

Benton, Thomas II., works of, 2TT. 

Benzole, character and use of, 14S. 

Berkeley, Sir William, report of, upon education in Virginia, 
341. 

Berks county. Pa., iron mines of, 26. 

Berkshire, Mass., iron mines and furnaces of, 24. 

Bethlehem, Pa., manufacture of zinc at, 99, 104 ; Moravian 
female seminary at, 349, 404. 

Beuthen, Silesia, zinc mines at, 102. 

Bible, the, early printing of, 263 ; issues and low price of, by 
the Bible Society, 264; Charlemagne's, 264, 2ta; ihe 
educational influences of, 3S1-2. 

Bible Societies, formation of, 264. 

Bills of credit. State, constitutional prohibition of, 199. 

Bingham, Caleb, girls' school of, 405. 

Birch, Thomas, marine painter, 322. 

Birmingham, Eng., manufacture of nails at, 41. 

Bishop sleeves, 253. 

Bituminous coal, first trade in, 121 ; geological position of, 
122; character and kinds of, 122; spontaneous combus- 
tion of, 124; beds of, 129 ; mining of, 141. (See Gas, and 
Coal oils.) 

Black jack, 96. 

Black river. Wis., iron mines of, 80. 

Blanc de neige, 104. 

Blast furnaces in the colonies, 17 ; construction and working 
of, 32; American, superior economy of, 33; illustrations 
of, 84, 85 ; tables of i)roduction and distribution of, 46. 

Bleaching powder, manufacture of, from manganese, 119. 

Blende, zinc ore, 90. 

Blind, the, institutions for the instruction of, 439; alphabets 
for, 440; course of instruction of, 441; printing for, and 
writing by, 441 ; statistics of, 457. 

Block -tin lining of lead pipe, 92. 

Bloodjrood & Ambler, silver-lead smeltins; works of, 91. 

Bloomaries, description and working of, 30 ; localities of, 37. 

Blootns, iron, how made, 39. 

Blue mass, preparation of, 115. 

Blue Ridge, the, copper ores of, 49-50; lead mines of, 83. 

Boghead cannel coal, 123; composition of, 147. 

Bog ores, iron, 22. 

Boiler-plate iron, production of, 41. 

Boise Basin gold mines. Idaho, 71. 

Bonnets, fashions of, 251, 257, 258, 259. 

Book-binding, 209 ; illustrations of machines for, 270, 271 ; 
origin of, 272 ; processes of, 272. 

Books, ancient cost of, 262 ; effect of the discovery of print- 
ing upon, 263 ; early market for, in New England, 263 ; 
religious, cheapening of, 264 ; process of the manufacture 
of, 264; methods of the sale of, 265; old, the trade in, 266; 
subscription, publication of, 267; great sales of, 267; sta- 
tistics of^ 269 ; increased cost and use of, 269; sizes of, 
272. 

Booksellers, American Company of, 263, 264 ; number and 
classes of, 26.^. 

Book stalls, the business of, 266. 

Book trade, the, 262 ; competition in, 264 ; number engaged 
in, and operations of, 265; the statistics of, 269. 

Book trade sales, 265. 

Borneo, platinum from, 107. 

Boston, origin, growth, and commerce of, 185; banking sys- 
tem of, 203--4; early bookselling at, 263; early town pro- 
vision for schools in. 339 ; past experiences in the high 
schools of, 390, 391 ; orphan asylums in, 445. 

Boston Athenieum, art gallery of the, 335; library of the, 423, 
427. 

Boston City Library, 424, 425-6 (illustrations). 

" Boston Courant," the, 301. 

Braidwood, Thomas, in Virginia, 435. 

BraidwoDds, the, deaf-mute instructors, 435, 438. 

Braille's system of writing and printing for the blind, 441. 

Bramah's pump for making lead pipe, 92. 

Brass, manufacture and uses of, 62. 

Bray, Rev. Thomas, libraries in Maryland established by, 348. 

Bread, kinds of, formerly most used, 252. 

Breckenridge Coal Oil Works, Kentucky, 154. 

Bremen, regulations for emigrants at, 233. 

Biick, invention of machines for, 244. 

Bridgewater, Vt., gold at, 64. 

Bridgewater copper mine. New Jersey, 49. 

Bristol, Conn., copper mine at, 49. 

British coal-fields, the, 133. 

British immigration into the United States, 284-5. 



Brokers, board of. New Fork, 195. 
Bronze, composition of, 62, 63, i20. 
Brooklyn, manufacture of white lead, in, 940 ; orphan asyluiDe 

in, 445. 
Brooks, Mrs. Maria, 285. 
Brown, Charles B„ woi-ks of, 278. 
Brown, Henry Kirke, sculptor, works of, 32S. 
Brown, Thomas, deaf-mute, 439. 

Brown, William, process of, for dry distillation of coal oil, 158. 
Brown coal, beds of, 122. 
Brown University, origin of, 344. 
Brownson, Orestes A., writings of, 282. 
Bruce, Georsre, Jr., type-casting machine invented by, 298. 
Bruce, George, Sr., stereotyping introduced by, 800. 
Bryant, William C, 284. 
Buckingham, Joseph T., letter of, upon his early school er 

perience, 859. 
Buckminster, Joseph S., 282. 
Buffalo, origin, growth, and trade of, 176. 
Buhrstone iron ore, 22. 
Building associations, fallacy of, 225. 
Buildings, ventilation of, 249. (See Houses.) 
Bulls and bears, in stock operations, 195. 
Burden, Henry, rotary squeezer invented by, 39 ; machines 

of, for spikes and horse-shoes, 43. 
Bureaus, former stylo of, 260. 

Burke rocker, the, illustration and description of, 74. 
Burmah, the petroleum of, 161. 
Burnett, John T., deaf-mute writer, 439. 
Burning-fluid, use of, for light, 25.3. 
Burr, Thomas, process of, for making lead pipe, 91. 
Burra Burra Mining Company, 50, 51. 
Bushnell, Horace, 282 ; extract from, upon the homespun era 

of common schools, 369. 
Bushnell's anthracite stove, 248. 

Bussey, Benjamin, bequest of, to Harvard College, 401. 
Bustle, use and construction of the, 258. 
Butler, E. H., & Co., sales of school books by, 26a 
Butler, W. Allen, 281. 

Calamine, silicate of zinc, 96, 97. 

Calash, the, for the head, 254, 253. 

Calhoun, John C, career and works of, 277. 

California, history, methods, and yield of gold-minins in, 71-3 ; 
quicksilver mines of, 111-12; silver mines of, 116 ; petro- 
leum in, 167. 

California Quicksilver Mining Association, 112. 

Camphene, introduction and use of, 253. 

Canada, railroads of, 173; public improvements and trade oC 
179; effect of the reciprocity treaty with, 179. 

Canada East, gold mines of, 64. 

Canada West, oil region of, 1 67. 

Canals, in California, for gold-minins. 72 ; built for coal trans' 
portation, 139, 140 (table) ; operiiii': c.f. 171,172; effect of, 
upon Western trade and settlenuiit, 172. 

Candles, paraffine, manufacture of, 159 ; use and varieties of, 
253. 

Cannel coals, use of, in manufacturing gas, 150. 

Cannon, manufacture <if, iu the revolution, 19. 

Cape Breton, coal-field of, 129. 

Carbonate of iron, ores and mines of, 21. 

Carlin, John, deaf-mute artist, 439. 

Carlisle tables, the, of average duration of life, 224; inaccura- 
cy of, 226. 

Carpets, early use of, 250. 

Castillero, Andres, working of cinnabar by, 112. 

Cast iron, manufacture of, 32; uses of, 86; decarbonizing of, 
36; manufacture of steel from, 44. 

Castle Garden, New York, emigrant depot, 240. 

Central Park, the, of New Tork, 190. 

Ceracchi, sculptor, career of, 826. 

Chairs, old and new varieties of, 250. 

Champlain canal, opening of, 171. 

Chandler, Abiel, 401. 

Chandler Scientific School, 400. 

Channing, William E., writings of, 281. 

Chapman, John G., painter and designer, 328, 

Character, formation of, 883. 

Charcoal, use of, in iron-making, 22. 

Charlemagne's Bible, 204, 272. 

Charleston, origin, growth, and commerce of, 183. 

Charleston Library Society, 42.3. 

Charlotte, N. C, branch mint at, 64 ; gold deposits at, 79. 

Chatham, Conn., cobalt mine at, 18; nickel at, 117. 

Chaudiere river, gold mines of, 64. 

Cheever, Kev. George B., D. D., 280. 

Cheever, Ezekiel, schoolmaster, 340. 

Cherokee lands, the, of Georgia, 69. 

Chesapeake, iron mines on the, 22. 

Chesapeake and Ohio canal, charter for, 17L 

Chester county, Pa., lead mines o^ 83. 



672 



INDEX 



Chestnut Hill iron mine. Pa., 20; account of, 27. 

Chicago, trade and railroad system of, 1T7; shipments of flour 
and grain from, 178. 

Chicago City University, view of, 412. 

Child, Mrs. Lydia Maria, works of, 285. 

Children's Aid Society, New York, 449. 

Chilian mill, the, 75. 

Chillicothe, Ohio, first land office opened at, 169. 

China, quicksilver mines of. 111. 

Chinese immisrration into California, 232. 

Chlorine, manufacture of, from manganese, 119. 

Chrome, composition and sources of, US; uses and treatment 
of, 118. 

Chrome iron In Maryland, 2T, 28. 

ChrysocoUa, 48. 

Church, landscape paintings of, 325. 

Cinnabar, 111 ; early knowledge of, in California, 112 ; metal- 
lurgic treatment of, 114. 

Cincinnati, origin, growth, and trade of, ISO. 

Circular saw, invention of the, 247. 

Cities, lake, account of, 176; recapitulation, 178; river, ISO; 
recapitulation, ISl ; Atlantic, 181. 

Clausthal, lead-melting at, S9 ; treatment of argentiferous 
ores at, 116. 

Clay, Henry, 277. 

Clay's plan for making wrought iron, 37. 

Clearing house system, the, 210. 

Clerc, Laurent, deaf-mute, 435, 4.39. 

Clergymen, distinguished, list of, 282. 

Cleveland, origin and trade of, 176); direct trade of; with Eu- 
rope, 177. 

Clevenger, Shobal Vail, sculptor, 826. 

Cliff copper mine, the. 53. 

Clinton, De Witt, extract from, upon education. .85.3. 

Clinton county, New York, iron works of, 25; bloomariea 
in, 37. 

Clocks, former styles of, 251. 

Clymer press, the, 287. 

Coal, early neglect and first use of, 120; varieties of, 121 ; the 
ash of, 123; composition of ditferent kinds of, 122, 123 
(table); qualities of, 123; relative values of, 124 (table) ; 
geological and geographical distribution of, 124 ; strata 
of, illustrated, 120, 130; amount of, available, 133; rela- 
tive amount of, in Europe and America, 1.34 (table); pro- 
duction of, in eastern Pennsylvania and Maryland, 
1820-1860, 134-5 (table); transportation of, to market, 
135; table of public works for, 140; mining, general 
account of, 140; useful applications of, 144. (See An- 
thracite, Bituminous, &c.) 

Coal Hill lead mine. New York, S3. 

Coal mining, early, on J.ames river, 18. (See Coal.) 

Coal oils, manufacture of, 155; table of American factories of, 
155; history and method of the manufacture of, 156; 
coals used for, 157 ; retorts for, 157 ; kilns and pits for, 
153; process of refining, 1.58; uses of, 160; use of, for 
light, 160, 252. (See Petroleum.) 

Coal tar, production and composition of, 143. 

Coats, fashions of, 25=3, 257, 258. 

Cobalt, mine of, at Chatham, Conn., 18 ; use of, 116 ; ores and 
mines of, 117 ; treatment of, 117. 

Coinage, colonial, 212-13 ; adoption of Jefferson's plan of, 
213; modifications of, 214, 215; table of, 1793-1860, 214; 
of silver, number of pieces, 216; process of, 217 ; of pla- 
tinum, 107. 

Coins, foreign, in the colonies, 213. 

Coke, production of, 150; from coal-oil works, 159. 

Cole, Thomas, career and paintings of, 324. 

College of New Jersey, charter of, 348. 

Colleges in the United States, 392 ; table of, 452-,3. 

Colliery slope and breaker at Tuscarora, Pa., picture, oppo- 
site 139 ; description of, 142, 144. 

Colonies, the, issue of paper money by, 198 ; coinage in, 
212-13 ; literature in, 274; education "in, 837. 

Colorado, gold mines of, 71. 

Columbia CoUcse, New York, origin of, 347. 

Columbian or Clymer press, the, 287. 

Columbito and columbium, discovery of, IS. 

Combination press, the, 287. 

" Commercial Advertiser," New York, 302. 

Commercial schools, 403. 

'•Common School Almanac," 89S. 

"Common School Assistant," 398. 

Common schools, accounts of the early state of, 855-SO ; State 
provisions for the maintenance of, 385-6; present condi- 
tion of, 887. 

"Common Sense," Paine's, 275. 

Communipaw, N. J., zinc manufacture at, 104. 

Congress, school laws of, 854 ; library of, 423, 427. 
Connecticut, early mining In, 17 ; iron mines and furnaces of, 
24; copper mines of, 48 ; lead mines of, 82 ; manufacture 
of tin in, 120 ; town action for schools in, 339 ; colonial 



legislation of, upon education, 844 ; provisions of, for the 

support of schools, 3t>6. 
" Connecticut Common School Journal," 398. 
Continental money. Issues and depreciation of, 199, 245. 
Cooking, former method of, 253. 
Cooking range, the, 253. 
Cooper, James Fenimore, difficulty experienced by, in getting 

a book printed, 264 ; works of, 279. 
Cooper Union, New York. 434. 
Copley, John Singleton. 318. 
Copper, ores of, 48 ; mines of, 48 ef seg. ; process of mining, 

on Lake Superior, 52 ; statistics of, .56-8 ; ancient uses o^ 

60; modern uses of, 61 ; sheet, manufacture of, 61 ; alloys 

of, 61, 62-3; mines of, 116. 
Copper mining in the colonies, 18. 
Copper-plate engraving, 333. 
Copper-smelting, 58 ; processes of, 59. 
Coram, Robert, account of country schools by, in 1791, 373. 
Cornell's lead-pipe machine, 92. 
Cornwall, Pa., Iron mines of, 26. 
Costume, chanses in. Illustrated, 25-3. 
"Courier and Enquirer," New York, 802. 
Crawford, sculptor, career and works of, 827. 
Credit system, of New York, 191-2. 
Cretins, Dr. Guggenbuhl's school for, 443. 
Crockery, former style of, 251. 
Croton aqueduct, the, 249. 
Crucibles for steel-making, 44, 45. 
Cuba, the bitumen of. 161. 
Cummings, Thomas S.. miniature painter, 328. 
Cupellation of argentiferous lead, 90. 
Cupola furnaces for copper slags, 60. 

Currency, national issues of 211. (See Banks, Paper money.) 
Curtlus, Dr. Alexander Carolus, 347. 
Cut nails, invention of, 41, 246. 

Daguerreotyping, introduction of, 261; American use and 
improvement of, 835. 

Dahlonega, Ga., branch mint at, 64 ; gold-mining at, 70 ; gold 
deposits at, 79. 

Damascus Steel Company, 44. 

Danville, P.a., iron furnaces at, 24. 

Darley, F. O. C, desisner, 325. 

Darlington, William, letter of, upon country -Schools, 870. 

Dartmouth College, origin of, 345. 

Davenport, Pvev. John, 339. 340. 

Davidson county, N. C, gold in, 69 ; lead in, 84 

Davidson sisters, the, 286. 

Davis, John, account of an old field school in Virginia by, 377. 

Davy, Sir Humphrv, improvement in copper sheathing by, 61. 

Day, Benjamin H.," first penny paper published by, 30.3. 

Deaf and dumb, the institutions for the instruction of, 434; 
natural condition of, 437; methods of instructing, 4-38; 
distinguished Individuals among, 439; statistics of, 456 
(table). 

Deep Klver coal-beds. North Carolina, 129. 

Delaw.are, banks in, 205; colonial school legislation of, 849. 

Delaware and Hudson canal, coal transportation of, 139. 

De I'Epee's method of deaf-mute lustruction, 435, 438. 

Demand notes issued by Government, 211. 

Dentistry, use of platinum in, 109. 

Detmoki, C. E., report of, 104. 

Detroit, copper- smelting at, 60j origin and railroad connec- 
tions of, 177. 

Dewey, Orville, works of, 282. 

Die sinking, 834. 

Discounts by banks, 199, 200. 

District of Columbia, banks in, 209. 

Dollar, the Spanish, 21.3. 

Dorn gold mine, South Carolina, 69. 

Doughty, Thomas, painter, 324. 

Drake, Col. E. L., petroleum production developed by, 163. 

Dress, styles of by periods, 25:3 ; illustrations of, 255--6. 

Drummers for New York jobbing houses, ISS. 

Dry diggings, gold, 72. 

Dubuque, discovery of lead mines at, 18. 

Dubuque, Julien, lead mines worked by, 84 

Dummer, Gov. William, educational legacy of, 844. 

Dunlap, William, painter and author, 819. 

Durand, Asher B., landscape and portrait painter, 323. 

Dutch colonization in America, 229. 

Dutch gold-leaf, 80. 

Dutch West India Company, educational policy of the, 338. ■ 

Dutchess county, N. Y., lead mines of, 82. 

Dwight, Hon. Edmund, 400. 

Dwight, Timothy, D. D., works of, 281 ; school of, at Green- 
field, 405. 

Dyestone iron ore in Tennessee, 28. 

East India School, the, at Charles City, Va,, 837. 

Eaton, A. K., invontions of; for decarbonizing cast iron, 35; 



INDEX 



673 



for making steel, 44; improvement of, in amalgamation, 
76; compounds of chromium obtained by, 119. 

Eaton, Governor, of New Haven, promotion of education by, 
340. 

Eaton, N. n., lead mine at, 82. 

Eaton copper mine, Pennsylvania, 49. 

Edmonds, Francis W., painter, 32.3. 

Education in the colonies, 337 ; revolutionary and transitional 
period of, 351; extracts upon the benefits of, 352; action 
of Congress upon, 354 ; social influences favorable to, 3S0 ; 
considerations upon the nature of, 883 ; upon the present 
system of, 8S5; works on the principles and methods of, 
897 ; journals of, 398. 

Edwards, Jonathan, 274. 

Ehniuger, John W., painter and designer, 825. 

Electrotyping, process of, 800. 

Eliot and Storcr, analysis of zinc by, 100. 

Ellenville, N. T., lead and copper mines at, 82. 

Elliott, Charles L., portrait painter. 325. 

Emancipation proclamation, effect of the, upon the book 
trade, 2fi9. 

Embossing machine, for books, 271 (illustration), 272. 

Emerson, George B., young ladies' school of, 405. 

Emerson, Rev. Joseph, young ladies' school of, 405. 

Emigration, early, to America, 229 ; from Germany, 232 ; from 
Great Britain, 234; from Ireland, 235; English law for 
the regulation of, 236 ; Commission of, at New Tork, 
operations of, 240 ; statistics of, 240. 

Emigrants, treatment of, at Liverpool, 236; care of, at New 
York, 240; table of location of, 242; expenses and capital 
of, 243; remittances of 243. 

England, introduction of illuminating gas into, 145; origin of 
newspapers in, 301-2. 

English, the, colonization of America by, 229. 

English basement houses, 247. 

Engraving in the United States, present and past state of, 
illustrated, 829, 831 ; wood, improvements in, 832 ; cop- 
perplate and steel, 333. 

Enrequita quicksilver mine, California, 112. 

Equitable Life Insurance Company, London, 225. 

Erie canal, construction of, 171; effect of, upon western trade 
and settlement, 172. 

Erie, Pa., building of Perry's fleet at, 169-70. 

Erie railroad, 172. 

" Essays to do Good," by Cotton Mather, 274. 

Essex county, N. Y., iron mines of, 25; bloomaries in, 87. 

Etching, process of, 334. 

Eureka' copper mine, Tennessee, 50. 

Eveleth and Bissell, petroleum operations of, 162. 

" Evening Post," New York, 802. 

Everett, Alexander, career of 277. 

Everett, Edward, career of 277; account of former school life 
in Boston by, 891 ; at Harvard College, 392. 

Exchange, course of, at New York, 193-4 ; par of, how ascer- 
tained, 212. 

Exports of the Atlantic cities, table of, 187. 

Express, transmission of newspapers by, 306. 

Expresses, origin and extension of, 188. 

Extension tables, invention of, 250. 

Faculties, development of the, 384. 

Fairmount Water Works, 249. 

Falling Creek, Va., iron works at, IT. 

Family instruction, colonial law for, in Massachusetts, 843. 

Family traininsr, educational influence of, 381. 

Fanny Fern, 2S5. 

Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania, 402. 

Fashions, changes in, illustrated, 253. 

Fay, Theodore S., works of, 280. 

"Federalist," the, 275. 

Felt hats, introduction of, 258. 

Female education, 404. 

Fem.ale writers, list of, 2S5. 

Fiction, great sales of books of. 267 ; writers of, 278. 

Field, Cyrus W., establishment of the Atlantic telegraph by 

the efforts of, 814. 
Fine arts, instruction in the, 404. (See Arts of design.) 
Fire, losses by, 228. 

Fire insurance companies, 220; statistics of, 222, 223, 
Fire-places, old-fashioned, 246. 
Fisher, Alvan, painter, 320. 
Fiske, Kev. Wilbur, 405. 
Flemington copper mine. New Jersey, 49. 
Flint, Timothy, works of, 281. 
Flint glass made with oxide of zinc, 107. 
Florida, ci'ssion of, 171 ; banks in, 209. 
Folding machine, the. for books, 272; for newspapers, 806. 
Food, former kinds and preparation of, 252. 
Foreigners in the United States, 223. 
Forks, kinds of, 251. 
Foundries, iron, 36. 



Four-color printing press, the, 297 ; illustration of, 294. 

Fowle, William B., account of the early Boston schools by, 
390. 

Fractional currency, national, 211. 

Franconia, N. II., iron mines and works of, 24. 

Franklin, Benjamin, bequest of, to the city of Boston, 199; 
works of, 275; the press used by, 286, 289 (illustration); 
first editorial experience of, 30l"; the "Philadelphia Ga- 
zette" of, 305; educational proposals of, 849; lyceoms 
originated by, 483. 

Frankhn, Pa., petroleum at, 103. 

Franklin copper mine. New Jersey, 49. 

Franklin copper mine, the, of Michigan, 54 ; production of, 68. 

Franklin Institute, the, 403. 

Franklinite iron ore, 25. 

Franklinite, manufacture of, from zinc ores, 105-6. 

Frafeee, John, sculptor, 826. 

Eraser, Charles, miniature painter, 321. 

Fremont, Col., the mining operations of, 73. 

French indemnity, payment of the, 215. 

French Revolution, fashions during the, 254. 

Friedlander's alphabet for the blind, 440. 

Frock coat, introduction of the, 257. 

Fry, Richard, bookseller, advertisement of, 263. 

Fuel, use of gas for, 153. 

Fuels used in iron-smelting, 20 ; for puddling, 3& 

Fuller, S. Margaret, 285. 

Fulton, Robert, as an artist, 318. 

Furnaces, iron, construction of, for anthracite, 28; location 
and working of 23 ; for copper-smelting, 58, 59; for lead- 
smelting, S8; for zinc, 99, 104; for quicksilver, 114; hot- 
air for heatinp:, 248. (See Blast furnaces.) 

Furniture, manufacture and varieties of, 249. 

Galena, lead ore, 81. 

Galena and Chicago railroad, 173. 

Gallaudet, Rev. Thomas II., labors of, for the instruction of 
the deaf and dumb, 485 ; system of, 438. 

Galvanized iron, invention, manufacture, and uses of, 40. 

Game, former use of, for food, 252-3. 

Gap copper mine, the, 18. 

Gas, illuminating, history of, 145 ; cost of, 146 ; table of com- 
panies for, 146 ; table of works for, by states, 147; con- 
stituents of, 147; combustion of, 148; construction of 
works for, and process of manufacturing, 149; coals used 
for, 150 ; the measurement of, 150 ; economy in the use 
of, 151 ; mode of testing the quality of, 152 ; from other 
materials than coal, 152; for steamboats and railroad 
cars, 15:3 ; use of, for fuel, 153 ; introduction o^ for light- 
ing streets and houses, 249. 

Gas-holders, construction of, 151. 

George IV., fashions introduced by, 257. 

Georgia, iron mines and furnaces of, 28 ; copper mines of, 50 ; 
gold mines of. 63, 69 ; banks in, 208 ; early schools of, 360 ; 
school holiday in, 873. 

German immigration into the United States, 232 ; motives of, 
233 ; home ett'orts to check, 234 ; causes of, 234. 

German silver, composition of, 68, 117. 

Gift-book system, the, 266. 

Girard, Stephen, purchase of the United States Bank by, 201. 

Girard College, view of, 408; organization of, 446. 

Gisborne, F. N., telegraph engineer, 814. 

Glass made with oxide of zinc, 107. 

Gleason's " American gas-burner," 152. 

Gold, imitations of, 62 ; localities and mining of, in the Ap- 
palachian range, 68-70; in the Rocky Mountains, 70 ; in 
California, 71 ; production of, 1848-1852, 78 ; natural dis- 
tribution of, 73 ; v.ariation in the value of native, 77 ; mint 
deposits of, 77-79 (tables); uses made of, 80; platinum 
associated with, 107; iridium, 110; course of the trade in, 
193; coinage of, 214; coins of, 215; mint deposits 01^216. 

Gold Hill, N. C., gold-mining at, 69. 

Gold-leaf, manufacture and uses of, 80. 

Gold-mining, illustrations of, 65-8; processes of, 72-71. 

Gong, Chinese, American manufacture of the, 63. 

Gordon, J. W. W., 115. 

Gotha Life Insurance Company, Germany, 225. 

Gould, Miss Hannah F., 286. 

Grafton, Ohio, the petroleum of, 167. 

Graham, Augustus, process of, for making white lead, 94. 

Grain, tables of Western shipments of, 178. 

Grand Trunk railway, the, of Canada, 179. 

Graphite, geological position of. 122. 

Grates, use of, for anthracite, 248. 

Gravel walls, 246. 

Gray, Henry Peters, painter, 325. 

Great Britain, development of the iron manufacture of, 19; 
lead mines of, 87 process of zinc manufacture in, 99; 
thickness of the co.al-beds of, 133 ; succession of races in, 
228; emigration from, 229. 

Qreen Mountains, the, iron mines of, 2i, 



674 



INDEX 



Greenbacks, 211. 

Greene, E. D. E., painter, 325. 

Greenough, Horatio, sculptor, career of, 326. 

Greenwood furnace, tlie, 25. 

Griggstown, N. J., copper mine near, 49. 

Guadalupe quicksilver mine, California, 112. 

Guggenbuhl, Dr. Louis, institution of, for cretins, 443. 

Gun metal, composition and uses of, 62-3, 120. 

Guyton de Morveau, zinc paint first recommended by, 103. 

Habersham county, Ga., gold mines of, 63. 

Hall, James, works of, 2S0. 

Hall, Rev. Samuel Read, first teachers' seminary opened by, 

899. 
Halleck, Fitz-Greene, poems of, 2S1. 
Hamilton's report, 275. 
Hanging Rock iron district, the, 29. 
Harding, Chester, portrait painter, 321. 
Hare, Robert, fusion of platinum by, 109. 
Harnden, W. F., express business originated by, 188. 
Harper & Brothers, publishers, 2&1, 266; the operations of, 

268. 
« Harper's Weekly," 307. 
Hartford Society for the Improvement of Common Schools, 

893. 
Harvard, John, bequest of. to Harvard College, 342. 
Harvard College, foundation of, 342; Everett's account of life 

at, fifty years ago, 392. 
Harvard University, Scientific School of, 401 ; library of, 424. 
Harvey's or Salter's plan for making wrought iron, 37. 
Hats, fashions of, 25:3, 257, 25S. 
Haiiy, Valentin, labors of, for the blind, 4.39. 
Havre, German emigration by way of, 2-33. 
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, career and works of, 280. 
Hays, W. J., animal painter, 325. 
Head-dresse?, old styles of, 254. 258. 
Heinicke's method of deaf-mute instruction, 435, 438. 
Hematite iron ores and mines, 20; distribution of, 24. 
Henry, Alexander, copper mining by, 51. 
Henry, Patrick, 275. 

Hewitt, Abram S., on iron production, 19. 
Hicks, Thomas, portrait painter, 32.5. 
Highlanders, emigration of, to the United States, 229. 
Hiidreth, Richard, 284. 
Historians, minor, list of, 284. 
Hitz, John, first American maker of zinc, 99. 
Hoe, Richard M., inventor of the type-revolving press, 2S8. 
Hoffman, Charks F., works of, 280. 
Holbrook, Josiah, labors of, in founding lyceums, 433. 
Holmes. Oliver Wendell, 281. 
Homes for the Friendless, 449. 
Homoeopathy, introduction of, 260-61, 
Hoofstetter, attempts of, to manufacture zinc, 99. 
Hooker, Herman, 282. 
Hoop skirts, use and construction of, 2.58. 
Hopkins, Gov. Edward, grammar schools founded under the 

will of, 340. 
Horn-book, the, 41.3. 

Horse-shoe nails and horse-shoes, machines for, 4-3. 
Hose-washing in Calitbrni.a, 72. 
Hosmer, Harriet, sculptress, works of, 328. 
Hotel, the modern American, 261. 
Hotels of New York, 196. 
Houdon, statue of Washington by, 326. 
Houghton, Dr. Douglass, exploration of the Michigan copper 

mines by, 51. 
Houses, early style of building. 245 ; improvements in, 246-7 ; 

in the Southern States, 247 ; improvements in warming, 

248; lighting of, 249, 251. 
House's printing telegraph, 310 (illustration), 311, 
Howe, Mrs. Julia Ward. 286. 
Howe, Dr. Samuel G., 4;39, 44.?. 
Huancavelica quicksilver mines, Peru, 111. 
Hubbard, Wis., immense iron bed of, 30. 
Hudson river, iron furnaces on the, 23; e.irly trade of the, 

186. 
Hughes's system of telegraphing, 311. 
Humphrey, Heraan, D. D., letter of, upon the early state of 

common schools, 356. 
Huntington, Daniel, painter, 825. 
Huron copper mine, production of, 5S. 
Hydraulic gold-mining, 65, 
Hydraulic works of California, 72. 
Hydrocarbon gas, manufacture and character of, 152. 
Hydrocarbon or coal oils, 154. (See Coal oils.) 
Hydropathy, introduction of, 261. 

Idiots, institutions fur the training of the, 442 ; modes of 

teaching, 444. 
Idria quicksilver mines. Carniola, 111. 
Illinois, lead mines of, &4 ; coal in, 124 ; banks in, 205. 



Illinois Central railroad, 173. 

" Illustrated News," the, 307. 

Immigration into the United States, 230 ; laws regulating, 
231; table of, 1820-1S56, 231; sources of, 26-2 et i<eq. ; 
statistics of, 241. 

Imports and exports of Canada, 179 ; of Cincinnati, 180 ; ol 
New Orleans, 182 ; of Charleston, 183; of Baltimore, 1^3; 
of Philadelphia, 184; of Boston, 185; of New York, 187. 

Indiana, banks and banking system of, 20,5. 

Indian corn. Western crops of, 174; importance of, 175. 

Industrial schools, 449. 

Ingham, Charles C., painter, 322. 

Ink balls, use of, in printing, 287. 

Inking machine, hand, 287, 290 (illustration); patent hand- 
press steam, 290 (illustration). 

Inman, Henry, painter. 323. 

Inoculation, viiccine, introduction of, 260. 

Insurance, principles of, 219 ; companies, classes of, 220, 221. 
(See Accident, Fire, Life, Marine.) 

Intelligence, general, causes of, 380. 

Intercourse, social, importance of means of, 260. 

Interest, fallacious idea of, 225. 

Iowa, lead mines of 84; banks in, 206. 

Ireland, emigration from, 235; effects of misgovernment and 
the famine in, 235; reformatory measures in, 236. 

Iridium and osmium, use and sources oi; 110. 

Iridosmium, 110. 

Irish emigrants, impositions upon, at Liverpool, 236; tricks 
of, 238 ; the passage of, 239. 

Irish emigration to the colonies, 229. 

Iron, early exportation of pig, 18; production of, 1828-1856, 
20; principal ores of, 20; comparative cost of the pro- 
duction of, 23; distribution of the ores of, 24; kinds o^ 
82; production and importations of, 46; domestic, amount 
and value of, 47 ; chromate of, 118. 

Iron manufacture, hi.-itorical sketch of, 18; advantages of the 
United States for, 19; materials employed in, 20; fuels 
used in, 22; furnaces for, 23; processes of, 32 (see Cast 
iron, Wrought iron. Sheet iron, Puddling, «fcc,); statistics 
of, 45 ; effect of the war upon, and prospects of, 47. 

Iron Manufacturers, Association of, 45. 

Iron mines, distribution of, 24 et seq. ' 

Iron mountain. Mo., 31. 

Iron works, early, in the colonies, 17; table of, in 1858, 45. 

Irving, Washington, works of. 278. 

Isle Royale, copper mines of, 52, 58, 

Ivison, Pbinney, Blakeman & Co., sales of school books by, 
26S. 

Jackson, N. H., oxide of tin at, 120. 

James River coal mines, first working of, 18, 121. 

Japanese ambassadors, bill for the entertainment of the, 
197. 

Jarvis, .lohn Wesley, painter, 820. 

Jay, John, extract from, upon education, 353. 

J.ay, Vt., chrome mines in, 118. 

Jefferson, Thomas, plan of coinage by, 213; writings of, 275 ; 
plan of a school law by, .342 ; extract from, upon educa- 
tion, 3.52. 

Jewelry used in gift-book sales, quality of, 266. 

Johnson, Eastman, painter, 325, 

Jones, Richard, process of, for making white oxide of zinc 
from the ore, 104. 

" Journal of Commerce," New York, 302. 

"Journal of the Rhode Island Institute of Instruction," 393. 

Juvenile Asylums, 449, 450. 

Kansas, coal-beds of, 124. 

Keeseville, N. Y., nail factories of, 25. 

Kemble, Mrs. Frances Anne, 286. 

Kenned}', John P., works of, 278. 

Kent, Chancellor, extract from, upon education, 353. 

Kent ore bed. Conn., 24. 

Kentuckv, iron mines and furnaces of, 29 ; thickness of th« 

coal-beds of. 133; banks in, 207. 
Kerosene Oil Works, Newtown, L. I., 154, 158. 
Keweenaw Point copper mines, 51, 52 ; production oi^ 57. 
Kidder's gas-regulator, 151. 
King, Chas. B., painter, 320. 
King's College, New York, foundation of, 347. 
Kirkland, Mrs. Caroline M., 285. 
Knife-handles, balanced, 251. 
Konigshutte, Silesia, zinc works at, 101, 102, 
Kossuth hat, introduction of the, 258. 

Lakes, cities of the, 176; aggregate trade of the, 178k 

Lambdins, the, painters, 825. 

La -Motte lead mines, Missouri, 85, 86. 

Lamps, vaiieties of, 251-2. 

Lancasti'r, Pa., zinc mine ne.ar, 97. 

Lancaster county, Pa., nickel mine in, 117. 



INDEX 



675 



Land, railroad grants of, 173; sales of, 1821-1860, 174; war- 
rants and donations of, 174; amount of, unsold, 175. 

Land offices, opening of, 169, 170. 

Land sales, government system of, 169 ; amount of, 1790-1820, 
171 ; increase of, from speculation and public works, 172. 

Land speculation, evil etfects of, 171, 172. 

Land States, increase of population in, 175. 

Landscape p.iinters, 325. 

I^pis calaminaris, 98. 

Lard oil, 154. 

Lawrence, Abbott, 400, 401. 

Lawrence Scientific School, 400. 

Law schools, 394 ; table of, 455. 

Lead, ores of, 81; localities of, 82-6; shipments of, from S. 
W. Virginia, 84; from the upper Mississippi, 85; dimin- 
ished production of, 86; table of production and import* 
of, 1832-1858, 87; smelting, methods of, 87; fumes of, 
methods of arresting, 90 ; manufactures of, 91 ; separa- 
tion of silver from, 116. 

Lead mining in the colonies, 18. 

Lead pipe, manufacture of, 91 ; use and danger of, 92. 

Leclaire, process of, for making zinc paint, 103. 

Lectures and lecturers, 433-4. 

Legal-tender notes, national issue of, 211. 

Legar6, Hush S., career and writings of, 278. 

Leg-of-mutton sleeves, 25S. 

Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, 136. 

Lehigh Coal Mine Company, 121. 

Lehigh county. Pa., zinc mines of, 97. 

Lehigh region, the, coal produced in, 1820-1860, 135. 

Lehigh river, slack- water navigation of, 136; railroad, 139. 

Lehigh valley, iron furnaces in the, 23; iron ores of, 26. 

Leslie, Mrs. Eli^a, 285. 

Leslie's " Illustrated Newspaper," 307. 

Le Sueur, discovery of lead mines by, 18, 84. 

Letter-writers of the Revolution, 275. 

Leutze, Emanuel, historical painter, 325. 

Liberty, Md., copper mines near, 49. 

Libraries in the United States, 428 ; principal, table of, 
429-32. 

Life insurance, statistics and principles of, 224 ; in different 
countries, 225; table of comparative rates of, 226; ten 
years' non-forfeitable plan of, 227. 

Light, materials used for, 249, 251-2. (See Gas, Coal oils.) 

Lignite, formation and beds of, 123. 

Limestone as a flux for iron ores, 20. 

Line engraving, process of, 833. 

Ljppincott, Mrs. Sarah J., 286. 

Lippincott & Co., publishers, transactions of, 268. 

Liquors, former universal use of, 25.3. 

Litchfield, Conn., girls' school at, 405. 

Literature, American, 274. 

Lithography, 33.5. 

Liverpool, fleecing of Irish emigrants at, 236. 

Live-stock insurance companies, 227. 

Lloyd's, marine insurance, 223. 

Loadstone, the, 21. 

Locust Mountain coal-measure, section of, 132. 

Log houses, construction of, 247. 

Looking-glass plates, preparjition of, 114. 

London, marine insurance at, 223. 

Longfellow, Henry W., works of, 280. 

Longstreet's '' Georgia Scenes," extract from, 374. 

Lossing, Benson J., works of, 284. 

Louisa county, Va., gold mines of, 64. 

Louisiana, purchase of, 170 ; banks in, 208. 

Louisville, origin and growth of, 180. 

Lovell's Latin School, Boston, account of, 390. 

Lowell, James Russell, 281. 

Lowell Institute, Boston, 434. 

Lubricating oils from coal, 161. 

Lucesco oil works, 157. 

Lumpkin county, Ga., gold mines of, 70. 

Luyck, Rev. Dr. ^gidius, 347. 

Lyceum movement, the, 403. 

Lyceums, 432 ; for mutual instruction, history of, 433. 

Lyon, Miss Mary, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary estab- 
lished by, 405. 

Mackintosh, Miss M. J., 285. 
McCormack gold mine, Georgia, 70. 
McDowell county, N. C., gold-mining in, 69. 
McLean, J. S., first American pianoforte patentee, 260. 
Madison, James, works of, 275; extract from, upon education, 

353. 
Magdalen Asylums, 450. 
Magnetic iron ores, 21 ; localities of, 24. 
Magnetic Telegraph Company, 313. 
Maine, lead mines of, 82. 
Maine law, the, 260. 
Maine Telegraph Company, 813, 



Malachite, green, 48. 

Malbone, Edward G., miniature painter, 320. 

Mallet's method of making galvanized iron, 40. 

Manassas Gap, Va., copper ores at, 49. 

Man catchers of Liverpool, 236-7 ; tricks of, 233. 

Manganese, use, sources, and treatment of, 119. 

Manhattan Gas Light Company, 145. 

Mann, Horace, 387. 

Manual labor schools, 408. 

Maricopa Mining Company (silver), 116. 

Marine insurance, 223 ; table of, in IS'cw Tork, 224. 

Mariposa county, Cal., quartz-mining in, 73. 

Marshall, John, works and chanacter of. 276. 

Maryland, iron mines and furnaces of, 28 ; copper mines o^ 
49 ; gold in, 64 ; cobalt in, 117 ; chromium in, 118 ; coal- 
fleld'of, 124, 135; banks in, 205; colonial legislation of, 
upon education, 347. 

Maryland Agricultural College, 402. 

Massachusetts, early iron works in, 17; lead mines of, 82; 
manganese in. 119 ; coal in, 129 ; colonial issues of paper 
money in, 19S; colonial coinage of, 212; marine in- 
surance in, 224; life insurance in, 225; colonial legisla- 
tion of, upon education, 342; the constitution and laws 
of, upon education, 3S.5. 

Massachusetts Hospital and Life Insurance Company, 224. 

Massachusetts School for Imbecile and Feeble-minded Youth, 
443. 

Mather, Cotton, works of, 274. 

Mauch Chunk railroad and coal business, 136. 

Mauch Chunk Summit mine, section of, 132. 

Mecca, Ohio, the petroleum of, 167. 

Mechanics, schools for, 403. 

Medical schools, 394; table of, 455. 

Melville, David, efforts of, to establish the use or gas, 145. 

Meneely, Messrs., bell foundry of, 63. 

Mercurial medicines, preparation of, 115. 

Mercury, use of, in gold-mining, 74, 76; uses of. 110; ores of, 
111; mines and yield of, 111; mining of, in California, 
112; total production of, 112; metallurgic treatment o^ 
114; useful applications of, 114. 

Mezzotint engraving, 334. 

Michigan, iron mines and furnaces of, 29 ; copper mines ot, 
51; coal-field of, 129; banks in, 206; Agricultural Col- 
lege of, 402 ; University of, scientific course of, 402. 

Middletown, Conn., argentiferous lead mine at, IS, 82. 

Migration, universality of, 228. 

Military Academy, the, 395. 

Militarv schools in Virginia, South Carolina, &c., 396. 

Mills, Clark, sculptor, 328. 

Milson, Mr., Carlisle tables constructed by, 224. 

Milwaukee, origin, growth, and trade of, i78. 

Mimbres copper mines, 116. 

Mine Hill. N. J., zinc mines at, 97. 

Mine la Motte lead mine, 86; cobalt at, 117; nickel at, 117, 
118. 

Mineral paints, 247. 

Minesota copper mine, the, ancient and modern working of, 
54 ; production of, 56. 

Mining, the earliest American charter for, 18. 

Mining industry of the United States, history of, 17. 

Minnesota, banks in, 206. 

Mint, the United States, establishment of, 213; operations o^ 
214 et »eq. (See Coinage.) 

Mints, table of gold deposits at the, 78-9. 

Mirrors, silvering of, 114. 

Mississippi, banks and banking in, 207. 

Mississippi basin, settlement of the, 170. 

Mississippi valley, the, early style of house furniture In, 251. 

Missouri, iron mines of, 31; lead mines of^ 85; cobalt and 
nickel in, 117, 118; banks in, 208. 

Money, origin and nature of, 212. 

Monroe, N. Y., iron beds of, 25. 

Montana, gold and silver mines of, 71. 

Montour's ridge. Pa., iron mines o^ 27. 

Moor's Indian Charity School, 345. 

Moravian schools in Pennsylvania, 849, 404. 

Moresnet, Belgium, zinc mine at, 101. 

Morse, S. P. B., career of, as a painter, 322. 

Morse's telegraph apparatus, 308, 309 (illustration). 

Morris, Robert, repoit of, upon coinage, 213. 

Moselem iron bed, the, 26. 

Motley, John Lothrop, works of, 284. • 

Mount, William S., paintings of, 323. 

Mount Pisgah coal mines, 136; railroad plane, description and 
illustrations of, 136, 137, 139. 

Muntz's yellow metal, 61. 

Music books, sales of, 268. 

Nack, James, deaf-mute poet, 439. 

N.icoochee valiey gold mines, Georgia, 63, 70. 

Nails, manufacture of, and American improvements In, 41; 



676 



INDEX 



table of factories and production of, 42 ; process of making, 
42 ; horse-shoe, 43. 

Napier press, the, description of, 287 ; improvements in, 288, 
297. 

National Academy of Design, establishment of the, 319, 823; 
origin and ]m)gress of the, 335. 

National Bank. See Bank of the United States. 

National banks, system of, 211. 

Naturalization laws, the, 230. 

Naval Academy, the, 396. 

Nazareth, Pa., Moravian school at, 349. 

Nickel, uses and mines of, 117 ; ores of, 118. 

Neal, Joseph C, writings of, 281. 

Neal, Mrs. Alice B. (Haven), 285. 

Nebraska, banks in, 207. 

New Almaden quicksilver mice, California, 112; picture of, 
113. 

Newark, N. .!., manufacture of zinc at, 104. 

Newberry, Dr. J. S., opinion of, upon the source of petro- 
leum, 164. 

New Brunswick, N. J., copper mine at, 49. 

New England, early iron works in, 17 ; iron mines and fur- 
naces of, 24 ; use of peat in, 122; decline of the whaling 
business of, 154; banks in, 203; fire insurance in, 222; 
origin and progress of the book trade in, 263 ; colonial 
school system of, 338. 

New England Primer, specimen of the, 414. 

Newfane, Vt., gold found at, 64. 

Newfoundland, ancient Norse colony in, 228. 

New Hampshire, iron mines of, 24; copper in, 49; le.adin, 82; 
tin mine in, 120; colonial legislation of, upon edacation, 
845; State law for education in, 3SC. 

New Haven, early town action for schools in, 838. 

New Jersey, early copper mining in, IS; iron mines and fur- 
naces of, 25; copper mines of, 49; zinc mines of, 97; 
banks in, 205 ; early schools in, 848. 

New Jersey Franklinite Company, 106. 

New Jersey Zinc Company, 104. 

New Orleans, gold deposits at the branch mint of, 78; acqui- 
sition and early commerce of, 170 ; origin, grov^h, and 
commerce of, 181; trade and valuation of, 1804-1 s&9, 182; 
course of trade and exchange at, 182; competition of 
other places with, 183. 

Newsam, Albert, deaf-mute sculptor, 439. 

Newsp.apers, establishment of, in England, 301 ; in the United 
States, 302; in New York, statistics of, 304; advertising 
in, 304; daih', furnier and present business management 
of, 305 ; other classes of, 307 ; aggregate number and cir- 
culation of, 307. 

New York, iron mines and furnaces of, 24; copper in, 49; lead 
mines of, 82; petroleum in, 167 ; the canals of, 171; the 
railro.ads of, 172; issues of paper money by, 199 ; banks 
and banking systems of, 204; fire insurance in, 221 ; ma- 
rine insur.ance in, 223; life insurance in, 224; number of 
foreigners in, 242; Dutch colonial school system in, 338; 
colonial legislation of, upon education, 346; State school 
law of, in 1795, 386; school superintendent appointed in, 
886-7 ; State Library of, 427. 

New York Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, 436. 

New York Central railroad, 172. 

New York Children's Aid Society, 449. 

New York city, shot towers in, 94; introduction of gas into, 
145; extentof gas pipes in, 140; early trade of, 185 ; tr.ide 
and finance centred at, 186; course of trade at, 186; pop- 
ulation, commerce, and valuation of, 1684-1860, 1S7; 
speculation at, 187 ; mode of business in, 188; effects of 
discoveries and public improvements upon, 188 ; move- 
ment of business and population in, IGU ; railroads and 
telegraiihs in, 190; subdivisions and methods of business 
in, 191; exports and imports of, 187, 192; trade in gold 
at, 193 ; exchange, banking, and stock operations at. 194 ; 
hotels in, 196 ; the retail trade of, 197 ; assay office at, 
215; insurance in, 222-4; newspa])crs of, 302; circulation 
of the, 303; Sunday press of, 307; Mechanics' School of, 
403 ; orphan asylums in, 445. 
"New York Express," the, 305. 
New York Gas Light Companj', 145. 
" New York Herald," the, 803. 
New York Home for the Friendless, 449, 460. 
"New York Hlustrated News," the, 307. 
"New York Journal," the, 307. 
New York Juvenile Asylum, 448. 
"New York Ledger," the, 307. 
New York Society Library, foundation of, 347. 
New York Life antl Trust Company, 224. 
New York Mercantile Library, 427. 
New York Society Library, 423. 

New York State Asylum for Idiots, 443; view of, 444. 
"New York Times,'' the, 304. 
' New York Tribune." the, 804 
Normal schools, 397, 899. 



Norsemen, discovery of America by, 228. 

North Carolina, iron mines and furnaces of, 28; copper mines 

of, 50; gold mines of, 63, 69; lead in, 84; cobalt in, 117, 

nickel in, 118; coal-beds of, 129; banks in, 208; colonial 

legislation of, upon education, 349. 
Northeast, N. Y., lead mine at, 82. 
Norton, Andrews, 282. 

Norwich Free Academy, Conn., view of, 411. 
" Notes on Virginia " Jetferson's, 276. 
Nott, Eliphalet, D.D., letter of, upon school-teaching, 362; 

the anthracite stove of, 248. 
Nova Scotia, coal-field of, 129. 

Ohio, iron mines and furnaces of. 29 ; petroleum in, 162, 167; 

government land sales in, 169, 170; banks and banking 

system of, 205. 
Ohio Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, 436. 
Ohio State School for Idiots, 443. 
Oil, whale, diminished production of, 154; lubricating, from 

coal, 160. (See Coal oil. Petroleum.) 
Oil Creek, Pennsylvania, petroleum on, 162. 
Old field school in Virginia, account of an, 377. 
Oleflant gas, composition of, 147. 
Olmsted, Prof. Denison, .399. 
Olmsted's anthracite stove, 24S. 
Oneida L.ake, iron mines near, 25. 
Ontonasion copper mines, 52, 54; production of, 57. 
Orators, celebrated American, 275. 
Oregon, platinum in, 107 ; iridium in, 110. 
Oreide, discovery of, 251. 

Orphans, institutions for the education and training of, 445. 
Orr, Hugh, manufacture of cannon by, 19. 
Orr, Isaac, inventor of the air-tight wood stove, 248. 
Osgood, Mrs. Frances, 286. 
Osmium, 110. 

Oswego, origin, growth, and trade of, 176. 
Ovens, construction of, in old-fashioned houses, 246. - 
Ovid, N. Y., agricultural college at, 402. 
Oxide of cobalt, 117 ; of manganese, 119 ; of zinc, see Zino 

paint. 
Oxy-hydrogen blowpipe, fusion of platinum by the, 109. 
Owen, D. D., survey ot the lead region by, 84. 
Owyhee gold and silver mines, Idaho, 71. 

Packer Collegiate Institute, the, 405, 409-10 (illustrations). 

Page, William, painter, 823. 

Paine, Thomas, revolutionary writings o^ 275. 

Painting, academies and schools of, 3.35. 

Painting and painters in the United States, 816. 

Paints, new kin<ls of, 247. (Sec White lead, Zinc paint.) 

Pali'tot, introduction of the, 258. 

Palmer, sculptor, works of. 8'j!3. 

Pantaloon, definition of, 257. 

Paper, printing, sizes of, 272. 

Paper money, origin, kinds, and use of, 198; comp.aratiTe de- 
preciation of, in the colonies, 213. 

Paraflinc, preparation and use of, 159. 

Parlev, Peter, school recollections of, 363. 

Parton, Mrs. S. P. W. (Fanny Fern). 285. 

Partridge, Captain Alden, military schools or, 396. 

Passaic Mining and Maniifacturing C/ompany, lt>4,l06. 

Passengers, arrivals of foreign, 1820-1859, 24(i ; of native, from 
abroad, 244. 

Patents, number of, issued, 259. 

Pattinson's method of treating argentiferous lead, 90. 

Paulding, James K., works of, 278. 

Pawnbrokers, the business of, 197. 

Peabody, George, 427, 434. 

Peabody Institute, Baltimore, 427. 

Peale, Charles Wilson, 820 ; art academy founded by, 835, 

Peale, Eembrandt, career and paintings of, 820. 

Peat, formation and beds of, 122. 

Peele, J. T., painter, 325. 

Peet, Harvey P., 436. 

Peet, Mrs. Mary Toles. deaf mute poetess, 439. 

Pennsylvania, iron mines and works of, 26; copper mines of, 
49"; lead mines of, 83 ; zinc mines of, 97; chromium in, 
118; manganese in, 119 ; first use of the coal of, 120; chart 
of the anthnacite region of, 126-7; coal strata of, 129; 
thickness of the coal-beds of, 135; production of coal in, 
1820-1860, 134-5; public improvements of, for coal trans- 
portation, 1.35; history and production of petroleum in, 
162-3; banks ill, 205; early educational laws and institu- 
tions of, 349. 

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 835. 

Pennsylvania and Lehigh Zinc Company, 104. 

Pennsylvania Asylum for the Blind, view of, 441. 

Pennsylvania canal, opening of, 171. 

Pennsylvania Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, 436. 

" Pennsylvania Packet," the, first American daily newspaper, 
801. 



INDEX 



677 



Pennsylvania Eock Oil Company, 163. 

Pennsylvania Society for the promotion of public schools, 398. 

Pennsylvania Training School for Idiots, 443. 

Penokie range, Wis., iron mines of, 30. 

Perkiomen copper mine, Pennsylvania, 49. 

Perkins, Jacob, invention of, in steel engraving, 333. 

Perry's lead mine, Missouri, 86. 

Peru, quicksilver mines of. 111. 

Petroleum, foreign sources of, 161 ; Burmese, products of the 
distillation of, 161 ; in the United States, localities and 
history of, 162, 167; the question of the source of, 16i; 
boring wells for, 164-5; flow of, 166; qualities of, 167; 
workf for refining, 168 (table). 

Pewabic copper mine, the, 54 ; production of, 58. 

Pewter, composition of, 120. 

Phelps, Mrs. Almira H., 285. 

Phelps's electro-magnetic governor, 312. 

Philadelphia, resources, origin, and business of, 184; manage- 
ment of a model store at, 184; account of early school- 
teaching in, 871 ; orphan asylums in, 445, 446. 

" Philadelphia Gazette," Franklin's, 805. 

" Philadelphia Ledger," the, 804. 

Philadelphia Library Company, 423, 427. 

Phillips, Col. David M.. deaf-mute, 439. 

Phillips Academy, account of, by Josiah Quincy, 883. 

Phoenixville lead mines, Pennsylvania, 81. 

Photography, introduction and use of, 261. 

Photometer, the, 152. 

Phrenology, introduction of the study of, 260. 

Pianofortes, American manufacture of, 260. 

Pictou coal mines, Nova Scotia, 129. 

Piermont, N. H., iron ore of^ 24. 

Piggott, A. Snowden, on copper-smelting, 59. 

Pig iron, manufacture of, 32; classification of, 36; table of 
production of, 46. 

Pilot Knob, Mo., iron at, 31; works at, 82. 

Pine-tree shilling, the, 212. 

Pins, manufacture of, 62. 

Pittsburg, copper-smelting at, 59, 60; coal mines at, 131 ; cost 
of mining at, 141; origin, growth, and business of, 180. 

Pittsburg and Boston copper mine, production of, 58. 

Planing machine, invention of the, 247. 

Platinum, localities, character, and working of, 107; appara- 
tus for working, illustration and description of, 108, 109 ; 
American consumption of, 110. 

Plumbago, geological position of, 122. 

Plymouth colony, appropriation for schools in, 343-4. 

Poe, Edgar A., ^81. 

Politics, educational influence of, 382. 

Polk county, Tenn.. copper mines of, 50. 

Polk County Mining Company, 50, 51. 

Polytechnic schools, 403. 

Pony expresses in California, 188. 

" Poor Richard," 275. 

Population, progress of, in the "Western States, 171,174; de- 
crease of, in Ireland, 285. 

Porcupine mountains, copper mines of, 52. 

Portage lake copper mines, 52, 53-4 ; smelting works, and 
production of, 57. 

Port Henry, N. T., iron mines of, 25. 

Portland canal, the, around the falls of the Ohio, 180. 

Portsmouth, E. I., coal mine at, 129. 

Post, Edwin, first successful use of anthracite by, 25. 

Postage, cheap, establishment of, 261. 

Potato crop, the, dependence of Ireland upon, 235. 

Pot ore, iron, 28-9 (note). 

Powers, Hiram, sculptor, career and works ofi 327. 

Preaching, educational effects of, 881. 

Prescott, William H., works of, 284. 

Press, the, of Franklin (Eamace press), mode of working, 286; 
picture of, 289. (See Printing press.) 

Preventive and reformatory institutions, 446. 

Printing, introduction of, in England, 263; processes of, 299; 
for the blind, 441. 

Printing ink, qualities and composition of, 286. 

Printing-press, the, 286; improvements in, 287; illustrati(tos 
of, 289-97. 

Professional schools. 893; tables of, 4&4, 455. 

Providencia quicksilver mine, California, 112. 

Prussia, attempts of, to check emigration, 234. 

Publishers, book, number and classes of, 265. (See Book 
trade.) 

Paddling, the process of, 37. 

Putnam county, N. Y., iron mines of, 25. 

Pyrites, freeing of gold from, 76. 

Pyritous copper ore, 4a 

Pyrolusite, ore of manganese, 119. 

Pyromorphite lead ore, 81. 

Quartz mining, 7.3. 

Queen's Collage, New -i<jrsey, foundatidn of, 348. 



Quicksilver. See Mercury. 

Quincy, Josiah, account of Phillips Academy by, 888. 

Eailroad iron, table of production of, 40, imports of, 173. 

Eailroads for coal transportation, 139, 140 (table) ; American, 
historical sketch of, 172; extent and cost of, 173; stimu- 
lating effects of, 173-4; Canadian, 179; street, in New 
York, 190. 

Eailroad ticket machine, illustration and operation of, 296. 

Eainanghong, Bnrmah, petroleum at, 161. 

Eandall's Island Nursery, 445. 

Readers, large proportion of, in the United States, 262 ; In- 
crease of, 269. 

Beading railroad, construction and operation of the, 135. 

Reciprocity treaty, trade under the, 179. 

Bed wood Library, the, 423. 

Reed's gold mine. North Carolina, 63. 

Reformatory institutions, management of, 447. 

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 400. 

Renton's plan for making wrought iron, 87. 

Retorts in gas works, 149 : in coal-oil works, 157. 

Reverberatory furnaces, 88; for lead-melting, 89. 

Revere, John W., invention of galvanized iron by, 40. 

Revere Copper Company, the. 58. 

Revolution, orators and writers of the, 275 ; Influence of the, 
upon education, 351. 

Reynolds, L. G., inventor of horse-shoe nail machine, 43. 

Rhine, valley of the, emisration from, to the United States, 
232 ; destitution in, 2.34. 

Rhode Island, coal-field of, 129 ; early town action for schools 
in, 340 ; colonial legislation of, upon education, 344. 

Roberts, Dr. E. A. L., apparatus and process of, for manufac- 
turing platinum plate, 108, 109. 

Eocker, gold -washing, picture and description of, 67. 

Rockers, use of, in gold-mining, 74. 

Eocky Mountains, gold mines of the, 70. 

Rogers, Prof H. !)., estimate of the extent of American coal- 
fields by, ISS; of the amount of coal in Europe and 
America, 134. 

Boiling machine, the, for books, 271 (illustration), 273. 

Rolling mills in the United States, table of, 40. 

Roofing, use of zinc for, 103. 

Roosevelt «fc Sons, manufacture of mirrors by, 114. 

Rosin oil, manufacture of gas from, 152. 

Rossie lead mines. New York, 8.3. 

Rossiter, Thomas P., paintings of, 825. 

Eotbermel, P. F., historical painter, 325. 

Buggies job press, the, 287. 6/ 

Rush, Benjamin, extract from, upon education, Sjjff; on ardent 
spirits', 260. 

Buss, Dr. John D., 43. 

Russia, platinum found in, 107. 

Russian-American telegraph, the, 315. 

Bussian sheet iron, 40. 

Bust, Samuel, press invented by, 287. 

Rutgers College, New Jersey, origin of, 848. 

Sack coat, introduction of the, 258. 

Safety Fund banks, 204. 

Saflor, ore of cobalt, 117. 

St. John's College, Annapolis, origin of, 848. 

St. Lawrence county, N. Y., iron mines of, 25; lead mineB 
0^83. 

St Lawrence river, navigation of the, 179. 

St. Louis, origin, growth, and trade of, 181. 

Salisbury, Conn., iron mines of, 20, 24. 

San Francisco, gold deposits at the branch mint of, 78; gold- 
dealing at, 193 ; branch mint at, 215. 

Sans-serif alphabet, the, for the blind, 440. 

Santa Barbara quicksilver mine, Peru, 111. 

Santa Clara Mining Company (quicksilver), 112. 

Santa F6, New Mexico, iron at, 32. 

Santa Rita del Cobre mines (copper), 116. 

Sargent, Wilson & Hinkle, sales of school books by, 268. 

Saucon zinc mines, Pennsylvania, 97 ; analyses of ores from, 
98. 

Sawing machine, the, for books, 272. 

Saxe, J. G., 281. 

School apparatus, past and present, illustrated, 422. 

School-books, early manufacture of, 263 ; mode of introducing, 
266 ; great sales of, 268 ; improvements in, illustrated by 
specimens, 413-21. 

School holiday in Georgia, 373. 

School-houses', early, character of, 357 ; past and present, illus- 
trated, 406-7. 

Schoolcraft, Henry R., 283. 

Schools, town action in behalf of^ in the New England colo- 
nies, 339; colonial legislation for, .341 ; effect of the Rev- 
olution upon, 351 ; laws of Congress upon, 3,54 ; true use 
of, 882-3; secondary or higher, legislative neglect of, 8S8; 
professional, scientific, and special, 392. 



618 



INDEX 



Schools of design for women, 336. 

SchuyU'r copper mine, New Jersey, 18, 49. 

Bchuylkill, iron mines and furnaces on the, 26, 27. 

Schuylkill region, coal produced in the, 1820-1860, 134. 

Bcientiflc sclio(ds, 400. 

Scotch emigration to the colonies, 229. 

Scotch hearth, tlie, description and illustration of, 88. 

Sculpture and sculptors in the United States, 325. 

Sedgwick, Miss Cuthaiine M.. works of, 285. 

Segdin, Dr. Edward, labors of, for the instruction of idiots, 

443, 444. 
Selligue, manufacture of coal oil hy, 156. 
Seneca Indians, use of petroleum b}', 162. 
Seneca oil, 163. 

Sewing machines, introduction and benefits of, 261. 
Shaking tables, in gold mining, 75. 
Sharp Mountain, section of the coal-measure of, 132. 
Shawangunk Mountain, lead mines of, 82. 
Shaw, Joshua, landscape painter, 822. 
Shear-steel, manufacture of, 44. 
Sheathing, use of copper for, 61. 

Sheet iron, manufacture and nses of, 40; production oi^ 41. 
Sheet lead, manufacture of, 91. 
Shelburne, N. IL, lead mine at, 82. 
Shepherd mountain. Mo., iron at, 32. 
Shingles, use of, 246. 
Shoes, fashions of, 253, 254, 257. 
Shot, manufacture of, 92-3 ; towers for, 94. 
Siberia, i)latinum in, 107. 

Sicard, Abbe, 435; method of, for deaf-mute instruction, 438. 
Sideboard, use of the, 250. 
Siegenite, nickel ore, 118. 
Sierra Nevada, the, gold mines of, 71, 72. 
Sigourney, Mrs. Lydia H., 285. 

Silesia, Upper, zinc works of, 101 ; their production, 102. 
Silver, in the Lake Superior copper mines, 53 ; in Idaho, 71 ; 
in load ores, 81; methods of separating from lead, 90; 
American mines of, 115; ores of, and their treatment, 
116; coinage of, 214; circulation of foreign, 215; pieces 
of, 216. 
Silvering of mirrors, 114-15. 
Bilver-ware and forks, 251. 
Bimsbury, Conn., copper mine at, 18, 48. 
Simms, William G., works of, 280. 
Skirts, fAshions of, 254, 258. 
Sleeves, fashions of, 253. 
Sluice-washing for gold, 72. 
Smalt, preparation and use of, 117. 
Smelting. See Copper, Iron, Lead, &c. 
Smith, David, shot-making process of, 93. 
Smith, Mrs. E. Oakes, 285. 
Smith, Peter, 287. 
Smithsonian Institute, library of the, 427; lectures, &C., of 

the, 434. 
Smithsonite, zinc ore, 96. 

Sniybert, John, portrait painter, 316; Nathaniel, 317. 
Snowhill, Md., bog iron of, 2'2. 
Social and domestic life, 245. 
Social distinctions, former, 254. 
Society, general progress of, 259. 
Soda aud its carbonates, use of, in making steel, 44. 
Solder, soft, composition of, 120. 
Somerville, N. J., copper mine near, 49. 
Sonora Company's silver mine, Arizona, 115. 
Southampton, Mass., lead mine at, 82. 

South Carolina, iron mines of, 28; gold mines of, 63, 64, 69; 
manganese in, 119 ; banks in, 208; colonial legislation of, 
upon education, 350. 
Soutkern States, the, iron mines and furnaces of, 28; domes- 
tic architecture of, 247. 
South Jorjsins cliffs, coal-measures at, 129. 
Southworth, Mrs. E. D. E. N., 285. 
Spain, quicksilver mines of. 111. 
Spanish colonization in America, 229. 
Sparks, Jared, works of, 283. 
Specie, amount of, 217. 
Specie circular, the, 202. 

Specular iron ore and mines, 21 ; localities of, 24. 
Speculum metal, composition of, 63. 
Spelter. See Zinc. 

Spikes, wroughtiron, machines for, 43. 
Spurzheim, phrenology introduced by, 260. 
Squibb, Dr. E. K., preparation of blue mass by, 115k 
Stamping mills for quartz-mining, 74. 

Stamps lor copper mining, 53 ; for gold-crushing, picture of, 68. 
Statesmen, American, 276. 
State Teachers' Associations, 898. 
States, new, effect of land speculation upon the Increase of, 

171. 
Steam, use of, in coal-oil making, 158; house-warming by, 
243 ; social importaaco of, 260. 



Steamers, ocean, introduction of, 188. 

Stedman, E. C, 281. 

Steel, oualities aud manufacture of, 43 ; American methods of 

making, 44. 
Steel engraving and engravers, 383. 
Stephens, Mrs. Ann S., 285. 
Stereotyping, process of, 300. 
Stewart & Co., New York, the business of; 190. 
Stippling, process of, 334. 
Stiriina; Hill, N. J., zinc mine at, 97. 
Stirling's gas-regulator, 151. 
Stocks, origin of the trade in, 194 ; method and amount of, 

195, 196. 
Stores in New York, 190. 
Story, Joseph, works of, 276. 
Stoves, manufivcture of, at Albany, 36; use and kinds of; 248; 

for cooking, 253. 
Stowe, Mrs. Harriet Beecher, works of, 285. 
Street, Alfred B., 281. 
Street railroads in New York, 190. 
Stuart, Oilbert, portrait painter, 318. 
Subscription books, publication and sale of, 267. 
Suffolk Bank system, 203. 
Sully, Thomas, career and paintings of, 321. 
Summit coal mine, open quarry, pictui-e of, 138; account of; 

143. 
Sunday press, the, of New York, 307. 
Superior, Lake, iron mines of, 29 ; copper mines of, history, 

extent, working, and production of the, 51-58; shipments 

of iron from, 57. 
Susquehanna, iron mines on the, 26. 
Sutter's mill, discovery of gold at, 71. 
Swansea, copper-smelting at, 58; zinc works at, 96. 
Sydney coal-mines. Cape Breton, 129. 
Sykesville, Md., iron and copper mine at, 28, 49. 

Table furnitul-e, varieties of, 251. 

Tables, old and new styles of, 250. 

Tait, Arthur F., painter, 825. 

Tar Lake, Trinidad, 161. 

Tarentum, Pa., petroleum wells at, 162. 

Taylor, Bayard, 281. 

Taylor, Orville J., 398. 

Teachers, training of, 397; associations of, 897; conventions 

of, 393. 
Teachers' institutes, 399. 
Teaching, vvorks on, 897. 

Telegraph, the, introduction and extension of, 188; use of, by 
newspapers, 803; principles of, and apparatus for, 308 et 
seq. ; lines of, 313 ; the Atlantic, history of, 314. 
Telegraphing, charges for, 814. 
Temperance reform, the, 260. 
Tennessee, iron mines and furnaces of, 28; copper mines o^ 

50; gold mines of, 70; zinc in, 97; banks in, 207. 
Territories, the, surveys and sales of land in, 169. 
Theologians, colonial, 274. 
Theological schools, 393 ; table of, 454. 
Thevenet, Dr., account of iridium gathering by, 110. 
Thomas Iron Company, description of the furnaces of, 34. 
Thompson, Laimt, sculptor, 828. 
Ticknor, Elisha, 899. 
Tidioute Island Oil Company, 163. 
Tight-lacing, 258. 

Tin, alloys of, with copper, 63; sources and uses of, 119-20; 
alloys with, 120; sheet, preparation of, 120. 

Titusville, Pennsylvania, petroleum at, 162; operations at, 
163. 

Tomatoes, introduction of, 252. 

Torrey, Prof. John, analysis of zinc ores by, 93. 

Total abstinence societies, origin of, 260. 

Trade, progress of, between the East and West, 170 ; con- 
struction of lines of communication for, 171 ; course of; 
175; of the lakes, 178. 

Trade sales of books, 265. 

Training, mental and corporeal, 884. 

Travel, importance of facilities for, 260. 

Travelers' Insurance Comp.any of Hartford, 227. ' 

Trexler, R., anthracite stoves made by, 248. 

Trimming machine, book and paper, 270 (illustration), 272. 

Trinidad, petroleum and asphaltum in, l6l. 

Trinity School, New York, origin of the, 347. 

Trouncing in school, how performed, 390. 

Trowsers^ introduction of, Dy the Duke of Wellington, 257. 

Troy, iron foundries of, 86. 

Trumbull, Colonel John, career and paintings of, 319. 

Tuomey, M., on iron ore in South Carolina, 2S. 

Tuscarora, Pa., colliery slope and breaker at, i)icture of, oppo- 
site 139; account of, 142, 144. 

Type-founding, process of, 298; machine for, 298. 

Type-revolving press, the, construction and operation o^ 
288 J illustrations of; 292-3. 



INDEX 



679 



Types, sizes of, 298; proportions of, in fonts, 299; cases for, 

and setting of, 299 ; copper-facing of, 301. 
Type-setting machines, 299. 

Ulster lead mine, copper from the, 49. 

Ulster county, N. Y., lead mines of, 82. 

Union Consolidated Mining Company, 50, 51. 

United States, the, advantages of, for iron manufacture, 19; 
coal-flelds of, 124; table of gasworks in, 147; table of 
coal-oil works in, 154 ; total imports of, 192 ; immigra- 
tion into, 230 ; comparative number of readers in, 262. 

United States Bank. See Bank. ^ 

United States Military Academy, 460. 

United States Zinc Company, 106. 

Universal Life Insurance Company, 227. 

University of Pennsylvania, origin of, 349. 

Usher, llezekiah and John, early booksellers of Boston, 263. 

ValI6's lead mine, Missouri, 86. 

Vanderlyn, John, career and paintings of, 820. 

Van Dyke, Dr. H. M., gold-mining of, in Georgia, 70. 

Vassar Female College, 4U5. 

Venango county. Pa., petroleum in, 162. 

Ventilation of buildings, 248-9. 

Vermont, iron mines and furnaces of, 24; copper mines of, 
49 ; gold mines of, 64; chromium in, 118; manganese in, 
119 ; constitutional provision of, for education, 3S6. 

Verplanck, Gulian C. 2S3. 

Victoria, Queen, zinc statue of, 103. 

Vieille Montague zinc mines and works, 100. 

Vincent de Paul, instruction of idiots by, 443. 

Virginia, early mining industry in, 17 ; iron ores and furnaces 
of, 28 ; copper mines of, 49 ; shipments of ores from, 50 ; 
gold mines of, 68, 64 ; lead mines of, S3 ; bituminous coal- 
field of, 129; petroleum in, 167; banks in, 208; early 
schools in, 337; colonial legislation of, upon schools, 341 ; 
first general school law in, 342 ; account of an old field 
school in, 377. 

Virginia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, 436. 

Vitreous copper ore, 48. 

Waldo & Jewett, portrait painters, 322. 

Walker, Parker & Co.'s product of silver from lead, 91. 

War books, great sales of, 267. 

Ware, William, works of, 282. 

Warner, Miss Emily, works of, 285. 

Warwick or Jones' iron mine, the, 26. 

Washington, Houdon's statue of, 326; extract from, upon ed- 
ucation, 362. 

Washington College, Maryland, origin of, 343. 

Washington county. Mo., iron-smelting in, 31. 

Wa.shington gold mine, North Carolina, 69, 84,115. 

Washington press, the, 287; picture of, 289. 

Washington's Farewell Address, manuscript of, 301. 

Washoe silver mines, 115, 116. 

Washstands, movable and fixed, 251. 

Waterbury, Conn., brass manufacture at, 62. 

Water-cure, introduction of the, 261. 

Water gas, manufacture nnd introduction of, 152. 

Waterhouse, Dr., vaccine inoculation introduced by, 260. 

Water-works in cities, introduction of, 249. 

Watkinson, David, library founded by, 427. 

Watson, John, portrait painter, 316. 

Waverley novels, effect of the, upon the book trade, 264. 

Wayland, Francis, works of, 282. 

Wealth, what constitutes, 260. 

Webster, Daniel, speeches of, 277 ; extract from, upon educa- 
tion in New England, 353. 

Webster. Noah, account of schools and education in New 
England by, 345; observations of, upon a liberal policy 
of education, 362 ; upon the early state of common schools 
(letter), 855 ; upon errors in education, 855-6. 

Webster's Elementary Spelling-book and Dictionary, publi- 



cation and influence of, 263, 264; aggregate sale of, 267; 
Spelling Book, specimens of, 416-19. 

Weir, Robert W., painter, 823. 

Welby, Mrs. Amelia B., 286. 

Welland canal, construction of the, 179 ; and railway, effect 
of, upon the trade of Buffalo, Oswego, and Cleveland, 176. 

Wellington, Duke of, trowsers, frock-coats, and boots intro- 
duced by, 257-8. 

Wells, petroleum, the boring of, 164-5 ; pipes for, 166. 

Wells, John, printing-press inventor, 2S7. 

West, the, coalfields of, 124, 133; surveys and sales of land 
in, 109; early trade and settlement of, 170; effects of 
speculation in, 172; eam-ils in, 172; railroads in, 173; 
railroads, population, and corn crop of, 1850 and 1857, 174 
(table); importance of corn to, 175; use of agricultural 
machinery in, 175. 

West, Beniamin, career of, 317 ; chief pictures of, 818. 

West, Wil'iiani E., painter, 820. 

West Point, Military Academy at, 895. 

Whaling business, decline of the, 154. 

Wetherill, Samuel, manufacture of zinc by, 99, 104 

White, Edwin, painter, 325. 

Whitefleld, George, Orphan House in Georgia founded by, 
.350, 445. 

Wharton, Joseph, manufacture of zinc by, 99. 

Wheatley lead mine, Pennsylvania, 83. 

Wheaton, Henry, work of, on international law, 276. 

Wheelock, Dr., "first president of Dartmouth College, 845. 

White lead, m.anufacture and uses of, 94 ;adulteration of, 95; 
works, table of, 96. 

Whittier, John Greenleaf, career and works of, 281. 

Wiss, former use of, 257. 

Wilbraham, Mass., Methodist Conference Seminary at, 405. 

Wilbur, Dr. H. B., 448. 

Wilkcsbarre, open coal-mines at, picture, opposite 137; ac- 
count of, 144. 

Willard, Mrs. Emma,workaof, 284; the female seminary of, 405. 

William and Mary College, foundation of, 342. 

Williams, Mr., painter, 317. 

Willis, N. P., career and works of, 280. 

Willson's "School and Family Eeaders,''' specimens of, 420-21. 

Windham County Teachers' Convention, 898. 

Windows, weights and catches for, 247. 

Winthrop, Governor, mining grant to, 17. 

Winthrop, John, mineral specimens collected by, IS. 

Wire, iron, manufacture and uses of, 41 ; brass, 62. 

Wirt, William, works of, 276. 

Wisconsin, iron mines and furnaces of, 80 ; lead mines of, 84 ; 
banks in, 206. 

Wood, manulacture of gas from, 152; for engraving, 382. 

Wood's chrome mine, 118. 

Woodworth, William, planing machine introduced by, 24T. 

Worcester, Mass., wire made at, 41. 

Writers, American, 274; female, list of, 285. 

Wrought iron, manufacture of, 86 ; jilans for the direct pnp- 
duction of, 37. 

Wyoming region, the coal produced in, 1829-1860, 134. 

Wythe lead mine, Virginia, S3. 

Tale College, foundation of, 844; Scientific School of, 400. 

Yankee curiosity, useful results of, 262. 

" Yankee Notions," the, 307. 

Yellow metal, Muntz's, 61. 

Young, James, manufacture of coal oil by, 154. 

Zaffre, ore of cobalt, 117. 

Zinc, use of, in coating iron, 40 ; in brass-making, 62 ; ores of, 
96; mines of, 97; metallurgical treatment of, 99; impu- 
rities of, 99-100 ; European manufacture of. 101 ; total 
production and consumption of, 102 ; uses o^ 103 ; manu- 
facture of white oxide of, 103. 

Zinc paint, manufacture of. 103; American process of mak- 
ing, 104-5 ; cost of, 106 ; importance of, 106. 



EXTRACTS FROM COMMENDATIONS. 



The following Testimonials must convince 
the most sceptical person of the merits of 
this work. We do not remember of ever 
seeing a list of names attached to any pub- 
lication in this country whose opinions are 
entitled to more confidence. They were 
not given hastily, without examination, as 
it required about one year to obtain them. 

PUBLISHERS. 

No. 1. 

From A. Jackson, D. D., President Hobart College, Genera 
I have examined. <as far as time would allow, 
your new work. I think it a very convenient book 
of reference, and a valuable addition to our statis 
tical knowledge. I have already found it a very 
useful work to consult, and I gladly add it to our 
College Library, where it well deseiwes a place. 



No. 2. 



From C. Nctt, D. D., President of the Indiana State Uni- 
versity, Bloomington, Ind. 

I have examined your recently published work 
and from the examination I have been able to give 
it, I believe that it merits richly the highest com- 
mendation. The great variety and importance of 
the subjects, the felicitous style in which they are 
clothed, ami their numerous and beautiful illustra- 
tions, render this work peculiarly attractive. They 
embrace subjects of great and universal utility, and 
deeply interesting to all classes of community. 
Every profession and calling in life is here exhib- 
ited, with the latest improvements in every depart- 
mecit of industry and art. 



No. 3. 



From the President of the Wesleyan University, Middletown, 
Conn. 

I have examined with much pleasure and profit 
your new work. It contains a great amount and 
variety of information, printed in an attractive 
style on subjects of the highest importance. It is 
eminently a jjractical work, and brings within the 
reach of all, stores of knowledge heretofore inac- 
cessible to most readers. The novelty of the title, 
the great truths illustrated and established, give it 
increased attractiveness and usefulness. 



No. 4. 
From President of Girard College, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Dear Sir, — I have been interested and instructed 
by the perusal of your national work, for a copy of 
which 1 am indebted to your courtesy. 

An illustrated history of the various branches of 
industry and art in the United States, prepared 
with the ability and truthfulness which character- 



izes this work, will be highly acceptable to all 
classes of readers. In its artistic and mechanical 
execution, nothing has been left to be desired. I 
am not acquainted with any work in which so 
much reliable information on so great variety ot 
subjects may be found in so small a compass. It is 
emphatically a book for the people. 

Yours respectfully, 

William H. Allen. 



No. 5. 



From the President of Genesee College. 
Lima, November 6, 
With as much care as my time would allow, i 
have examined the work published by Mr. Stebbins. 
It contains a large amount of valuable information, 
in just the form to be circulated widely among „hd 
people. It is in fact a brief and interesting history 
of our progress as a nation, in both science and the 
arts. 1 am willing that my name and influencfl 
should aid in its circulation. 

J. Morrison Eeed. 
I fully concur in the above. 

James L. Alvison, 
Professor in Genesee College. 



No. 6. 



From the President of JIarietta College, Ohio. 

D(ar Sir, — The work on the " Development of the 
United States " was received by mail a kvf days 
since. I have given what attention I could to it, 
and write you now, as I am expecting to be absent 
from home for some days. 

The examination of this work has given me 
much pleasure. The idea of furnishing this most 
valuable knowledge in a comparatively small com- 
pass, was a most happy one. As a people we Want 
information — reliable information. We need to 
know our own history, in art and science, as well as 
in government. The people of one section should 
know how those of others live — the progress of one 
should be made known to all. 

The idea of the work you have undertaken seems 
to have been well carried out, as well as happily 
conceived. On a great variety of topics, in which 
all the people are interested, you have furnished a 
large amount of valuable information. All, except 
those of the lowest grade of intelligence, will avail 
themselves of the opportunity to secure this work, 
and, unlike many books, the more it is exam- 
ined the more valuable will it seem. I anticipate 
for it a wide circulation. 



No. 7. 

From the President of the University of Rochester, N. T. 

I have looked over, somewhat hastily, your new 

work. The plan seems to me excellent, the idea of 

presenting in a short compilation the present state 



COMMENDATIONS. 



681 



and rate of progress of the various industrial arts 
is one which can not fail to be thought worthy. In 
general, the work seems to be successfully and cor- 
rectly done. 

No. 8. 
From President Read, University of Wisconsin. 
I have examined, with a pleasure I can hardly 
express in too strong terms, your new work on the 
United States. During the few days the work has 
been on my table it has saved me, in the examina- 
tion of facts, labor worth many times the cost of 
the volume. For the school library, the business 
man, the scholar, or the intelligent family, it will be 
found a cyclopEedia presenting, in a most interest- 
ing form, the progress of the various arts of civi- 
lized life during the period of our national exist- 
ence. I most heartily recommend the work. 
Very truly yours, 

Daniel Kead. 



No. 9. 



From the President of Columbia College, N. T. 

Sir, — I thank you for the copy of your work 
on the " Progress of the United States," published 
by you. 

It seems to me of great value as containing 
information of interest, more or less, to all, and 
not easily accessible, except to varied labor and 
research. 

The idea, too, of illustrating national progress, 
not by war, nor annexation, nor diplomatic legerde- 
main, but by the advance in the institutions of 
learning, in useful inventions, in the growth of 
manufactures, agriculture, and commerce, in all the 
arts of peace, in morals and civilization, in the 
inner life, so to speak, of the people themselves, 
seems to me both original and founded in the true 
notion of progress. 

Your obedient servant, 

Ch. King, 
Pres. of Columbia College 

Mb. Stebbins. 



No. 10. 
From the President of Tufts College. 
January 27, 

Mr. Stebbins : Dear Sir, — I was led to expect 
much from the title of your work, and resolved to 
give it a careful examination. I have been richly 
repaid for the time thus spent, in the great pleas 
ure and profit I have derived from its perusal 
Heartily thanking you for this generous contribu 
tion to generous knowledge, I trust you may reap a 
rich reward for your efforts. 

John P. Marshall 



No. 11. 

From the President of Dartmouth College. 
January 20, 

L. Stebbins, Esq. : Dear Sir, — I received some 
days ago your very handsome work, but have found 
leisure only within a day or two to examine its 
contents. Those persons who have been longest 
on the stage can best appreciate the amazing con 
trasts in the state of the country which you 



describe, but one who, like myself, can recognize 
the history of half the period, can testify to the 
faithfulness and fullness of your exhibition of the 
growth and power of this great country. 
Very respectfully yours, 

O. P. Hubbard. 



No. 12. 

From the President of Williams' College. 
Dear Sir, — I have no hesitation in saying that 
the work proposed to be done has been well done. 
For those who wish a book of the kind, yours can- 
not fail to be the book. 

Respectfully yours, 

Makk Hopkins. 
Me. L. Stebbins. 



No. 13. 
From Pres. 'Woolset, Yale College, New Haven, Conn. 

Yale College, Nov. 15, 
Mr. L. Stebbins : Dear Sir, — Your book is a 
good and useful one, but it is not my practice to 
recommend books. 

Your obedient servant, 

T. D. Woolset. 

No. 14, 
College of New Jersey, ) 
Princeton, Jan. 28, ) 

Dear Sir: — Your work I regard as a valuable 
publication, richly meriting the attention of the 
general reader, as well as the more careful examin- 
ation of the student interested in obsen'ing the 
advancement of our country in the useful arts and 
learning. Very respectfully yours, 

John McLean. 
L. Stebbins, Esq. 



No. 15. 



From Rev. Dr. Smith, Lane Theological Seminary, Ohio. 

Mk. L. Stebbins : My Dear Sir, — I have run 
my eyes with great interest over your beautiful 
work. It contains, in a condensed yet attractive 
form, a mass of information touching the progress 
and present condition of our country. It is, more- 
over, information, of which every man, at some 
time, feels the need ; and it would be a grand con- 
tribution both to the intelligence and patriotism of 
our whole population, if you could succeed in 
placing a copy of it in every family of the land. I 
shall place your book on my table for constant ref- 
erence. 

Wishing you all success in your enterprise, 
I am very truly yours, 
Henry Smith, 
Prof. Ch., Hist, and Sac. Rhetoric. 



No. 16. 



From Professor Fowlek, of Amherst College, Editor of the 
University Edition of Webster's Dictionary, Series of Clas- 
sical Books, etc. 

The work which you placed in my hands I have 
taken time to examine, in order that I might learn 
its intrinsic value. I find that the subjects selected 
are such, and the manner of treatment such, as to 
supply a felt want in the public mind, which, m its 
own progress, was demanding higher and better 



682 



COMMENDATIONS. 



help thfin it enjoyed before the pul)lieation of your 
work. This mifi,ht be inferred from the bare men- 
tion of tlie subjects and the authors. These sub- 
jects are treated by these writers with that correct- 
ness of tlie statement of tliejjeneral principles, and 
with that fulness of detail which make the work 
just what it ou>;ht to be as a guide to the people. 
Every young man who wishes to elevate his mind 
by self-cidture, ought to read this work carefully. 
Yours respectfully, 

William C. i'owLER. 



No. 17. 

From Professor B. Silliman, Yale College, New Haven, Ct. 
I have carefully looked through your rich and 
faithful work, observing the copious tables of con- 
tents, glancing at every page of the work, and at 
all the numerous illustrations, with occasional 
reading of paragraphs. A more thorough examin- 
ation it has not been hitherto in my power to make ; 
but even this general survey has left on my mind 
the decided conviction that you have performed an 
important service to your country in thus mapping 
out and condensing and explaining the wonderful 
progress made in this country, in all the most impor- 
tant arts of life. B. Sillman. 



No. 18. 
From the Secretary of Loardof Trade, Philadelphia. 
L. Stebbins, Esq. : Dear Sir, — I examined with 
interest the volume published by you, and found it 
particularly valuable. The design struck me very 
favorably, and the execution of the several parts 
could not have been intrusted to more competent 
hands. The last one hundred years of the history of 
the United States has been one of unexampled prog- 
ress, and it is now more than ever important to 
bring in review before the people of every section 
the leading facts of this marvelous progress. 
Very respectfully yours, 

LouiN Blodget 



contains on the wide range of subjects treated of 
must make it exceedingly valuable as a standard 
hook of reference. The names of the writers of 
the different articles afford a sufficient guaranty 
that the facts and statements may be relied on as 
correct. I consider the work a very important 
accession to this department c^f literature, and have 
no doubt that it will find its way into the library of 
every private gentleman and every public institu- 
tion. Very truly vours, 

Wm. W. Turner. 



No. 21. 



From John D. Phiibrick, Superintendent Common Schools, 
Massachusetts. 
I have examined your work with great satisfac- 
tion. I consider it a work of great value, and it is 
one which I should be very unwilling to spare from 
my library. It is not only such a book as the liter- 
ary or professional man would like to possess, but 
it is a book for every household, and for every 
school library. Very truly yours, 

John D. Philbrick. 



No. 19. 
From the Secretary of the Board of Trade, Boston. 

My Dear Sir, — I have found time to acquaint 
myself with the general topics and objects of the 
work, and do not hesitate to declare that I have not 
read more interesting pages for years. Indeed, the 
best informed among us, cannot, as it seems tome, 
fail to find much that is new, while to the young 
and to those who lack the means of research, so 
authentic and well-digested account of our coun- 
try's " Progress," will be of immense service. We 
all boast of our wonderful march in commerce, in 
manufactures, in mechanics, and in the arts ; and 
here we have it, step by step, in " facts and figures," 
and in brief and pithy narrative. 

With all my heart 1 hoj^e that the sale will be 
extensive, and that you may be well rewarded for 
your outlay of time and capital. 

Very truly, your friend, 

Lorenzo Sabine. 

L. Stebbins, Esq., Hariford, Conn. 

No. 20. 

From Wm. W. Tprvee, Principal of the American Asylum 
for Deaf and Dumb, Hartford, Conn. 

I have examined your new national work on the 
" United States/' and find that the information it 



No. 22. 
From the Secretary of Board of Education. 
Boston, Mass., Sept. 6, 
Dear Sir, — I beg leave to thank you for your 
noble work. 

After such an examination as I have been able to 
give, I do not hesitate to pronounce it a work of 
unusual interest and value. 

As a depository of facts illustrative of the prog- 
ress of our country in the departments of industry, 
it is invaluable. 

Its wide circulation, at this eventful period, can> 
not fail to arouse and deepen that patriotic love of 
our institutions which is the pressing demand of 
the hour. Kespectfully yours, 

J. White. 
L. Stebbins, Esq. 



No. 23. 



From S. S. R.\ND.iLL, City Superintendent Public Schools, 
New York. 

Mr. L. Stebbins : Dear Sir, — The great press 
of official engagements has hitherto prevented my 
acknowledgment of the recei])t of the very beauti- 
ful and interesting work published by you. I have 
not had time to peruse them thoroughly, but take 
great pleasure in stating that, so far as I have 
looked into them, the plan and general execution 
of the work seem to me to be admirable, and well 
adapted to the wants, as well of the rising genera- 
tion, as of our fellow-citizens generally. I cheer- 
fully recommend it to the favorable regard of school 
officers, parents, teachers, and others, as a very val- 
uable compend of scientific and historical knowl- 
edge, and as a work well worthy of a place in every 
school or private library. 



No. 24. 
From R. G.Dana, Mercantile Agency, N'ewY'ork. 
From a cursory glance at its contents I feel war- 
ranted in saying it possesses information of much 
value and usefulness to all classes. 

Very respectfully, K. G. Dana. 



COMMENDATIONS. 



683 



No. 25. 
From C. J. I ossing, the Historian. 

Sir, — T luivc examined, with great satisfaction, 
your work. It is a work of inestimable value to 
those who dosire to know, in minute detail, some- 
thing more of the history of the country than the 
events of its political and industrial life as exhib- 
ited in the politician's manual, and the hold state- 
ments of the census; especialh' at this time, when 
tlie civilized world is eagerly asking what we are 
and what we have been, that the old governments 
may attempt to solve the more important question, 
to them, what we will be. Your work, in fact and 
logical prophecy, furnishes an answer of which any 
people may be justly proud. Surely, no nation of 
the earth has ever experienced such bounding 
progress as this. No American can peruse your 
pages without feeling grateful for the privilege of 
being an American citizen. 

I will use a very trite phrase and say, with all 
sincerity, I wish your work could go "into every 
family in our Ian J," to increase their knowlege and 
to strengthen their patriotism. 

Yours respectfully, 

Benson J. Lossing. 



No. 26. 
Office of Superintendent of Public Sclioola, Chicago. 
The work which you have prepared with so much 
care and labor, presenting the progress of our 
country, is peculiarly adapted to gratify and instruct 
all classes of citizens. No work could be offered to 
the public at the present time more worthy of a 
place in family libraries, and school libraries, than 
the one which you now present. 

Yours truly, W. H. Wells, 

Sup. of Public Schools. 



No. 27. 

From Isaac Ferris, D. D., Chancellor of the University in 

New York. 

I have looked into the work and am happy to 

unite with the worthy men who have examined it, 

in commending it to my friends. 

New York. Isaac Ferris. 



No. 28. 
From J. M. Mathews, D. D., Ex-Chancellor of the Univer- 
sity in New York. 
The object of the work is highly commendable ; 
and, so far as I have been able to examine it, has 
been executed with ability and fidelity. I freely 
commend it to pubhc patronage. 

New York. J. M. Mathews. 



No. 29. 
From Prof. E. W. Hospord, of Cambridge University. 
It is a work of very great value for popular ref- 
erence. The articles having been prepared by 
writers who h:ive made specialties of the subjects 
upon which they have written, are, as a consequence, 
eminently attractive. I find them an unfailing 
source of valuable information and important sug- 
gestion. 

No. 30. 
From the New York Times. 
If at all inclined to doubt that a great deal of 
useful information may be bound up in a compara- 
tively small compass by a judicious compiler, in 
the very handsome work before us, we should find 
sufficient logic to make us devout believers. The 
writers have ranged through the wild fields of 



agriculture, commerce, and trade ; very li tie that 
develops the material ])rospcnty of a country, and 
marks its growth, has escaped their industrious 
research. Undoubtedly, minute criticism might 
detect slight errors, but in a work of so compre- 
hensive a character, strict accuracy would seem 
almost unattainable. The statistics given are full 
and clearly arranged ; the grouping of the subjects, 
and the evident method which the authors have 
observed in the accomplishment of their not incon- 
siderable task, are worthy of all jiraise. The work 
is one which we particularly need, as it is a 
lamentable fact that few people are so deficient in 
general knowledge of facts relative to growth and 
development of their native country, as ours. The 
Englishman generally has an arsenal of statistics 
at his fingers' ends ; he can toll you when the first 
shaft was sunk in the first mine ; when the first 
loom was erected in Manchester. The panoply of 
facts in which he is arrayed makes him rather a 
ponderous and far from sprightly companion, at 
times ; but then he always jjroves formidable as an 
adversary. Germans, too, have nearly everything 
by rote that relates to their own country. 



No. 31. 



From the New Englander, New Haven, Conn. 
In this very large octavo work there is j)rcsented 
in a compact and easily accessible form an amount 
of valuable information with regard to the progress 
which the people of the United States have made 
in all the various channels of industry since the 
days when they were British colonists, which is not 
to be found in ^ny other single work with which 
we are acquainted. Each one of these subjects 
is amply illustrated with engravings. The differ- 
ent chapters have been prepared by well-known 
literary men who have each made the subjects 
about which they have written the study of years. 
We have examined the work repeatedly and with 
much care during the past three months, and each 
time have been impressed anew with its value. 
There is not an intelligent family in the nation who 
would not be interested and instructed by it, and 
find it a most convenient book of reference with 
regard to everything pertaining to the industrial 
interests of the country. 



No. 32. 



From the Boston Transcript, 
This work is the result of much careful research, 
exercised by many minds on a variety of import- 
ant subjects. They show the industrial and educa- 
tional steps by which the peojile of the United 
States have risen from their colonial condition to 
to their present position among the nations of the 
world. They give, in a historical form, the prog- 
ress of the country in agriculture, commerce, 
trade, banking, manufactures, machinery, modes 
of travel and transportation, and the work is 
intended to be sold by subscription, and will 
doubtless have a large circulation. It ought to be 
in every house in the land. It is more important 
than ordinary histories of the country, as it exhib- 
its all the triumphs of the prnctical mind and 
energy of the nation, in every department of sci- 
ence, art, and benevolence. It is a storehouse of 
important and stimulating facts, and its interest 
can hardly be exhausted by the most persistent 
reader. 



TABLES OF POPULATION. 



TABLE OF THE POPULATION, 

VALUATION OP BEAl AND PERSONAl ESTATE, CAPITAL INVESTED IN MANUFACTURSS, TRADE, AND OOKUKRCB IN EACH OP THl 

STATES OF THE UNION. 

IJ^^M., manufacturing capital ; T., capital employed in trade ; C, capital employed in commerce by land and sea. 
The valuations are generally actual, and not assessment valuation. If not correct, they are from the best data and au- 
thority available. 



Maine 

New Hampshire. . . . 

Vermont 

Massachusetts 

Rhode Island 

Connecticut 

New York 

New Jersey 

Pennsylvania 

Delaware 

Maryland 

Virginia 

West Virginia 

North Carolina 

South Carolina 

Georgia 

Florida 

Alabama 

Mississippi 

Louisiana 

Texas 

Arkansas 

Tennessee 

Kentucky 

Ohio 

Indiana 

Illinois 

Missouri 

Kansas 

Nebraska 

Iowa 

Michigan 

Wisconsin 

Minnesota 

Nevada 

California 

Oregon 

District of Columbia 
Territories 



Population by 
census of 
1870. 



620 

317 
330 
,457 
217 
537 
,730 
903. 
511 
175 
790 
211 
441 
,016 
705 
,174 
189, 
996 
843 
734, 
795, 
486, 
,2.58: 
,323 
,675 

,663 : 

,567: 
,725: 
379: 

lie: 

,181 
,184, 
,055: 
424: 

44, 
556: 

90 
131 
298. 



38,881,231 



Valuation of real 
estate in 1870. 



$219,666,504 

160,315,680 

138,627,143 

1,038,083,415 

233,758,000 

312,574,408 

2,532,720,907 

573,000,000 

1,046,732,082 

47,385,614 
398,891,449 
885,000,000 

98,780,000 
293,837,993 
358,785,191 
386,129,231 

16,329,106 
327,500,000 
167,000,000 
317,612,583 
298,163,281 

86,297,123 
276,163,137 
329,218,742 
1,607,418,203 
937,201,283 
1,346,587,734 
805,893,165 

69,125,000 

24,160,000 
322,561,061 
387,246,129 
330,000,000 
171,155,000 

19,360,000 
217,855,933 

29,830,117 

83,127,841 

79,184,821 



Valuation of per- 
sonal estate in 
18/0. 



$169,037 

128,711 

85,744 

803,085 

55,483 

135,380 

2,434,270 

278,000 

346,891 

20,185 

327,937 

85,000 

41,000 

188,931 

219,681 

267,825 

15 447 

125,500 

49,380 

294,861 

159,328 

127,261 

168,237 

271,864 

959.762 

387,130 

342,407 

497,487 

31,285 

30,895 

171,971 

183,284 

138,000 

29,387 

14,287 

128,725 

19,18 

49,28 

62,829 



Capital invested in manufac- 
tures, trade, or commerce, iu 
1870. ^ 



M, 
M, 
M, 

M, 

M, 

M, 

C &M, 

M, 

C & M, 

M, 

M& C, 

M & T, 

C, 

M, 

M & T, 

M & T, 

M& C, 

M & C, 

M& T, 

C, 

M & T, 

M & T, 

M&T, 

T, 

C. 

C, 

f> 

C&M, 

T> 

M, 

M& 0, 

C&M, 

M, 

M, 

M, 

C&M, 

M, 

M&T 

M, 



$48,000,000 

53,500,000 

37,823,000 

250,000,000 

45,000,000 

166,800,000 

3,200,000,000 

135,000,000 

1,320,000,000 

16,550,000 

117,500,000 

86,230,000 

28,000,000 

15,000 000 

35,-500,000 

£1,325,000 

13,00.1,000 

45,000,000 

21,300,000 

48.000,000 

27;480,000 

13,287,000 

79,500,000 

256,000,000 

2,300,000,000 

1,400,000,000 

2,000,000,000 

1,729,<IOO,000- 

114,000,000 

6,60n,000 

325,000,000 

387,612,000 

32,000,000 

14,831,000 

3,925,000 

150/100,000 

11,350,000 

19,270,000 

21,362,000 



TABLE OF PRINCIPAL CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES, 

SHOTTtNO POPULATION IN 1850, 1860, AND 1870, CAPITAL INVESTED IN MANUFACTURES, AND AMOUNT OP ANTTTAL PRODUCT IF 

OB NEAR 1870. 



Portland 

Bangor 

Lewiston . . . . 
Biddeford. . . . 

Augusta 

Manchester . . 

Nashua 

Portsmouth.. 

Concord 

Dover 

Burlington... 

Boston 

Lowell 

Worcester . . . 

Salem 

Cambridge ... 
New Bedford. 
Fall River . . . 
Springfield... 
Charlestown . 
Newburyport 

Taunton 

Lynn 

Gloucester. . . 



State. 



Maine. 



N. H. 



Vt. 
Mass. 



Population 
in 1860. 



20,815 

14,432 

3,584 

6,095 

8,226 

13,932 

6,820 

9,738 

8,676 

8,196 

6,110 

136,881 

33,383 

17.049 

20,264 

15,216 

16,443 

11,624 

11,766 

17,216 

9,572 

10,441 

14,257 

7,786 



Population 
in 1860. 



26,341 
16,407 



7,609 
20,109 
10,066 

9,33 
10,896 

8,302 

7,713 
177,812 
36,827 
24,960 
22,252 
26,060 
22,300 
14,026 
15,199 
25,063 
13,401 
15,376 
19,083 
10,904 



Population 
in 1870. 



30,87 
18,296 
13,600 
10,285 

7,811 
23,536 
10,543 

9,305 
12,241 

9,294 
14,-387 
250,525 
40,928 
41,105 
24.117 
39,634 
21,320 
26,786 
26.703 
28,-323 
13,595 
18,629 
28,233 
15,389 



Capital invest- 
ed in manu 
factures in or 
near 1870. 



$<5 ,500,000 

5,800,000 

6,3 )0,000 

3,000,000 

6,000,000 

9,640,000 

6,100,000 

1,500,000 

6,700,000 

3,200,000 

1,725.000 

42,000,000 

30,000,000 

8,800,000 

3,500,000 

6,000,000 

24,000,000 

13,400,000 

8,a50,o00 

7,100,000 

2,750,000 

8,950,000 

10,250,000 

1,760,000 



Annual pro 
duct. 



$13,300,000 
12,000.000 
11,500,000 

7,000,000 
10,500,000 
19,970,000 
12,350,01)0 

3,200,000 
10,-500,000 

6,800,000 

4,869,000 
105,000,000 
89,(X»0,000 
26,000,000 

9,875,000 
14,000,000 
37,000.000 
29,500,000 
17,284,000 
15,250,000 

6,000,000 
19,675,000 
15,187,350 

4,226.000 



TABLES OF POPULATION. 



TABLE OF PRINCIPAL CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES.— Costindkd. 



Holyoke 

Lawrence 

Providence 

Newport 

p^ew ll?,fea 

Hartford 

Bridgeport 

Norwich 

MJddletown 

New London. . . . 

Waterbury 

Meridea 

New York 

Brooklyn 

Buffalo 

Albany 

Rochester 

Syracuse 

Troy 

Yonkers 

Oswego 

Hudson 

Utica 

Bingham ton . . . . 

Morrisania 

Poughkeepsie . . . 

Cohoes 

Newburgh 

Elmira 

Lockport 

Schenectady. . . . 

Auburn 

Ogdensburg 

Newark 

Jersey City 

Elizabeth 

Paterson 

Hoboken 

Rah way 

Trenton 

New Brunswick., 

Camden 

Hudson City. ... 
Philadelphia. . ., 

Pittsburgh 

Alleghany City. , 

Scranton 

Reading 

Harrisburg 

Erie 

Lancaster 

Wilmington 

Baltimore 

Cumberland . . . . 

Frederick 

Washington 

Georgetown 

Richmond 

Alexandria 

Norfolk 

Portsmouth . . . . 

Petersburg 

Lynchburg 

WheeUng 

Wilmington 

Riileifih 

Kew-Uerne 

Charleston , 

Columbia 

Savannah 

Atlanta 

Augusta 

Key West 

Mobile 

Montgomery. .. . 

Natchez 

Vicksburg 

New Orleans. . . 

Galveston 

Little Kock 

Memphis 

Nashville 

CnoKville 



R. I 

(C 

Conn. 



Del. 
Md. 



D. C. 
Ta. 



W. Va. 

N. C. 



S. 0. 
Ga. 



Fla. 
Ala. 

Miss. 

La. 

Texas. 
Ark. 
Tenn. 



Population 
in ISoU. 



3,245 

8.282 
4i;513 

9,5G3 
20,.345 
13,555 

7,5G0 
10,2G5 

4,211 

8,991 

6,137 

3,559 
515,547 
96,838 
42,2G1 
50,763 
36,403 
22,271 
28,785 

4,150 
12,235 

6,286 
17,5j5 

5,000 



13,944 
4.229 

11,415 
8,1G6 

10,327 
8,921 
9,548 
6,500 

38,894 
6,858 
6,583 

11,334 
2,668 
8,306 
6,461 

10,019 
9,479 



340,045 
46,601 
21,261 



15,743 
7, 83 J 
5,858 

12,369 

13,979 

169,054 

6,073 

6,028 

40,001 
8,386 

27,570 
8,734 

14,326 
8,122 

14,010 
8,071 

11,435 
7,264 
4,518 
4,681 

42,985 
6,060 

15,312 
2,572 

11,753 
1,943 

20,515 
4,935 
4,434 
3,678 

116,375 
4,177 
2,167 
8,839 

10,478 
3,690 



Population 
in 1860. 



50,666 
10,508 
39,267 
29,154 
13,565 
14,048 

' ib'iis 



Population 
in 1870. 



805,651 
268,661 
81,129 
62,387 
48,204 
28,119 
39,232 
11,848 
16,817 

9,288 
22 ,.529 

8,325 

9,245 
14,726 

7,020 
15,196 

8,882 
13,533 

9,579 
10,986 

7,409 
71,914 
29,226 
10,000 
19,588 

9,662 

4,785 
17,228 
12,150 
11,267 



562,529 
49.217 
28,702 
9,223 
23,161 
13,405 
9,419 
17,603 
25,508 

212,418 



8,143 
61,122 

8,733 
37,910' 
12,652 
15,611 

9,502 
18,286 

6,853 
14,083 

9,552 

4,780 

5,432 
40,522 

8,059 
22 292 

9*564 
12,493 

2,832 
29,258 

8,843 

6,612 

4,591 
168,676 

7,307 

3,727 
22,623 
16,988 

6,000 



Capital invest- 
ed in manu- 
factures in or 
near 1870. 



11,000 
28,921 
68.906 
12,521 

50,840 
37,180, 
19 ,876 i 
16,653, 
11,143! 
9,576 
10 826 
10,521 

942,310 

396,300 

117,715 
69,422 
62,335 
43,058 
46,471 
18,318 
20,910 
14,135 
28,804 
12,862 
19,637 
20,080 
16,357 
17,014 
15,863 
15,458 
11,026 
17,225 
10,076 

105,078 
82,102 
20,383 
33,512 
20,284 
6,016 
22,115 
15,059 
20,045 
18,000 

674,022 
86,235 
53,181 
85,093 
33,932 
23,109 
20,500 
20,233 
30,841 

267,354 
11,500 
10,180 

109,294 
12,412 
51,038 
13,570 
19,256 
12,678 
14,128 
7,319 
19,282 
13,465 
10,146 
4,996 
48,958 
10.139 
20,233 
16,988 
14,197 
6,510 
32,084 
13,066 
9,128 
8,963 

191 ,322 
13,818 
13,3.80 
40,226 
25.872 
9,000 



$7,185,000 

20,000.000 

11,837,548 

1,500,000 

12,715,000 

13,500,000 

5,125.000 

, 7,676,000 

1,775,000 

2,500,000 

8.125,000 

2,784,000 

179.525,000 

65,500,000 

27,965,000 

18,250,000 

15,000,000 

11,871,600 

9,000,000 

1,250,000 

5,108,000 

1,125,000 

6,225,000 

2,725,000 

3,184,000 

4,932,000 

5,560,000 

3,726,000 

6,817,000 

2,165,000 

1,125,000 

5,075,000 

3,187,500 

25,600,000 

18,650,000 

1,725,000 

17,150,000 

3,360,000 

550,000 

7,180,000 

2,7i<5,000 

5,650,000 

460,000 

178,000,0001 

69,250,000! 

21.300,000! 

2,917,000 

9,755,000 

6,125,000 

1,500,000 

3,900.000 

11, .500 ,000 

27,480,000 

400,000 

875,000 

3,150,000 

1,000,000 

2,100,000 

3,125,000 

2,087,500 

1,499,350 

500,000 

350,000 

6,160,280 

975,000 

400,000 

250,000 

1,850,000 

1,015,250 

600,000 

1,325,000 

575,000 

550,000 

3,618,000 

600,000 

275,000 

729.000 

19,750,000 

850,000 

300,000 

1,639,000 

1,171,4501 

600,000 



Annual pro- 
duct. 



$13,267,000 

35,000.000 

33,690,994 

3,276,000 

32,000,000 

31,300,000 

17,600,000 

18,250,000 

4,000,000 

4,865.000 

19,385,000 

8, .500 ,000 

486.125,000 

1-10,225,000 

62,835,000 

41.375,000 

28,000 000 

29,627,000 

20,000,000 

3,100,000 

13,187,000 

2,750,000 

14,861,000 

5,895,000 

7,196,000 

10,287,000 

11,250,000 

7,810,000 

14,271,000 

5,125,000 

2,789,000 

12,173,000 

7,785,000 

53,628,000 

35,750,000 

2,850,000 

38,-525,000 

8,200,000 

1,650.000 

16,125.000 

5,875,000 

12,175,000 

1 ,750,000 

495,000,000 

141,600,000 

54,380,000 

6,285,000 

38,124,000 

13,250,000 

4,600,000 

9,728,000 

18,000,000 

79,169.000 

2,500,000 

2,100,000 

10,287,000 

2,650,000 

5,183,000 

8,749,500 

5,964,250 

3,748,140 

1,150,600 

975,600 

14,297,340 

2,500,000 

1,100,000 

725,000 

3,950,000 

2,416,980 

1,100,000 

3,145,000 

1,497,500 

1,328,500 

9,145,320 

3,000,000 

785,300 

1,. 541 ,870 

53,550,000 

2,100,000 

850,000 

3,741,500 

2,703,521 

980,000 



TABL'ES OF POPULATION. 



TABLE OP PKINCIPAL CITIES OF THE UNITED 


STATES.— CONTINDEB. 




CITIES. 


State. 

Ky. 

Mo. 

Kan. 

Neb. 
Iowa, 

!; 
111. 

Ind. 

« 

Ohio. 
■( 
tt 

i< 

Mich. 

(( 
II 

Wis. 

it 

(i 

It 

Minn, 

(( 
(( 

Col. 

Wyoming. 

Utah. 

Nev. 

Cal. 
u 

Oregon . 
Wash. T. 


Population 
iu 1860. 


Population 
in 1860. 


Population 
in 1870. 

100,754 

24,505 

10,121 

312,963 

32,362 

19 692 

10,120 

17,849 

6,790 

16.083 

20,042 

18,084 

12,379 

12,754 

10,178 

10.974 

12,034 

298,983 

26,787 

24,053 

17,865 

10,353 

10,030 

9,310 

7,896 

8,267 

41,603 

21,830 

17,105 

17.756 

16.205 

14:312 

10;7'09 

9,443 

8,950 

218,900 

93,918 

31,692 

31,336 

30,867 

14,523 

12,655 

11,105 

10,522 

10,207 

10,013 

10,010 

79,588 

16,507 

11,448 

9,180 

11,349 

8,448 

71.499 

13,000 

12,675 

1,100 

12,771 

4.666 

9,880 

8,791 

20,646 

10.000 

6,000 

15,000 

9,500 

4,500 

24,500 

4,875 

7,008 

158,361 

16.484 

3,825 

6,740 

8,293 

3,800 

1,.500 

6,600 

8,000 

4,800 

8,900 

8,700 

6,800 


Capital invest- 
ed in manu- 
factuies in or 
near 1870: 

$16,313,000 

4,296,500 

600,000 

48,387.150 

3,174,125 

1,675,325 

1,000,000 

1,800,000 

400,000 


Annual pro- 
duct. 




43,194 

9,408 
9,130 
77,860 
600 
6,000 
2,020 

i'848 
3,108 
986 
2,478 
2,540 
2,000 
4,082 

29.963 
5,095 
6,902 

11,766 
3,585 
6.004 
1,678 
1,711 
242 
8,034 
8,235 
4,051 
4,282 

■ i" ,2i5 
8,012 
1,443 

3,500 

115,433 

17,034 

3829 

17,882 

10,970 

10,000 

7,314 

3,210 

4,011 

6,144 

7,929 

8,266 

21,019 

3,147 

4,1-17 

3,284 

500 

8,006 

20,001 

3,400 

2,500 

"2,6i4 
1,923 

6,107 
3,451 
1,338 

' ' ■ '656 

8,666 

84,776 

12,000 
3,000 

""827 

"4,846 


68,033 

16,471 

9,621 

160,773 

4,418 

8,932 

6,505 

7,429 

759 

1,883 

11,267 

13,000 

3,935 

8,136 

6,324 

2,011 

6,706 

109,260 

14,045 

13,632 

15,199 

7,388 

8,193 

3,467 

5,130 

2,188 

18.611 

11,484 

8 591 

10,388 

12,647 

9,337 

9,068 

6,(303 

2,979 

161,044 

43,417 

13,796 

18,692 

20,081 

9,316 

7,007 

7,227 

6,273 

6,157 

9,232 

3,520 

45,619 

8,085 

4,799 

6,070 

3,001 

6,213 

45,246 

6,611 

6,086 

534 

6,450 

2,275 

7,822 

7.703 

10,401 

2,464 

3,258 

2,564 

4,749 

■■8,236 
714 
2,345 
66,802 
13,785 
3,679 
1,543 
2,874 

4,635 
1,034 

""453 


«40,091,746 




10.825,960 




1,725,000 




109,518.950 




8.125,450 




4,075,425 




2,300,000 




3,270,000 




900,000 








1,300,000 
2,425,000 
1,470,000 
925,000 
850,000 
1.125,000 
1,050,000 

60,000,000 
4,105,000 
3,072,500 
1,980,300 
1,147,618 
2,261,419 
1,743.200 
1,864,325 
1.460,000 
4,150.500 
2,745,200 
1,993,550 
1,871.000 
2,343,750 
820,000 
1,. 361, 000 
2,(328,138 
l,9i51,822 

58,310.586 

44,000,000 
5,250.000 
8,325,000 
6,240,325 
2,116,587 
3,000,000 
4,128,575 
1,817,310 
2,106,1^.0 
2,819:325 
2,587,640 

18,330,000 
2,725,000 
1,976,500 
1,752,000 
2,568,000 
1,843,500 

11,275,000 
2,193,780 


8-500,000 




3,794,000 




8,100,000 




2,084,000 




1,975,000 




2,485,000 




2,355,120 




175,000.000 




11,186,325 




8,740,200 




8,618,500 




2,831,450 




4,843,288 




3,877,250 




3,987,420 




2,963,200 




11 265,350 




7,189,150 




4,185,240 




4,622,175 




4,918,225 




2,006,150 




3,108,270 




5,815,281 




3,934,186 




159,270,049 




127,375,500 




14,128,500 




19,875,000 




14,371,225 




4,962,180 




5,200,000 




12,006,155 




4,331,286 




6,210,265 




6,173,124 




6,031.240 




52,185,000 




6,918,000 




4,128.000 




3,740,500 




7 061,000 


Adrian. 


4,163,000 
28,645,000 




4,285,000 








650,000 
'"425,666 


1,384,000 








994,000 








879,000 

1,812,250 
250,000 
575,600 

1,525,000 
850,000 
650,000 

1,600,000 

200,000 

450,000 

28,-500,000 

1,245,000 
2-50,000 
270,000 

1,293.000 
121,-500 
50,000 
110,000 
160.000 
185,000 
370,000 
925,000 
225,000 


2,185,000 


St Paul 


3,180,000 




722,000 




1.^07,833 




3,930,500 




1,795,000 




1,600,000 




4,280,000 




450,000 




teo.ooo 




71,450,000 




3,780,000 




700,000 


Oikland 


800,000 




2,752,000 


Steilacoom 


306,000 




150,000 




280,000 




Arizona T. 

Idaho. 
Montana. 

Dakota. 


470,000 




600,000 




809.000 




2,500,000 


Yanckton 


660,000 



TABLES OP POPULATION. 



-OCO IM <NO rl O'KCO 
fo' CO~ O O ^O ■*" CC O 1- 



O M lO U5 CO T*4 -* OO C^ U3 •«*< *1< CO CO 00 to CO CC -^ Nrt<OiaCDOCO 
OOJrHOO lOt^OI- OJ C0 05CO»OC-^ICO»005 GO I - »o O ■»*< ■'^ 00 00 



1^ OC CO O lO 1-1 l-t i-« -^ti C^ CO WOr-ICOOii—Oi r-4 



e^ --en 



> » i-l O -"r rjic 



I-HIOO^ c^ 



-*35 W COI^-" 



M Nl-COl-HMkOCOW 



lO to CO C4 O r-" CO M 1-1 



- -OOWOf-'COfMODC^ OO 

rH — • e-) rH — . eg i.o I- gj jg 



cq^CO 1-H^C^rH^CI^O 0>_ lO^ C<l -iJ^^-^Ci^CD C^O O 7l_ 61^ O^O O^u^^ CO c^ 

co'cfi-TocTio ctTu^-h" cT 05 of 1-1 t-^io oo'cTo^cf os tcToo i-Too'co »c"or 

Jcll- CD ir K to TO r-1 1-1 -WCJ (N r-iXiCOr-i-r-SlO 



5 J2 



CI CD 

SSI 



3 CD 00 '«»' C^ 00 C 



lOOOOl i-H cccp -^ co*o»o 
1— iCOCO OO CCCD CD r-«-«JiO 

cTcTod CD* cc^i-T o" i-TcTco' 



OiOOI-Wf-fCDCOi-^ 



do^l-^C-J^-^l^C^l-^ O 06_ O, CD p O O CO O C^l c6^CO^ iri -^i-t^COOOOJ 



OS *0 ■<** CO d W r1 C 



^CD'*C^rHr-4 -^ i-i M i-i '^ f-< f-l i-i W Cfl 



3 |s 



CO 1-1 

CO ■»»( 

CO 00_ 

•rlT OO" 



iCOO 
51- CO 



00 I- O CO CC O N ^ O OO 

^QOCO OO Cicrj OO I- CO CO 

e^_oc_c-i_ co__ i-o>, o_ 1-l.ov*, 

lOt-co" CO oo" >c co'ofoT 



s g? 



^C0i-IO-»l(MO CO O.. COOCD'Sli-lrH d gaOOOOOrlNCO 

..<N^OOCOO(.'C6 OJ r-i-' O 2J CO -ai CD r-l I- 5l ^ CO T»1 1~ O iO 

CNj^i-^c-1^1-1 o co^i-;_c^ "^ ^^^'i'*!^'*^^":,^^ ^ "t^^^^*-^*"!.^ 

co^co"ocro CO c:rof 1-^ c:^ i-Tc^icdoo^^osr-T of co^i-i co'co co ofiii" 

COCOrlOl r-Ci-lr-l CJ N O C^ O) r-1 rl OJ rH r-1 <M ij* 



oi 1*1 -r o oi o CO o 

03 1-00 o> COOOI- 00 



OCOCO O OOli^l-O -^C^OOi CD -^ COi-l-^ 

OOliO ri COC-J(MCDi— lOJOCOl- Oi CD-*CO 

Tj^COCS^ -^ 10^CO^OC;^0,OC;^CO_0,OI_1-^ r-i_ lOCO^OD^ 

i-Too o" f-1^ cf^cTotTcErcf otfco o~t " " 



rH CO i-iCOrHrH 



CO too-* 



•* 1-1 1^1 -co 

r-l CO CO^JIPI 

OT l-^ 1-1-11— 

CO of r-Tl-'ji' 



1*1 oil— IM OOOOi-1-COO 

col— O 1— TjiCO 1*1 CO 1-C5 

OJ OS lO I ■:, OI_l- OJ.O -^.c© 

loeJco of t-^coco'ofoc'co 



rl COr-li-l 



I- CO 1-1 Olio 
CD rl 1-1-3 
1-;^ CD_^ OU-03_ 
of of OiO CO 



CO oqcooo 



Tjl 00 CO 00 tt5 

I- CO 00 O CO 

00 i-o-;,!- 

T-T iii"i9ooof 
O) CO- 



OIM 

t-l'* 
oco_ 

ii<"or 



i-gj 

1-CO 

CC CO 



r-lTjl 

ceo 






CO usijiotr 

O CD— HrHCO 



s^ 



CO CO CO f^ 

CDCUCD CO 






oi o> o 35 00 CO lo 



05 00 05 10 00 1— 
CD 00 OO CO OO 00 <3» 

1— 1- 1- 1- 1- 1- 1- 



>H tM tM >< >1 >1 (H 1-s 

!z 2; 2: 2; S5 a ;z » 



4) 2 • ca rt ^ 



a, euSot- t*>-S5tcO •< hMoooSS S 



• .2 .2 .2 •'^ 3 



-2 en cj O a> 

tt a » !5 
o o^ o o 



S IK . 

els 



►2 ^>>o 






ii tT S to 9 



ou o n • 

i; -f o j3 



5e.5 2^-g.2£g 6 



2; B -«; n rt MH P 2; &< ftiiatStfZeiif^OM S ^i-i 



III-- 



■3-3 



§1 



Note.— The year 1845 and the periods earUer than 1790 are taken from State enumerations, and from other wnrce* 
of infonnation. 

* Population of the settlement. 

t state census of 1852. . . , , .. • ^i. «_. •» .. 

t Error.s were made in Boston and New Orleans in 1S40, underestimatin!? the population in the first city, ae proTed 
by Mr. Shattuek, to tlw extent of about 8,000 i and overestiuiatiiig it in New Orloans, m proved by Dr. Barton, by at l«a«t 
10 000 or 16,000. 



^ 



'i'>T-i •AM'i';':(::;ir.yi'i^';'i,'n>);''fr^'»?'g'!:< ' 




